New Beer Sunday (Week 770)

Shot and a beer. P B R ! Larrrge.

 

Outstanding, I highly recommend and approve.

 

Good evening NBS
A fairly new IPA from Upland

The review:
12oz can stamped BB:FEB 2020 BATCH: 5155 poured into a tulip pint glass at fridge temp 7% ABV. The beer mostly bright straw yellow with nearly white head. The head recedes to a thin cap and leaves plenty of lacing. The aroma is strong fruit salad with peach and pineapple standing out to me. The taste is nicely bitter & dank throughout with notes of grapefruit, peach. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with average carbonation and a dry finish. Overall, very good. This is a nice IPA from Upland. No caramel malt and good use of southern hemisphere hops.

I bought this one for a trade box but ended up with too many beers. Not buying or drinking a lot of new IPAs anymore as my tastes don't seem to match the current trends. Not disappointed in this one though. Cheers all!

 

THE GOOSE IS LOOSE! So says the bottom of the can for this beer, anyhow... born just about two weeks ago and featuring El Dorado, Topaz, and Mosaic hops, Pantless Thunder Goose has been a "wanted beer" for me since the time of its initial release several months ago. Thus, I was happy to see it available at my local go-to store.



Pour is a gorgeous (and very, very opaque) orange color with an immense head of eggshell-white foam. These suds just last and last... it took like five minutes to pour half of this can into my glass, which is nuts for something without Brett or a similar oddity to give it that kinda retention.

Don't worry, though, as this seems to be a very clean beer from my first experience with the nose. Mosaic and El Dorado are certainly doing a ton of heavy lifting here... this smells immense and very densely-packed with deep berry notes, musky tropical fruit, slight earthy chive, citrus rind, and grassiness. Starfruit, lychee, and ripe papaya are all present as well... this just has a lot going on, but it seems focused on a super-juicy, ripe tropical fruit experience if I had to pinpoint one direction it's going in.

Oh, now this is just delicious. Holy hell, guys. Super drinkable for 8.3% with a fluffy and effortless palate that layers on complex flavors of papaya, passion fruit, red currants, pine resin, chive, and grassiness, all with none of these rising above any of the others. It's like the essence of double IPA balance, all in a cozy, warming, NEIPA bundle. I'm in love with this beer. The soft, supple palate is just perfectly juicy and yet firmly-bitter when it needs to be, as well. Dry finish with a bitterness and general feel that reminds me of Nelson hops... has a white grape/tropical fruit thing going on with a slight spice that just lends the "chef's kiss" to the whole proceedings. Fuck. The goose is absolutely loose. I need to stock up on this one.

 

Hello Late Night NBS

Well, I have my brother in town again. So rare to have him twice in a month's time. Enjoyed a little bottle share (New Rule-Nobody brings beer except maybe a few from my brother). I am really trying to host and share MY cellar.

And the star of this bottle show was Reboog Roadtrip, a braggot from Southern Grist Brewing in a collaboration with Garagiste Meadery

This came to my cellar by the graces of @Buck89 . Eternally grateful.

Poured from a 500 ml bottle.
A deep ruddy brown. Small cocoa colored foam starts of loosely, then disappears in less than a minute.
Dear Lord, the aroma is absolutely captivating. Initially a rich, deep, jammy berry melange greets me. But it carries nuances found deep below the crust of a blackberry cobbler. The fruit and sugars melding deep in the oven creating that melange that is deeper and more complex than the individual ingredients could ever hope to be entrusted to supply. Finally a mild, floral honey note wraps it up like a bow.
The flavor begins with peanut butter and blackberry jelly, with the jammy fruit rising in intensity. It's absolutely decadent, but never cloyingly so. It really is big and bold, but approachable and subtle.
Mouthfeel is on the full side. No carbonation.
Overall, I might kill for this one.

4.49/5 rDev +3.5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

 

Love this! Glad you enjoyed!

 

Benediktiner Weissebier, a solid Hefeweizen.



3.79/5 rDev -0.8%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

An easy pour from a 500ml can is all it takes for a finger of soapy off-white foam with long retention and strange islands of lace. Cloudy and translucent pale straw color.

Cracker and Wheat Thins with wheat bread and toast greet the nose. Hops are floral with a hint of pepper.

