New Beer Sunday (Week 769)

Wish this brewery was still in the state

 

Sufferfest / Sierra Nevada - Head Start

This is the final Sufferfest beer in the pack. It’s a gluten-reduced 4.5% stout with coconut and coffee.

This beer follows the trend of the other Sufferfests in terms of body, carbonation, etc. Where it’s different is philosophy. This is a compromised “craft beer.” Do you want a craft stout with added flavors but light in calories... and feel that the health benefits are worth the compromise in experience? If yes, then this is the beer for you. I don’t want a beer like that, and therefore find this one to be the least satisfying beer in the pack. It’s a cola black beer that tastes like extremely watered down coffee.

I don’t know if the audience will be there for Sierra Nevada for these. Are people more interested in healthier beers or unhealthy seltzers? If the answer is beer, will they go for low calorie light lagers or coconut water stouts? Established brands like Sierra Nevada or dedicated new brands like Sufferfest? Time will tell, but I think their marketing will really need to step up to have a shot.

 

Ha ha indeed. I was running late because I had to finish a brewing session I started yesterday - it was too cold to run my wort chiller since it drains down my driveway into the street so I had to let the wort cool overnight in my garage (40 degrees when I awakened). But otherwise yes, this would have awoken my palate - a damn good brew from Bruery Terraux, as most of them are!

 

A-Pours a brownish color with a slight head and lacing
A-Aroma has caramel hints
T-The taste follows the nose with a caramel flavor
M-A light bodied well carbonated beer
O-A decent Porter

 

Ozark Beer Co.'s Batch 1000 Barrel ( Whiskey ) Aged Barleywine, 9.9% ABV. Lucked into a a bottle, I believe I got the last one at Dickson St. Liquour, 9.9% ABV. 4.24 overall

Okay, abbreviated review since I hit paste instead of copy...

Pours an effervescent hazel with rapidly falling tan head. Viscous, zero head retention

S: Great nose, figs whiskey, & woodyness

T: Follows the nose, some butterscotch as well up front. Plums mix in with figs as this warm, plenty of peat & vanilla, leafy hops & oakyness. Finishes dry with figs, leafy hops & peat

MF: Medium body, subtle carbonation, warming

A nice take on the style, would buy again if I found it

 

That natural cooling should work!

 

I picked up a 4 pack of Charles Towne Fermentory Side Stepper when I was there last week. They had so many other enticing IPA's on tap that day I did not try Side Stepper, so it is a new beer this Sunday.

4.2/5 rDev -1.4%
look: 5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
Super murky and well carbonated. Nicely bitter. The Charles Towne Fermentory yeast signature and tropical fruit flavors are there.
A visit to Charleston every November seems to be my routine, picking up enough IPA's to hold me until my routine trip to Charlotte during the holidays.

 

Good evening NBS hope everyone is enjoying the end of the weekend once again. Thanks to @cjgiant for today's introduction. I am not sure if I will be reviewing anything tonight just yet. I went to a bottle share last night and got arrested when I drove home. Blew a .21. I just got out of jail and had to take an uber back. I have a lot of laundry to take care of this week, and I have to retrieve my impounded car in Commerce at some point tomorrow.

May or may not be back later. Cheers NBS

 

Time for another new brew. Excited to give this one a go, I am overdue for a lambic.



Poured from the bottle into a tulip glass. Vintage 2018/2019.

Beaming bright copper dark orange to red, absolute color stunner. Slow decant provides only fleeting hints of white bubbled head, as the faint collar nearly disappears leaving this garnet like light gem in the glass. There is a faint middle column of carbonation in the center but it is really small, while there is some surrounding fine linear amounts all around the glass. Just gorgeous looking, I think I will spend more time looking at this then I am going to be drinking it, I literally can't take my eyes off of it.

Aroma is a dearth of big earthy funky notes. Light wine vinegar tones with a sense of thick fruited berry in the mix. Hints a little hot acidic qualities, taking away some hint of the fruited flavor. Very faint hint of jammy spreading flavors also.

