New Beer Sunday (week 797)

Hello NBS reviewers. Finally got my hands on this trending beer. This bottle's about 50 days old but hey, I got it. Review follows picture, but I want to add I did like this beer and if it was a 6-7% ABV I would definitely buy it again. Thankfully it came in the 12oz format because I have more beers lined up this afternoon.

3.81/5 rDev -7.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

Poured from a 12oz bottle dated 3/10/20 to a Nonic. Clear, light copper or medium amber body sits below a 1.5" head of just off white made of a size variety of bubbles from 1/4" to cream. The cream on the edges looks amazing. Head eventually fads to 1/16" and the lacing is moderate. I expected more in the lacing from the creamy sections of foam. Others mentioned a slight haze in their reviews, I don't see it.
The initial nose surprises me, pineapple. I know this is basically a west coast IPA and I did not expect that. Further sniffing reveals the expected sharp, dank hop notes expected.
The taste is as expected, its like a steroid version old school (10 years ago old-school) IPAs. Alcohol is sensed, but not to the extent expected for a 9.2%. Mouthfeel matches West coast IPA standards.
Overall, a nice trip back to the IPA's I enjoyed before my NEIPA jag took hold.

 

Smokey bacon to me, but that was a review from 2014. I liked it, and I've liked it since (though I haven't re-reviewed it.)

 

A humble request:

Please name the beer & brewer in the text of your post, even if it is blatantly obvious from the picture. Sometimes (for whatever reason) the pictures do not display for me.

I will be very appreciative! Thanks!

 

Hi everybody! I'm just checking in with a quick shot while I finish up the last of my plantings for the day. Coincidentally, the beer I'm trying right now was chosen just for this type of situation:

Kronenbourg 1664 Blanc, a witbier
Context is important here, in that I picked this one out to hopefully find a budget, easy-going take on the style, and especially refreshing after (or during ) some yard work; something more interesting than Blue Moon, with the finesse of St. Bernardus, but more casual and affordable.

So it's rather unfortunate that even with those less than lofty ambitions, this beer isn't cutting it with me. The feel is right, but the flavor is cloying and annoying. Any orange quality that's here is too loud and artificial, and very much brings to mind a Snapple Orange Ade. Not only that, but there's precious little in the way of spicy phenols to provide any counterbalance. Not recommended , C- (2.25).

 

Sixteen Point Imperial IPA from Devils Backbone brewing.

L: Pours a beautiful clear golden color with about a finger and a half of head that leaves a bit of lacing. 4.5/5
S: Floral and piney. 3.5/5
T: Sweet at first before the hops show up. Some citrus flavors followed by pine that lingers on the tounge. 4/5
F: Full body and low carbonation. 3.75/5
O: A great looking IIPA that delivers on the pine and resinous flavors. Decently balanced. Drinks like you'd expect a 9% beer. 4/5 for a BA generated 3.819/5

 

Howdy NBS!
Hope everybody's staying safe out there, what with all the various species of chickens coming home to roost all over. After a brief but brutal blast-furnace out of the blue here in Montreal, the temps are finally back to a normal level. Wednesday night it was 100 and humid in my living room. Today, though, it is fresh and cool, dry and crisp. Not unlike the beers that that heat had me craving.

I had planned on doing the last push on finishing the balcony biergarten setup today, but forgot that Home Depot here is closed to give their workers a break during all this shit, so that will have to happen later this week and so today is officially less busy.

In some very cool, but kind of creepy news when you think about how wonky the climate and whatnot is, a whale has spent the last few days swimming up the St. Lawrence to Montreal and is now hanging out in the port and being adorable. I swear, every time I think that current events can seem any more bizarre, something like that happens... I haven't tried to see it yet, but if it sticks around till Tuesday I'll ride over and see if I can see him or her.

For my first beer today I am having a citra saison from the same brewery that I reviewed from last week (Mille-Îles). I feel like a lot of times saisons can be hit or miss for my palate, but hoppiness buffs out certain sins and, as I said last week, these guys seem to know what they're doing. So let's see how it is.

It pours hazy white gold with a finger or so of airy white head that rapidly drops to a patchy film, leaving little hints of lace in its wake. Okay retention. The aroma is citra-esque and a bit saison-y. Tangerine, mango, a little pithy, lemonpepper. Flavor-wise it is more a saison with a touch of citra. Bone dry with bread crust, white pepper, a hint of grassiness from the hops and otherwise generally phenolic. It is dry as could be with super active tiny bubbles that give it some lightness on the tongue.
This is a simple, medium-phenolic saison with an added punch to the smell. It is peppery and citrus-scented with a saisony phenol bite that finishes off each sip. It's a nice beer. It doesn't quite scratch my itch for a saison or for something hoppy, but it is a perfectly good beer that I'd have again if I came across it. I'll add it tomorrow, as has become my habit in the last year or so, but I think it is in the upper 3s to low 4s for me across the board.

