New Beer Sunday (Week 787)

My wife and I are hunkered down and so far nobody is ill. I opened the pool this week, to the delight of my wife, but the heater isn't working and no one wants to swim in 60 degree water. I have plenty of beer, and most of my local breweries are offering curbside take-out service.
My new beer for today is one my wife picked out when I was restocking the fridge. She wanted a hazy pale ale, and that's what she got.
Aperture, from Ex Novo, 5.2% ABV.
Pale, hazy gold color. Small white head, a bit of lace.
Fruity aroma, some pine.
Taste of grapefruit, grapefruit rind, orange, a little melon. Some pine at the end.
Lighter-bodied.

 

Micheal, thanks for that tip!

We were in St. Pete for about 4 days and we made it to a half-dozen small, local breweries but unfortunately I personally knew nothing about Green Bench and I have zero recollection if either of our friends, Marilyn & Harry, made mention of this beer.

There seems to me quite a lot of small, local breweries in the area of St. Pete. At one of the breweries (Overflow Brewing if my memory serves me right) they handed our friends a booklet which lists all of the area breweries and if you visit 10 of the breweries (they stamp your booklet) you get a free T-shirt.

I am sure that there are high quality breweries in the area but with the possible exception of Seventh Sun (in Dunedin) the beers I had were just OK/good.

With your help here, hopefully our next visit will be 'better'.

Cheers!

 

Howdy NBSers
I finally decided to open this one
Poured from a bottle dated 9/5/18 14.9 avb

Poured into a spiegelau stout glass
Color is jet black and little or no head or lacing
Aroma is vanilla bean and faint alcohol, some roasted malt
Taste is a bit alcohol forward then the vanilla smooths it out a bit
Mouth feel is surprisingly prickly for the low carbonation, finishes up vanilla and sweet.
Overall to me it’s very tasty more of a dessert type stout. Strong vanilla presence up front alcohol ting in the middle and a sweet mellow finish

 

There many good search tools on this site you can use before you go. Check the Regional Forums and also Places especially if you stay in one area. If it's St Pete contact @DoctorZombies he lives there and is a prince of a fellow !

 

Thanks.

This was more of a social visit to get together with friends and we let them 'lead the way' for social reasons. Maybe next time (if we get re-invited) I will play a more proactive role here (or maybe not).

Cheers!

 

Good afternoon NBS, enjoying a nice lazy Sunday and starting with a nice coffee stout. Thank you @TimG_0913 for this tasty Tree House Triple Shot House Blend.

4.46/5 rDev +1.1%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Thank you TimG_0913 for this
500 ml bottle poured into teku

A- Black with a two finger mocha head.

S- Roasted coffee, chocolate, espresso, molasses, some caramel.

T- Roasted coffee, touch of cherries, chocolate, espresso, caramel malts, some molasses.

M- Smooth, medium to full body.

O- A really tasty coffee, well balanced and easy to drink.


Cheers!

 

I have some beer stock and some homebrew, but this is one of my last “new” beers (for awhile at least). I saved it for today and it is fantastic. Barrier Brewing’s Home D is a DIPA
This opaquely cloudy can pour with a 4 cm foam hosts a rich orange-soda and pineapple aroma.
The flavor is immense; pineapple, mango and and melon are most prominent. The hop bitterness is significant and there is a bit of hop burn.
The mouthfeel is very smooth.
This is superb. I wish I had two cases of it.

 

Spring comes in March here and we are having a few pleasant days in the 70's. I got out with four friends, all older than me to do a day long bike ride in Clarendon County SC. The organized bike tours I had on my calendar are all being canceled, so it looks like I will be spending the summer taking these DIY trips.

Resident Culture Second Coming
I have enough Heist and Resident Culture IPA'S for a few more weeks. This one was canned 3/3/20. It is billed as an NEIPA, 6.5 ABV, hopped with Stray, Sabro, and HBC 692.
Out of the can it has a lot of carbonation and a orangey golden haze.
There is a strong citrus aroma with oranges most prominent, then grapefruit, yeast, and some pine.
The flavors tend more towards grapefruit pith, lemon, white pepper, light floral, and celery.
Medium bodied with lasting carbonation, dry finish and a light yeast aftertaste.
I'll be drinking several of these.

 

I've never ordered a flight, either, and I don't try samples. I commit to the beer after always - ALWAYS - vetting the beer here first, or sometimes at Untappd if it's really new (they seem to load new beers faster).

 

Dude, someone slipped a wine cooler into that beer can.

 

Hunkered down, no beer runs for about 2 weeks now, but I still have some new-to-me beers thanks to that Advent box I "inherited" a few weeks ago (plus a couple in the cellar I'll likely get to one of these weeks.)

@Roguer selected the Weihenstephaner kellerbier, so I checked my remaining stock from the box. No kellerbier, but it does have the kellerbier's younger (according to brewing lore) companion, a zwickelbier.

