New Beer Weekend #7

Happy New Beer Labor Day everyone!

Since we are going into today, I have one more new beer lined up. Today I am drinking another new release from Trillium, a local favorite of mine. This one is a blended imperial stout using portions of several different aged beers. Right now I'm drinking Permutation 7.09 blended imperial stout.

Brewery notes:

I tried the Permutation 7.06 not too long ago and it was similar with different ingredients from the blended base beers. That beer had "nuts" in it and I thought it tasted like peanut butter but they didn't mention it in that one and it is advertised here. I know with peanut allergies that is usually an ingredient that must be labeled. I'm assuming this beer will be even more nutty than the last, with peanut butter and 3 different nuts added. The Permutation 7.06 had raspberries in it as well, and I thought the raspberry and nut combo tasted like a pb&j flavor in the stout, and with banana and cinnamon it was an intriguing and unique experience.

I'm guessing from the ingredients in this new Permutation 7.09 that some of the beers that this is made up of include Rocky Road, Adjunction Junction, possibly Peanut Butter Cup, Deciduous strong ale, and Fireplace Bananas. Seems like an interesting blend.



Threw this bottle in the fridge this morning. Pours opaque pitch black with maroon red brown highlights around the edges, and a quickly dissipating light brown foam head. Smells like rich sweet coffee, toasty coconut, fudgy dark chocolate, vanilla, peanut butter, toasted nuts, almond, macadamia nuts, pecans, marshmallow, creamy lactose, mild banana and fig fruitiness, hints of caramel, dark toffee, brown sugar, all coming together in a fairly sweet dessert-like pastry aroma that smells rich and decadent but not too overly sweet. The rich roasty coffee, mixed nuts, peanut butter and marshmallow particularly stand out right now to me. Tastes pretty interesting and complex, and like the 7.06 blend it comes off in waves and layers on my palate, with something new nearly every sip. This tastes sweet and pastry-like, a little on the dessert side but still not too overly sweet imo. Flavor notes include rich fudgy dark chocolate, roasted coffee, sweet toasty coconut, toasted nuts, pecans, almond, macadamia nuts, peanut butter, marshmallow, vanilla, lactose creaminess, mild fig, bananas, cooked brown sugar, caramel, dark toffee, subtle hint of hops, with lingering sweet nutty dessert-like pastry baked good flavors reminiscent of peanut butter brownies and rocky road banana split. Feels substantial, medium plus bodied, creamy and slick with smooth moderate carbonation. Overall a really nice and complex imperial stout blend.

This is kind of hard to compare to the 7.06 because they are both similar and different in their own ways. This one is probably more close to the pastry style that modern consumers expect, whereas the 7.06 was more experimental in my eyes with more fruitiness from the raspberry and prominent cinnamon to go with the banana and almond making it really unique. This Permutation 7.09 is certainly different and unique in it's own way, just a little more typical in flavor I suppose. The flavors all work well together, and the fig fruitiness from the strong ale and mild banana flavors help cut through the richness a little to make this seem not too heavy or sweet. This is a well made and interesting blend.

Hope everyone has a good Labor Day. Thank you to all of the hard workers around the country. We might not be where we are or have so much today if not for all of the hard work put in by average people on a daily basis. Cheers everyone and happy New Beer Long Weekend!

 

25oz crowler of Covert Artisan Ales Wake Me Up Before You Mango Pastry Sour with mango, vanilla, coconut, banana, marshmallow and white chocolate, 6.9% ABV. Pours pale cloudy orange with a one-finger white head that left no lacing. Nose is sweet, mango, banana, vanilla/marshmallow, and white chocolate. Taste is mango up front then a mashup of coconut, banana, and white chocolate, moderate sweetness, light tartness. Excellent mouthfeel if a bit light on carbonation, overall outstanding.

4.33/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Real nice cool fall weather here, giving the AC a well-deserved rest.

 

Had no idea this was being extended, here is what I had this morning:

Great Lakes Bierwolf. This was awesome. Great rocky head retention/spotty soapy lacing. Aromas and flavors of big chocolate, nutty medium roast coffee, caramel, brown sugar, brown bread/crust, toasted biscuit, banana, orange peel, fig, pear, apple, bubblegum, clove, peppercorn, wood, herbal, floral, grass, and yeast/roasted earthiness. Light-moderate herbal, floral, woody, grassy, roasted coffee bitterness; yeast spiciness; and light wheat/yeast tang/tartness on the finish. Medium carbonation and body; creamy/bready/grainy wheat, some sticky hops and chalky roast in the mouthfeel. Light-moderate increasing bitter/spicy dryness, no cloying sweetness. Very smooth/soft, minimal warming 6.6%. Great balance of rich malts, fruity/nutty coffee, chocolate, orange peel, and Weizen yeast flavors; with nice noble hop presence/balance. Minimal residual sweetness with lingering dryness. Spot on base style as expected of Great Lakes. 4.1


