New Beer Sunday (Week 795)

It's an opener, can find them on Ebay, but not cheap. They are great for minimizing damage to the cap if you save them. Made of bronze and stainless, pretty heavy, made back in 1981. Some have screen-printed wording or logos on them. The bulge in the middle is a magnet.

 

Flying Fish Hazy Bones - FF makes decent beers, nothing that has ever really blown me away but their beers are consistent and reliable...but because of this I can sometimes overlook them unfortunately. This is a new year round beer for them.

The can is cool, has the whole skull thing going on but with citrus for the eyes. 6.3%, BB 09/18/20. Solid, typical hazy IPA and for me that's a good thing, would drink again.

https://www.flyingfish.com/hazy-bones/

I also see that they have a new year round sour out called Salt & Sea. Now that the weather is hot (for now) I have been drinking more sours and need to give this one a try. This variety pack looks interesting too, would be a nice summer party pack:

https://www.flyingfish.com/variety-pack/

 

Staying in Arkansas; New Province Brewing Co.'s Zwinger, a dry-hopped Gose, 4.6% ABV. 3.97 overall, Solid!

Pours hazed and effervescent gold with a pinky of beige colored head. below average head retention & lacing

S: Some lemon and salt, general tartness, a little grassiness & hint of funk as this warms

T: Follows the nose, dryness & lime up front. Dryness tartness, lemon & salt as this warms. Finishes dry, tart with a little lime, lemon & salt

MF: Light body & carbonation

A solid Gose that will get pounded down once we get summer weather here

 

What's up, NBS!
It is a gorgeous day here and I have gotten to spend it out in the sun planting flowers and repotting some plants. Definitely did me some good and it's nice to have the balcony biergarten in working order. It isn't done yet, but comfortable and nice to have a beer on in the evenings. This is definitely the summer to have a working outdoor drinking area since anything resembling that open to the public will be closed. I try to have a biergarten every year, but judging by my neighbors, this will be the first year that more than a couple people on the block put some effort into a chill space outside to relax. Hot summer apartment life, am I right?
For my beer I have (as usual) one I'm looking forward to. A rye brown ale from the fine folks at Pit Caribou. I love a good brown ale. For years, my strategic go-to beer when visiting a new brewery was to try their brown. The majority of the time (it seemed to me at least) that if the brown was good, their other beers were good and if it was a miss the others were as well. It's obviously not the most scientific approach and it is pretty much impossible to do these days since it is far from the most popular style anymore, but it worked more times than not for me.
Anyway, these guys make a killer American brown that I always get whenever it comes around. And yes, most of their other beers are above-board. So naturally, I was excited to see this one show up in town a couple weeks back. Let's see how she drinks as the first proper balcony beer of the season.

It pours clear black-if-not-for-the-persistent-ruby-tint with a nice, creamy head that settles from a couple fingers to a constant film. Okay retention; lovely lacing. The aroma has an almost-sharp earthy, spicy bite along with coffee and general round roast smells you'd expect. The flavor follows right along. It is not sweet, tobacco, dark chocolate, dirt-rye bite in the finish, some leafy hop bitterness. It is a rich, medium-bodied beer, but despite that--and its darkness--it is very drinkable and quenching. There is a fabulous bite to it that practically forces another drink, all while cleansing your palate with rye and hops.

This is a really nice American brown that kind of straddles Porter and/or stout territory. Good lookin'. The aroma and flavor are both rich and complex without losing their refreshing nature. Bitter chocolate, earthy rye, smooth coffee and nuts. I really enjoyed this and will definitely pick it up on sight going forward.
Santé!

 

Ommegang Abbey Ale has sentimental value to me. It was the first beer I really fell in love with. I had a Cave Aged bottle in 2005 that was the only beer I've given a "5" rating. Tastes change over time, and I suspect that if I had this beer again today I probably wouldn't give it a perfect rating, but at that time and in that place it certainly felt like it, so I stand by my review.

I got this bottle as part of Ommegang's 20th Anniversary Rare Beer Pack. It's a bourbon barrel aged version of the regular Abbey Ale.

I'm drinking it out of one of my favorite glasses of all time. I mean, who doesn't love drinking out of a gold rimmed goblet?!

Ommegang Abbey Ale Bourbon Barrel-Aged
Belgian Dubbel // 9.5% ABV
Cooperstown, NY

750 mL bottle, best before 7/21/2020. Part of Ommegang's 20th Anniversary Rare Beer Pack.

