New Beer Weekend #2

Hello all, happy New Beer Weekend! Right now I am drinking this new open fermented saison from Trillium brewed in collaboration with the beer director from Row 34, a great seafood restaurant and bar with loads of great craft beer, situated directly next to Trillium's original Congress St location, who usually has a beer from them on tap.

Some notes from the brewery:

7.5% abv, this saison is brewed with Valley Malts pilsner, munich, vienna, spelt, and wheat, hopped with whole leaf Styrian Goldings hops

Dated 04/16/2020

Pours a slightly hazy yellow gold with a massive creamy frothy white foam head. No chilled temps or slanted pour was keeping that foam head down. Excellent retention sticking around for the whole glass. The beer gets hazier and cloudy as the bottom of the bottle gets poured.

This beer smells beautiful, fresh and floral, a touch wheaty, toasty and malty, a perfect minute amount of farmhouse funk cleaner than a barnyard, saison yeast, wildflowers, earthy, herbal, grassy, a touch peppery, hints of fruity esters like apple, pear, banana, lemon, perhaps even apricot, almost vanilla-like cleanness, great balance, like a nice proper classic saison, not tart or oak aged or too funky or anything.

In for the sip. Wow, very unique and interesting, maybe that's what they were going for. The taste definitely branches off from the aroma with notes of black tea leaves, lemonade, phenolic clove-like cracked pepper, mild bubblegum, grainy toasty wheaty cereal-like malts, some estery sweet apple, pear, banana, apricot, clean lemony citrus, hint of farmhouse funk, wildflowers, herbal earthy grassy piney hops, finishing dry with an almost vanilla-like straw note.

The mouthfeel on this beer is rather enjoyable as I find with most saisons. It has a medium amount of 'thickness' I would say, a lighter body and feel, super creamy but still dry and crisp with a moderate amount of carbonation.

Overall this is a pretty unique tasting saison. I personally think it smells better than it tastes, and it still tastes like a decent saison. Certainly a nice dry, crisp and refreshing beer with an interesting little twist in flavor profile. Thinking about it now, it almost tastes a little like some Fantome saisons, with big herbal flavors, floral and phenolic spice notes, toasty and with interesting "spice" flavors like tea leaves even if they weren't actually added. Glad I got to try this one thanks to the Trillivery. Cheers!

 

Many thanks @JackHorzempa for getting the NBW/New Beer Saturday/Sunday thread off and running.

New beer to me and BA is Fieldwork's Black is Beautiful, 10% Imperial Stout.



Can into a goblet glass.

A: jet black with low-density chocolate head with near zero retention and left no lacing.

S: Smells like a big stout, lots of roasted malt, dark chocolate, cherry cordial, and subtle licorice undertones.

T: Follows the nose fairly well, licorice has more prominence, the dark chocolate and cherry aspects don't (pleasantly) come with any cloying sweetness. Finishes with moderate bitterness, roasty aspects hang on the palate.

F: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation, slick on the tongue and swallow. On the thinner side for a beer of this ABV, slight tongue tingle from the alcohol.

O: Its a good beer, but a better cause. Happy I tried it, but glad I only grabbed one can.

BA Score = 4.01, rDev = 0.0

 

FWIW, Forager lists the Humble Forager beers separately on their menu:

 

Today's first new beer is more in my wheelhouse than yesterday's. I've had a number of Russian Imperial Stouts in my day. First one ever, of course, was Old Rasputin (which is an amusing story on its own) and I still consider that a pretty high bar for the style.

Today, it's Jackie O's version, Dark Apparition.


375ml bottle served in a snifter. Can't find a date on it. I think I bought it down at Belmont Station in Portland a while back.

Pours black with a small to medium sized light brown head. Plenty of fine, slow carbonation. Smell is rich, dark roast, coffee, anise.

Taste is a lot of roast bitterness, a bit of boozy sweetness, strong anise, more booze as I drink more. As it warms up, I think I'm starting to get a little chocolate.

Mouthfeel is rich, chewy, thick. This is a very good beer.

Without a side-by-side, I'm not sure if it's better than Old Rasputin, but it might be. Really nice.

 

Glad you enjoyed!

 

No problem at all. I’m glad you enjoyed it! I’m sure it’s the same base for the entire Coastal Sunshine series, they just add different fruits to each one. It’s definitely a great beer for the morning. If you ever come across Humble Forager’s Elevated Perspective DIPA series or their stouts, it might be worth a shot. Forager is a great brewery and this is just their side project. Forager doesn’t distribute by me, so this is a nice secondary option. Cheers!

 

First new pour today, Lake Effect Brewing's Superbier.

Sorry for the picture, I didn't even start drinking yet.


Tale of the Tape: $27 for a $20 Superdawg Gift Card and six pack of this Kolsch offering plus tax at the brewery. 5.0% ABV, 12 oz can without a date, canned shortly before July 16 purchase, refrigerated since birth.

