New Beer Weekend #7

Trubble Draconian. Very nice Scotch ale. Deep opaque ruby brown color. Solid head retention/lacing. Aromas and flavors of big caramel, brown sugar, toasted biscuit, chocolate, cocoa, coffee, raisin, plum, fig, red apple, herbal, wood, grass, pepper, and yeast earthiness. A bit too fruity/yeasty aromas. Light herbal, woody, grassy, peppery, roasted bitterness on the finish. Light-medium carbonation and medium-plus body; creamy/bready/grainy malts, light sticky hops and chalky roast. Lightly increasing lingering bitter dryness, no cloying sweetness. Minimal warming 7.4%. A bit too roasty for the style, but not overwhelming. Nice balance between rich malts and fruit yeast; with solid hops. Light residual sweetness with lingering dryness. Well made style example. 3.88


Cheers

 

Happy New Beer Weekend everyone! I'm starting my day off with a Brett IPA from Kent Falls Brewing in CT, called This Isn't Even My Final Form. Kent Falls makes a lot of cool experimental farmhouse and wild beers, as well as IPAs and a lot of other styles. I've tried a few beers from them that were fermented with brett and they are some of the most wild beers I've tasted. They were one of the first breweries around here that I saw putting brett on the label and making Brett IPAs before most people even heard of it.


Didn't realize this said Drink Fresh. Whenever I see brett I assume the beer will evolve with age and hold up well overtime in it's acidic environment, and I wonder what the point of even using brett is if the beer doesn't age, I suppose just to get some of it's characteristics in the beer without overpowering. I can imagine they want you to try this beer fresh, and then try it's other 'form's overtime as it ages. I did not try this beer fresh but looking at reviews some people didn't love it right after release either, as brett can be a bit of a controversial flavor in beer. I'm used to wild ales and sour beers and Belgians like Orval so brett doesn't bother me much when it seems to fit in with the beer.

I did not try Haircuts for Everybody but it sounds like a pretty good IPA. I'm not too familiar with Apollo hops, I'm sure I've had a few beers with it in them though.

From the old dusty 500ml bottle this beer pours a cloudy hazy golden orange with some floating particles, becoming opaque as it gets near the end of the bottle. Due to the brett I believe, the foam head is massive, requiring about 5 pours to fill half of my glass. The foam is dense and does not dissipate while drinking, leaving thick lacing and a foam ring cap around the beer.

Smells really good right now I think, a little bit of brett funk melding with the hop aromas and some grainy malt underneath. I'm getting notes of tropical pineapple, mango, orange citrus, grapefruit, lemon, some dusty farmhouse, hint of leather, toasty grain, hay, mild spice, with floral earthy herbal resinous grassy pine.

Tastes very brett influenced right now, in a funky wild, but not too unpleasant way. Tastes a bit leathery with an almost rubber tire-like note that I've gotten a few times from brett aging, though these notes are intertwined with everything else and don't dominate to the point of an unpleasant drinking experience imo. Notes of acidic tangerine orange citrus come to the front, with lemon and grapefruit alongside, some tropical mango, pineapple, white raspberry, grainy toasty malts, hay, dusty farmhouse, leathery tire, mild phenolic spice, with earthy herbal resinous grassy pine. The taste is a mix of citrus, funk, earthy, grainy, lightly tropical, herbal, and resinous. Rather heavy on the earthy herbal resinous hop character but it works to refresh I think and plays well with the citrus notes.

Feels medium-light bodied, creamy, soft and smooth with moderate low carbonation. Really nice mouthfeel on this actually after all is poured, almost like a soft NEIPA that isn't too heavy and refreshes. The finish is rather dry with a smooth sensation not overpowered by carbonation.

Overall this is a nice Brett IPA. Even with age this beer shows elegance and refinement in it's brett character. The IPA and hop character are well done I think and refresh while providing good flavor, and pair nicely with the brett funk. Not too tart or sour, this is relatively easy drinking for me. A nice beer from the people at Kent Falls.

Cheers everyone and happy NBW!

 

Picked up some Altstadt Oktoberfest this week. First time opening this one. I really enjoy their Lager, and have been looking forward to opening this one. 5.9% ABV.



Pours a perfectly clear reddish/amber/orange color. At first a one and a half finger white head forms, and gently recedes. Light lace left behind.
A wonderful aroma of baked bread and grains up front. Which just screams FALL weather. A touch of earthy, hay field, grassy like hops. Simple and excellent.
Tasted wise follows suite. That wonderful toasted malt, baked bread and grains flavor up front and center. A touch of sweetness mid palate, but finishes with just enough earthy and grassy hops for balance. Without leaving any real bitterness.
A light to medium body. Well carbonated, crisp, super clean and smooth. This is downed in big gulps and I want to keep coming back.

