New Beer Weekend #4

Yeah, that was some odd slip of the fingers - it was the glass I chipped. I nice *tink* and a light, crisp *crinkle* and an upside down V was created on the back side of the glass

Yeah, to me plum and prune have a little bit of tartness in them, though I wouldn't call it sour. It most likely wasn't infected, but the original scent and to some degree the flavors were mildly reminiscent of the infected BCBS bottles I had from (I think it was) 2017, which were still drinkable but had a tang to tart note when compared to the uninfected.

 

You lose some of the adjuncts like pepper or coconut if they get 4-5 months on them, but coffee holds on a bit, the flavor rounds out, the sharp edges disappear. I have a hard time drinking heavy big stouts in the summer months, but Frank sent me a ton that I’ll have this fall.

 

Pours a hazy amber color
Aroma has grapefruit hints
The taste follows the nose with a generous grapefruit flavor
A light bodied moderately carbonated beer
A good fruit and field beer

 

Good morning, all, and Happy New Beer Weekend Day 2! I stopped at HyVee in Waverly, IA, on my way home from church last night to pick up some groceries. As I am wont to do, I took a stroll through the W&S department to see if there was anything I couldn't do without. They have a modest selection of singles, nothing spectacular; however, I did see one that I'd never noticed before: Golden Pheasant, a Bohemian/Czech-style pilsner from Pivovar Zlaty Bazant a.s., Slovak Republic. Hey, a Slovakian beer (and a country tick!) in a green bottle that's been sitting in a lighted cooler for who knows how long, and at the bargain price of $1.99 (negotiated at the register, as it didn't scan and the price tag was not on the shelf). What could possibly go wrong? Well, as it turned out, this was a pleasant surprise. Poured from 33cl bottle into a lager flute. Slightly hazy golden color, with a center pour yielding a thick white head that left a bit of clingy lacing as it settled. Big aromas and flavors of caramel and toffee, with notes of dark bread, tart apple, and grassy and herbal hops. Pleasant, almost silky mouthfeel. Moderately sweet, but not overly so. Good bitterness, with a hit of peppery spice and a bit of astringency on the finish. Points deducted for a bit of lingering sourness on the palate, but otherwise a decent and very drinkable beer. I'd recommend giving it a try. Na zdraví!

3.62/5 (rDev +7.1%)

 

To echo the sentiment of @Roy_Hobbs above... these things are a ton of fun. I whole heartedly recommend anyone at all interested and able to sign up and join.

The last paragraph is included for the discussion to follow.

I think there's a lot of good points in here, and one I find interesting is the question of how much a breweries 'hype' may play into their ratings on this site. Ironically, my first instinct within that arena would be almost the opposite of yours: I think a lot of American breweries (and specific ones in particular, and even sometimes just specific regions in particular) seem to be much more prone to the influence of hype and expectation/desire.
To echo: not to discredit any of the individual brewries or beers, especially none listed there, but in my experience, it would seem the grade inflation (insofar as something as subjective as scoring beers on the internet can have 'grade inflation') seems considerably more prominent and likely to buoy the offerings (whether in specific or in general/spirit) observed by @Roguer. *shrug*

I think the final point there is an underrated one: even within the niche environment of online beer enthusiasts who write reviews on BA, there are definitely different crowds to be found, and who will be looking for different things, with different experiences and motivations (not intending motivations here as anything nefarious or intentional, but for example your point about brewing to style vs the trend towards bigger and bolder that has been an ongoing topic of discussion across styles for the last several years, and will naturally leave more subtlety and nuance-based approaches behind in the ratings game).


Long stretch at work, so I apologize if any of the above is convoluted, unclear, disjointed, or just plain don't make sense. Or if I'm just talking out my ass.

I need a beer.

 

I think I'm getting into the New Beer Weekend concept; it's working well for me.
This morning I was the only one up at 6:30, so I took the dogs for their walk by myself. It was the first time to solo with the three dogs and it went well, at least until the rabbit took off right in front of us. Nobody got loose and nobody was traumatized.
Now the dogs are napping and the humans are all awake and up, and I opened this beer from Cascade. This is Primordial Noir, a "bourbon barrel aged imperial red ale with cherries and spices," and it is quite good.
Deep purple color with no head.
Aroma of tart cherry, vanilla, faint spice.
More definition in the taste. Tart cherry, vanilla, cinnamon, bourbon.
Tart mouthfeel, some funk.
Very nice.

