New Beer Sunday (Week 792)

Brewing Projekt Resist Piña Colada Milkshake NEIPA, 7% ABV. Pours hazy orange with a 3+ finger white head that left lots of foamy lacing. Nose is tropical fruit and coconut/suntan lotion. Taste is pineapple, strong coconut, vanilla, lactose, quite sweet, almost no bitterness. Coconut is the main event here, and gets big in the aftertaste. Excellent mouthfeel, overall outstanding.

4.39/5 rDev +2.8%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

Real nice day here for yard-work, grilling, and a walk. Luckily the forecast calls for warmer weather because our furnace quit last night, and at 23yrs old it may finally be time to replace it.

 

Second local Irish Red Ale for today:

Boathouse Brothers Brewing Rua Seol Irish Red Ale
ABV: 6.4%
IBU: NA

Quite a dark brown-black color, surprisingly dark, from the front; clear dark ruby red with a back-light, under a 1/2 inch off-white-to-tan thick head. The head recedes moderately quickly. The color is more stout-like than red ale-like, but nice looking anyway. Moderate lacing as you drink.

Aroma is musty and sweet. Scents of leather and tobacco.

Taste is as the aroma: musty, peat, leather, tobacco, and slightly sweet initially. This transitions to a finish with bitterness building to balance, ending in a relatively dry and quite bitter aftertaste. The peaty-tobacco overpowers throughout. While the listed ABV is just a bit on the strong side for the style, the alcohol is well hidden. The aftertaste lingers quite a while; musty, peaty, tobacco, and bitter.

Mouth feel is moderate-to-thin, decent carbonation.

Overall, if you accept it for what it actually is, an OK tasting, malty and peaty-tobacco ale with a surprisingly bitter finish. However, it calls itself an Irish Red, and the peaty-tobacco dominates and just seems out of place. Definitely, not my favorite.

L: 3.75 | S: 3.5 | T: 3.25 | F: 3.5 | O: 3.5 | Rating: 3.37

 

I'll echo what @Roguer said, with the disagreement that we aren't quite guessing, at least not all the time!

However, picking out the different flavors in a complex-flavored beer does take considerable practice. With most of the complex beers I've attempted to review, there were more than a few where I had to merely say (as you did) "complex", but even so, I've usually been able to pick out one or two familiar flavors. So, pay attention to how the flavor develops from the initial hit to the aftertaste (and all points in between). Many times flavors come and go. You'll likely be able to detect one or two identifiable flavors, and even more with practice. Keep at it, and good job!

 

Good Sunday afternoon, New Beer Samplers and commentators. Wow, this is like old times with @cavedave emceeing the festivities today. Great to see you, Dave, and it's fun to see a new review! I like your doctor's advice.

While I'm trying to patronize the local brewers, e.g., Magnify and Twin Elephant in this difficult time, I also want to support a local bottle shop that does a great job bringing in new-to-me beers. This week, it's been Aslin. When I was there the other day they had less than 2 week old King Sue and NugMo, which I'd never had before. Nugmo is dryer and more tart than other Toppling beers I've had. They did a nice job with the Simcoe and Amarillo hops (in addition to the Citra and Mosaic). This is a refreshing, moderate ABV, American IPA that would be perfect in summer weather. Here's my full review:

4.24/5 rDev +0.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Canned on 3/27/2020. Poured into a TG snulip glass. It pours an opaque, dirty lemon color with a half finger of foamy, bright white head and thick, clinging lacing. The cap disappeared rather quickly. On the nose there is lemon, grapefruit, tangerine, pineapple, and lite floral hops. The taste is quite tart with a burst of lemon peel and grapefruit rind. Only as the glass warms a bit do I begin to notice some sweeter citrus and tropical notes of orange and pineapple, which validates the Amarillo hops.There is also a lot of resinous pine, earthy and pepper at the finish. You can detect the Simcoe in the hop bill. It finishes with moderate bitterness. It's definitely on the dryer side. This ale is fairly lite in feel with moderate to lively carbonation. At 30 IBU and 6.6% ABV it drinks easily. It would make a great summertime IPA. Overall, Nugmo is worth seeking out. It definitely has a different feel from some of the fruitier Toppling Goliath offerings.

