New Beer Sunday (Week 779)

Hello New Beer Sunday!!!

With some friends right now hitting up new breweries. We're at 56 Brewing in Minneapolis at the moment. I'm not doing a formal review of it, but I am having their Snow Drops IPA.
https://m.imgur.com/gallery/fAPrkeA
Soft, creamy. Solid citrus hop flavors that are right for the style. Damn tasty, and recommended.

I'll wait to do a formal review of a new beer when I get home.

Cheers.

 

Best thing can say is I have no prejudices no expectations, I’ve literally have no exposure to there’s beers. So I’d guess my thoughts are in the moment.. as it should be I suppose.

 

A-Pours a hazy yellowish golden color with a nice head and lacing
A-Aroma has hop, citrus, tropical and grapefruit hints
T-The taste follows the nose with a well balanced hop, citrus, tropical and grapefruit flavor
M-A medium bodied decently carbonated beer
O-A good India Pale Ale

 

Bell's Vanilla Black Note Stout, 11.5% ABV. Pours black with a half-finger brown head that left no lacing. Nose is bourbon, chocolate, and vanilla. Taste is bourbon, vanilla, some sweetness, slight bitterness. Not much bourbon heat. Excellent mouthfeel, overall outstanding. I like this much better than regular Black Note.

4.46/5 rDev +0.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

I found regular Black Note too bitter for my taste, but I'm liking this. We have vegetable beef soup/stew in the crock. It's in the balmy mid-30's so we grilled burgers for lunch.

 

Good afternoon NBS and Happy Anniversary to your parents @cjgiant. Thanks the start today and the reminder that there are important things to both celebrate and to share before its too late.
Today was getting out around Mt Tom day. I have been all over this mountain during my years here, and today found a new to me area that was just lovely.
Home now waiting for the safe arrival of #1 son from overseas, we are excited to see him,
Todays offering is a Porter from Estonia, straight up and delish.
Cheers all
Õhtu

Põhjala Brewery
American Porter | 5.5% ABV

4.08/5 rDev +0.7% | Average: 4.05
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Poured from a 12 oz bottle dated 22042019. at Fridge temp.
A - Coal colored back drop. Gently carbonated, yielding a thin off white cap
S - Some char, spicy rye, bakers chocolate, balckberry, ( English/irish ale yeast maybe) add in some tobacco notes and you have a really nice porter.
T - As complex as the nose, with toffee, black pepper and the slightest hint of Anise
M - A bit hin, well carbonated, starts sweet, cocoa dryness is the next step, then a wave of bitter moves the needle back. Linger is bakers chocolate and dry
O - A very good porter, the rye adds a nice spice thread. Well executed offering

 

Omnipollo Cleo


Pours a hazy yellow with a small, stable head.


Smell is of flowery citrus, orange rind and unripe, zingy passion fruit. While the nose is certainly focussed on exotic fruits, it leaves enough room for some classic old school lime punch.


Drinks light with a solid, metallic carbonation, keeping this quite refreshing.


Tastes of bread dough, bitter lemon pulp and equally well pronounced, luscious oranges. Turns a bit breadier then, together with some toffee malts cutting through and even more limes. Finishes with exotic fruits, very well pronounced lime and white bread dough, producing a bitter aftertaste, which stays on the palate for quite some time.


This is quite solid with a nice bitterness adding to the obligatory fruit basket. The mouthfeel in this is a little light though, featuring a mineralic note, which does not fit the bill.

 

I'm a fan of the stars; particularly astronomy, cosmology and particle physics as it relates to the early universe. I'm really excited about the upcoming deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope, which will let us see extremely well in the infrared and is bound to unlock more hidden secrets of the universe.



https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/about/index.html

Speaking of hidden secrets, I'm contemplating whether entropy can be reversed while sipping on this fine brew.

Hidden River Brewing - Devil Level (8.0% DIPA) - my overall rating = 4.19



Had this near Pittsburgh, PA from a 16oz canned on 2019-12-19

A - Hazy golden-straw with a 2.5-finger white head that drops quickly leaving moderate lace.

S - Papaya, pineapple, cement, grassy and herbal spice. Can smell it from 2' away when opening can. Very nice.

T - Bread crust, pineapple, peach, orange candy, light pine, grass/herbal. Mild bitterness for a DIPA. Finishes citrus candy sweet but nowhere close to cloying and then dries nicely.

M - Medium+ body and light-medium carbonation. Smooth and lightly resinous.

O - A very well-balanced beer. Dangerously easy to drink. Good stuff.

 

New Beers from Surly

I am on late shift this weekend, so I enjoyed these newbies early this morning.

Surly Hell


Poured with a nice large head of foam, with a slight haze but otherwise light straw appearance. Aroma gives of some bitter but bright hop note that is rather lemon-like with very little malt. The flavor does bring a bigger malt presence, but not by much; only a slight crackery note. It finishes rather bitter, but drying and refreshing. Went well with dinner.

