New Beer Weekend #12

De Cam Oude Geuze Gooikoorts 2018


Pours a vibrant golden color with a bigger, froth head, which won‘t leave the glass at all.


Smells of an apple filled basement, dusty leather and dried leaves. Got a prominent funkiness to it, which defines the nose throughout, producing additional wet hay, fermenting white wine grapes and lavender.


Got a light and well balanced body with a perfectly nuanced, soft carbonation, which manages to develop a late effervescence, making this appear smooth and refreshing at the same time.


Tastes of a stony aqueous quality, together with a powerful, nuanced tartness, developing apple piths, earthy leather and dried daisys. The beer exhibits a profound blue cheese middle part with lighter, moldy oak and dried green apples. Finishes with a whiff of sweet and ripe muscat grapes, crushed red pepper, lime zest and wet earth.


Fantastic, complex and masterfully balanced Geuze, which benefits from the old Lambic quite a bit. The flavors in this are sublime and it‘s mouthfeel vivid, yet soft enough to allow a plethora of flavor nuances to cut through.

 

Vitaminsea is doing some really creative brews and is a great, new microbrewery

@VSB_dino

 

Cheers, New Beer Weekends. I have opened only 3 Tavour boxes since I began working from home in March. Recently, some Heather Allen lagers showed up and that was motivation enough for a new box. I have seen high praise for these lager. So, let’s dig in!


Heater Allen Bohemian-style Pilsner





Look: Translucent and a little cloudy. Straw – pale gold color. A couple inches of bone white head that settles, leaving a lot of lacing. Some bubbles streaming up from the bottom. It look like a Pilsner, and a nice one.

Smell: The nose is very light. Some herbal and grassy hops. Bay leaf, fresh cut grass. Faint, white bread sweetness and cereal.

Taste: The malt profile starts out very light on the tip of the tongue with some sweetness. This flavor picks up mid-palate, but then the hops quickly take over. Very grassy, some herb, and quite bitter. Yes, the bitterness lingers nicely. The light malt comes back on the finish and plays along nicely with the bitterness.

Feel: Light bodied, medium – high level of carbonation. Semi-dry. Really nice for the style.

Overall: I could easily down this beer, but am really enjoying sipping on it. The bitterness keeps it lively and the flares of malt sweetness keep it smooth. Both play really nice together. It’s an excellent, clean lager.

My wife and I have our 10 year wedding anniversary coming up later this month. We got engaged in Prague. A lot of beer was consumed on that trip!

Here I am on that trip with a dark lager. Her pale lager in the foreground. I know better than to post a picture of her. I’d like to squeeze out at least another 10 more years with her. So no photo of my better half.

 

Bààrkin from Baa Baa Brewhouse

16oz can served in a big snifter. Canned 09/01/2020. Got it on Tavour.

Pours a hazy pale yellow with a medium sized head and lots of fine slow carbonation. Smell is mild, resinous and piney.

Taste is a little tropical fruit, medium to lots of pith, medium bitterness.

Mouthfeel is dry and light and almost chalky, in a very pleasant way. This is a really nice beer.

 

The second half of the game calls for my second mystery beer from @jvgoor3786. I'm loving this NBW BIF reveal weekend, but it's not without some effort. Gilbert finally took the hint that no beer was in his future and decided to nap. Not to be outdone, PJ made her move from my newest can of suds. Luckily it wasn't open yet.

Again, I have no hints at abv or preferred glassware, so I'm ready for anything. Upon opening the can could immediately see this was a dark beer. I returned the willi-becher to the shelf and grabbed something a bit more appropriate. Here is the outcome.

Some fizzy suds bubbled out of the can as soon as I cracked it, but it didn't overflow. This made me think that this expected stout is not an imperial. When I poured it though I wasn't so sure. The thickness was visible as the jet black liquid streamed into the glass. Bubbles climbed slowly to the surface and congregated in a one inch head that included an array of sizes in the foam - reminiscent of some of my favorite imperial stouts. The head quickly faded and I was face to face staring into the onyx abyss. Dark roasted malt emanated from the glass as well as faint black licorice and some vanilla(or marshmallow?). There was also a nuttiness present, perhaps foreshadowing some kind of nut or possibly peanut butter. The first sip presented just how much there would be to unpack here. That dark roasted malt aroma that was very pronounced is delivered in the taste, along with dark chocolate, toffee, and indeed some nuttiness. My experience with peanut butter stouts is a bit limited, but this has a similar quality to some of the others I've had. It's quite sweet up front, but is somehow kept in balance on the finish. I don't want to call it salty, but there's a certain savory aspect to the finish as well. This is a thick and luscious stout for sure. For being so big bodied it is not overly boozy. I would be surprised to find out that this topped 10% abv.

