New Beer Weekend #2

This is unusual for me, but I found time to watch the Formula 1 race today and enjoy a couple of new beers at the same time. First up was a witbier from Faxe. I’ve looked at this one on the store shelves for almost a year now and finally pulled the trigger when my favorite wit, Blanche de Chambly was out of stock. Here goes nothing....



Looks and smells like your typical wit. A bit of the usual yeast, fruitiness, and a hint of spice? Not bad at all. I had low expectations given the brewery, and was pleasantly surprised. At $3.30 per tall boy, I’d drink it again, but it won’t replace BdC or Hoegaarden as my preferred wits. But, it does the job in a pinch and my curiosity has been satisfied.

Next up is a Chardonnay Summer Ale from Spearhead. I think it is roughly in the style of a saison, but blended with a small amount of white wine. Let’s give it a pour:



Very little head that quickly disappears. Not much carbonation. Aroma...not much there either. I think I might notice a hint of fruity wine, but that could just be in my head after reading the label. It’s....disappointing. Little flavor, and oddly the mouthfeel seems off...slightly heavier than expected, and not crisp at all. This one just isn’t for me. A local brewery is doing a product called “Crisp”, a blend of cider and sparkling white wine that works substantially better than this and is fabulous on a hot day over ice...I’ll be sticking with that if I’m in the mood.

Cheers everyone...enjoy your brews and hopefully some great food and time with friends & family.

 

Good Sunday evening NBW, ummm, weekenders...

Coming to you from an undisclosed location this Sunday since we spent yesterday reaching said location...

Tonight's beer is Springdale Beer Co.'s The Party Ain't Over. A 6.5% New England IPA. More or less an impulse buy. And guess what...a beer that was canned on 7/14/2020...yup...fresh. Not in the database, apparently, but I added it.



Pours like you see it...don't need to describe much there. Not super cloudy, nice tight, but ephemeral, head.

Big time citrus aroma from the Galaxy and Citra tag team. But the malt isn't buried, at least not too deeply. Kind of a cracker smell peeking through.

The taste is good, but I bit of a letdown. I'm no expert in this style, but it seems to lack the big taste impact. It is citrus forward, some tropical fruit with passion fruit coming to mind, and the malt does do its part in support. My overall thought is a nice flavor, but sort of ho-hum.

Feel is medium bodied, pretty smooth. A little citrus bitter bite at the end and lingering...ummm...orange in the where did that come from category.

So the base beer is Good 'N' You, which I have not had. I will try it since I liked this variant well enough. Mind blowing it is not, but it is a pleasant beer to drink. Feeling around a 3.75 or so on this one, kids.

 

Final new beer of the evening is Bell's Mango Oberon. It's been years since I have had the regular Oberon but I love Mango so what the hell. This is an odd one. The Mango is there on the nose but yet on the taste kind of but not really; hanging around in the background. It almost has the taste of a vegetable juice more so than a fruit juice and if you told me that this had carrots or celery in it I could almost see that. But despite all of this I don't dislike it and it's unique and fun to drink. The single I purchased will be enough, though.

I do enjoy the soft mouth feel of wheat beers. Remember when they were all the rage?

 

This evening I’m drinking Black is Beautiful from Bluejacket. They describe their version as an imperial sweet stout with cocoa nibs & vanilla beans.

This beer pours a dark brown, almost black color, with a slight tan head.

It smells of coffee, with some chocolate and vanilla.

The taste matches the smell, coffee, chocolate and vanilla.

The beer is full bodied, very creamy, with minimal carbonation.

I really enjoyed this stout. It’s listed at 10 % ABV, but seems to hide the alcohol well. This is my first version of the many Black is Beautiful beers, but if they are all like this, I hope to try many of them.

Cheers

 

Spent the day painting and installing a new front door at our house. Sorry, no pictures of the door or the beer. Love the new format as I normally do not have new beer to try on Sundays. Today was an exception. As I was finishing up my project I needed to go to the local hardware store for a chisel which I didn't actually end up using. Fortunately, the local hardware store doubles as a grocery store with a very good craft beer selection. They recently started stocking Prairie. They've had Christmas Bomb on the warm rack for a while at $8.99/bottle. Today I noticed a few in the singles cooler for $4.99 a bottle. I picked one up to have once my project was complete. Boy am I glad that I did. This was my first time installing a door. I could have went better, but at the end of the day the project is done, the door looks good, the wife is happy and I got to drink a great beer.

L - Thick, nearly black with a very thin mocha head.
S - Cinnamon, roasted malt, vanilla, caramel and coffee. This beer smells terrific.
T - Follows the nose with warming alcohol to finish.
F - This beer is thick and creamy.
O - This beer is very well balanced. It is delicious with many nuanced flavors. Very well crafted. World Class, IMO.

 

Had to work today, so a bit late to the NBW party.