Dark ruby color with a light tan head. Good clarity. Smells great... Sweet caramel with vanilla, raisin and pear. The bourbon is evident but blended nicely with the base beer. Rich malt flavor and boozy. Smooth and warming. Full bodied.

The bourbon barrel doesn't add much to this beer. The base beer is sweet enough on its own and the vanilla notes from the barrel are like sweet on top of sweet.

4.11/5 rDev -0.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

 

Hi NBS, today’s new brew is Creature Comforts (with Alvarado Street) Chill Beach Wave, an 8% Hazy Double IPA with Galaxy, Citra, Mosaic and Vic Secret, pretty fresh at 13 days old.




A: This pours a lightly hazed yellow gold, not cloudy or thick-looking, with a soapy white head that gradually fades to a lasting ring, leaving wispy lacing.

A: Mainly tropical fruit with melon and a touch of orange.

T: More tropical fruit - mango and pineapple with melon, ripe oranges and some grapefruit creeping in late along with a touch of dank earth.

M: Soft texture, light carb, medium body. Sneaky ABV, not that 8% is high, but I’d have guessed this to be lower. Finishes just mildly bitter with grapefruit winning out over the tropics as it fades.

O: Goes down way too easy. It’s juicy but balanced with enough grassy and piney hops to keep the mouth happy and alert, so after a couple or three you’re gonna wonder why you’re felling so good. I’d totally buy this one again, nicely done and very tasty.

 

Greetings all,

Hope everyone is staying sane in these crazy times. MA is getting ready to start Phase 1 of re-opening tommorow so it's going to be interesting to see how things go. It already feels like things have been the way they are forever somehow! I'm just holding out hope that by some miracle the Rammstein show at Gillette stadium in September won't be canceled like every other concert I had tickets to this summer (spoiler alert: I don't think 50K people are gathering in one place any time this year )

Anyway, I've got a taste test edition of New Beer Sunday on deck for today. A neighbor of mine went to Treehouse recently and kindly gave me a handful of beers. I'm a big fan of TH's core lineup of IPAs but I haven't really tried any of their other offerings - not even their stouts. So I thought it was pretty cool that he brought me, of all things from them, a Munich Dunkel. And it just so happens I have a Von Trapp dunkel in my fridge so I figured why not compare them? So we've got:



Tree House Rover: Munich Dunkel at 5.2% ABV
Von Trapp: Dunkel at 5.7% ABV

I'm doing this test blind but I drink VT's dunkel fairly often and am guessing I might not be too hard to pick out. And I like Dunkels a lot but make no claims to having a strong ability to rate them to style. Beer 1 is on the left and Beer 2 is on the right. The heads didn't last too long so I missed them for the photo unfortunately.



Beer 1

Look: A dark mahogany that lets very little light through. Moderate tan head dissipates fairly quickly to a very thin ring but bounces back a little after some swirling.
Smell: Cola, toffee, a little vanilla. There's also just a hint of banana.
Taste: Cola and toffee again. Not much on the back end - it just kind of disappears.
Feel: Medium body with a somewhat crisp finish and very little aftertaste. Carbonation is perhaps a little on the low side for my preference.

Beer 2

Look: An amber/mahogany that lets a fair bit of light shine through. Moderate tan head dissipates somewhat quickly to a ring but bounces back easily with a quick swirl.
Smell: The general nose is lighter and fresher somehow than the first one. Brown bread, cola, and a little nuttiness I can't quite put my finger on.
Taste: Heavier on the cola than the brown bread now. Some bitter black coffee/very dark chocolate at the end.
Feel: Somewhat thin in the mouth. Well carbonated and quite crisp and light on the swallow. I'm all but certain this is the Von Trapp.

The Reveal: Beer 1 = Treehouse and Beer 2 = Von Trapp

Overall: I don't think Treehouse did too bad here. The Von Trapp nailed that brown bready character better than Treehouse which had more of a straightforward dark sugar taste, but both were very pleasant and drinkable. The TH was a touch rounder and heavier in the mouth which I actually liked (not sure which is more to style in that respect) but I thought it was a little undercarbed. They were about equal in sweetness and there was nothing that gave away the ABV difference. I'm guessing the bannana on the TH nose is not supposed to be there but it was very mild.