Since I got the brewery right in my last mystery beer, I feel pretty confident that this one again comes from East Sixth Brewing. Being a nanobrewery, it makes it easy to peruse their catalog of beers on Untappd to try to make a guess. I see that they have at least two imperial/pastry stouts called Thicc Bois, and I have to think this is one of them. One is a peanut butter maple version and the other a chocolate hazelnut spread. I feel like this should be easy to decipher between the two, but I'm torn. I definitely taste some chocolate in here, but is that coming from the malt or is it a chocolate addition? I wasn't detecting maple initially, but now I'm detecting it faintly on the finish. I feel the need to make a guess and I'm going to go with Chocolate Hazelnut Spread Thicc Boi by East Sixth. Of course, I could be barking up the wrong tree entirely, but we shall see.


Peanut Butter Maple Thicc Boi

I should have gone with my gut when the maple started to come out, but the smooth dark chocolate was just too rich to deny. PJ says, "I like peanut butter, give me some." Unfortunately for her and for myself, this can has reached its end. On the other hand, it's been a great day of beer and football for Steelers fans(sorry Birds fans), and I think I can squeeze another review in before the day comes to an end. Cheers!

 

Howdy, New Beer Drinkers! I have several fun-sounding new brews up on the chopping block for review today... let's jump right in with Modern Times' Virtual Future...



This is, as the can says, a West Coast IPA clocking in at 6.5% ABV and with a huge 80 IBUs. Wow, remember IBUs? Anyway, the hops used here are Idaho 7, Nelson, Simcoe, and Centennial, and the beer was canned on 8/27/20, which makes it just about six weeks old. Sounds good, let's see what's up.

Pours a fairly-clear (only slightly hazy) golden-yellow color with a light touch of orange-tinged hue if held up to direct light. Solid head formation and moderate retention gives this one a nice appearance, with a cap of suds measuring approximately two fingers upon first pour, quickly sinking down to a half-finger, leaving behind some sticky lace patterns dripping down the inside of my glass. Good looking stuff!

The nose is guava, grapefruit, pine resin, and mango with a touch of stone fruit and even a bit of grassy/herbal undertones. It doesn't smell as straightforward as some other WCIPAs I've had, including a few of MT's own (Booming Rollers comes to mind immediately), but the combination of new and old-school hops is definitely fairly enticing and leads me to believe this will be an enjoyable drink in its own right.

First sip is crisp, dry, and quenching with strong flavors of guava and tangelo backed up by pulpy grapefruit and a hint of passion fruit-like tanginess in the background. Definitely a well-made beer. Good, firm bitterness and approachable carbonation that fizzles along the palate and helps bring out the complex flavors from the Idaho 7 and Nelson hops. Definitely getting a bit of that mineral-forward white wine note from Nelson, for instance, and there's even a hint of tannins, dark fruit, and orchard fruit from the I7 somewhat buried in there. This is definitely worth grabbing a 19.2 oz can of. Really enjoying it. Cheers, all!

 

Block House Brewing Pumpkin Ale - I know nothing about this brewery and a relative gave me a bottle. Smell is of sweet pumpkin and spice, quite inviting. Pours a hazy dark amber. Taste is good, on the sweeter side but hits all of the pumpkin pie notes that I like. I looked up the stats on this beer and shocked to see that it is 7%, does not taste like it at all and very well hidden.

Better than the Fat Heads Spooky Tooth I had earlier. FH is decent and I enjoy some of their stuff but for a Pumpkin Ale that one falls a little short for me.

 

Good Sunday afternoon, New Beer Samplers and commentators. It's one of my favorite New Beer review days: the blind review of a "mystery" beer received in the NBS BIF. This can came to me from @jdell15. It sports an interesting "label" and this intriguing handwritten message:

At the risk of embarrassing myself I'm reviewing it in real time. Guessing it's a dark beer I took the can out of the fridge about two hours ago. I'm using my favorite "all purpose" tulip glass.


It looks like a Barleywine or maybe a Quad. The color is a reddish-brown. The light mocha-colored head disappeared almost immediately due to the high gravity. The smell signals Barleywine: lots of toffee, brown sugar, raisin, maybe fig, and bourbon barrel notes.
The taste largely follows the nose but there's a rich caramel malt in the background. I'm loving the dark fruit: raisin, fig, even a hint of black cherry. And I can really taste the bourbon, which is potent. It finishes with a touch of spice. The 2016 Vintage makes sense given the smoothness. It has a nice, full mouthfeel, creamy but not quite chewy, without much carbonation, and the 12.4% ABV is unmistakable. I'm sipping it slowing and savoring it.

Time for the reveal:


Wow, it's not a Barleywine; it's a BA Imperial Pumpkin Ale! Pumpion from Elk Valley Brewing in Oklahoma City. Jake, you stumped me. I couldn't identify the fruit I tasted as pumpkin but now I can. This is really delicious!


What an exquisite ale. Thank you for the chance to enjoy it! For any NBW regulars who haven't participated in the BIF, I'd really encourage you to join in the fun next Spring. Lots of great beer and even greater comradery! Cheers, NBW!

 

First of four new beers I had yesterday, Beachwood Melrose.

Amalgamator was sold out, so this was the alternative WCIPA at Khourey’s. Turned out I may like this one more.

