New Beer Sunday (Week 771)

Hope you feel better soon. I have found that of all the OTC products Mucinex works best.

 

Lagunitas Willettized

Today is my birthday. I’m not doing anything special today... that was accomplished yesterday when I: stayed at a bed and breakfast that was built by someone who wanted to live in a castle, went on a hike, visited Suarez. My favorite beer from yesterday wasn’t from Suarez though - it was the Riegele Dunkel that I had at a German restaurant. Drinking that beer provided a really great moment in a day of great moments.

Tonight I am back to the routine and I’ve opened this beer from Lagunitas. It’s black. Nicer head than expected. It’s very bitter in a dark chocolate way... but not only is there a decent amount of malt sweetness to balance things out a little, there’s also a touch of acidity that aids the drinkability. Slick feel. This beer is pretty cohesive for what it is.

Happy post-Thanksgiving to all of you fine folks. Cheers.

 

Thank you!

 

Happy Thanksgiving weekend, NBSers. To answer the question @cjgiant posed, I spend the morning of Black Friday chasing (a bit) some BCBS. I left my house at 8:15 am, got to my local beer store at 8:20 am, the 3rd car in the lot. When cars 4, 5, and 6 showed up shortly after 8:30, everyone got out of their cars and formed an orderly line based on our arrivals.

Roughly 25 minutes later, the store let us in a couple of minutes early, our number now around 30 or so beer nerds. The allotment rules: 4 of the base BCBS and 2 of the 5 variants they had (Rye, Cafe de Olla, Mon Chéri, Wheatwine, and the 3-year vertical).

I chose the Rye and the Cafe, and also purchased 4 of the base BCBS, so if anyone here hasn’t tried the base beer and wants to, I can hook you up. Just let me know.

I got back home by 9:30 am, so it was a good investment of time, IMHO. Can’t wait to try the Rye and Cafe.

I have a beer from @2beerdogs and glassware from @Ozzylizard, both the fruit of NBS BIF, otherwise known as “the gift that keeps on giving.”



4.23/5 rDev +3.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

When the can calls out “West Coast Style IPA,” I expect a full-flavored hoppily bitter IPA with some malt presence and a body I can look through and see my beautiful bride on the other side of my glass. This beer checks those boxes, plus some.

The beer pours a burnt orange color and is oh so nearly clear, with just a smidge of hop haze. There’s a foamy light tan head, which allows ripe tangerine and subtle caramalt aromas to escape and tantalize you.

The reward is the taste , where the bitter tangerine flavors are complemented so well by the caramalt flavors, so you’ve got a very bitter but not too bitter WCIPA in your glass.

This is the beer I picture as my “local” beer, sitting at the bar with a view of the Pacific, sitting with my wife and having a couple of pints while we discuss the day.

 

Happy Birthday!
My wife wants to know the name of the B&B

 

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving for those that celebrate. Had the day off but worked Friday/Sat.
Yup its snowing so staying in and watching Chinatown. Great movie.
First beer today.
Omnipollo Gematria Nelson/Mosaic/Citra IPA
Pours a hazy amber/gold with a decent creamy head that settles to a thin cap leaving plenty of sticky lacing.
Aroma is pineapple, peach, apricot, tangerine, and fresh pine.
Taste follows with ripe citrus, tropical fruits, stone fruits and dry white wine grape, cannabis, grapefruit pith.
Finish is clean, dry and nicely bitter. Prickly carbonation lasts throughout and there is no hint of of alcohol.
A beer that looks alot like a NEIPA but drinks like a combo of West and East coast. Love the hop combo- always a sucker for Nelson. Very nice brew.
Try this one if you can.

 

What a wonderful way to spend one's birthday weekend- Happy B-day! Love the holiday icicle decorations in the last one, but not the creepy face in the cave .

 

Happy New New England IPA Sunday!

Pretty nice day here on the Western Slope, sunny, around 34 at the trailhead. People were starting to show up for some biking/hiking when I was leaving. Having a pretty tasty brew, my first from this brewery. A nice rye ipa, don't see too many of these around here. Should be back with another new brew, shortly.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35143/284710/?ba=Wasatch#review

Cheers!

 

My weekend begins and first up:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/28609/271205/



16 oz. can.
Canned 08/08/19.
5.3% abv.
Moderate to vigorous pour yields a 1/2 inch, very light pink head over a dark pink/maroon body with some lacing. Nose of raspberry and citrus. Taste mirrors nose very closely with a nice feel for the style. Very smooth, balanced, and quite refreshing; not to tart, not too sweet; and limey. This would be a fantastic summer crusher and would highly recommend. Cheers!

 

I’m taking Mrs O out for dinner (and beer) at Evil Czech, followed by a movie (Ford v Ferrari). This is Hills-N-Holers, described on the Evil Czech beer menu as a”Kentucky Common Ale” or dark cream ale, which was apparently popular in Kentucky from the 1850’s until Prohibition.

Or you could call it a brown ale.



4/5 rDev -2.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Pours mahogany brown with a tan head, the nose is toffee and caramel malts. The brewery describes this as a “Kentucky Common Ale” or a dark cream ale, brewed from the 1850’s through Prohibition, but make no mistake - this is a brown ale.