I hope you're all enjoying your New Beer(s) today. I'll be back with a stout shortly. Cheers, NBS (and especially our friend @cavedave)!

 

Antidoot Proceed the Gentian


Pours a clear amber color with a bigger head, soon receeding to a bigger sheet of lacing atop the liquid.


Smells of funky and cheesy basement together with some dried hops and a prominent floral garden aroma.


Drinks light, refreshing due to its prominent, yet soft appearing carbonation. This opens up the palate for a plethora of sublte flavors, creating a perfectly well balanced beer.


Tastes of a surprisingly complex barnyard funkiness, setting the bar for this straight from the beginning, exhibiting leather, mushrooms, stale water and a present tartness together with blue cheese. Offers a suddenly appearing bitterness of herbs and orange zest, blending marvelously well into the sour aspects of the beer. Finishes even fruitier with an enhanced funkiness and maintaining bitterness, creating an unforseen flavor intensity, which stays long into the aftertaste of this.


This drinks like an unbelievably complex lambic with a distinct, well working bitterness to it. The beer features a perfect balance on top, making this easy drinking while featuring an intriguing flavor complexity.

 

Great to see you on NBS!!!!!

 

That’s awesome! I actually didn’t notice the dents until you pointed them out.

 

Well, that's the locals' own damn fault! Spokane was originally Spokan Falls, but somebody in the late 19th century convinced everyone that the name sounded too provincial, so they dropped the Falls and added an e because they thought it would be more sophisticated looking in print, and they've been having to correct people's pronunciation ever since.

 

Me, too, on both counts.

 

Interesting bit of history. Thanks.

 

The prominent sweetness in this was quite surprising to me, since I recalled the beer to be more balanced, bitter and roasty. Tbh pretty much all beers from this brewery I‘ve had as of lately were mediocre, maybe thats an indicator.

 

Ok, @dukeandduke, the GF is supplying her half of the beer fridge with Aslin beers. If the NBS faithful weren't already aware, the brewery is known for their cloudy, dry-hopped IPAs, followed by their fruited sours and some high-ABV pastry stouts. Every once in a while they'll put out another style, usually at the tasting room.

However, in the recent deliveries we've received a barleywine (with maple and bacon and rum barrel treatment) and a Hefeweizen (with coconut)*. These are not an anomaly - they don't typically make straightforward versions of styles (other than perhaps the aforementioned dry-hopped IPAs). So when I saw a 4-pack of Märzen included in the most recent delivery, I of course looked over the can 3-4 times to see what additions were in Doch, but nothing was revealed.

So, what do we have with this regular old Märzen from Aslin...


Ok, so no additions, but I still expected some extra cloudiness.Yet again, Aslin threw me a curveball. The beer isn't completely clear, though there is a light haze to the beer (even beyond the chill haze. The body is a dirty amber or a light brown. The initial pour yielded head that wasn't overly impressive, though the collar that followed it is successful.

The aromas are somewhat tea-like initially, with some toast and earthy spice - nothing too out of whack. Taste starts wit a nice toasted bread flavor that is fairly neutral on sweet scale, perhaps leaning just a little towards lightly sweetened tea. Spicy notes join a medium carbonation effect to add some bite to the experience. A little brown sugar, earthy spices, light black tea, and an underlying generic fruitiness (yeast-driven?) make up this beer.

Ok, it's a pretty tasty brew, I'm enjoying sipping it. It's not really screaming Märzen (or specifically Oktoberfest) to me, though. It's kind of a mix between that and an ESB to my palate - not as malty as the German style, not as toasted/bitter as the latter. I'll have no problem finishing the four-pack, regardless.


