New Beer Sunday (Week 785)

If the overlords don't mind, I was the first to review both of these.

Black Raven (Redmond, Wa) Nothing but Hazy





Pint can poured in to a nonic glass. Canned on 02/15/20

Look- Hazy golden amber color, nice bright white head that slowly recedes to a small cap of foam, ample sticky lacing. Light carbonation streaming as it sits. 4.25

Smell- Citrus (orange/tangerine, grapefruit and lemon/lime), pineapple and mango, peach/nectarine, a bit of melon, bready malt, slight pine and white pepper, spicy/earthy notes. 4

Taste- Citrus, pineapple, stone fruit and melon, tropical fruit, bready malt, light pepper and pine.
3.75
Feel- Medium bodied, fairly crisp with a slight lingering bitterness, well balanced. Moderate carbonation on the tongue. 4

O- Another solid offering from the guys at Black Raven. Worth checking out. 4

 

Poured into a 16 oz Nordic pint glass canned on 12/18/19. Pours a very attractive slightly hazy yellow orange with a half finger sticky white head that leaves thin webs of lace after each sip. 4.24

Smell I am not sure why but most hoppy beers from this place gives me a orange Starburst aroma and it is really nice, melon, guava, pineapple, and apricot. 4.5 and if this beer was inside a month it would probably would have scored higher.

Taste follows orange Starburst, guava, pineapple, melon, and apricot juicy and really tasty. 4.5

Mouthfeel is above medium, really soft maybe a little less carbonation than I prefer, sticky not dry, and at 8.3% crazy drinkable. 4.25

Overall another excellent NEIPA from this place. They are 3 for 3 with excellent beers. This one was from a FB trade and pretty darn impressed. 4.25 cheers all.

 

Black Hog Brewing (Oxford, Ct) Hazy Ale



Pint can poured in to a nonic glass. Dated 02/11/20

Look- Hazy, almost murky, golden straw color, nice bright white head that slowly recedes to a small cap of foam, ample sticky lacing. Light carbonation streaming as it sits. 4.25

Smell- Citrus (orange/tangerine, grapefruit and lemon/lime) heavy tropical fruits (pineapple and mango), stone fruit (peach/apricot), a bit of melon, biscuit malt, slight pine and floral/herbal notes. 4.25

Taste- Big citrus, pineapple, juicy stone fruit and melon, tropical fruit, light malt, minimal pine evident. 4.25

Feel- Medium bodied, on the sweeter and softer side with a very light bitter finish, well balanced. Moderate/light carbonation on the tongue. 4.5

O- A wonderful IPA, the lower ABV makes it really easy drinking too. A definite must try. 4.25

 

Good morning NBS, hope everyone is enjoying the end of the weekend one again. I bought a new Ibanez RG852 on Friday. Need to go back and get a power supply for some stomp boxes, I want a delay pedal. I got an MXR noise gate and footswitches to control the gain, reverb, and boost on the Ibanez amp. All working well despite not being native equipment. EMG 808s are great on high gain and clean with shredding and stuff. I want to buy a PRS SE 6 string to add to my collection next. Probably going to get the Mikael Akerfeldt signature because its my favorite band and all.


Zipline Mocha Stout. Awesome. Lasting head retention/soapy lacing. Aromas and flavors of big milk/dark chocolate, cocoa, nutty medium roast coffee, caramel, brown sugar, vanilla, cream, fudge, toffee, roasted nuts, toasted biscuit, and dark/brown bread/crust; with lighter notes of dark fruit, citrus peel/zest, pine, herbal, floral, grass, and yeast earthiness. Light-moderate pine, zesty, herbal, floral, grassy, roast/charred bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation and medium-full body; very creamy, silky, and fairly sticky/chalky mouthfeel. Minimal warming 8.5%. Great balance of rich malts and fruity/nutty coffee complexity. A tad more bitter than expected. Nice dessert offering. 4.1


Cheers

 

Good day, New BSers! Welcome to another sunday morning/afternoon/evening/night (depending on your time zone) to the spot to review New (To you) Beers. Please add your reviews to the beers' sites as well as posting them here.

