New Beer Sunday (Week 774)

Kettlehead Holiday Ale with cinnamon, marshmallows, vanilla, maple, and lactose. Canned on 12/19/2019. Pours a very dark blackish brown, with a 2 plus finger sticky dark khaki head that leaves thin rings of lace as it slowly settles. 4.25

Smell is maple, vanilla, nutmeg, s’mores, and some cinnamon. 4

Taste follows maple, vanilla, s’mores, nutmeg, and cinnamon. 4.25

Mouthfeel is bigger than medium, gentle carbonation, actually not dry, and at 7% it drinks bigger but actually very approachable. I drank this after I let it warm a bit and it really makes you warm and excited for the Holiday Season. 4.25

Overall this is really nice and crazy drinkable for a stout. Once again a nice beer from my favorite brewery. 4.25 Also great open Doc @lordofthewiens Merry Christmas to you and Jill!

 

I sure miss PA! Genesee not avaliable in NC? Why?
BTW, merry holidays!
Each and everyone!

 

Last NBS before Christmas, so Merry Christmas, everyone!

And, Happy Holidays as well (I might point out that I have friends in India, and their big family holiday was about a month ago - Diwali ... nice to know that not EVERYONE has tried to claim the winter solstice...)

Anyhow, starting today with:

Samuel Smith Winter Welcome Ale
ABV: 6.0%
IBU: 32



Aroma is spicy, fruit, plums, somewhat earthy.

Color is amber-brown with some rising bubbles to a 3/4 inch off-white bubbly head with OK retention, leaving thick lacing.

Taste is quite good, with the earthiness more predominate than in the aroma, but good contributions from the spicy and plum flavors as well. No bitterness. Rich bready malts that never become too sweet. A good interplay and moderate complexity to the flavors keeps it interesting and enjoyable. Excellent, in fact, considering the ABV. The finish is on the dry side, and the aftertaste of the different flavors lingers.

Body is on the thin side of medium and smooth. Goes down very easily.

Overall, an enjoyable winter seasonal that won't leave you completely looped (even with the 550ml bottle).

L: 4.0 | S: 3.75 | T: 4.25 | F: 3.75 | O: 4.0 | BA rating: 4.02

 

I went to the beer finder on the Genesee website and it appears that Genesee does distribute in NC but very limited brands - it seems that Genesee Ice is the popular brand in NC.

https://www.geneseebeer.com/finder/

If you are willing to order a case of a certain brand maybe your retailers could get it for you?

Cheers!

 

Oh well, disreguard my Conversation I guess.

 

4 New Beers at 4+ Levels, some first reviews. Happy Christmas BA 2019
What We Don't See/Kings County Brewers Collective (KCBC)
4.27/5 rDev +2.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
3rd Review. Kings County makes some serious Whiskey and Beer. (*Brooklyn)
a) Tall can from "Urban Barley" pours jet black, with a thick tan head, and thin patch of lacing. 4
s) Aroma powerful of burnt wood, smoke, molasses, prune, dark chocolate, and espresso. 4.5 best part
t) Big flavors pounce on the palate, with all the above, in a meaty masculine, urban manner. Very wood smoke roasty, with a back layer of tingly hops. 4.25
f) Creamy, yet cleans up wonderfully with the hops biting toward the tail. 4
o) First from brewer, well done stout with some original smoke forward flavors and hop tail. 4.25
Lagom | Carton Brewing | Weisse 3.9%
4.1
1st Review. Added 12-20-19.
Carton - sends you to google - (wish they had public wifi here) - to look up....
Lagom (just-right, simple-perfect), a swede idiom.
Highlander Weisse (Berliner Weisse - once German's most popular light beer often flavored with essence in bowl shaped glasses)
Sea buckthorn leaves and flowers are used for treating arthritis, gastrointestinal ulcers, gout, and skin rashes caused by infectious diseases such as measles. Northern Europe and mountainous central Asia. AKA Seaberry.
So this sea berry brew rises to the best of the Carton Weise and wild canon.
Thrilled to be the 1st reviewer.
The strength of this light ABV brew is intense for little 3.9% ABV.
Coded Tiles / LIC Beer Project / APA 5%
4.05/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
Punches above its 5% ABV class. Lovely. 1st from brewer.
a) Clouded, apricot supporting lasting and lacing head.
s) Freshly hopped, floral, backed by crispt malt cracker.
t) Follows aroma, adds pine, flowers, more blossoms, greenhouse, grass.
f) Finished clean and minerally, again like a green house.
o) Flinty, minerally, floral APA worth trying. Adds up to more.
Cold Brew Cream Ale | New Belgium | Cream Ale 5%
4.01/5 rDev +5.2%
look: 5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
1st review, wow! This one scores on looks. I'm fan of High Brew and New Belgium so love this collaboration.
a) The nitro head lasts 2 hours starting at 1 thick tan finger over a brown body that laces lashes.
s) About as strong as a Carton coffee brew, with a smoother creamier profile than High Brew espresso itself.
t) All the expected components of coffee, touch of cream, touch of hop, no real malt.
f) Clean, light, nice 1st beer of night or last.
o) A strong effort, worth while, real coffee.