Surly Axe Man


Poured with a stereotypical IPA orange. Or at least what used to be stereotypical for IPAs. Aroma reminds me of Two Hearted and Jai Also: sweet malt with mixed nondescript fruit. Flavor follows the nose. This is a very good classic IPA. It is 3mos old, and I can tell it might have had more pop at some point. Great balanced bitterness and surprisingly clean on the finish. It is good, but the lack of finish made it a little lackluster.

Surly Darkness


Poured with a nice head of foam for 12%. Pitch black as expected. The aroma was a little surprising. Very molasses/licorice dominant. Not citrus or pine, but you can tell the hops play a role in the complexity. Only a touch of roast, and very little chocolate or dark fruit. The flavor brings a little more fruit richness, but the licorice/molasses note still leads the parade. It reminds me of Bell's Expedition. And for me, that is a very good thing. Glad I grabbed one to cellar (I also have a 2014 I traded for) as it seems like a candidate for aging. The only downside is the price tag @ $20.

 

I'm a big fan of Surly. We can finally get Surly Furious and Axe Man in Pittsburgh. Sure wish we could get Surly Hell. That's a fine beer too. I seek it out when on business in the Midwest.

 

Sounds fun. Left Hand's Milk Stout is a good beer, and I'm surprised this isn't Nitro, but I'm also kinda happy it isn't. I've long been a bigger fan of regular LH Milk Stout. Nitro just really homogenizes the complex mouthfeel a lot of flavorful stouts have. Now, the best peanut butter milk stout I've had in the NE market is Gunner's Daughter, let's hope this is on a similar level (though I honestly doubt it).

Pours a black liquid with very little head formation. No lace, no legs. What the...? Huh... that's... definitely odd. Not a great looking beer.

The nose is heady peanut butter (really, really forward w/ the roasted peanut element; at least it's authentic...?) and dark chocolate, with some light notes of dark fruit, leather, and molasses. Well, this is actually kinda intriguing. I was not expecting it to smell this good. There's a surprising amount going on, with a really nice savory peanut element. Almost a bit of soy sauce, as well. Huh.

On the palate, this is fully-carbonated and decently well-built, with strong and forward flavors of roasty malt and dark pit fruit. The mid-palate is roasted peanuts, cocoa powder, and a bit of lactose lending a smoother feel than it would have without such an ingredient, but it's definitely not a nitro beer. Some light molasses and treacle... I dunno, something about this isn't great. It's oddly dark fruity, which is distracting.

 

New American Wild Ale Sunday

Happy NBS everyone! Only one new beer for me today, it was a very good local one in Wolf's Ridge Westward Expansion:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/33530/462325/?ba=bluejacket74#review







Another great brew from one of Columbus' best breweries, cheers!

 

Poured into a 13 oz tulip glass. Pours a hazy orange with a massive 2 finger head that leaves big thick streaks of lace as it slowly settles. 4.25

Smell is pineapple, tangerine, cantaloupe, and apricot. 4

Taste follows loads of ripe melon, tangerine, pineapple, and apricot the warmer it gets the more the melon comes out. 4

Mouthfeel is bigger than average, sticky not dry, soft gentle carbonation, and not sure how much the ABV is but assuming 8% or more. 4.25

Overall this is really nice, but a tad sweet and I rarely say that, my palate is today. Thanks @tasterschoice62 for this can. 4

 

I'm on to another yummy beer. Yummy translates to Lekker in Dutch.

La Cabra Brewing - Lekker ( Pilsner 4.6% ABV) - my overall rating = 4.26



Had this near Pittsburgh, PA from a fresh 32oz crowler

A - Clear straw-gold with a 1-finger white head and light lace

S - Bread, honey, floral. Quite aromatic.

T - Lightly toasted homemade bread with pear jam. Perfect amount of noble spice and balancing bitterness. Delicious.

M - Medium-full body and medium carbonation. Substantial, smooth.

O - This is a very well-crafted German Pilsner. I'm very glad my son-in-law got this for me. It's on the other side of the state so I can't just drop in anytime.

 

I don't know why I have not had Imperial Stout Trooper from NEBCO before, what with living in CT my whole life and all, plus loving G-bot and Fuzzy Baby Ducks plus stouts in general. Oh well, let's make up for lost time.

4.09/5 rDev -3.3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Poured from a 12oz can that was bottom-stamped "PUT CAPTAIN SOLO IN THE CARGO HOLD 11/20/19" to my precious diagonally cut tumbler.
Black opaque body with a brown frothy head that fades to a ring within about two minutes.
Aroma is mild, sweetened dark chocolate, mild coffee.
Taste follows nose. Its a little sweeter than I like in a stout, but the coffee finish is nice. The 9.5% is not sensed until about 5-10 seconds after swallowing. Overall taste is notably better as it warms (obvious), but more so than some other stouts.
This is an oily stout (in a good way) with a firm body.
Overall, not bad, not super though. There's a lot of competition out there today for this style.

I don't think The Child has ever seen a storm trooper with Groucho glasses. Either that or he's still remembering the trooper that punched him.