Pretty spot on if you ask me. A great American example of an Oktoberfest, and a perfect example of less is more. Really impressed with this, and highlight recommended.

Overall score 4.21
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/49210/443132/?ba=champ103#review

Just started reading The Three-Body Problem, this will be a great companion with the book.

Will definitely be opening some more of this for @TongoRad Online Oktoberfest tasting in a few weeks.

 

Yes, some dew/condensation on the glass, partially from pre pour rinse, but when wiped away (which I did while rating) I found it to be clear for the most part, not crystal clear but in the 95-97% ish range clear. Even more remarkable was the lack of lactose, could be a first beer without for me from HB.

Was surprised after finishing my notes and reviewing BA reviews several noted a hazy appearance.

I usually arrive to the store after Hop Butcher releases are long gone, though this year they seem to linger more than in the past, whether due to higher production or the fact neckbeards have pivoted to chasing down the latest haze craze.

 

Very Green by Tree House Brewing

4.5/5 rDev -4.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

First visit to tree House since March, had to get some very green. Moved it off of my wants list . Very orderly process. Select your beers online and place your order for same day pickup. Finally a quiet day at the home office, time for a beer hunting trip.


Canned 9.2,opened 9.4



“ I can’t get started from the part where I left off yesterday“

16oz can poured into a well used tree house teku

Two finger creamy white foam cap , good retention , settles to an island with lacings over a turbid orange liquid . The initial pour creates a thick, foamy after shave head, very nice very green



Aroma is pineapple, caramelized pineapple, Orange zest, citrus

Taste is orange citrus, grapefruit, dank on the finish , hint of sour apple

Medium sudsing Smooth, dank gentle hop nibble on the finish that lingers in the palate. Well crafted, deservedly high rated beer but I think the brew better: Julius series, doppelgänger, doubleganger et al

It is a Good beer

this mornings bike ride

 

Good morning, NBW!


Black Raven and Lowercase collaborated on a happoshu style lager. This is my first review of the style, though perusing the list of the top examples of the style I've definitely had several while in Japan.

Acquiring the damn thing was a pain in the ass, after they screwed up one order and I went back the second day to correct it. Anyway...

16oz can served in a SIP Fest 2020. Dated 07/22/2020.

Pours a clear very light yellow with a biggish coarse head that collapses and doesn't leave much on the sides, and only leaves a thin broken cap across the surface. Lots of visible carbonation. Smell is light, grassy, a little bit of biscuit.

Taste is similar -- very light, grassy, with a little bit of biscuit. I get a little lemon. I get a little bit of a lager yeast flavor, but may be my imagination.

Mouthfeel is light, thin, moderately crisp. Overall, it's not bad, not exciting, easily drinkable.

It's probably more enjoyable than any of the happoshus I've had in Japan.

 

Is this beer solely hopped with Brett?

I have homebrewed with Brett but along with brewer’s yeast (for me a Belgian Trappist Ale yeast). The theory is that much of the funk that develops in these sorts of beer (think Orval) is that the Brett yeast will convert some of the chemical compounds produced by the brewer’s yeast (e.g. phenols) into the barnyard funk that lots of folks associate with beer fermented with some Brett. For the specific case of Orval the Brett is added at bottling time and over time the Brett funk flavors develop. I have read that the brewer(s) at Orval prefer to drink Orval with something like 6-12 months of age in the bottle since earlier than this the Brett produced flavors are less noticeable.

I have read in homebrewing magazines, etc. that if you brew with only Brett that you will more often than not obtain a less funky beer particularly if you consume the beers fresh. Since this beer is an IPA perhaps the brewer(s) at Kent Falls Brewing are not intending for this beer to feature the potential funk and instead to create a more complex IPA that features both the hop aroma/flavor plus some unique (but not funky) flavors (e.g., esters) that the Brett yeast produces.

For completeness I should point out that there are multiple strains of Brett available. I solely have experience in brewing with the strain Brettanomyces Bruxellensis (the same strain of Brett that Orval uses). Each strain of Brett when used solely for the primary fermentation will produce varying flavors (just as is the case with various strains of brewer’s yeast).

Cheers!