For $10 a sixpack the Von Trapp is the no-brainer winner and I did enjoy it more, but price aside, TH really wasn't that far behind. I'd be very curious to hear what any of our more well versed German beer drinkers here thought of it.

Cheers!

 

#2, I could drink this until it came out my ears.

PS: the glass that held my first beer (Hati from Three Floyds) was courtesy of our beer nerd friend @thebeers, and it was unsolicited. He is a perfect example of “Beer It Forward,” and all that mantra entails. I raise my glass to you, Arthur.





4.27/5 rDev +6%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Pours a gorgeous onyx black color with a head that is a thing of beauty - dense and sudsy at the same time, a sandpaper tan color, and it clings to the glass every sip of the way.

The nose is crammed with cocoa and roasty char aromas, and the slightest hint of the esters referenced on the can that present themselves as fruit notes.

The taste is all about the cocoa and roast notes that combine with the fruit flavors (thank you, 42 IBU’s) to prevent this from being too sweet or cloying.

I now have my “stout to follow an IPA” fridge beer. This is outstanding, IMHO, from a brewery that flies under the radar in Bargersville.

 

Happy New New England IPA Sunday!

Another one, and another NEIPA, pretty tasty, big time strawberries. Still watching Picard, kinda stupid shit right now, started ep.2.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/47802/364573/?ba=Wasatch#review

Cheers!

 

Another one from the new kids on the block.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/53694/472858/



12 oz. can.
Bottom of can:
"Canned on 04/14/20
Kate or Die"
Ohhkayy...
Moderate pour yields a one inch off white head over a deep golden body with some lacing. Nose of hop aromas with lots of floral aspects, some fruit (tropical, slight citrus), and just a bit of pine. Taste is malt forward with tropical fruit and pine, having a finish of dank, earthy, pine bitterness. Nice feel and overall, a nice representation of a style that needs more exposure; but alas, being from New England it might be a tough sell. Find it, buy it, drink it!
Cheers!!

 

Poured into a 13 oz Teku glass not sure when it was canned, but I know who gave it to me, 14 days most. Pours a hazy yellow, with a finger plus sticky white head that leaves thick patches of lace as it slowly settles. 4.75

Smell is guava, papaya, pineapple, tangerine, apricot, and grapefruit. 4.5

Taste follows bold guava, papaya, tangerine, pineapple, apricot, and a little grapefruit in the lingering finish. 4.5

Mouthfeel is big, sticky not dry, soft carbonation, and at 8.3% bold in flavor but still crazy drinkable. 4.5

Overall another awesome NEDIPA from this young brewery. Keep killing guys. 4.5

 

On a gloomy, rainy, somewhat chilly late spring day here in MN, and back to beers from local brewers, it seems like a good day to try one of the Imperial stouts I purchased from Wild Mind Artisan Ales a number of weeks ago. They were good enough to deliver them, along with a couple of saisons for the online tasting.

Wild Mind Artisan Ales: From The Abstract American Imperial Stout
ABV: 10.1%
IBU: 50




Aroma is quite woody, like freshly sawed dried logs, with semi-sweet chocolate and spice.

Deep dark opaque black topped by a thick dark tan head. The head recedes to a ring with islands within a few minutes, leaving thin strings of lacing. Before the head recedes, this is quite a nice looking stout.

In taste, the woodiness is still there, but a little more subdued (while also being enhanced from the aroma with each sip) behind vanilla, spice, and chocolate. The combination is unique to any of the Imperial stouts I have had to date. The various flavors of wood, vanilla, spice, and chocolate come together in a way that is not all that complimentary, sad to say. The finish and aftertaste is where the bittering begins, growing in the aftertaste, to becoming quite bitter. There is no obvious whiskey flavor (or aroma). The alcohol is hidden.

The mouth feel is thick and chewy.

A very unique stout. The wood from the barrel aging is the most obvious wood flavor of any BA beer I have tried; almost like smelling a sawmill. Overall, however, the combination of the rye barrels, cinnamon, cocoa, and coffee (the flavoring additives listed by the brewer) just don't work for me.

L: 4.25 | S: 3.5 | T: 3.00 | F: 4.25 | O: 3.5 | Rating: 3.42

 

Unreasonable, a hazy DIPA from Reason Brewing.

