New Beer Sunday (Week 782)

What a great topic! While it may be past midnight it's still Saturday night here on the east coast (at least for drinking beer) but I look forward to this thread tomorrow. I bet there will be many great dog photos. Cheers!

 

Here's a reminder about NBS BIF #11:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/nbs-bif-11-sign-up-thread.633616/


I'm a big dog person, but I don't have one right now. But, I am a semi-pro dog walker and house sitter, so I get plenty of dog time. Plus, a lot of the breweries around here are dig friendly, so I chat up the doggers whilst having a few pints.

 

After last weeks thread with some input from past hosts, we learned that NBS was started in mid-February fifteen (15) years ago. With that information I think it’s worth treating this “closest Sunday to mid-February” as an anniversary celebration.

Fifteen years! To all who have participated over that span of time, thank you! To those of you who want to join us regulars in the push to twenty years, today is a good time to start.

Cheers all!

 

Awesome start Doc @lordofthewiens, we used to have a white Shepard named Demon growing up. Also Jill is stunning, even in a Bernie shirt. Poured into a 16 oz Snulip glass not sure when it was canned. Pours a very hazy and dark orange with a half finger sticky off white head, that leaves thin wisps of lace, with excellent retention. 4.5

Smell huge ripe melon, guava, tangerine, pineapple, apricot, and a little hint of alcohol. 4.5

Taste follows melon, guava, tangerine, pineapple, apricot, and a little bit of booze on the back end, but at 13% just a little. 4.5

Mouthfeel is big, gentle carbonation, a tad sticky but not really dry, and at 13% goes down way to easy. 4.5

Overall this is another gem from Trillium, kind of a great brewery showing off when you brew a beer this good and it is 13% and crazy approachable. Thanks Larry @tasterschoice for this can. 4.5

 

Those who have Monday off may choose to celebrate NBS’ 15th anniversary with either a new 15% beer or simply 15 new beers. (Will have to check the cellar before making my selection.)

 

Sorry, I have neither, but further down the line I'll join yinz.

 

Good day BAs! Another crisp day here in NW PA! In a little over a week, we're off to TX! I love Southwest Air - almost direct flights from PGH to SAT, with only short stops at either Austin or Houston, depending on the day of the week or my karma! All those sixers of Old Engine Oil sitting on the shelves at Spec's at De Zavala, those great fruit IPAs at 5 Stones, my brother's dogs waiting for their Uncle Biscotti to arrive with another shipment from Enrico's Biscotti in PGH ... Damn, I love TX!
However, until then, here's my entry into this week's NBS:



Received from @2beerdogs in NBS BIF 10 – Thanks Derek! Reviewed 2/16/20.
2016 Edition. Etched on the shoulder above the rear label “B#3501 9/8/16” above “09:31 000906”. Stored at home at 42 degrees and served at 55 degrees (as stated on the label) in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. Final temperature 60.9 degrees F.
Appearance – 3.
First pour – Medium brown, clear.
Body – Dark brown/black, opaque. When held to direct light, brown around the top edge.
Head – Average (Maximum two cm, aggressive center pour), tannish with large bubbles fizzing away, gone within a minute after the pour is completed, leaving thin complete ring of tiny bubbles, fed by aggressive effervescence.
Lacing – None, not unexpected at 20.3% ABV.
Aroma – 4 - Has an almost weak, watery dark fruit aroma with some weak wood and possibly bourbon in the background, but I must really horn it to pick up the bourbon.
Flavor – 4 – This begins somewhat sweet with weak flavors of “dark fruit’’ with raisins being weakly predominant and prunes trailing behind. Dates are weakly present. No alcohol (20.3% ABV as marked on label) aroma or flavor, but massive numbing of the tongue and soft palate occurs as it warms while being held in the mouth. No alcohol on the exhale, oddly enough. No diacetyl, no dimethylsulfide, no hops.
Palate – 4 – Medium, just short of syrupy, lively carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 4. Like the Chicxulub meteor, this burns all the way down my esophagus before striking my gastric mucosa, leaving a massive crater and wiping out all the helicobacter dinosaurs in my own, personal, mass extinction event. Otherwise, the flavors are subdued and blended to the point of making it difficult to separate individuals from the background salmagundi, providing a coherent and cogent synthesis of deep fruity flavors, sans wood or bourbon. Appearance is totally average: brown black, no head, but somehow looks less viscous than Old Engine Oil (of which I’ll soon be drinking sixers). Overall, a decent delivery system for high levels of alcohol. I capped the bottle while I can still make those decisions.
Rating 3.94, rDev -14.2%.

