New Beer Sunday (Week 776)

Wow! Right on it!
Saves me from having to sleep then get up & have a new beer.

CANtabulous start Woody, botI'll go with something else.
A bottle of Troegs Hopback amber ale. "Freshest By 04/07/20" (annnnnd....neither Postimage nor Imgur will upload - it's windy & snowing, so maybe that?)

short version : It seems like WCIPA meets Red Ale. It's got the caramel/toffee malt , with pine/grapefruit bitterness. Seems like a dialed-back Nugget Nectar , at least in flavor intensity. Overall it's pleasant ; I enjoyed it ; just wouldn't go out of my way for it.
L:4; S:3.25; T:3.5 ; F :3.5 ; O : 3.75 BA Score :3.52 rDev -11.2%
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/694/6322/?ba=mikeinportc#review

 

Thanks to @woodychandler for the very Woody-esque opening.

I got off the late shift about an hour ago and cracked open a classic for the first time:

Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout, 11.3% ABV, 45 IBUs, bottled on 9/23/19

(the single malt Scotch whisky is for later )

CBS is starting off much, much "darker" than I expected with notes of licorice, raisins and raisin bread dominating the nose and raisins, espresso and prunes leading the flavor. Of course, it was aged in barrels that once held maple syrup, not mixed with actual maple syrup, so my expectations are probably a bit askew — yes, I expected a big maple syrup presence, a note that seems "lighter" to me among the possible darker-malt notes. There's also some burnt-malt bitterness early that is trying to build, but it's having a hard time because there's so much sweetness from the sugary flavors that the bitterness is getting mostly washed away.

My gut says I'd rank the base beer No. 1, KBS No. 2 and this CBS a distant No. 3. Doesn't mean I don't like it, and I'm glad I got the four-pack. Likely I'll let the other three bottles sit in my "cellar" (bottom of the fridge) for a year or two, because right now there's something unsettled about this beer, like all the flavors are still jumbling around in the bottle and not agreeing on a theme. It does get a bit tastier as it warms with a wonderful milk chocolate/vanilla shake note showing up.

The review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1199/47658/?ba=Premo88#review
4.02 (-14.5% rDev)

All of the above was pre-Laphroaig 10 nosing/tasting. Just FYI: If you thought Laphroaig had an iodine note by itself, stick your nose into a glencairn of Laphroaig 10 after drinking 4-5 oz. of CBS. Wow, is that iodiney!!! But I'm sipping the two side-by-side, and the whisky is making the CBS take on this crazy good buttered/honeyed wheat toast note ... ... really cool.

Hopefully I didn't step on too many CBS-loving, NBS-purist toes by bringing the pairing here.

And here's hoping you have a wonderful Sunday and a good upcoming week!

Cheers!

 

Poured into a 13 oz tulip glass not sure when it was canned. Pours a very attractive cloudy orange with a 2 finger off white head that leaves huge streaks of lace as it slowly settles. 4.5

Smell tangerine, pineapple, melon, papaya, and apricot. 4

Taste follows tangerine, melon, pineapple, papaya, and apricot. 4

Mouthfeel is bigger than medium, a tad sticky not dry, soft on the palate, and at 8.5% extremely drinkable. 4.25

Overall this is really balanced, very little bitterness, and an excellent NEDIPA. 4.25 Thanks @tasterschoice62 for this excellent can. Cheers Larry

 

Hunter S. Thompson Canverges with the world of beer.

 

Good morning, all, and a Merry 12th Day of Christmas to you! I CAN't say enough about the awesome kickoff to the day's festivities courtesy of @woodychandler. (Still waiting on that book, BTW. ) And now without further ado, on to the beer.

By design, my 12 Days lineup this year highlighted decadence and festivity. I started off the season with Holidotz, a lovely cranberry lager from Toppling Goliath. There were two offerings from Magic Hat, Duvine Rouge and Duvine Blanc, brewed with wine grapes. Founders Blushing Monk was a delightful surprise, as were Dernière Volonté from Dieu du Ciel! and Årh Hvad from Mikkeller ApS. The 2012 Rio Reserva, a Belgian quad aged in St. Emilion wine and Kentucky bourbon barrels, was incredible (and a mark-down bargain besides!). Then there were the dessert-type beers: Innis & Gunn BA Kindred Spirits, matured on Irish whiskey barrel staves; CBS; Beer Geek Breakfast; Willettized; and Wells/Eagle/Marston Banana Bread Beer. Which brings us to today's finale: Caramel Fudge Stout, from Brouwerij Kees.