"You may now kiss the bride"

Appearance: Copper bronze pour, nominal carbonation, generous bubbly head lasts for a few minutes leaving soapy lacing. 4.0

Aroma: Bread, cracker aroma, caramel malt backs, sweet. 3.75

Taste: Lightly sweet caramel taste, malt strong, salty pepper backing. Light but pleasant. 3.5

Mouthfeel: Light body, nominal carbonation, sweet, easy drinking and finish. 3.25

Overall: Overall good kolsch pour. 3.25

 

Thanks for including the brewer and beer name in the text.

This is a gentle reminder/request for everyone to do that (I know most of you do). Even if they are blatantly obvious from the picture, the pictures do not always show up for everyone.

ChicagoJ's post for example. I am many times logged in via a VPN, and for whatever reason, i.postimg.cc refuses to connect through the VPN, so, no picture.

 

That sounds scrumptious! The Breakfast version you sent me was fantastic.

 

Great write up. But I ALWAYS look forward to your pics.

 

Greetings NBW on NBS! Today marks not only a new beer but a new country! My mom & brother visited Jordan last year and loved the country. I was unable to join for that trip and while it is a dry country for the most part, they brought back some Jordanian wine; I’m excited to now try a beer from the country as well.



Overall this is just okay - I’m not a huge blonde drinker but the appearance/nose are quite nice and the head lingered. A fairly generic grain profile on the nose and palate, but with more of a dose of hops than I was expecting. The brewery’s page said they were shooting for a pils-styled ale. Light-bodied and crisp. As another reviewer pointed out, even if it’s hard to quantify with descriptors you can taste the passion of the brewers and their efforts to start a craft brewery and source quality ingredients in a country that has never been able to experience it locally before.

Cheers!

 

I was lucky enough to be sent two ninja boxes last week. While the senders had no idea, the timing was fantastic, as it ensured I'd have some great new beer to enjoy during my time off this week. Since I already reviewed one from @2beerdogs a while ago, now I'll try one from @Dimidiata. She knows I'm a huge fan of the saison / farmhouse style and was kind enough to send me some beer from Sante Adairius Rustic Ales (SARA), which has been on my short list of breweries I wanted to try for some time now. I figured I'd start off with one of their classics. This did not disappoint. Very good beer. I can't complain about my options in the Northeast, but I have to admit to being jealous of those of you who live within driving distance of SARA. Thank you, Christine for sending this my way!

4.44/5 rDev -1.6%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Poured relatively conservatively into a standard pint glass. Attractive hazy yellow color with a medium amount of fluffy white head, a thin layer of which lingers for some time. Tons of lacing, which is unusual, at least for the saisons / farmhouse ales I typically drink. Definitely picking up the sour on the nose, although it's not overwhelming. Taste is pleasantly tart and just the tiniest bit of funk in the aftertaste. Feel is pillowy soft and smooth. Less carbonation than I expected based on the effervescence that was present upon opening the bottle. This is a very well done saison.

 

What pic are those ?

 

Other Half DDH Ain’t Nothing Nice IPA (Simcoe, Galaxy, Mosaic dry hopped with Galaxy pellets and Mosaic lupulin powder). Pours a hazy yellow orange color with two fingers of a dense white head that dissipated slowly and leaves a thick blanket of lacing. Aroma and taste follow one another nicely: ripe passion fruit, yellow grapefruit, ripe blueberry, ripe strawberry, lychee, guava, lemon, slight lime, Simcoe cat piss, grass, slight pine resin, slight dankness. Still juicy, but not as sweet as expected. Quite dry and a firm bitterness as you get into the finish. As many say about Other Half, the body and feel to this one is immaculate. Super soft, lush, and creamy. Impressive.

 

Just wow. What texture in that water.

 

Picked this Crowler up yesterday after our first sit down brewery adventure in 4.5 months. Hop of Shame from Hop Culture Brewing in Colechester CT. Well run social distancing situation there, 20+ pick nick tables that are at least 25 ft apart.
The breweries website offers no hint at what the "hop of shame" actually is. However, they are a unique place, because they have 40 acres dedicated to growing their own hops. Maybe "shame" is some back story about trouble growing it or harvesting it. Who knows? Pre-covid I was lucky enough to have a good talk with the brewer (wife of the family business BTW). At the time she said that they do have to outsource some hops for their NEIPAs because they can't grow everything they need.
Due to my son's all being off and doing other things I will have to finish this 32oz. of 8% myself as my wife is strictly a lager woman. Wish me luck.

4.08/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Poured from a 32oz Crowler filled yesterday to a Nonic.
Hazy apricot juice appearance with a decent head that fades rather quickly with no lacing.
Aroma is really strong and pleasant- apricot, peach with mild citrus.
Taste is more balanced than the aroma suggests. Sweet start, dry finish.
This could use a little more carbonation, but the mouth feel is fairly creamy.
Overall, pretty good, would not refuse it.

Epilogue - Never has this happened to me. Maybe to any of you? First I have to say this is my first beer of the day, the following happened with no alcohol in me. I was entranced with the aroma, swirling the glass and sniffing. Wow. Then I accidentally sucked the beer into my nostrils! WTF? Embarrassing, but I am telling all in a self-deprecating moment.

 

If you like a sour with cherries, you’ll love Blossom from Zillicoah Brewing. Delicious, cherry bomb!

 

If we can't laugh at ourselves sometimes we're taking shit way too seriously! Life with laughter is much better.