Santé!

 

Yeah, you appear to be different from me (surprise! surprise!). I am not a fan of 'meaty' beers.

Cheers!

 

A bit of a later start for me today, due to the great online pilsner tasting (thanks, again, @FBarber) - 6 beers over the 2 days, which is a lot for me.

Anyway, my first for today is one of the "All Together" beers from Minneapolis brewer Wild Mind Artisan Ales.

And, speaking of Minneapolis (and surrounds), keep us and our local brewers and liquor stores in mind during this time: Twin Cities Beer Stores & Breweries Impacted By Riots

Back to the beer...

Wild Mind Artisan Ales All Together NEIPA
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: NA



(Glass compliments of Wild Mind. A bonus with my most recent delivery order!)

Hazy, nearly opaque, muddy orange color. The muddy orange is a look that is common in many NEIPAs, and by itself knocks the look down a peg or two in my book. It is just not very attractive to me. The beer is topped by a thick white head that, as it recedes at a moderate pace, develops a thick rocky surface and leaves good-looking lacing on the glass. So, nice looking head and lacing, ugly color.

As anticipated for the style, the aroma is strongly citrus, mainly grapefruit with some orange, hints of other tropical fruits. Very good.

The citrus / grapefruit is front and center with the taste, which also has a bit of other bright tropical fruits and a little pine, perhaps (not quite, though). The middle and finish maintain the fruity flavors with virtually no bitterness. The aftertaste does develop a touch of bitterness over time. The aftertaste is completely without hop burn!

The mouth feel is smooth and mild with a respectable, creamy body.

Overall, a good, but not great, NEIPA.

L: 3.5 | S: 3.75 | T: 3.75 | F: 3.75 | O: 3.75 | Rating: 3.74

 

Parish Reve Coffee Stout. Sent to me in a ninja box from @Roguer, I've been wanting to try this for a long time. Short version: this is the best coffee stout I've ever had, non-BA or BA. It sounds corny, but drinking it is delightful. Pours black with a short head that dissipates quickly. Aroma is stunning, like what I get from my Chemex in the morning--this is a real coffee beer. Taste is like a good, multi-dimensional small-batch coffee: cocoa and vanilla in perfect balance with a slight bitterness. It's sweetness is exactly the level I go for when adding a couple of teaspoons of turbinado sugar to my coffee, and I'm supposing it's a bit of lactose that's adding a touch of body (?) Carbonation is barely there to remind you you're drinking a beer. Just . . . wow. I could drink this every day, especially in this 12oz. format. Thanks, Andrew!

 

I'd enjoy seeing more reviews from you of beers in the "casual and affordable" category.

 

Good Sunday afternoon, New Beer Samplers and commentators. And thank you, Ian, for opening the festivities. I'm glad you had a good week! It's been a nice weekend. We spent the past two days at the Jersey Shore and the weather was great. Light traffic on the drive home and I was able to spend some time working in the yard. We're enjoying having a much smaller property to maintain. Plenty of time for NBS!

My first review today is Jamais Vu, a Tripel brewed by Two Ton Brewing in Kenilworth, NJ. It's one of the small, local breweries I've enjoyed since its opening. I think I tried this a couple years ago but made no notes. And I believe this is the first time it's been canned. It's not a typical Tripel. It's lite on the banana and heavy on the orange zest and caramel. It's creamy, well-carbonated, and it drinks very easily for 9.2% ABV. It's charm is its quirkiness, in color, smell, and taste. It has an autumnal quality that I cannot describe with words. Nobody will confuse it with La Fin Du Monde (my personal favorite Tripel) but it's a fun beer brewed by some very nice folks. I won't repeat my full review but my rating was 3.78 - very close to the rating of my esteemed Jersey comrade @TheGent. Hope to be back soon. Cheers, NBS!

 

I wish that would’ve been fresher to send to you (I think it was canned last October), but they don’t package the coffee iteration of Eugene (the base beer) very often and all the cool kids make a big deal about the coffee, so I figured I’d better send it. I should’ve sent you the base beer, too, so you could do a side-by-side, but I’m not very smart. Glad you liked it, and I’m really glad your daughter unrelentingly busted your chops. THAT is awesome.