* in looking up the link, I noticed I rated Earth Daze (Hefe w/ additives) almost exactly the same as their No Backsies (a straight Hefe I had 2 years ago). I'm guessing the latter is the base of the latter.

 

Greetings fellow NBSers (and especially @cavedave !) ! A cloudy, semi-chilly day here in the Fourth Corner, despite it being 60 degrees out. Yesterday we went through three seasons, in about three hours, about three different times. I'm getting through the lock-down fairly well, all things considered, still working some, and the weather has been decent enough so that I can get out for a walk most days. I'm mostly, but not yet totally, bored though.

Starting my NBS off with GFJ by Sun King Brewery that I scored at the local Food Coop a couple days ago. A fine example of a "traditional" American IPA: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/20672/58534/

 

We've had our canning line for about 2-3/4 years now, and I've stacked 99.99+ % of the cases that have come off the line. Thousands and thousands of cases. That was the first one I dropped.

 

Helloooo @cavedave and the rest of you!
Seeing the thread had been open when I woke up this morning I had a brief pang of longing for days gone by. That's par for the course for me on Sundays as of late. But clicking and seeing that Jerry avatar and those rhymes and alliteration and wordplay and passion--not to mention the update on your health and some promising news in that regard-- all served to brighten my day at a time when all of our days need brightening. Thanks, Dave! Keep on truckin', air on the side of caution and I hope things keep going along well for you for many years to come.
I have had a pretty busy weekend so far, which is a nice distraction from everything going on. Yesterday was nice enough to clean windows and repaint the bathroom. Today is gray so it's a little work and some tax shit... Oh well, I have some new beer in the fridge. My beer for today is a really new one (as far as I know) from an OG that has pseudo-sold-out, but still makes very solid beer.
I am taking of course about Unibroue. The current situation has unfortunately made me more reliant on my grocery store for beer than ever before. This last week on my bi-monthly Mad-Max-esque grocery ordeal I came across a fresh pile of pallets of their beers. Among them this one, which I've never seen before. I also grabbed La fin du monde and the freshest À tout le monde I've ever had, and damned if it wasn't delicious. The dry hops really popped. Anyway, this one seems to be a Belgian single or something vaguely along those lines. Let's see how she drinks while living the cat-cuddling-on-the-couch-cause-its-cold life.

It pours a cloudy blonde color with a massive bleach-white head of fabulously fine froth. Smells a bit like a witbier. Coriander, dough and faint citrus. Flavor is a little flat, saltine, mineral water, a very well-attenuated, vaguely tasty snap. Dry, zesty carbonation, crisp, refreshing finish with that classic Unibroue yeast character.

This is not a real standout like some of their other beers, but it is no slouch either. It is a well-made, drinkable, refreshing, light beer with some character to it. I don't drink their beers too much over the last few years, but I have to say that that signature character comes through and takes me back to the first ones I tried. It'd be a great beer to have outside during the summer in normal times. Based on the label I'm guessing that was the goal prior to all this. It looks like a fun shindig down below the castle there on the label!
Take care of yourselves and your families, everybody.

Santé!

 

New Beer #2
A random drop in Kentucky that tempted me to pick one up even though it's over three months old! New "state" tick for me...

The review:
12oz can stamped ENJOY OUR BEER 01/09/20 3159 09:57 poured into a Spiegelau IPA glass at fridge temp 9.2% ABV. The beer pours hefe-hazy in an orange tinted light amber color with plenty of off white head. The head recedes to inch thick cap leaving plenty of lacing. The aroma is mild with caramel and earthy hops. The taste is big sweet caramel malt at first with moderately bitter earthy hops through the middle and finish. The mouthfeel is medium plus bodied with average carbonation and a sticky, oily finish. Overall, good. I would not want to try it much older, as I suspect it's lost a little punch over three months.

Cheers all and enjoy your Sunday!