The taste mirrors the smell with added lemon, over-ripe banana and baking spice. Neutral on sweetness and mildly bitter, pale malt stands over apple/grape/citrus juices. The finish is semi-dry with a slight rise in bitterness (mostly spice) with a short spice and malt aftertaste.

Medium light body, plenty of carbonation. Smooth easy drinker, alcohol is disguised as the pepper. The bitterness from the wheat is balanced and moderated by pale malt.

 

Happy New American Porter Sunday!

Brew number two for tonight, pretty tasty, always a joy to drink something from LA Cumbre. Still on the reruns.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/24659/448254/?ba=Wasatch#review

Cheers!

 

Happy New CANned Collab Beer Sunday (Week 770), Part II!

I am off to an inauspicious start since my first was a charity collab & my seCANd has been bought out by a CANglomerate:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/192/335648/?ba=woodychandler#review

My third was more in-line with today's theme, although I think that it has been misidentified as an AAL:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/28753/407237/?ba=woodychandler#review

CAN anyone shed some light on this CANundrum? Onwards!
I do not believe that this one has been retired. 8=( What is going on today?
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/25890/376574/?ba=woodychandler#review

Next, one that is both recent & correct:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/42560/444704/?ba=woodychandler#review

& for my finale:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/32763/447435/?ba=woodychandler#review

I have big plans for next week, so stay tuned for further developments. Until then, I bid yinz adieu!

 

Another No Beer Sunday here. Lousy day outside, watched the Pats sweat out another win against a coach playing checkers against chess. Wifey and I both have some evil mutant cold thing going on going on almost a month now. Doc says take Mucenix and ride it out. I'm not feeling poorly now, but exhausted from coughing. The missus still feels like shit. On and off sleeping, reading this thread, and watching my adopted home team Packers getting their butts handed to them.

The three new critters seem to be adapting quite well. There are about two thirty minute periods of Shih tzu rodeo every day, then they get tired and look for a lap to curl up upon. We built them a secure pen outside so they can run off the leash a bit. Vet says we are fortunate that they are very healthy, but we had to worm them as a precaution. No heartworm, thankfully and equally unbelievable in this area, no Lyme.

@superspak probably the last thing you want to hear is another story, but I can say it is absolutely possible to come out the other side with a renewed perspective and balance in life. In my early twenties, alcohol and weed ruled my life. Maybe one day a week sober and usually only because my pockets were empty or I couldn't mooch any herb or booze from people who were tired of dealing with me. Without the forced epiphany, this went on longer than it should. I got to the point where I was affecting too many things and just stopped. No idea how, but I did. Didn't touch a drop (or anything else) for about ten years. Happy I am at the point where I can enjoy A beer, sit here in a house full of bottles and not feel the pull of the dark side. I enjoy the beer for what it is and nothing more. My thoughts are with you, and I pray that you will be fine.

@cavedave - good to hear that you are doing well.

No golf stories here. I did try a couple of times and while I could hit the ball a mile, direction was...ummm...random and water was like a black hole specifically created to capture my golf balls and send them into another universe.

 

Pineapple is often used to describe the influence of certain strains. If you do an internet search for brettanomyces and pineapple, you’ll find some mentions of it. It was Allagash’s house strain that made me forever link the two.

 

Fantastic career! My natural talent ends at about a 6-8 handicap, so the couple times I've lowered it into the 3s sure was fun but required a lot of work. Sorry about the arthritis. Hopefully you're still able to get out some?

It's often my best hole of the day.

My day trip to Houston for golf/NBA is over, and now back here in Bryan, TX, I finally get to crack open a new beer I've sat on all week:

Lagunitas' Born Yesterday Fresh Hop Unfiltered Pale Ale, 7.2% ABV

Many of you have tasted this one, and seeing some of you enjoy it here and on WBAYDN motivated me to look for it. It's quite tasty with a mouthfeel I could see some finding perfect — velvety soft with plenty of heft and a late ticklish nibble from the carbonation. The flavor is a no-frills mix of grapefruit peel and biscuity malt with hints of other things peeking in from time to time (grapefruit, grapefruit juice, pineapple mainly).

But the show for me is the aroma. Smells like pineapple juice as you pour it, then a sweet grapefruit from there, then some "green" hop aromas start showing up, cilantro, grass, basil, and only then does the biscuit malt arrive. Throughout all of that, the grapefruit note grows and grows until it becomes the foundation on which all other aromas play.