 

Haha, I will have to fix that!

 

That beer is the really REALLY real dealio, especially if you like coffee in porters or stouts, IMHO.

Check and CHECK.

 

Crossed wires on both of our parts I think... I have been single for five years and am looking more for a "relationship," she has only been single this past year out of her entire adult life and not really looking for something but she knows she likes/wants to be with me enough to have me as an important part of her life, and so we decided that going forward and still dating and keeping in frequent contact was a mutually-agreeable idea rather than just giving up because we're not necessarily on the exact same page. In other words, she wants to take it a little slower than I realized, and I apologized if I seemed like I was rushing things. It's been going better now... like I said, communication is important. Thank you both for your kind words and good vibes... this stuff is haaaard to navigate, especially right now. Cheers!

On to the next new beer from Garrison City... this beer is called Moral Sweatshirt, and it's a "dark chocolate peanut butter stout." Or, as the aforementioned lady would call it... "gross, I don't want that at all" (even though she loves flavored stouts, peanut butter is not an ingredient she prefers). Good, more for me. The yardstick by which pretty much all of these is measured would have to be Mast Landing's Gunner's Daughter, itself a peanut butter/chocolate milk stout. Though this does not have lactose (as far as I know) and is a full two percent ABV stronger than that beer, I'm thinking there will probably be some similarities.



Pours a pitch (and I mean pitch) black roasty grain-influenced color with a thin but retentive head of off-khaki foam that lasts indefinitely. Not much lace or legs here. It's not an awesome appearance, but it's definitely darker and more intense-looking than I expected. Honestly other than the lighter color of the head, I would probably think this to be a 9%+ ABV beer given the intense darkness on order.

The nose is dark chocolate, roasted coffee, toffee, peanut butter, and ethanol... pretty much in that order. Man, this seems like it's gonna be a very good beer. It's got just the right amount of peanut butter in it to appeal to fans of beers like that but not so much that it overwhelms the base stout. There seems to be a ton of roasted barley in here; it's so chocolate-y smelling with so much density to it. I'm impressed!

The flavor is right up my alley, too, with a huge hit, right upfront, of dense roastiness, coffee, and caramel, before the chewier chocolate flavors meld with the unmistakable salty/nutty peanut butter flavor. Very authentic stuff. This is kinda like the mid-point between ML's Gunner's Daughter and their Imperial Gunner's Daughter, actually. Solid mineral component with the superb semi-sweet combination of chocolate and roasty peanuts overtaking the mid-palate. Surprisingly estery in the finish with a bit of a typical "stout" aspect coming out... some extremely-light floral/fruity stuff happening in the post-nasal section, which should appease anyone who finds this kind of thing overly-flavored. This is deeeefinitely not a "pastry stout." It's a stout with some flavoring added that works with the base... full stop. Big difference, and an important one. I love this! I would drink a four-pack any day, and I think it might be better than Gunner's Daughter in a sense, mostly due to the lack of lactose, which gives it a roastier overall profile. Sliiiightly more aggressive and "stout-like," I suppose, even though it's probably splitting hairs. Man, I cannot wait to go back to this place. They had a fucking great (for the style) milkshake IPA, for god's sake! They did a drinkable white stout too! I'm excited for the future of this place. Relevant links here:

https://www.garrisoncitybeerworks.com/
https://www.instagram.com/garrisoncity/?hl=en

Currently listening to some amazing shit on vinyl...

SeeYouSpaceCowboy - The Correlation Between Entrance and Exit Wounds





until next time NBSers!

 

Hah! Thanks!

I guess if they don't work out they're usually easy enough to describe- either Snapple or Kool Ade or Windex etc...

 

Brewing Projekt Cowabunga Gose with pineapple, sea salt and a tea blend of hibiscus, black currant, apple, blueberry, orange and mango, 4.6% ABV. Pours hazy orange with a two-finger white head that left slight lacing. Nose is cornucopia of fruit, mostly pineapple and orange. Taste follows, quite sweet, only slightly tart, with salt in the aftertaste. Excellent mouthfeel, overall world class. This would be great for sessioning on a hot day.

4.46/5 rDev +2.3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Doing electrical work today. We just remodeled our kitchen and put in a gray tile backsplash, so the old ivory switches and outlets had to go. I got black switches and outlets with smokey-grey plates. The outlets that aren't GFI each have two high-power USB ports.