 

Hey! loving the weekend so far! Found this real doozy hiding in the corner....



Poured from the can into a teku glass. No visible can dating, or smudged.

Absolutely blooming and frothy large but controlled bleach white head. Excellent staying power, like a bold IPA, and a gleaming bright white appearance. Light touches of soapy lacing, while sitting on a shiny opaque but not hazy lemon yellow that's in the Goldilocks range, not too dark or light .. Just looking right.. Very great looking brew.

The aroma is gang busters. A giant whiff of tropical fruit, soft acidity and a rush that makes your head go places. Giant amounts of passion fruit, hints even key lime and a touch of pie crust sugar crumble. Tropical guava, mango, you name it… you can get lost here. Touches even creamy notes of vanilla strangely in the mix. I am afraid to even drink this because I am convinced this can't be topped and it wont be better at this point… har har..

The palate is still quite enjoyable, but seems only a slight let down from the nose, which is understandable. A very ight body, supportive enough, but missing a bit of edge to push this wild into exceptional territory. Still the palate hits solidly with good tropical guava, passion fruit, and mango flavors. Real light bodied and comes off more mimosa and slightly flat champagne in feel, but gives excellent fruit character to the palate. Doesn't quite hint of souring, strangely, as it seems to have really mellowed out in acidity and funk, but in a nice way.

I am pretty certain that this is quite a few months old in the can, but seeing that this is so highly rated there was no way I could pass it up for trying. It holds up real impressively, I'd be curious if some of the dry hopping would be more evident for a fresher beer to try. Definitely want to be having this again in the future, and that bouquet is just exquisite!!

look: 4.5 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25 | 4.36/5

Cheers!

 

So a little story. Bear with me.
The end of last month, The Lady Kemo moved to a new unit in the hospital, starting working in the NICU. That very same week, one of my best friends from home delivered her first child via emergency CSection, and they ended up down here in that very same NICU. As a thank you for helping them out (like I was ever not going to), the father in this situation gave me a bottle of beer, since he knows I'm into that kind of thing.
Lo and behold, this week, the little fella is doing well enough that he (and family. He can't drive) gets to go home for a couple of weeks to continue growing before coming back down for his eventual surgery. Good things!
I figured that felt like reason enough to crack into the beer he gifted me for this week's NBW entry, though I realized as I was driving home from work (yes, I think about NBW and what I'm going to have while I'm wiling away the nights at work): I THINK that means that I will have had at least one Pfriem beer every week that I've participated in this newly metamorphosed NBW. Fun* fact! (and as a potential extention into next week... I am ashamed and worried I'll be kicked out of the Northwest, but I've never had their pils. It's been one I've been meaning to pick up forever as reputation has it as quite good, but everytime I've gone to snag a sixer, it's either been the one time it's sold out at the grocery store, or something else more flashy has caught my eye. Well after all the praise heaped in this week's thread, I think I'll have to snag some that I can crack into next week and keep the streak alive!)

So I feel like I've got a decent handle on the range and scope of IPAs, right? Like I think I get that WC IPAs are supposed to be bitter with a lot of grapefruit and pine, yeah? Northwest IPAs tend to push that bitterness a bit further, and have more of a body to support it. Imperial/double/triple are easily understood by watching the home run era of major league baseball. NEIPAs are hazy and less bitter with a lot more focus on aroma and dry hopping. East Coast IPAs USED to be differentiated by being much more malt forward than their West Coast counterparts. English IPAs fall this way as well: more malts than their American counterparts. New Zealand IPAs tend to be lighter and have a more identifiable hop profile. White IPAs utilize wheat more explicitly. Belgian IPAs utilize Belgie yeasts. Sour IPAs are self explanatory. Black IPAs (or Cascadian Dark Ales as they were once known [and yes, that should be their actual name. It makes WAY more sense. But no one asked me {but when has that ever stopped me?}]). Note any and/or all of my interpretations may be inaccurate, but that's kind of the general heuristic understanding I have anyway.
So what the hell is a Golden IPA?



Beautiful pour, the colour and clarity of store bought apple juice. At least initial impressions lead it to live up to it's golden moniker. Nice finger of white soapy head that settles down to a galaxy swirl with clusters of larger bubbles, good fur around the edges, and some decent lacing on the glass.