Decided it was time to pop a beer from this round of the NBS BIF from @Roy_Hobbs , which is the beer we had to guess he'd pulled from his cellar with zero hints initially given. After a flurry of yes/no questions, it got narrowed down to an Allagash sour, and I managed to guess it first. I've not had many Allagash beers, so this is a new one to me.



Allagash Avancé - 10.0% sour ale aged in bourbon barrels and finished on strawberries.

A - Pours an opaque amber with a finger of white head that dissipated quickly.

S - tart unripe strawberries, oak, light funk

T - ripe strawberries, mild bourbon vanilla warmth, some oak on the finish. Not as acidic as I expected, perhaps balanced by the molasses? And the funk is hidden under the big strawberry flavors.

M - creamy, heavier body than most sours, medium carb

O - A very well done strawberry sour. Was expecting it to be much more mouth puckering, but the strawberry flavor comes through very clean, but not sweet even with the extra sugars from the molasses. The bourbon barrel aging is a subtle addition, one I'm not sure I would have picked out without knowing it was present. The oak and strawberry are a bit heavy handed, but if I had let it warm up for longer, I imagine more layers of flavor would have come out. But it was so tasty as it was, it was hard to linger over it until it warmed. It's probably a good thing this comes in a 375ml bottles, because it's real easy drinking at 10%abv.

 

Hello New Beer Weekend!!!

Boy this is different, but probably a good idea.

I'll pop in here quickly. I've actually had a few new beers today, but I was on the road in South Dakota all day drinking them. Now I'm back home, and have decided to actually review one of the beers I picked up today.


From Eponymous Brewing in Brookings, SD - Rubescence. It is a barrel aged sour ale with South Dakota raspberries in it. Bottle 17/1000. Bottled on 5-20-2020.

Damn! Damn, this is tasty. Not too tart, or sour, but there's some there. There's also a bit of sweetness. I'd say the barrel ageing smoothed it out a bit, and makes it a mellow, and easy drinking beer.

Review:

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

Pours a nice dark red. 1 finger red head, however, the head didn't actually last too long. No lacing on the glass.
The nose is a nice raspberry aroma. There's sour notes from it, as well as sweet notes.
Taste - Lots of raspberry in it. Like the nose there's a good deal of tartness to it, but it also is a bit sweet.
Mellow and smooth feeling. Not really thick, but not thin either. It also has a bit of a bubbly feeling, that lingers.
A very tasty beer and one that was very well aged in their barrel system.


This will have to be it for today. Driving all day, I'm getting tired as hell. Have a good night all.

 

So I tried posting a pic from Imgur but apparently I suck as what link I can copy doesn’t come over as a picture.
Any ways, in the spirit of NBW #2 I went with my second favorite genre, the sour. Ommegang put out one named Pale Sour that I had to try and was glad I did. Malts seemed featured in this one, but no sweetness - for all the world it seemed like an imperial lager that was blended with a sour. I may need to drink a few more just to make sure I tasted it right.
Cheers!

 

Been there done that. Hell, I might even have the t-shirt!

 

Like "NBS" which was of the past I just Wanted to know the proper acronym for this "New Beer Weekend #2" thread. Is it NBW#2 ?

 

Man that sounds good, can't wait to jump into a big bright beer like that again. Reading about it here is the nearest thing.

 

An unexpected 2nd addition today. Buddy rolled back through Santa Rosa from a fishing trip and brought me 4lb. of fresh halibut and this.



3 day old can into Spiegelau IPA glass.

A: Light golden with 1.5 fingers of medium density white head with good retention and left ringed lacing.

S: DANK and earthy, subtle pine underneath. SO much great aroma, fills the room.

T: Follows the nose very well. Finishes with plenty of bitterness and a hint of astringency, bitterness lingers in a pleasant way.

F: Low-medium bodied with medium carbonation, slick on the tongue and swallow, so crisp for an 8% DIPA, maybe borderline on being a bit on the thinner side.

O: Its very hard to improve upon the original PtE, I feel this exceeds on the aroma but sacrificing a bit on the body. But that makes it a scary easily crushable 8% DIPA with great West Coast attributes. Nice to have something this incredibly drinkable without a bunch of sweetness. Outstanding for my palate and preferences.

BA score = 4.79, rDev = +5.7%

 

Holy crap did NBS die? I’ve had some family issues the last few weeks, so I’m a bit out of the loop...

 

Use the BBcode link from imgur, just paste it right into your post. It's already got the img tags ready to go.

 

We are Saturday now as well...

 

Not quite a death. More of an evolution. Now it's Saturday and Sunday, thus NBWeekend.

 

I'll look for that. When i link via computer, it's fine, but by phone it's not the same. Or that Pale Sour rocked me more than I thought it did.
Nah. It was tasty though!
Thanks!