I've always said that I appreciate it when a brewer delivers on his promises. This delicious stout is a case in point. Poured from an 11.2-ounce bottle into a snifter. Color is a deep chestnut brown, with reddish-brown highlights and no head to speak of. Ingredients listed on the bottle are water, barley malt, hops, sugar, and yeast. Huge aromas and flavors of caramel, milk chocolate, and coffee bean, with a little molasses, a floral note, and a kick of hop bitterness on the finish. Although there is a lot of sweetness (some might say too much) and alcohol heat, the finish is quite dry without any lingering tartness. The brewer has done an outstanding job of coaxing the decadent brownie flavors out of the most basic of ingredients. Well done!



4.49/5 (rDev +7.2%)
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

 

Good day New BSers! Woody, thanks for starting today's thread. Today's New Breakfast Beer is from @2beerdogs and NBS BIF 10, Bruery Terreux's Sour in the Rye with Peaches (2018). A terrific thanks goes out to Derek for yet another CA brew that doesn't usually penetrate "The Wilds" of NW PA!

Received from @2beerdogs in NBS BIF 10 – Thanks Derek! Reviewed 1/5/20.
“2018 Edition”. Etched above label “#B – 463 11/30/17” above “11:45 001239”. Stored at home at 42 degrees and served at 45 degrees (as stated on the label) in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter.
Appearance – 3.
First pour – Begins light yellow and clear, becoming light orange and clear as the pour continues. Second pour stirs up the sediment.
Body – Dark orange, translucent. When held to direct light, becomes lighter orange but still translucent.
Head – Fizzy (Maximum one cm, aggressive center pour), gone in a few seconds after the pour is completed, leaving a featureless surface except for a few short-lived tiny bubbles from effervescence around the rim.
Lacing – None.
Aroma – 4 – Peach predominates with both lactic acid and some oak tannins in the background.
Flavor – 4.5 – Begins tart, almost enough to make me pucker. Peach flavor is weaker than the nose leads one to expect. The rye is as elusive as Bigfoot. No alcohol (6.9% ABV as marked on label) aroma or flavor. No diacetyl, no dimethylsulfide, no malt, no hops.
Palate – 4 – Medium, watery, lively carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 4.5. This is distinctly a sour. Either you like the style (I do) or you don’t – there’s no waffling here. To my taste, the peach, while dominating the nose, barely holds its own on the palate against the acids. Those acids make my teeth squeak when I rub my tongue over them. Rye, I miss you.
Rating 4.24, rDev -4.3%.

 

A-Pours a dark color with a slight head and lacing
A-Aroma has coffee, chocolate and lactose hints
T-The taste follows the nose with a coffee, chocolate and lactose flavor
M-A medium bodied decently carbonated beer
O-A good Milk Stout

 

Good Morning NBS hope everyone had a good week. Only worked 2 days and it was dead and boring. Thanks to @woodychandler for filling in on the thread work for this week. I've just been playing video games all week and before that. Put in over 80 hours in 2 weeks prior. Got a new controller from Amazon, and been using it to play side scroller Nintendo SNES/64 games. Some stuff on steam too, but shooters are still mouse/keyboard. I bought the Resident Evil 2 remake and RE7 last week. So quite a bit of time there. Had some BK breakfast this morning after playing for 4 hours.


Rest of the NBS BIF beers this week. Boundary Bay Cedar Dust IPA. Awesome. Lasting head retention/thick foamy lacing. Aromas and flavors of big red grapefruit, tangerine, lemon, peach, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, guava, blueberry, citrus peel/rind, wood, mint, peppercorn, pine, cracker, toasted biscuit, light caramel/nutty, and herbal/floral/grassy hop earthiness. Light-moderate pine, citrus peel/rind, herbal, floral, woody, grassy, peppery bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation/body, and fairly crisp finishing. Balanced creamy/bready/grainy malts, and sticky/resinous/rindy hops in the mouthfeel. Light-moderate increasing dryness from lingering bitterness. Smooth, not overly aggressive. Feels like Columbus, Mosaic, Simcoe, Centennial, and Chinook. Extremely juicy, vibrant, dank, and earthy hops; with a nice solid bready malt backbone. Minimal residual sweetness with crisp resin dryness. Spot on west coast style. 4.13


Cheers

 

Thought this was apropos.

 

Setting the bar real high today which is probably a mistake but this can of Jjjuliuss was SCREAMING at me to drink it. I may have a problem.
4.71/5 rDev +0.6%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.75

Pours a murky gold color with a well retained one inch fluffy white head that left ample blotchy lacing. Smells of sweet citrus, tropical fruits, a bit of earthiness and some malt. Tastes of grapefruit, clementine, orange peel, mango, papaya, pineapple, sweet malt presence, a hint of pine and grass. Medium bodied, light side of medium carbonation, creamy mouth feel, low bitterness. Such a easy drinking beer, incredible.