18th Street Sex And Candy. This was great. Lasting rocky head retention/thick foamy lacing the whole glass. Aromas and flavors of big red grapefruit, tangerine, peach, pineapple, apricot, mango, honeydew melon, berries, citrus peel/zest, wood, peppercorn, pine, caramel, brown sugar, toasted biscuit, and herbal/floral/grassy hop earthiness. Light-moderate pine, citrus peel/rind, herbal, floral, woody, grassy, peppery bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation and medium-plus body; balanced creamy/bready malts, sticky hops, and some resins/rinds in the mouthfeel. Light-moderate increasing resin dryness, no cloying/astringent flavors. Very smooth/soft, minimal warming 7.5%. Great Chinook, cascade profile. Very juicy, vibrant, and fairly dank/earthy hops; with a nice sized dark/bready malt backbone. Name fits well, the citrus/fruit notes are very candy-like, no complaints. A proper Midwest IPA. 4.03


Cheers

 

Toppling Goliath mornin latte
.....solid black appearance with substantial head
....light carbonation with an above average body that has a creamy thick feel.
....aroma is coffee,bakers chocolate, mocha malt candy. Slight cream,lactose aroma as well.
Taste is an odd divide between iced coffee latte and a coffee/mocha dessert beer
...overall its really flavorful and well done but one at a time is enough.

 

Ok, sure, why not? I have a New BM offering to share with you Monday weekenders. Had a nice get together with friends yesterday - seafood boil style. While enjoying the fruits of the sea, we also had the host's blackberry Weiss and milk stouts - both enjoyable. The whole thing prevented me from getting to this beer, which I've had for a couple NBWs and needs to be gotten into.


A Zlaty Pilsner from Diamonback (Baltimore).- a 4 month conditioned, unfiltered lager made with 100% Pilsner malt and a "classic Czech hop varietal" to paraphrase the near-impossible to read label.

The pour is nice and hazy as it splashes in the tall glass I used, though this initial heavy haze was obviously submerged gasses attempting to escape to form a tall, white head. Streaks of lacing remain after I let the head settle so I can get my lips on the beer. Even the resulting moderate haze fades as the beer warms.

In the interim, I sniff out a mostly bready, slightly grainy malt profile that is joined by hints of grass, herbs, and apple. Deeper whiffs give a light hint of musty wood - although I don't think this was conditioned with any wood whatsoever. I'll note here that the bread and herb initially has me thinking rosemary focaccia - not sure I can defend this impression very well since I don't think the herbal aspects invoke a distinct rosemary note, but the mental image is there.

Feel is pretty smooth and mellow - very nice! The beer opens with the Pilsner malt and the lightest tinge of lemon zest. The apple and light wood mustiness of the nose comes in next, though there's more of a grain husk lean to the latter. A mix of grass and light herbs (maybe some parsley) come next, gaining some peppery notes (thinking watercress or arugula). The malt supports these hop notes with a little bit of a heavy hand, though this seems to help lead me into another sip.

My first sips of this, I was really enjoying it. Digging into it more I couldn't pick out anything in particular that I liked. I think it's the feel and the subtilty of the flavors - flavors that are fairly close to expectations even if they have fuzzy edges fading into each other - and ending on a proper note.

Cheers to y'all laborers out there!!

 

Hey what's going on?!

I am having a banner weekend. I am back for today at home from the beach, with a mountain of new beer goodies too! Great weekend, but I have a lot of work ironically and chores to get done while I am back so no worries.

Just finished a bunch of house fixing stuff, and now I am getting my much needed reward, a tasty beer.

No doubt more than one.

Let's get this party started. What's new for our hero today?



Poured from the bottle into a wheat ale glass.

Deep milkshake like orange and yellow, with a creamy sense and three finger tall off white bubbly head. Settles with minimal lacing on the opaque body.

Aroma is lots of classic chewy wheat senses. Dense. Heavy on thick raw bread dough, not so much on fruity character strangely. Nicely touched wheat ale, but not getting this mango addition yet, but still gives classic Oberon flavors. There might be a touch of diacetyl.

Palate makes a nice play. Slightly juiced fruit, and a real chewy classic mouthfeel. Deep sensing bread and light herbal hops that real give to a great sharp peppery bitterness on the swallow. Light touches of mango fruit, not very noticeable, but does give a bit of an accent and play mostly in the hop angle just a bit too.