Appearance; Clear golden carbonation soapy white head clears quick. Light carbonation. 4.25.

Aroma: Strong pleasant pine aroma, hoppy. 4.25.

Taste: Very nice bold pine, lemon and citrus, excellent. Malt leaves nice warm bread taste, lemongrass backs well. 4.75!

Mouthfeel: Dry and bitter, medium full body light carb lingers. Sweet lemon balanced well (move to taste). 4.5

Overall: Overall outstanding West Coast ipa, a new all time favorite. 4.75

Still visiting family but will try to post of the rest of my beers and catch up with the thread later today.

 

I loved your post and Gilbert is an excellent dog! I love seeing dogs in the posts.

 

Great post! I've been hoping to see this Black Note variant hit distro here. No luck, so far.

 

Have a good NBW. Things have been amazing this week for me. I got back on my prozac and lisinopril after being off of them for over a month. A little pricy w/o insurance, but not unreasonable for the generic ones. Me and my girlfriend are getting really serious now, but can only see each other on the weekends due to distance and other factors; but we will eventually figure something out to make things more frequent. We still text or talk every single day. She is the perfect person for me.

We went to Wadsworth brewing yesterday, really great place. I had 3 beers, so I will throw those short reviews for now; they are new beers and it was the weekend after all.

Wadsworth Your Everyday Tasty IPA. This was delicious. Tons of citrus and tropical fruits. Citra, Mosaic, Amarillo hops. One of my favorite profiles in an IPA. Very juicy and dank in balance. Nice malt backbone, but had plenty of resins in a drying finish. Was about midway between a West Coast and a maltier Midwest IPA. 6%. 3.9


Wadsworth Stingy Jack. This was excellent! Perfectly balanced between pumpkin, allspice, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and brown sugar/biscuity malts. Tasted just like pumpkin pie. Not too sweet or spicy either way. 5.75%. My girlfriend loved it as well, I am trying to get her into more beers, she mostly goes for fruit wheats 99% of the time 4


Wadsworth Gimme Smore. Very good overall. Big marshmallow, cocoa nibs and Graham crackers. Big sweet biscuity malts with some drying bitter hops. Nose was pretty much all marshmallow fluff, taste was more balanced. Was supposed to be an imperial blonde, but kind of more like a dessert white stout. 7%. A bit too sweet, but a dessert slow sipper. Enjoyable. 3.8


I will definitely go back to get crowlers from there soon!

Cheers, be back for the full reviews in a bit.

 

Cheers to PJ, as well. I received a can of this beer from @jdell15 and I'm looking forward to trying it. Thanks for the great review!

 

@wunderlama, you picked the right guy to mess with, bad nose, a limited palate and challenging beers.

So, beer #2 16 oz can. Clean pour, hazy, nice head it’s holding perfectly. Nose smells like soap, I’ve got a terrible sniffer, but fruity soap. It’s the hops that are killing me here, I cant identify the nose here, it’s kinda familiar but I can’t place it. Tastes is really nice, very smooth, no astringency at all. It’s not funky, but the finish is very long, damn I can’t get that hint from the hops. Not terribly bitter. Mosaic hops? That hop can go all over the place, but that’s all I got.

A guess is a DIPA using a single hop Mosaic, not a Trillium beer, not a Treehouse beer, not a Lawson’s beer. The finish on this is so familiar, but I can’t place it. Other than that zip, so we’re about to reveal.

 

Back with New Beer & New Brewery Weekend Post #2.

Heater Allen German-style Lager





Look: Very similar to the Pils that I had earlier, but a little darker with more gold color. Translucent and a little cloudy. Bone white, frothy head. A lot of lacing and a good amount of visible carbonation. Another attractive Lager.

Smell: A light nose, again. This one is more floral, sweet hops on the nose. Some pine. More bready than the Pils. Faint honey.

Taste: Unlike the Bohemian style Pils, this beer lacks bitterness. The malt profile is bready and quite dry. The nose is sweeter than the taste. I’m not really getting any of the honey notes here. Just some light cereal sweetness.

Feel: A little more full bodied, sweeter and smoother than the Pils with a little less carbonation.

Overall: Another really excellent Pilsner from Heater Allen. Totally different from the Pils with sweeter and less bitter flavor, but equally as well made.

 

River North's Super Hop-a-tronic Lupulositor (Citra and Sabro), a surprise 10.5% TIPA (I just thought I was a grabbing a hazy IPA, man)

12oz can served in a tulip. Dated 08/26/2020. Probably got it on Tavour.

Pours a light yellow with a moderate haziness. Medium head. Smell is booze, lemon, and hay.

Taste is booze, lemon, and old hay.

Mouthfeel is thick and chewy. Overall, it's not bad, but certainly not impressive. Wouldn't bother with another.

 

Almost right, a Mayflower 400 DIPA. It does use Mosaic hops, plus Columbus, Amarillo hops. Mosaic hops are tricky, they can influence in so many ways. I like it, and I’d say right at 4.25 or so.

Well done @WunderLlama