New Beer Sunday (Week 774)

Well, we're back on shore, and in the cabin. We got our limit. Not many big fish, but it was fun, and we're taking a lot of fish home. Cooking some ribs in my pressure pot, and waiting for our guide to bring back the cleaned fish.

Time for a big beer.

As usual, things aren't loading to imgur well up here.

Bourbon County Cafe Olla Stout is in our glasses. I asked my friends to guess the ABV. They guessed around 8%. Yes this beer hides the ABV well. Very smooth, and easy drinking. The coffee is very mild, and hits more on the backside. Another great beer in the Bourbon County series. I did like the coffee more last year, but very happy with this one also.

Review link
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1146/434224/?ba=Victory_Sabre1973#review


There's more new beers on deck. There might even be one from the most northern brewery in the lower 48, if I'm correct, and I haven't had it yet.

 

Happy NBS, Merry Early Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone. I'm a bit late to the party but I'm here now so everything is well.

Today I've got Marshal Zhukov's Russian Imperial Stout from Cigar City Brewing. I wanted Hunahpu but this one will have to Hunahdo for now. I'm hilarious.



This baby pours a jet black color with a very tiny tan head. The head leaves some spots of lacing and ultimately settles into a halo around the top of the beer.

The aroma is the greatest clusterfuck I've smelled since the time I lost my virginity. Dark roast coffee, chocolate, tobacco, and molasses lead the charge followed by a wave of roasted nuts, caramel, and fig. There's a hint of leather and beef jerky on the back end.

The flavor isn't quite as hilarious but there's still plenty going on; notes of dark chocolate, coffee and caramel, followed by tobacco and molasses. The finish is smokey, charred, and modestly hoppy.

This is a thiccc beer. Low carbonation and plenty of booze warmth. Creamy af with a relatively dry finish.

Overall, I give this one a 4.5/5. It's a tremendous imperial stout that hits just about every note expected of the style. I was going to save this for Christmas but YOLO.

 

Fair State FSB: 2019 Pt. 2, 13% ABV. Pours black and thick with a one-finger brown head that left no lacing. Nose is chocolate, roast malt, coffee, and slight toffee/caramel. Taste is sweet chocolate, salted caramel, coffee, with a slight bitter close. Salt and coffee linger in the aftertaste. Excellent thick and sticky mouthfeel, overall excellent to near outstanding.

4.25/5 rDev +2.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Just finished grilling steaks for supper, and back to watching the Cowboys lose.

 

Poured into a 16 oz Snulip glass bottled on 12/02/19. Pours a very attractive mahogany with a 2 plus finger khaki head that leaves loads thick rings of lace as it slowly settles leaving a thick ring of lace around the edges of the glass. 4.5

Smell is hazelnut, roasty coffee grounds, gram cracker, vanilla beans, cocoa nibs, and some woody oak. 4.75

Taste follows just spectacular, hazelnut, coffee, vanilla, cocoa, gram cracker, and maybe a hint of bourbon but so little and nothing wrong with that, incredible.... 5

Mouthfeel is bigger than medium for sure, creamy gentle carbonation, maybe a tad dry, and at 9% goes down amazingly easy and warms the entire body and soul. 4.75

Overall I love hazelnut and coffee so my expectations were huge and this lived up my highest expectations. This is the ultimate cold weather coffee beer. 4.75

 

Just got home and I'm beat after the busiest Sunday at the store since last Christmas week.


https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/46317/454957/

I cheated and had a taste of this the other night.

Here now, a proper review.



16 oz. can packaged the beginning of this week.
Moderate pour yields a one inch white head over a very slightly hazy golden body with lacing. Nice nose of tropical fruit and slight pine with a bit of floral/herbal aromas as well. As it warms, there is also a bit of coconut on the nose with some pungent wet leaf aspects. Taste of all kinds of tropical fruit (lychee, pineapple, mango), a little bergamot, and even some plum-like flavors as well. Wow, very complex as it warms and so unique! Requisite Skadoosh feel and overall, a yet another home run in the Skadoosh series from The Alchemist.
Cheers!

 

Happy New Steam Beer Sunday!

Pretty nice day here on the Western Slope, some sun/clouds, around 38 at the trailhead. Having a pretty tasty beer today, nice to see something new from this brewery around here. Might be back with a non-new beer later on.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/23222/63754/?ba=Wasatch#review

Cheers!

 

#2, courtesy of @2beerdogs, this had me at “BA English-style Barleywine.”





4.67/5 rDev +2.9%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.75

This murky, mahogany brown beer that sports a dense, dark tan head looks like an imperial stout from a distance. It’s only when you hold the glass up to light that you see the brown colors, especially on the edges. What a beautiful beer.

The nose is filled with boozy aromas that feature cherries, stone fruit, toffee, caramel, and a subtle milk chocolate note. This is SCREAMING “dessert beer.”