 

Bummer. Must be past it's prime. I guess I won't send that one to anybody else.

 

Hello new Beer Sunday!!!

The signal isn't very good out here in the middle of Lake of the Woods. Fishing is amazing, but we're is a slight lull at the moment.

My new beer out on the ice is from the gracious @CanConPhilly . Sharing it with my friends.

Form To Table from Form Fermentery. It is 3.5% ABV.

This beer reminds me of a fruity champagne. Very tasty, and I can't thank @CanConPhilly enough for this beer. My friends also like it.

Image isn't uploading to imgur because of the weak signal. Hopefully this posts.

Review link

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/50398/300866/


Be back for more.

 

Split the Megahertz a 6.8ABV AIPA from Twin Elephant. This beer was canned last Thursday excellent brew.

 

Komes Raspberry Porter, 8.5 % ABV. Pours black with a 3+ finger tan head which left no lacing. Nose is raspberry. Taste is slightly sweet and slightly tart raspberry, roast malt, with a slight bitterness. Excellent mouthfeel, overall excellent.

4.23/5 rDev +5.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Thanks to @drunkenmess for this superb porter. We're having warm 43 degree weather so I'm out grilling in shorts and a t-shirt, and watching football.

 

Still can't post a picture, but still enjoying new beers, and another one from @CanConPhilly .

Pourison from Tired Hands Brewing.

While writing this I got interrupted by a nice sauger.

First off, wasn't expecting a cork in it. We had to improvise out on the ice. Had to use a flat head screwdriver to push it into the bottle, which shook things up a bit.

Got interrupted by yet another sauger.

Pours a nice peach color. Nose is light, but the flavor is a total peach bomb.

3 thumbs up from the group.

Review link
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/28383/199782/

Back to fishing.

 

Good afternoon NBS
This was the first Singlecut beer to hit distro here that piqued my interest


Heavy Boots of Lead
16oz can stamped 11/08/19 poured into a Spiegelau stout glass at fridge temp 11% ABV. The beer pours dense black with no light penetration and mocha colored head. The head recedes to a thin cap and leaves plenty of lacing. The aroma is mild with baker's chocolate, roasted malt and vanilla. The flavor is roasty malts with noticeable vanilla and cocoa before a moderately bitter finish. The mouthfeel is medium to full bodied with average carbonation and a mostly dry finish. Overall, excellent.

Cheers all & Merry Christmas to those who celebrate.

 

Lovely afternoon we're having here, and I'm enjoying a tasty black lager that comes to me by way of @zid:

The Shipwrecks Black, by Long Beach brewing from out on Long Island.

If you handed this glass to me and said "have a Trosten" I'd take a sip, carry on, and wouldn't think twice. And by that, I mean, it may not be a a dead ringer for that excellent smoked black lager, but it is very much in the same ballpark. No mention of any kind of smoked malt on the can, however, which I kind of find to be a curious thing.