16 oz can poured into a teku glass.
L: Pours a hazy dark orange color with a half a finger of head that fades quickly. Some nice lacing results as the head fades. 3.25/5
S: Mild tropical fruit notes. Mostly mango and orange. 3.5/5
T: Some nice fruity flavors followed by a ton of malty sweetness. No real bitterness to speak of. 3.75/5
F: Medium body and carbonation. What you'd expect from a DIPA. 3.5/5
O: Not a bad beer, a very sweet and smooth New England style DIPA with little hop bitterness. 3.5/5 for a BA generated 3.59/5
This is a new brewery for me and it seems like they have some potential. This was canned over 2 months ago so it might be less sweet and have more hop flavor, like I would prefer, when it's fresh. I'll look out for more from them in the future.

 

Switching gears here to the beer I am most excited to try from the great boxes @beertunes sent me in the NBS BIF, Fremont Brew 4000. Not being able to hit able to visit Fremont is the one thing I missed out on my Settle trip in 2017. Before I want I was hoping to visit the brewery and hopefully try some of their barrel aged beers, but the only time I was close to the brewery was on July 4th and enjoyed fireworks at a park just a few blocks away, but unfortunately things were so crowded it wasn’t worth trying to get into the brewery. I when I saw @beertunes was sending to me I was hoping, not expecting, he would send me one of their barrel aged beers so when it showed up in the third box I got very excited.

4.64/5 rDev +1.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.75

Thank you beertunes for this
22 oz bottle poured into a tulip

A- Brown with red highlights and a small tan head.

S- Toffee, caramel, bourbon, oak, dark fruits, vanilla, molasses, touch of leather.

T- Toffee, dark fruits, cherries/figs, bourbon, oak, some vanilla, molasses, hints of chocolate, touch of leather, a little earthy.

M- Smooth, full body.

O- This beer is excellent, very easy to drink. This is sweet but not cloyingly sweet, great balance with the base and the barrel. ABV is very well hidden.

Cheers NBS!!!

 

It's cloudy but it is a Bock, at 7% it's on the border line of Doppel Bock.
Friar Bock from Lops Brewing in Woonsocket RI. Prost.



3.78/5 rDev +3.8%
look: 3.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

A strong pour from a 16-oz. can yields a fat finger of coffee milk colored soapy froth that retreats to a thin film.
Semi opaque and cloudy tarnished copper with red highlights.

Bold smell of roasted and caramel malt with very low (if any) hops. A hint of alcohol and a little astringency but not a deal breaker. There is some wood and leather with baked apple and pears.

There is the perception of sweetness in the smell, the taste is neutral with an average spicy/peppery bitterness. Along with items from the smell, toasted bready malt, raisins and grain sneak in. This Beer drinks evenly throughout, not much of a finish, it just slowly fades. The spice and pepper linger a while.

Medium body with below average carbonation, I still like the body for being even and smooth. Alcohol is well hidden.
Brewery fresh taste and smell, on the border of session-able and sipper.

 

This paired with my take on Chicken Puttanesca for dinner is otherworldly!

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/3521/9630/



750 ml. bottle.
Cork might read 2017, but I know it's been in my cellar for more than three years. Moderate pour yields a 1/2 inch white head over a bright amber body with some sticky lacing. Nose of funk, fruit (apple, currant, cherry, red grape), citrus (ruby red grapefruit), hay, and a bit of minerality as well. Taste mirrors nose with the fruit more apparent than the tartness. Very pleasant, smooth and highly drinkable with a finish of currant, grape. and citrus bitterness with slight funk throughout. As it warms it does change slightly with more grapefruit on the nose and palate.
Nice feel and overall, what a treat!
Seek this out!
Cheers!!!

 

A rare 2 NBS day for me



10.5 abv [4.50] [4.25] [4.25] [4] [4.25] [4.24]

poured into a can glass, thin semi fluffy head, soapy lacing. Looks like a glass of grapefruit juice.

aroma is notes of peach, cantaloupe, citrus and some pine

taste is peach and melon and some damp piney resin.

mouthfeel is sticky slightly sweet with a resinous feel. Medium carbonation and a slightly bitter dry finish

overall it's a very good triple IPA, very smooth drinking and the high alcohol is well hidden.

 

#ISO

 

Cheers BAs, hope this finds you all well!

Today’s new beer is Modist “First Call”
It’s listed as European dark lager.. I suppose so. Has the added effect of cold press coffee. And the effect is definitely there, got a little wired from this one!


https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/43654/231344/?ba=CraigDeMoss#review