That dessert beer theme carries through to the taste. There’s a lot of sweet in this beer, with the cherries, caramel, toffee, and milk chocolate, but the stone fruit and booze reel this huge barleywine back in before it ventures into “Cloyingville.”

The mouthfeel is full and has a silky quality I didn’t expect. Stated quite simply, this is the best barleywine I’ve had. It’s truly magnificent.

 

Glad you like that one. I find the light touch of the cognac and brandy really added a complex yet nuanced fruity dimension to this one.

 

I just don't stir mine.

 

I had two new to me beers this evening and here are my thoughts:

Devil's Backbone Danzig - I am a big fan of Baltic Porters and wish that there were more, back in the day Victory made a good one called Baltic Thunder that I really enjoyed. This beer is delicious and if I had to find a negative it would be that it's on the thinner side. However, well worth a try and I recommend.

Sly Fox Softly Falling Darkness - This brewery can really do no wrong with me and this is no exception. I had no idea that this beer was out there and came across it and knew that I had to give it a try, delicious! I am a fan of Oatmeal Stouts and I recommend this if you are also. And at 5.9% ABV a good choice if you're looking for something dark and flavorful but on the lower-ish end.

 

Well said. It's a bit sad how busy life gets, and we should be cognizant of this on a daily basis, but we need to stay connected those who are special in our lives.

 

Boulevard 30th Annivesary Ale, a nice blended American Strong Ale; 4.23 overall

Pours an effervescent chestnut-hued mahogany with a thumb+ of tan head. Decent head retention & lacing

S: Vanilla, dark fruit, cola. some leafy hops as this warms. A lot of the initial scents fade as this warms

T: Bourbon notes, barrel dryness , vanilla & cola up front. Much barrel dryness, cola, a little figgyness, plus leafy hops as this warms, plus some stronger Bourbon flavor, some dark cherry notes, plus raisins. Finishes with a load of barrel dryness. dark cherry, Bourbon warmth, a hint of figs & leafy hops

MF: Medium body, firm carbonation , warming . Carbonation smooths out as this warms

A worthy milestone offering, more nose & little better look wouldn't hurt, but this is a very worthy pick up that didn't cost an arm & a leg

 

I know this a beer forum, but please tell this dumb southerner from the south what you caught. I went once in Colorado & caught perch & grayling? . My buddies caught a few small pike

 

Another beer tasted before and here now;
with a full pour, reviewed.
Cheers!!

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30542/97830/



First time canning.
16 oz. can with no date, as is Fo-Bros M.O.
Just rec'd in stores this week, so it is fresh.
Moderate pour yields a one inch tan head over a very dark brown, near black body with scant lacing. Nose of maple, vanilla, and chocolate malt. Taste mirrors nose nicely with a bitter chocolate finish. Delicious! Nice feel and overall, a very tasty offering from Brandon, VT.
Cheers!

 

We caught mostly sauger which is a cousin of walleye. We did get 1 walleye. We also caught 1 eel pout. The limit of walleye/sauger is 6 per person. Eel pout, I think there's either no limit or 100 per person. Either way, no where the limit there.

 

Now that think about it, there may have been some walleye as well, that was 14 years ago; so I couldn't testify in court for sure...

This was pond/small lake fishing, so all I remember besides the auger coming out is the sound of ice cracking even though it was January & very solid, scared the Bejesus outta this kid from the Carolinas., no shacks, just buckets to sit on

 

Ok next beer, and I FINALLY have a picture. I'm at the bar and enjoying a beer brewed at the most northern brewery in the lower 48 - Lake of the Woods Brewing

https://m.imgur.com/gallery/wQmx0X7
Lakeside. It is a Kolsch.

Light, and refreshing. I am not the biggest fan of the style, because I find it lacking, usually. It isn't a flavor bomb, but it is good.

Review link

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/56401/430522/

I think I will pop open at least 1 more new beer back at the cabin.

 

Poured into a 16 oz Snulip glass, bottled 11/18/19. Pours black as midnight, with a near 3 finger mocha head that leaves a bunch of webby lace as it slowly settles leaving a film of brown creamy looking bubbles. 4.75

Smell is dry roasty coffee beans, deep dark chocolate, Oaked vanilla, char, pipe tobacco, and bold bourbon. 4.75

Taste follows huge coffee, dark chocolate, woody vanilla, char, tobacco, and bourbon just sucker punches your palate and leaves you mouth watering waiting for the next sip. 4.75

Mouthfeel is BIG, gentle carbonation and rather creamy, a touch dry, and at 12% a sipper that makes a cold winter evening more enjoyable. 5

Overall again crazy high expectations and gave me everything I was hoping for and then some. Just another great stout from one of the greatest at making them. 4.75