Privatbrauerei H. Egerer Kress Bayrisch Zwickel
ABV: 5.4%



This is the first zwickel I've had. As I hinted, above, the style is historically a younger, darker kellerbier, with lower carbonation, so lets see...

A hazy dark amber. The haziness turns into a brownish look from the front with glints of amber catching the light, under a half inch off-white head that recedes fairly quickly to a thin cap, which is gone completely before the beer is half consumed. No lacing. A decent look for the style (according to what I've read).

Aroma has sweet fruits (apple, pear), bread, and caramel.

Refreshing taste, bright and lively, apple, bread, hints of caramel. It starts out with a tinge of sweetness, but becomes drier (but not actually dry) through the middle and into the finish. A bit of bitterness suddenly appears in the aftertaste, and lingers on the tongue. The aftertaste retains the overall sweet-ish finish.

Mouth feel is medium bodied with a bit of carbonation.

Overall, I really enjoyed this.

L: 3.75 | S: 3.75 | T: 4.0 | F: 3.5 | O: 3.75 | Rating: 3.83

 

Levante Bilberry Hill Blueberry Dessert Stout

Happy Sunday, BAs. I hope you and your loved ones are all healthy and safe in this challenging time.

Let me start with a nod to the former caretakers of this great thread. Thank you all for making this a great place of gathering and sharing. It means a lot to many people.

So... Today’s new beer is one I didn’t think I’d particularly care for. I bought it to send out in the NBS BIF from one of these breweries that delivers — but I was getting antsy and sent out my box before it arrived. Let’s see how it is.

Bilberry Hill pours a very murky, paintbrush-water brown that looks okay in the glass. It produced over three fingers of very slow-rising, sand-and-cinnamon-colored head made of tightly-packed tiny bubbles with a soupy lid up top. The head dissipates slowly and leaves thick, sloppy lacing.

It says to store cold — both on the can and in all the packing material notes — so this one is coming straight out of the fridge. My experience this week with dessert stouts from one of their nearby competitors exploding in my cellar has me taking that more seriously than I normally would.

Sniffed cold, cardamon is by far the dominate aroma. Maybe there’s some light breakfast coffee roast malt and a touch of blueberry beneath, but it’s really hard to pick up anything else at this temperature.

The creaminess is what jumps out first upon sipping, then another wallop of cardamom along with some cinnamon and vanilla. Some borderline chocolatey/roasty malt makes a brief appearance mid-palate a mild bitterness/roastiness for balance. There is a touch of blueberry in the finish, but it’s relatively restrained.

The feel is very full bodied and thicker than creamy. Whipped creamy maybe? It definitely has some next-level viscosity to it. Just a hint of carbonation manages to cut through to keep it lively.

The cardamom seems over the top at first, but is less shocking to the system as the pint progresses. The blueberry and vanilla do grow as it warms as well — although the cardamom is still front and center. The chewiness of the mouthfeel is one of the beer’s most memorable qualities. Overall: good stuff.

 

Howdy NBS! Been absent for the past couple weeks but back with one new one today. Maybe another later but for now just this beer from Widowmaker Brewing called Beyond the Pines.



BTP is a hazy (no shit) IPA clocking in at 6% ABV. It looks like a glass of oat milk or something, which isn't really very appealing to me, but the head is nice and dense, and it leaves behind some decent tiered lacing. This is among the most pale NEIPAs I've ever had, but I firmly believe they should be slightly more saturated in color than this. I mean, I guess it's actually pale unlike a lot of examples of this style, but... yeah. Kinda gross looking, guys?

The nose is pretty interesting. It's like a combination of juicy tropical fruit and stone fruit with big notes of pineapple, passion fruit, mango, and nectarine with some light tangerine, peach, and melon. A slight wave of dankness in there too, with, yeah, some pine as well (maybe the name influenced me finding this note, but I digress). I can see this being pretty good, so let's get right into it.

Up front, there's a blast of mango, blueberry, and pine resin... I'm thinking this utilizes Mosaic, for sure. The backing notes of dank earthiness, light chive, and pineapple help define this one pretty solidly. I'm finding this beer enjoyable, but nothing too out of the ordinary. As I've posted many times on threads like this, though, not all beer has to be unique or unusual to make an impression. I would say this does stand out a bit, especially considering the only other Widowmaker beer I've had before was awful (though I had it on tap somewhere and it could've been an unclean tap line). The feel is pretty thin and the aftertaste does have a bit of a plasticy element with some light hop burn, so this isn't without its faults, but I think the approach is pretty good and the flavors strike some interesting dynamics without falling apart throughout the can. Cheers, and stay safe!

 

Today seems like the right time to share. It's a rainy day, and with the city shutting down due to Coronavirus, it's only appropriate I type up some notes on a new-to-me beer that I've been eager to try for a while. Some breweries are known for specific offerings. I make an effort to try off-the-wall beers from 'one-trick pony' breweries to see how they hold up. Today's review is one such beer:



Tree House's Raven.

