New Beer Sunday (week 796)

Greetings, fellow NBSers, and thanks to @WunderLlama for getting us underway this Memorial Day weekend Sunday. Hats off to all of you that have served your respective nations, in one way or another.

Today, it's a partly cloudy 70° in the inland NW. It was rainy and windy to a disturbing degree for much of the week, especially on Thursday, but it's rather pleasant, right now.

After breakfast, I hit one of the last beers in my possession that I had received from @Whyteboar via NBS BIF #11:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/335/40671/?ba=woemad#review
At nearly 2 1/2 yrs old, I was a little apprehensive, even for a 11.5% imperial stout. Turns out my fears were groundless, as it drank like a champ.
Later, I had a DIPA from a local brewery:

And then I had it again:

Outstanding example of a local NE style DIPA.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/57417/486166/?ba=woemad#review
Not sure I'll be back with another New Beer today. If not, have a great week, y'all, and stay safe.

 

Not too many options canned in WA, but I fell in love with Bale Breaker when I tried all their experimental stuff onsite. If you're ever in the area - definitely pay them a visit!

 

OK, I'm ready for beer #2, which was going to be beer #1 today. No matter.

It is (no surprise here) another crowler from a (fairly) local brewpub. (If you consider within 20 or so miles local). But, this is a MN small town brewery, so very much worth supporting in these times, IMO. This is my second beer from them.

At least the crowlers we get here are 750ml, and not the 32oz'ers in other parts of the country, so I'm "only" at 3 pints rather than 4 once this one is done.

Anyhow, enough blather.

Giesenbräu Bier Co. 31 Hour Pale Ale
ABV: 5.2%
IBU: 39



Aroma is fruity, sweet, and bready. The aroma is unusual for an APA; a bit sweet, a bit fruity, a bit sweet bread. I like the aroma, even if typical of an APA. I get no citrus, despite the brewer's stated hops bill.

Tall, slightly off-white thick head above an amber body, clear with modest amount of tiny bubbles rising. The head recedes somewhat slowly, leaving gobs of sticky and stringy lacing behind, all the way down the glass as the beer is consumed. (The second pour, not shown in the pic, developed a huge head from a down-the-middle pour.)

The taste starts with the same character as the aroma, but adds a bit bit earthiness, and develops an impressive bitterness almost immediately (impressive considering the stated IBU). This bitterness carries through all the way to the aftertaste. The bready malts provide a nice balance to the hops bittering. The finish is relatively dry. The bitterness lingers well into the aftertaste.

The mouth feel is thin.

Overall, a decent, well-balanced APA, and one I would not hesitate to buy if at their taproom. In the larger world of excellent APAs, though, it is a bit below average.

L: 3.5 | S: 3.25 | T: 3.5 | F: 3.25 | O: 3.5 | Rating: 3.42

 

Woodgrain French Toast Milk Stout, 5.2% ABV. Pours black with a 3+ finger light-brown head that left light lacing. They nailed the sweet smell of french toast with syrup, including vanilla, cinnamon, egg, and maple. Taste is weaker than the smell, not much sweetness, lactose, with moderate bitterness. Excellent mouthfeel, overall outstanding largely based on the look and smell. A bit more sweetness and/or less bitterness could have made quite a difference.

4.32/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.5 | smell: 5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Note sure how they nailed the smell so well, but fell relatively short on the taste.

 

Good evening NBS, Had to break into the basement and find a beer that would work with the perfect afternoon in the back yard. Self Reliance Nelson Sauvin from Hill Farmstead.
A stunning display of that hop, loads of white wine character, but a full on feel of an IPA. Excellent on every level
Cheers all
Self Reliance: Nelson Sauvin

Hill Farmstead Brewery
American IPA | 6% ABV

4.19/5 rDev -5.2% | Average: 4.42
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

Poured from a 750 ml bottle into the large goblet.
A - Bright sun color, excellent clarity, cabonation is determined to keep a .5 inch white cap alive through the entire experience.
S - White wine, grape skin, some mineral notes include an initial sulphur thread that was gone in seconds. the farmstead touch in aromatics. Mixed culture, a touch of wood. and lemon, pineapple, Loire valley White.
T - Lemon reduction, grilled pineapple, orange jam on saltines, there is a Savignon Blanc in there, nice chalky minerality. A touch of funky rime.
M - Medium in body, Semi tart start, then waves of sweet, a nice middle with a balanced acidity, Soft in texture, nice dry finish
O - A delightful display of a great hop. The canvas is all farmstead for sure, a little like single hop E for thoase who have had that offering. Exceptionally well done showcase Nelson Sauvin hops

 

1st afterwork beer, 1st beer of my weekend, and I drank this pour before I had the chance to finish my review, so, I'm having a 2nd to help finish my review!

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/45496/309361/



16 oz. can.
Canned 05/14/20.
Near vigorous pour (not quite straight down) yields an inch and a half white head over a very cloudy, straw-colored body with some lacing. Quite floral nose with traces of citrus and tropical fruit. After a few minutes the floral fades, letting the citrus take over and kick the tropical fruit to the curb. Taste is white grapefruit, ruby red grapefruit, and lemon while finishing with citrus rind and pith. Good feel and overall, an easy drinking 7% IPA while being a Hazebro's dream!
Cheers to Foam!