P.S. I read this review of this beer:

“I expected big time funk...not so. Just enough to put it on the label. Hops really come through. Crisp. Sharp. Refreshing. So good. What an amazing beer in this humid heat. Another great KF beer.”

My guess is that this person consumed this beer when it was fresh.

 

This is what the brewery website says: https://kentfallsbrewing.com/beer/this-isnt-even-my-final-form-2/

"This IPA is brewed with Connecticut grown and malted barley and wheat, and fermented in stainless steel with our house Brettanomyces (wild) yeast for an expressive fermentation character intertwined with choice noble hops. The German Tettnang, Loral and Grungeist hops provide appreciable IPA character when drank fresh and intertwine with our brett character for additional nuance as the beer matures."

I thought it was basically the IPA with the ale yeast, then fermented with brett, but they might have just brewed the new beer from the start without the ale yeast and just fermented it with brett entirely. It's definitely not as funky as a mixed culture beer that leans towards lambic usually for me with age. I was thinking they might be going for more of the fresh tart brett character and not the total funk like Orval. For me it just doesn't seem like much of a different beer to take a cheaper IPA and throw it in a more expensive bottle and dash it with brett and say to drink it fresh. I'd rather see the results of the brett overtime, but the brewer sold it how it was intended. I'm probably not experiencing the beer at it's peak stage but I don't think it's bad nonetheless. If I never had a beer with brett before I might think this isn't good, but I'd also probably think Orval isn't good, and it is what it is. I agree with that quoted review and I saw that too. It's not like a wild ale, still very much like an IPA with a touch of the leathery brett funk. I'm not really sure if they use any other yeast or what specific strain of Brett they used in this beer. I think the brett still holds up the beer fairly well, as a regular IPA without brett would have probably lost all hop aroma at this point. It's definitely good to drink this with the understanding of what it is and not to expect a typical fresh IPA flavor.

 

Thanks! My wife takes umbrage at my photo taking ( calls me Kenny Kodak). Her belief is to get maximum effort and to beat your last time. While I do like to surpass my previous times, I do think believe it’s necessary to stop and smell the roses or, in this case, take in a sunrise or two

 

Beautiful day here in New England. Got in a nice, somewhat longer than originally planned (55 mi) bike ride this morning, and now after some recovery time vegging out on the couch, it's time to start enjoying some beer. I made the trip down to Fox Farm yesterday and picked up a few bottles, one of this was this bottle of Leeway. Fox Farm describes it this way....

"Our Gose-Inspired Farmhouse Ale brewed with Connecticut grown wheat and barley and fermented in stainless steel. Thoughtful additions of sea salt, coriander, and citrus are made along the way. After primary fermentation, Leeway was given time to further develop in one of our oak foeders before bottling and bottle-conditioning. 4.2%"

I had pretty high hopes for this based on a) my love for farmhouse ales, b) the fact that I've really enjoyed every farmhouse ale I've had from FF, and c) the description. Full review below, but this did not disappoint. Great summer beer, and I LOVE when a beer I really like also has a nice low ABV.

4.26/5 rDev -1.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

Batch 1. Light, and mostly clear yellow color. Very effervescent, with plenty of fizzy white head that doesn't last long, but is consistent for what I would expect from the style. Smell is very nice. Similar base aroma to their core Freckled Fields beer, but with a really nice layer of lemony citrus mixed in. Aroma certainly hints that this will be a clean, crisp and tart beer. This ended up largely being the case, although it was slightly less tart than I expected. This is a very tasty beer and largely follows the nose. A well done farmhouse, with a dose of citrus makes this a very, very easy drinking beer. I think I'm picking up the sea salt, although that may be the power of suggestion. Can't pick out the coriander. Tiniest bit of funk in the aftertaste. Great summer / warm weather beer.

 

Greetings, fellow NBWers, and thanks to @jkblr for getting things rolling.

Unusually, I'm actually hitting a new beer on Saturday, having not celebrated Friday with perhaps my usual fervor, although I did, in fact, have several last night including a couple pints of a Pilsner from Bale Breaker, of all things, that accompanied a pork Bahn Mi sandwich that was my dinner (I should probably seek out a Bahn Mi addict support group).

Right now, it's 87°F, partly cloudy and a little breezy here in the wilds of Spokanistan.

Today I'm hitting a beer from nearly the opposite end of North America from my humble abode. Picked this up around 10 days ago, having never seen it before:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/17981/116467/?ba=woemad#review
Quite pleasantly surprised by this. I was expecting a typical east coast malt bomb that would be ugly after spending nearly 2 months in the can and making such a long journey. It was kinda ugly, but it drank like an old-school west coast DIPA in the best possible sense. Really nice beer.