Palate is real nice. Soft bodied and almost wine like, with lighter touches of acidity than the nose hints at. Berrried fruit in a light vinegar sweetness, with a quality of matching barely grain hiding underneath. Real good berry finish on the aftertaste, almost like a plum skin flavor coming in.

Real nice fruited lambic.

Cheers!

 

Back with my last new Tree House of the day. A pretty good Pils.
4.28/5 rDev +8.1%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

Poured from a 16oz can dated 11/08/19 and labeled simply "Trail", not "Trail Magic" to a Pilsner glass. Pour created a large puffy head over a crystal clear amber body. Tiny bubbles rose during from the bottom during the entire session, however the head was short-lived. Glass lacing was excellent though.
White pepper and grass meet the nose on inhale.
Taste is a balance of hops and malt. Perhaps the hops shine through a little more on this one.
Despite the continuous bubbles rising in the glass, they are fewer than other top Pilsners. I could have used a little more carbonation.
A pretty good example of the style. Because Pils is my wife's favorite style, I can attest that there are a lot of mediocre and terrible ones out there. This may not be the best but it's pretty damn good.

Here is THE trail.

 

Good Sunday afternoon, New Beer Sippers and commentators. I've been watching all the recent posts from BAs raving about Prairie Artisan Ales' Basic Becky and was hoping for the opportunity to try it. PAA's distro in New Jersey beyond BOMB! can be spotty. So I was excited to find it locally yesterday although it's pricey at $9.99/12 oz. bottle. But it's worth every penny. It's positively decadent in taste and feel with chocolate, coffee, gingerbread, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove, but there's nothing gimmicky about it. And it has Prairie's typical killer mouth feel; I'd swear you could eat it with a fork. I'd recommend that anyone who dislikes pumpkin beers give Basic Becky a try. I'm going to look for more of it tomorrow. Here's my review:

4.43/5 rDev +4.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Bottled on 9/18/2019. Poured into a stout glass. It pours a very dark walnut - almost jet black - with a thin, medium mocha-colored head that dissipated slowly. Just a classic stout appearance. You can smell the cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove from the popping of the cap. As it warms the aroma of pumpkin becomes prevalent. Wow, is this good! I'm tasting roasted malt, gingerbread, cocoa, freshly-brewed coffee, pumpkin pulp, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove. None of the flavors overpower; rather, they totally complement each other. The flavors are interesting without being gimmicky at all. It's positively decadent. The mouth feel is killer; it's as thick and chewy a stout as I've had in quite awhile. It has a motor oil feel that reminds me a lot of Ten Fidy. The level of carbonation is modest and it doesn't drink like 11% ABV. Overall, this is an exquisite stout. I like everything about it, except maybe the price point. But it's worth it.

I hope to be back with another new beer review shortly. Cheers, NBS!

 

A-Pours a very dark color with a generous head and lacing
A-Aroma has toffee and spice hints
T-The taste follows the nose with a toffee and spice flavor
M-A medium bodied well carbonated beer
O-A good Belgian Strong Dark Ale

 

White Elm Barrel Aged Casual Friday Imperial Stout, 13% ABV. Pours black and thick with a two-finger brown head that left no lacing. Nose is bourbon and chocolate. Taste is bourbon, chocolate, a bit sweet and almost no bitterness. Excellent thick smooth mouthfeel, overall outstanding.

4.4/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Damn, Vikings didn't lose though the Lions did. It's a cloudy and cool fall day, but still nice enough that we grilled burgers for lunch, and will grill steaks for supper. We're making some cream-cheese-filled mini-peppers too.

 

Hi NBS people!
Another Sunday is upon us and I am recovering from a pretty shitty cold that I've had all week. As a result this is the first beer I've had since last Sunday. It's always nice to take a break cause of how it opens up your perception when you go back to beer, but when it is due to sickness it obviously sucks regardless. Anyway, I'll take what I can get and I was glad when I woke up yesterday able to smell and taste things again. To celebrate, my beer today is a pretty big, pretty fancy, pretty new one and a relatively new beer for Les Trois Mousquetaires. As far as I know this is only the second year they've put it out and people last year seemed to really like it. It is a breakfast stout and according to the label it is aged 9 months in 12-year-old Bourbon barrels with the addition of maple wood staves and cold brew coffee made with syrup instead of water. Coffee-infused maple syrup I guess?