 

#2, our friend @lordofthewiens had this magnificent beer earlier and declared his admiration for Prairie. I second that sentiment - I am a full-fledged Prairie fanboy.





4.53/5 rDev +3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Pours as black as 3 am in the middle of nowhere with a tan head that dissipates almost immediately and provides no lacing, which isn’t surprising in my experience, given the ABV at 13.3%.

There’s some booze (shocker!) and lots of rich milk chocolate on the nose (double shocker!), but no sign of the coconut or marshmallow that I could detect.

Both components made up for that absence in spades on the taste, especially the marshmallow. There’s rich milk chocolate in abundance, and a nice exotic flavor note from the coconut, but there is a stupidly staggering amount of marshmallow flavor.

NOTE: I love marshmallow.

The mouthfeel is commensurate with the heft of this beer. If you don’t like sweets (I absolutely ADORE sweets), stay away from this beer. If you do like sweets, consider shoving little old ladies aside to acquire this, because it is the REALLY real deal.

 

NBS # 3

Outer Range Black Denim Jacket. 5.8% American Stout. Notes below soon.

4.08/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

L - 4 - Dark as night. No, not last night, this night. Yeah, that one. DARK. Good lacing, not much head unless hard pour is executed.
S - 4 - Good roast, coffee impression, dark dough. Nice.
T - 4.25 - Where it shines; has a sharp coffee roast/mocha flavor to it, only issue is it trails off pretty quickly. Nice after-taste though.
F - 3.75 - A little thin, not huge by any means at 5.8% but still expected a fuller palate impression. Good carb-cream balance for a Stout.
O - 4 - another solid banger, out of the 'haze-bruh' obsession that seems to dominate their tap/can list, and proof they can do a lot MORE than just murky IPAs.

 

Good afternoon y'all and a happy Memorial Day weekend and that. What was supposed to be an overcast day turned out to be mostly pretty damn sunny up here, so instead of the list of indoor checkmarks laid out to be done, we took a nice long walk with the dogs through the neighbourhoods to deliver some of the multitudinous broccolini starts that was the one set of seed starts my GF tried to start that really took off and went buck wild. I guess the sunflowers are doing ok as well, but the broccoli has just gone crazy.

Since the weather decided to shine out, I figured it's time to dig in to this Holy Mountain saison I've been sitting on for... well a couple of months now at this point. Grisella is a biere de miel that was brewed with a bunch of specialty grains, barrel aged honey, and then sat in brandy barrels for a while before being finished off with brett. I figured it would benefit from a sunny afternoon, and I've seen no evidence to the contrary thus far.



An aggressive aggressive pour was able to coax a shortlived fuzzy white head, but that is quickly usurped by absence, and all that is left is a half-bauble of crystal clear rich gold. Conspicuous wet bubbles populate top to bottom.

The nose is the highlight here for me. Tart and lightly sweet, it's got a nice blend of brett with green apple and white wine grape must. Time eventually reveals a slightly sweet layer, and some hiding fruit and grass.

Flavour builds a ramp of sweet smoothe saison, again bringing forth white wine and green apple, along with some hints of the honey and floral/fruity/grassy hops that hide between the other flavours. The ramp leads to raspy harsh brett finish that is exacerbated by the sandwich I'm eating. Separating the food from the drink, the finish is still somewhat raspy, but mellows noticeably. There's some faint evidence of the fruity/floral hops, and the honey character emerges between sips, emanating from the sticky stalactites and stalagmites I imagine are metaphorically present. I'm spinning out a bit hold on. I'm back. I don't really get much influence from the brandy barrels, other than the white wine influence noted above.

Sharp carbonation and a lingering finish with evident hopping alongside the brett tartness.

Holy Mountain is really damn good at what they do (brewing beer). This is not going to do anything to dissuade anyone of that notion. That being said, it doesn't stand out against their other mixed fermentation offerings as much as I had hoped it would, and, specifically within the context of HM brews, it's more in the good than great category for me. That still puts it streets ahead of most other options out there, but I know they can blow me away, and in this particular instance, they didn't. I'd gladly drink more if someone was pouring, but I wouldn't look for it, or necessarily grab it over any of their other mixed fermentation offerings.

Cheers, hope you've got something enjoyable in your glass as well, and that you're having a wonderful weekend! Stay safe!


PS:
Apologies if it's already been addressed in one of the posts I haven't gotten to yet, but did we travel back in time!!?!? 760? I thought we were nearing 800!! ;P

 

Another new-to-me from Foam Brewers.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/45496/283574/



16 oz. can.
Canned 05/14/20.
Moderate to vigorous pour yields an inch and a half white head over a very hazy straw golden body with some lacing. Nose of tropical fruit with a bit of citrus. It was a valiant effort by citrus but tropical fruit held its own for flavor as well, with citrus coming through in the finish. Good feel and overall, a nice DIPA from Foam Brewers and would highly recommend.
Cheers!