Not sure I'll be back again with another, or in what way. I may be partaking in a field trip to north Idaho again tomorrow, and possibly drinking at the source in a couple local breweries, if they're open this holiday weekend.

 

Howdy.
Well Ive been a Sunday type of NBer but hey theres a first for everything.
Im poolside waiting for my pork butts to come off the smoker with a:
Aslin Beer Co Double Orange Starfish
DIPA
Pours a murky golden orange with a very nice eggshell 4 finger head, with a marsmallow like froth that lasts a long time leaving lots of sticky lacing. Good looking brew.
Aroma is huge ripe orange, tangerine and red grapefruit with underlying notes of crushed pineapple, mango and good bud.
Taste follows with orange juice, sweet ripe tropical notes, rounded by a bitter finish of grapefruit rind and pine.
Medium bodied, some hop oily slickness, maybe a touch of soapy hops, starts sweet, rounds in the mouth and finishes bitter with a soft feel and light carbonation, no alcohol.
Been lucky to be drinking some great beers lately and been having alot of Treehouse brews. My first beer from Aslin is very very good. This was a pleasure to drink. Enjoy this weekend!
Cheers.

 

Yeah, it sure appears to be a hoppy beer solely brewed with Brett.

Below is a linked article you might enjoy reading. A snippet from the article (with emphasis in bold by me):

“Brett Beers, as defined by the 2015 BJCP Style Guidelines, are a specialty style that can use as their foundation any base style. You’ll often see pale, hoppy beers in this category on the shelves, but you needn’t be constrained by that. This happens to be a variation on my Peachtree IPA recipe, but Brett produces flavors that are complementary to a whole host of recipes. The addition of Brett should generally yield a beer that’s drier and fruitier than the traditional version of that style, often with the addition of some funky notes (sometimes rather a lot of them).

Those tend to come through more as the beer ages rather than when it’s fresh, though, so you may not notice them at first (especially if you go heavy on the hops).”

I have contemplated fermenting one of my homebrewed IPAs using Brett just to see what the fruity aspects from the Brett would ‘bring to the party’. But when push comes to shove I just use my IPA ‘house yeast’ of US-05 and let the hops be the feature of the show. I suppose I am a bit staid in this regard. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Cheers!

https://beerandbrewing.com/make-your-best-brett-beer/

 

-went to Sand City for a pick up this afternoon. This one is new to me, a triple IPA in the NE style.
Even Mo Sexy pours cloudy orange with a 2 cm soft foam cap.
The aroma is tropical. Pineapple and orange are noted.
Mango is prominent in the flavor. Orange ( sorry) is second. The hop bitterness is moderate.
The mouthfeel is exceptionally soft and the high ABV is well hidden.
This is very well crafted.

 

Hey whats up!

Had a few new beers up here at the Beach , but limited phone time.

With that been having some Rar brews which are solid.

Limited time for pics and words, but under my profile as always cheers!

 

4.63/5 rDev +1.8%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5

Poured from a 11.2 ounce bottle into a belgian beer glass at 53.4 degrees Fahrenheit.

Look- Dark brown, visible particulate sediment, tan sudsy head, below average head retention, average lacing.

Smell- Sweet, caramel, coffee, toasted oats, raisin, bourbon.

Taste- Caramel, coffee, slight oak, raisin, plum, fig, bourbon.

Feel- Between medium and full body, slightly below average carbonation, smooth, subtly coats and warms the mouth.

 

I've had some non-IPA beers with brett that had a prominent pineapple note, at least from a specific strain in a few beers when fresher. It's hard to really tell with a hoppy beer though I think because pineapple is a common tropical fruit note in a lot of IPA/pale ales. What really differentiates brett in a hoppy beer I think are the additional funky notes and maybe slight tartness. An aged Brett IPA is a lot more different than a normal IPA without brett. A fresh Brett IPA might be a little more pungent tropical, pineappley and tart but it doesn't seem that much different to me than an IPA with the same hops and ingredients without brett. I personally think brett is better used for intended wild ales and other styles, not in fresh IPAs, though I welcome the experimentation.

 

Quick hit from an outdoor social distanced derby party:

Very enjoyable Pumpkin Ale from Five Boroughs; pure goldilocks zone, not too sweet or heavy with the spices. Moderately full, gentle hit of bitterness, and a finish that sure seems to hint of squash. Nice enough to have just popped a second can. Recommended!