It pours thick and pitch black with a finger plus of brown head that settles at a patchy film and a ring. Dotted-line lacing. Smells like what you'd expect. Roast coffee notes with some roasted nuts, candied cashews, dark chocolate, milk chocolate and caramely maple. Really nice and it melds together well with time in the glass. The flavor is more of the same with mocha and coffee grounds up front followed by a woody, Bourbon-barrel-tinged finish with some maple sweetness. Pretty fizzy carbonation for the style, full bodied and kind of a sticky sweet finish.

Like most of their beers this is a very well-made beer that nails the style. While oftentimes a beer that does this lacks a little oomph to push it over the top to being excellent, this one has a little oomph in that the aroma and flavor pop a little more than they could and the layering of the different flavors and aromas comes across in a way that is noticeable but not overly big or anything. It is definitely a little sweeter than I'd like in an ideal world and is a little overly fizzy, but it is very nice overall. I'd gladly have this one again and would be curious to try it again in a few months.
Santé!

 

Greetings, fellow NBSers, and thanks to @cjgiant for getting us underway today.

Underwhelming, gray, drizzly day in Spokanistan. We seem to have transitioned from nice fall weather to gross fall weather. 2/3s of the football teams I follow have byes this week so I only had my EWU Eagles to root for, who hung on long enough to outlast Cal Poly last night.

Last week I did some beering with friends watching the Seattle Sounders win the MLS Cup, but no new beer was consumed. In fact, no beers have been consumed by your humble scribe since Monday night's wild Seahawks win, and even then it was only a couple cans of "Vitamin R" at a pizza place on my way home from work. So I definitely need a New Beer today.
Hitting an "extra pale ale" that's as strong, abv-wise as a typical IPA, from the slightly exotic (at least in Washington, where they don't distribute) Odell Brewing Company:
url=https://postimg.cc/MXbdLWkb][/url]
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/267/50241/?ba=woemad#review
Way more malty than I was expecting. While it is a week past it's best-by date, I think this is just not my jam. The malt backbone seems huge to my west coast style tastes. File under Just Okay.

Not sure if I'll be back with another or not. If not, have a great week!

 

Damn, 40 is a cold wort!

 

Yeah, but hopefully it'll warm up enough here in the turtle room (warmest room of the house) to ferment, under the watchful but suspicious eyes of JoeBob and JimBob.

 

Thanks Craig for the startup this am.
A week ago I was jamming with @LarryV . Its amazing how we develop friendships here on BA. He's a hell of a guitar player and Im looking forward to our next session. Everything is just straight off the top of our heads which is really a hell of alot of fun.
Todays first beer is:
Magnify Cold Side Imperial IPA. 3x Dry Hopped. 100% Dry Hopped.
Pours a beautiful yellow gold with a wonderfull fluffy white 3/4" head that lasts. Theres a ton of sticky lacing as well.
Aroma is massive. Lots of overripe crushed pineapple, passionfruit, guava, peach, fresh pine, grapefruit and dank mary jane with some cat pee and a bit of diesel.
Taste follows with lots of full flavored fruits, citrus - grapefruit and tangerine, tropical with lots of pineapple, some fresh cut pine, and just a touch of sweet from light malts. This beer is heaven. Really great stuff.
The feel is so soft in the mouth with very little bitterness. Loaded with hop flavor and never cloying- finishing nice and clean and snappy. This all dry hopped beer (no hops used in the boil) is simply a full blown juicy hop heads dream. Treehouse,Trillium, Alchemist, Bissel dont look in the rearview. This bad boy is tailgating you. I guess you could assume by this....buy it if you see it!!!

 

Sorry about the cold - not much point in drinking good beer with your sense of smell and taste impaired! Les Trois Mousquetaires makes some good brews that I have had the pleasure of drinking in the past - we don't see their stuff here in NW PA - I have to go to MD or TX to routinely find them. Coffee-infused maple syrup sounds like a winner to me! Full sails maties - we're attacking the Islets of Langerhans!