Out of a black can dark enough that my Canon's autofocus struggles to find focus pours a black liquid with an eager foamy rise of head. Head formation is around two fingers of caramel-toffee colored foam that retains well. Aroma is a light bite of herbal and resiny hops up front before parting ways for roasty, bready malts to come through. Balance is good despite a rather shallow depth of field for the nose, offering up a little sticky hops and biting bitter malts. Flavor profile is much the same, but more expansive. Hops come through as sticky, resiny, herbal and dank, clinging to the tongue long after a sip. Malts are roasty, bready and caramely, adding a little bitterness and roastiness, and mellowing out the hops just a touch. Balance leans towards hops. Mouth feel is a creamy, moderate-softness that coats the tongue like a thick down comforter. Thickness is medium-thick, almost full. Overall, dense and sticky with a rich display of roasty malts keep this black IPA drinking just as it should. Remarkably well tamed and calculated.

Score: 4.5 | 4 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.5 | BA Score: 4.38 | rDev: +8.4%

Personally, this one lives up to Tree House's reputation, and in fact, makes me think a little more highly of them. It's a well controlled and defined black IPA. Very much a fan of the style, and this option is great.

Cheers.

 

New beer #2 today comes from @Ocalafox as part of our IP trade last week - “When Rhinos Fly (Formerly Chubby Unicorn)”, a NE DIPA hailing from Concord Craft Brewing Co., Concord, NH:



At 53 degrees pours an opaque deep gold; fluffy white head; good cap retention; heavy ring; medium heavy lacing. Aromas of fresh sliced guava, passion fruit and kiwi. Taste follows nose; some lemon pith bitterness; earthy oniony hops with sweet malt foundation. Medium light body; medium carbonation; minimal hop astringency; no warmth from 8.5% abv. Overall a very approachable NEDIPA; fruity without being a juice box; well balanced malt sweetness and hop bitterness; and light feeling - I don’t feel full and can happily drink the entire 16ozs; would I seek this out?, no; would I drink again?, yes!

4.75 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0

4.05 rDev -2.2%

 

I continue to explore beers on the lower ABV end of the spectrum and two new to me beers that I had after midnight:

Sierra Nevada Wild Little Thing - 5.5%, "slightly sour ale w/ guava, hibiscus & strawberry". Head disappeared quickly but crisp and refreshing, lighter on all flavors. This beer was pretty good for what it is and I would drink again. If you know of a Hard Seltzer fan I would imagine that they would be able to get down with this beer.

Bell's Light Hearted Ale - I went into this thinking that I probably wouldn't like it due to the reviews but quite the opposite, I really enjoyed it. Great lacing and the head stuck around all the way through and it was fairly complex for a lighter beer. I would gladly drink it again once the price drops; it's $3 more than TH per six pack in my area and my economical brain just won't accept that. But dare I say that these days I would rather have a LH than a TH?!? Hmm...

Honorable mention - another new to me beer that I had the other day that I wanted to share now for those that may be interested:

Victory Classic Easy Drinking Lager - Their "All Malt Lager" was re-branded a few years ago to Helles and is now being discontinued in favor of this beer, which is damn near identical when you look at the stats. It's a solid beer that I will be drinking again but if I had to pick out a flaw it is just a touch too sweet (but that does mellow out as it warms, oddly enough). I plan on doing a side by side someday with one of my favorite local Helles beers from Sly Fox; I already have a feeling that the SF will win but you never know.

 

Central Waters Call Me Old Fashioned, 12% ABV. Pours deep red with a half finger off-white head that left no lacing. Nose is cherry, bitters, and brandy. Taste follows, with cherries prevalent, some bitterness. Excellent mouthfeel, overall excellent. The nose and taste aren't a lot like an old-fashioned, but it reminds me of one.

4.23/5 rDev +2.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

I really like the CW Barrel Series. The only two I haven't liked much are the BA Cherry Stout and the BA Barelywine, BA Scotch Ale and BA Cassian Stout have to be their best two.

 

I tried the Light Hearted for the first time earlier this week, and liked it. When looking to drink lower alcohol beer, I would definitely drink again. Cheers!

 

Father of all Tsunamis - Pelican.

Lots of rye whiskey character - smoky, spicy, oak barrel, burnt caramel, un-sweet vanilla. Roasted malt, dark chocolate, espresso on the palate. Full bodied and moderately viscous.

Overall a 4.25 across the board. Very good stuff.

Grabbed a growler a week ago in expectation that Idaho’s COVID Rules of Engagement would be changing this week. We’re hunkered down as a family, I grilled steaks last night and the wife is cooking chicken salad for lunch today. It’s been a GREAT opportunity to spend time with the kids and go on small walks/play in the yard with them. Booked over 16k steps yesterday just working out and spending time with the kids.

This too shall pass BA. Hopefully we’re all choosing to spend maximum time with the loved ones we’re ‘stuck’ with in this season.

Take care BA, and cheers from Idaho!!!