Seems like the addition added more to color than anything, but this is still Oberon with a touch of twist.

look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4 | 3.94/5

Cheers!

 

Hello everyone!

Continuing my long NBW with some Hoppin' Frog Re-Re-Pete 3X Imperial Brown Ale:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/14879/463606/?ba=bluejacket74#review





I liked it overall, but I'm making sure to keep at least one can to age since it's 15.6% ABV. Started off with a bottle of mead today so this will be my only new beer of the day. Cheers!

 

These quoted posts are just examples of something I've seen many times in the past that has me wondering what the BA's thought process is. We each have our concepts for rating, but I'm just curious how something that seems to be described as having no more head than a pour of Coke or that has an "odd look" to it get appearance scores above 4?

 

It has been a great weather long weekend here in the hideout. I bought a pellet grill and have been playing with food all weekend, sort of immersion learning, I guess. Nothing was inedible, but range from OK to awesome. Much different from cooking on the gas grill. Really casual...good for cold ones!

So, thank to the extra day, here's my beah..



From the Harpoon barrel series, this is Sunset Saison. This is dammed tasty! Pours slightly cloudy and a pretty deep gold for a saison. Weak head, falls to a little ring that does persist. The smell is toasty bread, white wine, a touch of funk, spice, grassy and floral hoppiness.

The taste follows along with that little bit of funk being just enough. Definite white wine grape goodness, Belgian yeast, clove, floral, all held down by a bread toast malt.

The feel is a little creamy for the style, but there is a nice bite from the phenolics and a bit of a sting from the carbonation.

Diggin' this one, kids. It has everything you expect from a saison, but a bit amped up. Easy 4.0 on the BA-rometer. Good job from a brewery that flies under the radar, but is very capable of making a great beer.

 

Well, to morph into another debate - at least with the review, I have the information to know not to expect much from the looks.

That said, I really am curious. This thread is about practicing one’s reviewing chops and potentially learning about our fellow reviewers’ thoughts and tendencies to help guide us towards good selections. So I’m asking it as a “the more I know” question.

 

That’s a fair question, and I will attempt to explain where I’m coming from. My baseline number is 4, and I either add or subtract from the number based on how I feel about the specific characteristics of the beer. I don’t want the appearance to influence the score too much either way so it’s generally a 4 unless it is either so pretty or unique that it deserves to be marked up or looks so unappealing that I’m forced to knock it down a little. This particular beer has a color and visual effect with the contrasting two tone that was interesting to me, and for that I gave it an extra .25. After I thought about it for a while I realized the only time I’ve seen a color like that was in those Dole mixed fruit juice cartons. It also uses 5 hop varieties so guessing that has something to do with it but I will defer to the brewers and experts on this site of which I’m not either. A beer I used to buy every now and then but haven’t rated, Coopers Sparkling Ale, has sediment and looks like rusty water to me, so I would probably take .25 off of that one. That’s all I got, man, bottoms up!

 

My feeling is, that the detail, generally is watered down. Maybe out of confidence, our humility An effort to avoid questions on an individual score may be a factor.
The tension between engagement and depth.
Best

 

Thanks for taking the time to explain even beyond your original review. I will note the site admits to weighting looks relatively low in its secretive formula - I have found each .25 alters calculated rating at most .02 either direction.

Cheers!

 

Not a new beer but new to me. AleSmith Bourbon Barrel Aged Wee Heavy, vintage 2013 from my cellar. Draft review below (subject to some edits as I work my way through the first glass). Cheers!

4.46/5 rDev +3.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

750mL (vintage 2013 based on my notes) into a tulip. Pours a deep dark mahogany brown w/ a 1/2-finger head that settles to a narrow beige collar. Looks dense and chewy in my glass.

Aroma is rich and complex. Bourbon, vanilla, rum-soaked pipe tobacco, toffee, dates and figs. Pretty much what one would expect from a bourbon barrel aged scotch ale/wee heavy, old ale, or English barleywine (all of which are pretty close together in my mind). Surprising how many notes are readily apparent while this is still fridge-cold, and I look forward to observing some changes as it warms.

Taste is likewise complex, rich, and exceedingly well balanced. Very malt forward but not syrupy or cloying. Molasses, brown sugar, caramel, sweet stone fruits, and a nice chest-warming booziness in the finish.

Mouthfeel is chewy and and the heavy side of medium. Lingers on the palate.

Overall a really outstanding scotch ale/wee heavy. Better than I'd expected for some reason.