I've got to say, everything I've had so far from "The Bruery" or "Bruery Terreaux" has at least been at the minimum "good" or at the upper end "exceptional". To @2beerdogs, you've sent many good to great beers to me over the years! When I get back to the Anaheim area, drinks are on me for the first month or so!

 

If I down 15 beers on a Sunday, I'll be dead on Monday! Unless they're some mass-produced AAL, then I'll be bright eyed and bushy-tailed.

 

Thanx for starting the post off that way. We got our pug, Ace, from a shelter in 2008. We had to put him down last October. My wife and i have never shed more tears in our lives. I think you can tell a lot about a person in how they treat their pets. Going to enjoy some Toppling Goliath Sun Reaper later while smoking some chicken thighs. Cheers!

 

When you start with 19 - 20%ers, fifteen beers does seem a little excessive.

 

When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall

But the “bough” reference today is in the context of Boughs of Barley whereby Cape May Brewing Co. markets a series of barrel aged beers:

“I love variants,” says Head Brewer Brian Hink, “and with big, barrel-aged beers, that’s a really fun playground to be in, but when we first started talking about doing Boughs of Barley I didn’t want to just do the standard vanilla, coconut, coffee, etc. variants, but instead let the barrel act as an ingredient and be the variant itself.”

So, for today’s beer we have an interesting combination of a Port Wine Barrel for aging a Baltic Porter. Has this ever been done before? Beats me.

Below is how Cape May describes this beer on their website:

“2019: Port

Porter - Baltic

ABV: 10.5%

IBU: 16

SRM: 42

A rich and silky smooth Baltic Porter, carefully fermented with our house lager yeast, we’ve created a delectable brew for your holiday season. We cold conditioned this brew for a month before we laid it to rest in freshly-emptied port wine barrels, bringing forth a well-rounded body with strong aromas of the port barrels’ presence on the nose. A hint of acidity creeps in to add a depth of balance, Port Barrel-Aged Boughs of Barley is our holiday treat for you.”

Well, I am salivating just reading that description.

I will be sharing this bottle with my wife

Served in two small-ish Duvel tulip glasses:

Appearance:

Black in color with a big khaki colored head.

Aroma:

The most prominent aroma here is cocoa but there is a coffee aspect in the background.

Taste:

Flavor follows the nose with cocoa and some coffee but there is more here: some dark fruit flavors and a tangy aspect. There is a light bitterness.

Mouthfeel:

A creamy texture which contrasts a bit with the tangy (acidic) taste. Moderate carbonation. An off-dry finish.

Overall:

I think this beer is very good. It has a lot of complex qualities which work together very well for my palate.

This beer is very well made! There is no perceptible booziness which is a feat given the fact this beer clocks at 10.5% ABV.

Cheers to the folks of Cape May Brewing for producing an intriguing beer – Port Wine barrel aged Baltic Porter!

@KOP_Beer_OUtlet @rotsaruch @brianhink @RobH @CapeMayBrewCo

 

Cheers!

 

Apparently I'm in an anniversary mood. For today's breakfast beer(s), I decided to go with Firestone Walker, and their anniversary blend from late last year - XXIII, their 23rd anniversary beer. They've been at it a bit longer than this thread (although I think the anniversary series started around this thread's inception).

Since I happened to have it in the cellar fridge, I am going to compare today's NBS beer against FW's XXI from a couple years ago. The blends are different enough (including some tequila barrel age beer in the XXI from 2017) that a direct comparison isn't going to reveal much other than which I might like better.