 

A new IPA from Mast Landing... must be another week

This one features Citra, Simcoe, Ella, and Mosaic. It clocks in at 6.5% ABV and was fermented with English ale yeast. Sounds like a recipe for a good NEIPA, for sure.

The pour is an opaque, chalky orange color with like three fingers of foamy bubbles building up really quickly. Awesome lace and alright legs with some decent surface coverage. This is probably one of the haziest IPAs I've seen from these guys, and the appearance is kinda 50/50 to me, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.

The nose is very forward with tropical fruit; mango, passion fruit, mango, and papaya with some leafy greenery coming forth here and there as well. No resin or citrus; this is just so damn tropical and juicy. The Ella hops do lend somewhat of a spice note; like mace or nutmeg, perhaps.

On the tongue, this is very yeasty and heavy-bodied with what is likely to be a lot of oats and/or wheat. Some key lime with the bitter piney spice and hefty tropical flavors coating the palate. Sorta crackery and slick in the mid-palate with some light cattiness. Wow, lots going on here. Intense resin and papaya with strong ripe mango tropical-ness. Enjoyable stuff. Super smooth with a pretty bitter and long-lasting finish. The hop combo works well and doesn't feel distracted or off by any means. Ella is definitely the odd-one-out, but it does bolster the other hops handily. I'd definitely drink this again!

 

The second new beer pour, just picked IV and V of the seven part Leaves of Grass series by Bell's. These aren't broadly distributed, but if you get a chance and can find fresh beers it's worth picking up if you like the particular style.

This beer was bottled 11/13/19 and poured into a chalice.

Appearance: Black pour with a creamy tan head leaves generous lacing. 4.0
Aroma: Pleasant smokey malt aroma, balanced by milk chocolate bold. 4.25
Taste: Smokey malt dominant, light chocolate backing. Dry. 4.0
Mouthfeel: Dry, minimal carbonation lingers, lightly bitter. Smoky dryness lingers post pour. 3.75
Overall: Unique offering, I like the taste of smoked malt and appreciated this pour, glad the chocolate remained in the background. 4.0

If you are a fan of smoked malts, this is a beer for you. I would suggest you pass if you are not, as this beer tastes as advertised. V in the series is in the refrigerator, will likely have a go at this one next Sunday.

Happy beer hunting!

 

Poured into a 13 oz Teku glass canned on 11/18/19 it looks like. Pours a very attractive hazy orange with a 2 plus finger sticky white head that leaves thin streaks of lace with solid retention. 4.25



Smell cherry blossom, passion fruit, vanilla, and apricot actually very surprised how much I am digging it. 4.25



Taste follows black cherries, passion fruit, vanilla, papaya, and apricot not crazy sour and I am really digging it. 4.5



Mouthfeel is bigger than average, really gentle carbonation, a tad watery but it actually works well with this one, and at 7% really loaded with flavor. 4



Overall I was not sure about this one, but this was much more like a milkshake than a sour. Trillium Brewing Company I would drink one again for sure. 4.25

 

Untied Brewing in New Providence, NJ celebrated its first anniversary yesterday so I'm joining @dennis3951 in an NBS review of one of its bottled offerings. Untied is a well-capitalized new brewery and one of my early complaints was that they tried to do too much too soon. For example, it held its first can release less than four months after opening - before it really brewed anything worth canning IMHO. While the brewery has brewed some decent beer - it's Baltic Porter and Belgian Quads are quite good and its IPAs are improving, it's still hit and miss. In January the brewery's released numerous stouts in bottles. Decadent Darkness is an "Imperial Milk Stout" with peanut butter, cocoa nibs, and vanilla. It's 14% ABV. Unfortunately, there's far too much cola in the taste and far too little peanut butter. Bolero Snort just released a similar beer that is significantly better. Untied has lots of potential and I haven't given up on it. I just wish it would take the time to really perfect its recipes before releasing them. Here's my full review:

3.8/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 3.75

Reviewed two weeks after bottle release. Poured into a tulip glass. It pours a very dark cola with a quickly dissipating lite mocha-colored cap. On the nose there is roasted malt, peanuts, cola, cocoa, coffee, tobacco smoke, and some dark cherry. It opens with a taste something between peanut butter and Cherry Coke. It's quite sweet and a bit syrupy. As I swish it in my mouth I can taste the cocoa nibs and vanilla. There is also a touch of char and bitterness at the finish. For a Milk Stout it has a fairly thick and creamy mouth feel with a low level of carbonation. I'm not sure why it was brewed at 14% ABV. It's too big a Stout for casual drinking or to accompany a meal. It's utility is limited to a dessert sipper. If Untied brews Decadent Darkness again it could stand more peanut butter and less cola. Good examples of what to strive for are Mast Landing's Gunner's Daughter or, closer to home, Bolero Snort's 20th and Bull. I'd also like to see it in the 9 - 10% ABV range.

I hope you're all enjoying your new beer(s) today. Cheers, NBS!