Well, Mrs. Lizard and I just returned via Southwest from San Antonio where I tried less beers than usual. My brother's local Spec's has drastically reduced their beer inventory so they only sold me four brews, two of which I'd already had. That means my beer expenditure there was more like $ 40 than the usual $300+, and I only brought one bottle home. Even my trips to 5 Stones were disappointing - no fresh fruit IPAs came out during this visit although I did manage to get a mild sunburn. Ah well, the only constant is change.

Today's New Breakfast Beer is:



Received from @r0rschach in a post-BIF ninja strike. Thanks John! Reviewed 3/8/20.
Undated 16 oz can. Stored at home at 42 degrees and served at 60 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter.
Appearance – 3.
First pour – Dark brown, clear.
Body – Dark brown/black, opaque. When held to direct light, the same.
Head – Small (Maximum two cm, aggressive center pour), dark khaki, fizzy with rocks, short retention, leaving a 0.5 mm ring of bubbles.
Lacing – None. As expected for the ABV.
Aroma – 3.5 – Heavy aroma of roasted malt. No coffee, no coconut, no hops.
Flavor – 4 – Begins with the deliciousness of roasted malt – able to detect neither coffee nor coconut. Marshmallow cannot be tasted but seems present in the body smoothness and the sticky drops which fell on my fingers. No alcohol (12.6% ABV as marked on the label) taste or aroma, although a significant gastric burn occurs which passes as the receptors overload. Some light coffee appears on the aftertaste. No diacetyl, no dimethylsulfide.
Palate – 3 – Full bodied, almost creamy, soft carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 3.75 (Lost 0.25 point for being in an undated container) Typical appearance for an American Impy stout. Aroma is enticing. Flavor is good, relying on roasted malt rather than the additives. The detectable additives do their job, enhancing the flavor of the malt rather than overwhelming it. The coffee finish is reasonable if somewhat unexpected. This is a brew I would purchase if it ever rolls around again.
Rating 3.67, rDev -7.6%.

 

Thank you to @cjgiant & @lordofthewiens
I always enjoyed the personable openings to get the thread going.

& thanks to others like @cavedave & those that came before and anybody who kept this tradition alive.

Sorry for not having a beer in this post, it will prolly get deleted....

 

Hello everyone,been a long day already for me so starting with St Bernardus wit
...I have to ask, what was SO wrong with NBS that we need to change it . Perhaps I'm not bright enough to see the offense's that took place but it seemed like everyone was enjoying it as it was
...cloudy gold orange
...light carbonation with about a medium body. Has that thickish grain feel that coats the tongue
.. aroma isn't overpowering until it warms a bit orangepeel and fruit, grain,. Green apples and apple candy.
...orange and lemon zest, earthy bitterness, sour unsweet green apples. Flavors come across in layers if that makes any sense,keeps it interesting and complex
...at first I wasn't blown away but as it warmed it became more rich and complex
.

 

I grabbed this at Aldi just because I rarely hear of the beers they stock for better or worse & it was a chance to try something new



It appears to be brewed by an operation in Wisconsin that does contract brews almost exclusively and just underwent a major expansion.

Overall nothing to write home about but not bad at all. Malt, some citrus and a hint of herbs as both its primary aromas and flavors. Light bodied and slightly bitter. Not as complex as the boldest session pale ale I’ve had but pleasant to drink overall; I could see myself getting this again and going through several by the pool come summer.
Cheers!