 

Good morning NBS
12th and final day of the Christmas season...

The review:
12oz bottled 10/22/19 poured into a becher glass at fridge temp 7.4% ABV. The beer pours bright ruby tinted amber in color with sticky light khaki colored head. The head recedes to a thin ring and leaves a little lacing. The aroma is mild, yet spicy, with cinnamon and ginger showing up first, followed by honey and malt. The taste follows the nose with gingery spice up front and the honey and malt showing up mid palate, but always dried & countered by the spices. Minimal bitterness as the taste after swallowing is just a gentle ramp down of the initial flavors. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with just less than medium carbonation and a dry (spice) finish. Overall, very good. This beer really highlights the ginger, but not in an overpowering way. Very festive, but I prefer a touch of malt complexity as well.

I've avoided winter warmers as a style in the past and had only reviewed two out of a thousand reviews headed into this Christmas season. I've managed 10 more over the past month and have developed a real sense of what I like. Malt first, then hop spice, with added spice coming in behind. They are rather festive as a group and I can see non-beer drinkers taking to them as well.

Thanks for stepping in with the opening remarks @woodychandler. Fine job. I hope you don't plan to finish all the beers I sent in one day. You would, most certainly, find yourself below deck. Cheers all and enjoy the new beer in your glass!

 

A new beer from an old friend

A few weeks ago I was in my local Retail Beer Distributor looking for a new beer from DuClaw Brewing: Spruce Willis Yippee Ki-Yay Mother #^@%*&. I was interested in this beer for two reasons:

· I am a fan of beers brewed using Spruce tips

· I am also a Die Hard fan and that Yippee Ki-Yay line is a classic!

But it was not to be. There were some DuClaw beers on the shelf but not this brand.

But during my search I saw a number of cans from Stillwater and I thought to myself: When was the last time I had a Stillwater beer? The answer is: a very long time ago. And I saw a new brand from Stillwater of World Famous Pilsner. It was in my non-preferred format of 4-pack/16 ounce cans but I figured since it was such a long time since I had a Stillwater beer, what the heck – let’s splurge.

For those of you unfamiliar with Stillwater it is what is known euphemistically as a gypsy brewery – the brewer is Brian Strumke and he essentially ‘rents’ a brewery to produce his beers.

What could be better than a “World Famous” Pilsner?

Served in my Firestone Walker Pivo Pils glass:

Appearance:

Straw colored with a fluffy white head.

Aroma:

A notable amount of Pilsner Malt aroma with a hint of herbal/spicy hop aroma and just a tiny whiff of lemon.

Taste:

The flavor very much follows the nose. The Pilsner Malt flavor is notable along with hop flavors of herbal/spicy and some lemon in the background. A firm bitterness.

Mouthfeel:

Medium bodied with a very pleasant crisp, dry finish

Overall:

I think this beer is very good. I would categorize this as being a German Pilsner style beer.

Kudos to Brian for ‘taking the plunge’ to brew a Pilsner!

@rotsaruch @RobH @KOP_Beer_OUtlet @Ranbot

 

A-Pours a dark color with a slight head and lacing
A-Aroma has nice Bulleit Bourbon, roast malt, chocolate and dark fruity hints
T-The taste follows the nose with a nicely balanced Bulleit Bourbon, roast malt, chocolate and dark fruity flavor
M-A medium bodied decently carbonated beer
O-A good English Old Ale

 

Good morning NBS and thanks @woodychandler for the raucus kick off today.
This offering was mentioned in a recent article about Baltic Porters, Oo is a big and complex
porter for certain. The lingering sweet cocoa, and hints of coffee are just endless. In a good way
Cheers all
Öö

Põhjala Brewery
Baltic Porter | 10.5% ABV

4.19/5 rDev +1.5% | Average: 4.13
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

Poured from a 33 cl bottle dated 27/03/19 into the test glass
A - Soot colored backdrop, fine carbonation feeds a mocha colored cap. A ring of mocha clings to the glass wall during the entire experience.
S - Blackberry jam, cocoa, burnt caramel, light roast coffee, all wrapped in a slight woodfire
T - Roast malts, bakers chocolate, a bit of tobacco, more blackberrie, Vietnamese coffee, with an ashy touch
M - Hefty on the palate, sweet and sticky, then waves of ashen cocoa ride through, not enough to swing to the bitter side, but trying really hard. Linger is semi sweet and rich, like flourless chocolate cake.
O - A very good Baltic porter, rich and jammy on the palate, with aromatics and the flavors in a tense stand off. Worth the effort to try