The taste confirms that, with caramel and toffee flavors most prominent, and a slightly creamy mouthfeel. A nice winter sipper, IMHO.

 

Howdy NBS, and hope everybody's enjoying the last gasps of a nice long holiday weekend!

If you'll all grant the indulgence, I'd like to count this one from B United as a new beer for me. Not only is it being sold in a completely different manner these days, but it's also coming across as not even resembling the very likely 'old' version that we used to get:

St. Georgenbrau Buttenheimer Kellerbier

Looking at my old review for a quick sec, I see that I wasn't incorrect in remembering the bottled version to be quite complex and loaded with fruit and spice notes; hardly lager-like in any event. To the contrary, this freshly canned version feels very much like an amber lager.

It is quite rustic, however, and pleasingly so. Toasty baguette bread crust dominates, but it's supported by some not so subtle spicy hop flavors, and in this case those spices aren't coming across as phenolic in nature; it's almost like I can even taste the cone petals as they steep in the brew, with a green raw vegetal quality. There's some subtle pale caramelization going on as well, and something tangy like a tiny touch of cherry or cranberry juice just to keep things interesting.

The feel is moderately full, finishing with a big snap of bitterness which dries out the palate considerably. Moving on to the halfway mark it's still maintaining that punchy-yet-smooth quality. There's definitely some unusual flavors here, and I'm not entirely sure that they all jive with each other, but I do love the overall feel and personality of it. Will very much enjoy this 4-pack, and maybe go get another if it's still around. Solid A- (4.15), and it's really a treat to get to see this one through a different lens.

 

It’s Wing’s Castle outside of Millbrook, NY. Neighbors with Millbrook Winery and a half hour south of Suarez. The last pic of the cave-like structure is the Dover “Stone Church,” a natural formation 20 minutes away. FYI, Wing’s Castle is essentially the work of an eccentric DIY artist family that built the structure out of recycled materials (meaning old barns and the like) over many years.

 

I remember Golden Promise Organic Ale back in the 90s. It was Scottish, tasty, and different.

 

No Black Friday nor Small Business Saturday activity for me. I do plan on holing up at a small business (la Gabriella coffee shop in College Station) on Cyber Monday and doing a little price checking online.

It's a New Stout Sunday at my place as we speak:


Samuel Smith's Organic Chocolate Stout, 5% ABV

Classified here on BA.com as an "English stout," it's also in the "why did I wait so long to try this?!!!?" category. Holy crap is this good! Of course, I'm a lifetime chocolate fan and a longtime Samuel Smith fan, but still ... this seems about as legitimate an adjunct-laden brew as I've tried. The chocolate leads and dominates at times, but where this beer shines is in the tasty bitter/earthy charred wood flavor that jumps in and plays with the chocolate and also shows up in the aftertaste. In fact, if you wait long enough between sips, the chocolate almost fades away completely leaving only the more stout-like wood flavor.

I wonder, too, if the hops aren't doing some balancing? Maybe, but the bigger contributor seems to be the roasted malt leading to the good wood note.

It's always a tough call for me to use a glass with a CO2 nucleation point because I prefer more carbonation. It's working wonderfully for this beer (beyond the #properglassware aspect ), and now about halfway into the pint it's doing a decent job of mimicking a cask ale feel.

The official review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/113/86189/?ba=Premo88#review
4.56 (+6.8% rDev)

Sunday is my Saturday, but it felt like work breaking up the slumber party that raged into the afternoon hours earlier today:

Lazy butts!

Poor Midnight the Cat has to stay home whilst Huevos and I hit the nature trail:



Hope your Sundays are going well and have a great week!

Cheers!

 

Damn. My wife caught that and I have no idea where my immunity came from; I was lucky I suppose. Post nasal drip and involuntary coughing. It lasted about two weeks. Maybe my flu shot did double duty?

 

Thanks. Last summer we stayed at a B&B in Poughkeepsie, hit up Plan Bee and Suarez. My wife was saying she wants to go back. Hell yeah! I saw those pics and knew she would love it.

 

Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Café de Olla Stout, 13.5% ABV. Pours black and thick with a little-finger of tan head than left no lacing. Nose is coffee, cinnamon/casia, chocolate, orange, and bourbon. Taste is coffee, cinnamon/casia, sugar, light orange, chocolate, and bourbon. Excellent mouthfeel, overall world-class. IMHO, if you like the fresh flavor then these should not be aged past 6 months, as the coffee and orange will fade relatively quickly, leaving cinnamon sugar, chocolate, and bourbon. That could be good...

4.58/5 rDev +5.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

A busy last day of a 5.5 day stay-cation. We shoveled twice, put up indoor Christmas decorations, grilled steaks, watched football, and I tried three new beers. I still plan to pack up a trade tonight for @drunkenmess

 

Happy Birthday!

 

I drove by the madness at a local Target store and felt sorry for those in the throng. Here's my offering. Kiki the one half wild cat from the park likes to stay informed. She's my really good friend. Steely Dan never gets old.

 

Exactly what I am using and it has helped considerably.