New Brew Thursday (Week 3)

Good evening, New Brew Thursday drinkers! I’ve got another new Referend beer to try out today. Rationing them out, so I’m only allowed 1 per week. I will miss these once they’re gone!



4.2/5

Cherry-vinegar nose. Taste is mostly wood, funk, vinegar, citrus, earth, with just a dollop of cherry preserves on top. The cherry taste is neither artificial nor overdone. Minimally acidic, with moderate tartness. One of the most restrained brews I’ve yet to try from these guys. Not the typical cough-syrup taste you often get from cherry beers.

Current mood, for various reasons:

 

Hello NBT and thanks for the start @Dragginballs76!

My first new beer of the day was Palace of Paper Stacks from Modern Times. An 8.2% Red wine barrel aged sour ale with nectarines. Details here, followed by the current beer I’m enjoying right now.





3.58/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5

Look: Opaque, murky, straw to pale gold color. A bone white, one finger head, after aggressively pouring, which disappears without any lacing. No visible carbonation. As a fruited sour, an attractive looking beer that reminds me of the color of nectarine flesh.

Smell: The nose is very nice. A lot of juicy nectarine. A nice combination with the mild, plastic, Brett-like aroma. As the beer really warms the aroma turns away from the bright fruit acidity and to more musty, doughy and floral notes. I enjoy these qualities but it gives a heavier nose. As the beer warms up even more some acetic and apple notes come out, which I am not a huge fan of, as they detract from the bright, light and fresh fruit. It is getting solvent-like too. The doughy aspect is particularly intriguing. I don’t know about the base sour blonde ale, but the aroma says wheat to me. A doughy, bready wheat like aroma. I like that aspect.

Taste: Some sweet and juicy nectarine on the tip of the tongue. Mid palate tart and acidic notes come through. Some lemon juice acidity. Some faint acetic notes. Some green apple. The beer finishes with a really pleasant dry, wheat like flavor, despite some of the flavors mid-palate that I’m not a huge fan of.

Feel: The feel is nice. Pretty low level of carbonation, quite dry, acidic.

Overall: The beer started out strong for me with bright, light and fruit acidity, but took a turn for the worse with some acetic notes that came out as the beer warmed up. I still enjoy the long, dry, bready / crackery, wheat-like flavor, but overall there are other nectarine or peach sours I’d enjoy over this one.

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Currently, I’m enjoying Australian Kiss from Turning Point Beer, courtesy of @r0rschach!

Ella, Vic Secret and Galaxy hops. Earthy, lemony, orange citrus hard candy, fresh cut grass, bay leaf, lemon rind, lemon pith, grapefruit pith. Very pithy and pretty dry. A touch of hop burn but nothing off-putting at all. really like it!

 

Westbrook Key Lime Pi
Today’s new brew and PGW come courtesy of the generous @Mbgreg in the excellent NBS BIF. As the name might imply, this beer tastes very much like Key Lime Pie. There’s a nice yogurty twang to the creamy bit here that complements the lime tartness very well. It’s a pleasure to try. Thanks, Mark!

 

My first NBT beer comes courtesy of the legendary @Dragginballs76: Brewery Bhavana - Bounty.



Pours a dark orange/gold color (Let me do soils with a Munsell and I’m good; describing the color of a beer has me completely flummoxed though) with no perceivable head. The aroma isn’t much of anything but I can feel the sourness in my nose. Taste is sour oak with some melon. When I started drinking sours I had to think of them more like a white wine than a beer to understand the flavors. This one, with its oak and fruit flavors, falls into that category perfectly. I really like the tartness and the dryness with the oak. Thanks again for this one, Mike.

And for music, we go with something topical. I’ll spare you the 20+ minute live version though.

 

Glad you enjoyed that, Mike. Liquid State is less than two miles from my house and put out real consistent beers. They are my go to hangout if I am going out for a drink or three.

 

Second NBT beer from local darlings Forest & Main.


3.8/5

Nose is citrus and grass. Tastes like a kale smoothie, with root vegetables, orange juice, and a blunt accidentally blended in. This is one of those ipas where I could not even begin to guess the hop blend. Medium-full body. Very much in line with most F+M ipas. Tasty, but their stouts and saisons are so, so much better.

 

Howdy NBT! Working on a new beer from @CanConPhilly today - Matt sent me a great box on Friday and I've slowly been working through everything. I believe this is my first coffee stout from Levante and one that I'm a fan of.