 

Wasn't planning on reviewing two beers today, but here we are. I'm an unabashed Fox Farm fanboy, but this one was very middle of the road for me. I suppose it's hard to stand out with an American Brown ale. This ends up being a very drinkable beer that is pretty crushable and doesn't try to be something it wasn't intended to be. Just didn't jump out at me the way so many other FF beers do. That said, I applaud breweries that dabble in all sorts of different styles vs. sticking to the NEIPAs and other mainstream styles.


3.71/5 rDev -8.8%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

Pours a dark, dark brown with a fairly fluffy head that lasted longer than I expected base on how it poured. Spots of lacing that clung to the glass for quite some time. Smell is all roast, and fairly unremarkable. Taste is....thin....as is the feel. I suppose for the style, it's not out of whack. Overall, this is a very drinkable, if somewhat nondescript beer.

 

There is something about that glass that brings the colors out. It's narrow so maybe it compresses everything. Sometimes in certain light it looks neon along the sides. That beer almost looked like a glass of orange juice though.

 

Thanks, Jay. Miss you too man. And nope, we actually moved one street over, ha! I'll BM you.

 

Another beer from @beertunes, Structured Plainsman.

3.87/5 rDev +3.2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Thank you beertunes for this
16 oz can poured into a pint glass

A- A hazy golden straw with a small white head

S- Sweet malts, citrus, a nice earthy/floral quality.

T- Sweet malts, some corn, floral, some citrus, a little earthy.

M- Smooth, light body.

O- A tasty and easy to drink lager.

Cheers!

 

Good evening, all, and thanks to @WunderLlama for kicking things off with a great sunrise photo! I've had a pretty good week. Great Clips finally opened here, and I was more than happy to endure the three-hour-plus wait for my first haircut in almost three months. My favorite tavern also opened for sit-down service, so i was finally able to enjoy that Midleton Very Rare I've been promising myself since St. Patrick's Day. I didn't quite make it to June without having to mow the lawn, but I came close. I'll count May 22 as a win on that one. Now for a beer: New Holland Dragon's Milk White, an allegedly bourbon barrel-aged white stout. First impression was that there's not much bourbon nor barrel. It's also not very "stout," with a medium light body and a rather watery mouthfeel. As it warmed, though, the bourbon started to peek through, along with a bit of alcohol heat. The finish is mostly dry, with a bit of astringence and a slightly unpleasant hint of sourness lingering on the palate. I'm not "all in" on this one. YMMV.



Review pending.

 

My special new beer is Cantillon classic Geuzue, 100% Lambic. I won the bottle at a charity raffle many years ago.
This 2013 bottle was cellared (cold) for many years.
The initial pour is optically clear and amber. (Later pours got cloudy). There is little visible carbonation.
The aroma is tart and vinous.
The flavor is very full. It is tart, but not sour. It is quite cider-like. There are green apple and grape notes. There are woody and slightly funky aspects.
The finish is somewhat dry.
This is special. it would be a weekly indulgence if I lived near Belgium.

 

I don't really care for most OS IPAs, something about the high IBUs and caramel malts just wears on my palate about halfway through the glass. Occasionally I am in the mood for one but then after one I am done. But at the same time I do really enjoy hops, just not the bitterness. So this weekend I wanted to try a few new to me beers that focus on the hops but not necessarily the bitterness.

First up while cooking dinner was Sixpoint Meltdown. It was canned on 02/21/20 with a BB date of 08/19/20. I was slightly leery because of the canned on date however an added bonus to lower IBU beers is that they seem to hold up better (at least for my palate). The beer was fantastic and a lot of fruity smells and flavors going on, would definitely drink again. The 8% ABV is dangerously hidden and a sneaky one for sure.

After dinner was Sierra Nevada/Bitburger Triple Hop'd Lager. I have wanted to try this beer but haven't seen it in my area at all unfortunately but recently came across it in the mix a six section of a local store so I grabbed one, canned on 01/08/20 and BB 01/07/21. Fantastic! I love Lagers and this checks all of the blocks but has a nice slight bite at the end, would gladly drink again. I'm sure that the age has taken a bit of the bite out but I would classify this as more of an IPL so if you enjoy those you would enjoy this.

 

Good evening NBS
I worked a 12 hour shift today and I'm ready for a beer. Maybe not this beer, but it's the right day for it...

The review:
12oz can stamped 23AUG20 MY0617 poured into a shaker pint following the directions on the can to flip 3 times and pour straight down. 5 % ABV served at fridge temp. The beer pours very bright, very light amber with tight nitro head that is pale khaki in color and settles to a 1/4" cap. The aroma is minimal with a hint of grain, like practically zero odor. The taste is semisweet light caramel at first with a touch of familiar Bud underneath before a firm mildly bitter and creamy finish. The mouthfeel is medium bodied only due to the nitro with a mostly dry finish. Overall, ok. A Bud with a tan and a head that lasts more than 22 seconds.

With all that said, I'm fully aware that most of the cost of this beer goes to things like this...

and this

I was an everyday Budweiser drinker after college and never would have made it the 15 months I taught high school without it. Cheers all and let's all be kind to each other and enjoy our new beers until the other things we love return to normal.

 

Welcome back, even if only for a little while