Nose leads in with sweet grains and soft nondescript fruitier hops. Everyone else (yes, sometimes I read other reviews as well to help me tease out specific flavours that I can't quite pin down, though I do try and have a shape in mind first, and try not to let them influence me aside from identifying specific notes I can't quite put a name to) seems to get a lot of very distinct peach and beach fruits, while the back of the bottle describes a lot of similar fruits and melons, so now I'm wondering if perhaps the two months that I'm now realizing this has on it is a little more than it should have been left to sit.

Flavour is a soft melange of stuff I CAN identify! Bits of cantaloupe and honeydew do emerge, as well as flashes of ripe mango and like hints of starfruit and sure, yeah, I could be convinced that that's a bit peachy. The finish culminates sweet and earthy pine bitter.

Body is very lively and I was all ready to type sticky, but then going back to the glass, it really isn't. Less heft to the body than my brain initially thought, but it's not watery or thin, just... svelte. Finish brings the above fruits together with the bitterness in an almost sickly sweet amalgam that bridges to the lingering bitter afterparty.



Well, I THINK based on this that Golden IPA is trying to lean into the melon-y fruit-y aspect of things, but I'm not really sure that requires a new appellation in this day and age. Ultimately I am grateful to Justin for thoughtfully sending this my direction. This is an enjoyable brew, if not one that rewires my hardware or urges me to run out and pick up another bottle. I give it four out of six nexus-6 brain units.

Cheers!

 

Pardon my ignorance (or sheltered life?), cool looking glass, but what is that graphic?

 

That is a FANTASTIC pic - your doggo is a handsome guy (or gal).

 

Ok, watching some playoff hockey as I pour my first new beer of Sunday. The Capitals have been playing about 25 minutes of good hockey to start the two games of this series so far. Unfortunately, games are 60 minutes long (unless you played game 1 of the CBJ-TB series, which was more than twice that).

Anyhow, the Caps aren't looking as good the first period of this game - having to kill three penalties hasn't helped. But it's something different, so maybe that means the outcome will be different. Such is the superstitious nature of a sports fan.

Anyhow, onto the beer, which will be my 100th rated Ocelot beer, which is the most I've rated from of any brewery (Aslin is close behind thanks to COVID deliveries the GF has been purchasing). The first beers I rated/reviewed from the brewery were generally "simple" IPAs that let the hops shine. Pilsen malt plus hops (usually two varieties) would produce a lightly hazed pale yellow brew that was clean and showed off the hop flavors and scents - they reminded be in a general sense of Maine Beer Co IPAs.

I recall the first beer I had from them that was more like what we'd call "hazy" today - Mi Corazòn, which was awesome. At some point, as I've been told, the original brewer left and the beers started veering towards the these hazy brews, and the beers did become more cloudy. These beers are still good, but I miss the original recipes.

Given the can's ingredient list, Clash is not going to be a reunion for me with the "merely hazy" style Ocelot used to make. The GF said she quite liked this one, but she likes the hazy beers a bit more than I, so that's only half encouraging. I haven't paid hugely close attention to any of the hops involved, but I believe I have generally liked Columbus, and have had mixed feelings about the other two (Waimea and Azacca).

With more than a requisite introduction in place, let's try the beer.


All the malts combine to produce a near white beer - almost like the color of "yellow snow" created by a fairly hydrated being. The fairly voluminous white head was also fairly densely packed. Significant lacing as I typed, a quick refill yielded a near creamy white froth, which then continues the amazing lacing I had seen before.

Nose has a melon sweetness and a tropical fruit opening, and then I start getting coconut, leaning towards suntan lotion (gotta assume this is the Waimea). Some light lemon citrus and even banana sneaks from underneath - mostly suggestions that mingle with the tropical notes.

A liquid of medium heft with a nice softness greets my palate. A fairly clean malt presence, there seems to be a hint of the wheat and oat with a light nuttiness and even lighter banana note - ones that show up briefly then hide until the later taste.

Hops are adding flavors of lime leaf, coconut, melon rind, and eventually some pine branch and reedy lemongrass. That branch is slowly coated by a creeping resin that waits until you think the taste is over to grab you. Finish is medium dry, with the oat flake adding a little that brings about a macadamia-like flavor in some sips.