The review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/220/133621/?ba=Premo88#review
4.06 (-7.9% rDev)

I know I've underrated it a bit, but I love it. And as I work through the 6-pack, I might play with my review numbers a bit if warranted. In fact, just sitting here now, the last sip got that wee bit better, a bit more sweetness from the malt making it friendlier overall.

We had a glorious morning for golf at Blackhorse North:

A bit chilly for Texans on No. 1, but I'm officially in training to handle some Scottish weather on the links, so I barely noticed.

And then things heated up at the Toyota Center:

We didn't get to 300 points, but 260's not bad:

Hope your Sundays have gone well!

Cheers!

 

This one came from @Ozzylizard in the NBS BIF. He hit me with a whole lot of pumpkin beers, which I have been enjoying despite it not being a go-to style for me. Lots of lacing, light mouthfeel for a stout. Clove, light cinnamon, and moderate pumpkin. Not bad at all! Thanks @Ozzylizard!

 

I don't have much to elaborate on that the others haven't touched on.

It's definitely not an excuse to brew IPAs, as they've had IPAs under their Notch brand for years now. And they brew beers in the New England-style for both the Notch and Voll brands, so it's not an excuse to brew New England IPAs either. Their Dog and Pony Show is an excellent example of this, and only 4.5%.

Their Export Helles is also excellent. In fact, the Bissell brothers (of Bissell Brothers of course) wanted to brew a Helles. They went to Munich and STILL didn't taste anything that inspired them for what they wanted to do.

Lo and behold, when they returned to MA, they had the Voll Project Export Helles on draft and that was their inspiration. I've had Bissell's Helles and it's very good.

They do and they don't treat classifications with more reverence than most. Their process and attention to detail are absolutely traditional, but with nomenclature they do take some liberty.

For example, they basically created their own definition for American "session" beer. As you know, session beer is 4% ABV or lower, which Notch doesn't follow. Their cut-off is 4.5%.

Moreover, Chris Lohring has kind of given up on not calling his Czech pale lagers "Pilsners". I think people didn't know they were still "Pilsners" so he just gave in. Although they do have an awesome black shirt that just says "PALE LAGER" on it, I don't know why I still haven't bought one.

This looks more turbid than what I had. Interesting.

 

Thanks for the input. I tagged you because I think of you as a Notch drinker. Yeah, I'm aware that they've brewed IPAs for a while. My initial post was a knee jerk reaction to first finding out about the sister label with a 6% IPA and not noticing the play on words with the name. The bigger picture softens the blow, and I'm sure I'd be trying their Voll beers if I was in their area. I get the whole "wanting to paint with more colors" thinking. Nonetheless, it still disappoints me. I know the trouble that Lohring went through to make his "session only" brewery a realty, and the industry naysayers who thought he was nuts to only brew such beers. His branching out is understandable, but (to me) it still signifies a dilution of his vision and "promise"... and that's something we've seen time and time and time again. I'm not pointing a finger at him and his team, I'm pointing a finger at the culture and industry.

@meefmoff
@AirBob

 

That's fair. Locally, we've seen similar with Jack's Abby and Mystic.

Jack's Abby has been a huge success - both in terms of the growth of business and greater diversity. Giving Springdale the lead on the hoppy and sour stuff has allowed them to refocus on more traditional lagers, both for larger scale production (Post Shift Pilsner, House Lager, etc.), But also the smaller scale stuff (the Keller series, the collaborations with KCBC and Mikeller).

Mystic, on the other hand, went all in on the NE IPA craze. They made some of the best in the state, IMO, but the price point was too high and there has been a flood of excellent hazy ales available. At the same time, they seemed to cut back on the production of the Belgian styles that had been their bread-and-butter. They dipped their toes in a lager spin-off, Von Lune, but even so a lot of people in this community were disappointed by the increasing homogenousness (?). I imagine a big part of the shift in offerings had to do with growing the business.

That all said, I get the feeling that the Notch/Voll Projekt thing fits into the former camp rather rather the latter

 

Great point regarding your view of Jack's Abby portfolio with a wider lens. And unfortunately, you had to say that Mystic "made some of the best" rather than "makes."