The XXI is a bit lighter in body color, but Stickee Monkee and Bravo making up more of the blend might explain the more brown nature of it. The XXIII has stouts up front - 60% being Velvet Merkin and Paraobla. XXIII is not completely black, and has some light at the edges sneaking through the large bubbles that have collected around the outer surface of the beer. As I sipped, I actually noted the beer was quite clear (the XXI was a bit murky, but I think some sediment had collected in the bottom over time).

The nose of XXI has a molasses-like sweetness and a note of spice including the scents of the spirits from the barrels. The XXIII has a bit more roasted malt notes, some dark chocolate, and lighter barrel aspects that yield a light aroma of root cola.

The XXI does have a more toasty flavor profile, with aspects of brown ale and quad. It also has an earthy aspect I didn't expect. The barrels, and even the tequila specifically, are noticeable. The XXIII starts with spiced chocolate cake notes, some dark toast, and hints of cola. The barrel aspects are weaved into these flavors a bit more deftly than the XXI.

Unsurprisingly, the XXIII is a bit more lively in the carbonation department. The XXI comes as a bit smoother in body because of this, though the more noticeable barrel bite evens things out a bit.

In my initial sips, I was enjoying the XXIII better. I think as they sit today it is a slightly better designed beer, although it is impossible to bend time and try the 2017 beer fresh aside this year's. There's only the slightest amount of oxidation in XXI, and it actually added an interesting aspect to the beer that gained some depth of flavor as it warmed. The XXII gained some chocolate and marshmallow notes as it warmed.

As expected, these beers don't compare well on individual characteristics. Both are enjoyable, and while I wish I had one more XXI (actually, a friend I do verticals with might have one ), I am also happy to have another bottle of XXIII.

Post script: the GF liked them both, but indicated the 2017 XXI was slightly more enjoyable.

 

Hello New Beer Sunday!!!

Happy anniversary to New Beer Sunday.

I don't own a dog, mainly because I don't have the time or space to give a special pooch a good life. Growing up I did have a dog. She was a very cute, and fun Westie. That dog would bark her head off when you came to the door, but as soon as you got in, she'd lick you to death. She was just a fun companion, and 17 years after her passing, I still miss her whenever I go visit my mom.

Now on to the main topic: New Beer!
And since it's a special NBS, a special new beer is in order:

Wild Mind Artisan Ales - Festival of Oak 2019. This beer comes in at 5.6% ABV.

As the name of the place implies - this is a wild ale. I've never had Dragon fruit before, but to me, it has a cherry taste. The pineapple is more subtle, but also very much in the mix. This ale is damn tasty, and I'm so glad I got it, and now, finally drinking it. Highly recommended.

Review:

4.47/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

2019 version.
This pours a beautiful red color. Tons of carbonation bubbles rising in the glass. 2 finger white/red head, that really lingers a long time. Very tiny bubbles. Very frothy. Some lacing on the glass.
The nose hit me as I popped the cork. It was wild and funky. Up close it's really nice and wild and funky, and tart. Floral. Just smells amazing.
Taste - This is damn interesting. There's so much here. It isn't as wild and funky as the nose let on. That being said, it still is wild and funky tasting. There's a bit of tartness. There's a bit of sweetness, but on the back side. Some fruitness to this beer - It's made with dragonfruit. To me it tastes like cherries, but I also have never had dragonfruit before, so I don't know what to expect. There's also a hint of pineapple in this beer, that it was also made with.
This beer has a lot of carbonation, and the bubbles tingle my throat. The tartness lingers in my throat. Decent body for the ABV.
If you like this style of beer, and I do, you will not go wrong at all with it.


I'll be back later for at least one more new beer.

 

Hank is a good looking young fellow. He looks like a snow dog. Maybe you can send him to Bowdoin after high school!

 

Thanks @lordofthewiens for the great start to this weeks NBS. Will be back with a new brew or two.

Cheers!