Aside from that smoky presence, there's quite a bit of dark chocolate roast, undercurrents of molasses, and some lavendar-like herbal/floral graces. Fairly well-knit, but ideally could use a bit of tweaking. The feel is dry and satiny, and finishes crisp with a long lingering roasty finish. The bitterness is also a touch high and coarse, but that wouldn't keep me from having another right now if I had one. Just a little dialing-in would bring it to the next level, but right now it's a high B+ (3.9).

Thanks again, Chris, I think you must have known that this would be in my wheelhouse. Very much enjoying it!

 

Thanks for today’s set up Doc. Until recently I spent the holidays with my wife and her family in Charleston SC, with plenty of kids...alas, all the kids are grown, so we travel now, and buy our son a plane ticket as his present. So far the 3 of us have had a great time the past couple of years...

Today’s new beer is a collab between Amsterdam “micro brewery” Morebeer Brewing, and Haarlem’s microbrewery Het Uiltje: “The Big Fat 10 Anniversary”, a TIPA tipping the scale at 10% abv, and 66.6 IBUs. Ten different hops were utilized - cascade, citra, centennial, chinook, lemondrop, amarillo, ekuanot, mosaic, simcoe, and columbus.

https://i.imgur.com/vzXdd28.jpg

https://imgur.com/a/1tfEJi2

Pours an opaque pale amber/orange colour; off white head leaves little cap, thin ring and sudsy lacing. Strong pineapple and orange juice nose. Intake is boozy citrus-orange, lemon, lime; pineapple; lite bitter fruit hops and semi sweet malt base. Grainy dry feel; moderate light carbonation; medium body; some astringency; some warmth from the 10% abv. Overall, I like boozy, but a bit too much alcohol in the bite; tons of juicy citrus flavors, however, I preferred the Big Fat 5 Anniversary as I found it better balanced and less phenolic.

4.0 | 4.25 | 4.0 | 3.75 | 4.0

Glad to be back on the boards. I hope every one has a merry Christmas - Cheers from Amsterdam!

 

A-Pours a solid black color with a light head and lacing
A-Aroma has cocoa and raisin hints
T-the taste follows the nose with cocoa and raisin flavors
T-A medium bodied decently carbonated beer
O-A good Bock

 

Good morning and happy New Block Sunday, BAs. Well friends, it's been quite a few weeks since any adventures to the great outdoors, and as luck would have it, yet another week has fallen the same fate. This time, thanks to some goddam wind taking out the fence in my backyard. A couple hundred bucks and a multitude of shitty hours of labor in the rain, it's time for another new beer before I hope to meet up once again with our friend and steward of NBS, @cjgiant .

Block 15
Imagine- Belgian Style Stout matured in Bourbon Barrels



Hard to knock much on the appearance here. It's diabolically black, mirror clean, and boasts a thin tan head which remains as just a ring around the glass.

The aroma is sweet and slightly tart. Heavily handed with milk chocolate, plum, and maraschino cherries, with a generous dose of damp oak staves. The booze is definitely present but is masked quite well.

The flavor is substantially unique. It says right there on the label "Belgian-Style Stout", but what the hell does that mean? Well, in this case it means exactly what the aroma indicates: a milk chocolate covered maraschino cherry, complete with a nutty almond caramel drizzle and a smooth woody finish.

Slick and rich textures are competing to the death against the mildy tart and wood derived drying finish. The elevated abv is barely noticeable if it weren't for the woods dead giveaway. It has a uniquely bubbly feel to it too. I'd say it fits somewhere right between a Flanders Red and a "stout". The boozy warmth is only slightly noticeable. Dangerous as hell at its 13.5% advertisement.

Very impressive and curious brew we have here. Overall, despite what it dictates on the label, I'd call this a wonderful bridging of styles and think it just might benefit greatly with some time, forgotten under the staircase.

After my official review, I gave Imagine a rating of 4.17, with an rDev of -2.6%. Cheers.