 

I've only started posting in this thread in the last couple of weeks so my opinion may not count for much, but I agree with some of the others about the change in direction for this thread. I really enjoyed the welcoming and personal nature of the thread. I felt like I was getting to know the participants as well as learning about new beers. The ongoing discourse was fun and informative. I enjoyed reading it so much that I joined the currently ongoing NBS BIF, and have been loving my time there. These new rules make this thread feel cold and regimented now. I guess the conversations will be stunted, and that's just disappointing. If the point of the new rules is to encourage new participation I have to say I just don't get it. I was very excited to open this thread this morning, and my heart sorta sank when I read the opening post. Anyway, just my $0.02. I'd have much rather talked about how I got this as part of a ninja box in the recent Rookie BIF, and how much it represented to me how great the community here is. I hope this thread can hold onto some of its personality. Here's my review:

Tree House - Triple Shot House Blend



4.43/5 rDev +0.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Look - Poured into a teku, thicker than your average stout. Nice tan head with bubbles of varying thickness.

Smell - Coffee aroma with underlying chocolate notes, roasty malt goodness. Not very boozy on the nose.

Taste - This beer had the perfect balance of coffee and stout. There was some sweetness without being cloying. The chocolate notes were rich but lingered in the background. Very little alcohol taste perceptible to me.

Feel - It felt very nice on the palate. The thickness gave it a velvety mouthfeel, but it didn't coat my mouth in the way that some stouts can.

Overall - Great stout with big yet balanced flavor. Very drinkable for it's abv. I could make this my go-to coffee stout if I had regular access to it. Highly enjoyable.

 

Von trapp keller lager
...here's my review, and nothing but my review..no opinion or personal thoughts. Do I sound snarky?
...medium carbonation with a just below average body producing a slightly thin feel....gold orange appearance is gold orange
...aroma is grapefruit seed,peel,fruit,mild pine,lemon,malt, some bread in the background
..taste is citrus, pine,, mild bitterness that lingers and eventually dominates the flavor
...overall it was ok but I found myself really not enjoying it. Like it has an identity crisis,started as a lager and thought it wanted to become an ipa

 

Two new to me after midnight beers and full disclosure, I went in a little biased thinking that I would not enjoy the Victory beer but would enjoy Stone's:

Victory Easy Ringer Lo-Cal IPA
4.3%, 25 IBU
96 calories, 3g carbs, 0g fat, 1g protein
Malt: 2-row pale, carapils
Hops: Strata, Citra, Cascade
Additions: flaked oats, wheat
Comes in a can and this one had a EB date of 07/07/20
https://victorybeer.com/beers/easy-ringer/

I really enjoyed this beer! Only slightly hazy with a bright fruity smell, a slight hint of something odd that I couldn't quite place but not enough to bother me really. Tasted very crisp and clean and the lacing stayed all the way until the end, will gladly drink this one again.

Stone Neverending Haze IPA
4%, in a can, canned 01/28/20 and EB 05/27/20
https://www.stonebrewing.com/beer/stone-seasonals/stone-neverending-haze-ipa

I absolutely hated this beer, so much so that I could only finish half of it. Pours much darker than expected and had an odd nose of fruit and onion/garlic, tasted just like that and too many flavors clashing for me and it ended horribly on my palate. I see on their website that this is a part of the pilot series and I can't imagine this beer selling well in the long run but who knows. I am looking forward to their other pilot beer, though, whenever that may be available to me, Buenaveza Salt & Lime Lager and the packaging is really cool:

https://www.stonebrewing.com/beer/pilot-series/stone-buenaveza-salt-lime-lager

 

Yorkshire stingo 1758
..cloudy dark amber
..light carbonation with an above average body.
..aroma is malt,brown sugar, dark fruit heavy on the plum,prune bread
..taste is plum, prune bread, yeasty doughy bread with some earthy wood
... really well made delicious beer. Not a knock a few back type,more sip and savor or pair with a rich meal or dessert

 

A-Pours a hazy light amber golden color with a nice head and lacing, and lots of floaties
A-Aroma has wheat malt and pepper hints
T-The taste follows the nose with a wheat malt and pepper flavors
M-A light bodied well carbonated beer
O-A well done Belgian Witbier