King of Lombok, from Levante Brewing -
Nice head to this beer - about a half an inch of beige head. The nose is pleasant roasty coffee. I was surprised by how rich the body was - no barrel, but this must have been a decently long boil. The beer is a bit oily and coats the glass very nicely. As the beer warms up, the coffee gives way to creamy chocolate - super tasty. It finishes quite cleanly.

For a non-barrel aged stout, the ABV and smoothness are impressive - the coffee is quality and the chocolate is delicious. I dig this beer quite a lot - thank you again, @CanConPhilly !

 

Wander Brewing - Thunderboom



Pint can poured in to a nonic glass, dated 03/05/20.

Look- Hazy darker golden amber color. modest off-white head with great retention and solid lacing. light carbonation streams visible. 4

Smell- Big hits of tropical fruit (pineapple, papaya and mango), melon, citrus (orange/tangerine, grapefruit and lemon), peach/nectarine, caramel malt, faint pine and floral/spicy hop notes. 4.25

Taste- Similar to the aroma, tropical fruit, citrus, nectarine and melon, minimal bitter pine and slightly sweet. Fairly well balanced. 4.25

Feel- Medium bodied and pillowy soft, slight alcohol warmth comes off. Light carbonation on the tongue. 4

O- A very nice DIPA. At $20 a 4 pack I probably won't repurchase but definitely worth checking out. 4.25

 

Been sitting on this beer for a while now while working through a SAVAGE amount of beer bestowed upon me. Frangelic Mountain Brown from Founders. This is really just Hazlenut coffee for days. Overall a very well down brown ale.

Oh and look, I got a badge!

 

Glad liquor stores are considered essential, just picked up DFH Utopias Barrel-Aged World Wide Stout. This is amazing, everything coming together very well and it is not boozy.
4.59/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.75

12 oz bottle, dated 3/20/20, poured into a snifter

A- Black with a small mocha head.

S- Dark fruits, roasted malts, chocolate, caramel, oak, touch of vanilla, port wine.

T- Chocolate, roasted malts, caramel, oak, some vanilla, dark fruits, toffee, some coffee, Upotias.

M- Smooth, full body.

O- This is really good, the Utopias barrel works incredibly well with the World Wide Stout. Not really hot or boozy, just really balance with big flavors.

Cheers!

 

What is a Utopias barrel?

 

Drinking local for round 1, Sceptre Arts Smile Grenade Double IPA. I met up with @thatoneguymike here a few weeks ago for the handshake tick and to finally get a few beers I had picked up his way. Nice small brewpub in town, food was tasty.
This one had lots of peach and melon notes, good body and carb. 4.25/5

 

Gearing up for Saison days tomorrow & Saturday. Love me a good saison, and Allagash is great with this style (really, they're just great in general)



4.38/5 rDev +7.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Bottled 5/7/19. Pours a gorgeous gold with two inches of head. More head retention than I typically get with this style. Nose is wonderful if you like this type of beer. Both the smell and the taste are tart without being too tart. Sour without being too sour. This is a beautiful beer. I was confident I'd be solidly above rDev on this one, and I was.

 

G'day BA! Bought a 6pack today, added it and a pic to the database today.



Canned February 25th 2020.

Pours the colour of lemonade, totally opaque, healthy head of foam, some sticky lacing.

Smells of grapefruit, very hoppy aromas, more than a hint of bitterness. Even some dankness.

Grapefruit is in my face, hoppy and bitter, dank, reminds me of dry hopped because...it finishes rather dry.

Mouthfeel is fine.

Tasty little sucker here, for tops, 2 cans at a sitting.

 

https://www.samueladams.com/~/link.aspx?_id=EB948616C9144A10A75F449EA6369756&_z=z

 

Beer number two courtesy of @Mbgreg: a collaboration between Creature Comforts and Run the Jewels.



Pours an opaque yellowish color, pretty close to matching our lamp. Scent is of tropical fruit. Taste is tropical fruit and slightly bitter hops. Overall it’s a decent beer. Thanks, again Mark.

 

I thought that might be it but wasn’t expecting another beer to be aged in its barrels.

 

Hah! I was waiting for this thread this week! This new brewery to me is courtesy of @Roguer and NBS BIF 11. It is in my sweet spot with its old schooley IPA tendencies. Love it.





4.25/5 rDev +2.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

A slightly hazy orange color with a dense bone white head, the nose is dank citrus aromas with mango most prominent, accompanied by ripe oranges and passion fruit.

The mango is also forward on the taste, but this beer is made by the earthy malt component, which balances this perfectly.