So this beer reminds me a little of the "olden" days in flavor, especially how the hop notes come out. However, the feel an mild influence of the flaked adjuncts definitely provide a change from those days. In the end, I agree with the GF that I like this beer, I just think I'd like it more the old way, when my lawn wasn't so trampled

 

My two cents worth (and take note: I am an inveterate overrater, so you have THAT to consider) - the most important thing to me whilst drinking a beer is, "How am I enjoying the experience of this beer?"

For me, that starts with the look. If the beer looks unappealing, that's a big stumbling block for me. For example, the first time I tried Boss Tweed from Old Nation (fall of 2017), I was pretty pumped - until I poured it and it looked green. Like, literally green. The entire 4-pack was that way. The taste was good, but the look took the experience down about 4 notches for me.

I don't know what happened with the beer, though our friend @WesMantooth reported the same experience, so I waited until I got another 4-pack to rate the beer. That 4-pack featured a not green beer, which was a good thing, IMHO, and my rating reflected that.

The nose is also obviously important - if I'm thinking, "WTF is THAT smell?" whilst taking a whiff, that's probably not good. Most important, though, is the taste, and I get what you're saying - if I'm drinking an amber ale, but it's WAAAAAY overhopped so that the malt (which should be the star of an amber/red ale, IMHO) isn't a primary component of the taste, I'm probably gonna look like this while drinking said amber:



I will say, though, that I let my, "How much am I enjoying this beer?" compass guide my eventual rating. And, in full disclosure, I try not to take a review/rating too seriously - it's beer, and at the end of the day, beer should be fun. If I'm stressing myself over the rating of a beer and how it fits in its category, that's not much fun.

 

Antidoot Wilde Fermenten A North American Raga


Pours a clouded golden color with a smaller, glass coating head.


Smells of apple skin, light mushrooms and cream cheese among a leathery note, matured herbs together and some orange zest. Got a resinous pine note, opening up the nose to smoky apple pith and a zingy lime pulp note.


Drinks utmost refreshing with a lighter body, producing a thirst quenching effervescence and tartness from beginning till the end.


Tastes of a sudden lime bitterness, blood oranges and matured herbs among sweeter, fermenting apples. Turns utmost funky then, with wet basement, shrooms and used washcloth among a sun ripened apple counterpart. Finishes dry, bitter and sweet, combining the funk of the beer playfully with the utmost fruity apple juice, creating an intriguing, complex beer till the last drop.


Very unusual, complex and convincing - this pushes the boundaries of what a beer can be successfully. The cider in this adds a lot of flavor nuances you wouldn‘t expect in a Saison normally, creating a subtle sweet- and smokiness, which the base beer just could never provide on its own.

 

Good afternoon NBW, this weeks offering is from Thiriez, label states
"dark farmhouse ale aged six to nine months in oak barrels previously containing Cotes du Provence red wine"
I feel that the nod toward Oud Bruin is well done, not a pure Flanders as the acidity is not as dominant. The mouthfeel is outstanding, delicate and complex.
Do good
Be well
Vieille Brune

Sour - Flanders Oud Bruin | 6.5% ABV

Brasserie Thiriez
Esquelbecq, France

3.94/5 rDev +11% | Average: 3.55
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Poured from an undated bottle into the test glass.
A - Dark mahagony color, hides the active carbonation. Creamy tan froth cap stays for quite some time. The bottle opned with strong pop and a small gush, then setttled down.
S - Dark plum, almost Quad like, the wine barrel plays an outsized role here. With time spent there are elements of shade tobacco, grape skin, tannin, earthy grains, balsamic all in the mix.
T - Ripe plum, jumps out, then a lovely series of cross threads, Cote du Rhone, black pepper, hint of anise, again a nice earthy thread, some cola, balsamic, and dark cocoa.
M - So delicate, the feel is velvety, with the carbonation prancing across the tongue. Semi sweet start then a bit of acidity winding up on the neatral side. The finish is rich, and fruity.
O - A delight on the palate, soft feel, the barrel treatment must be the driver on this front. Aromatics hint toward the offering being acidic, but that never really transpires. Dark fruit and the balsamic play so well.
I wish there was a date on this. If you can certainly seek this out.

 

first round of applause for probably the most concisely accurate explanation of these beers

Second round of applause for being one of like, four people who continue continue to hoist this flag