New Beer Weekend #13

First beer of the day comes from @beertunes as part of our recent BIF, straight out of Bellingham, WA-

Wander Wild Warehouse

This is fabulous! Barnyard funk leads the way, but the aroma is also an elegant finely knit blend of fruit and spice (apricot, vanilla, maraschino cherry, plum, peppercorn, white grape among them). It's as airy and bright as it is earthy. The palate features the tiniest zesty tart kick just to keep things lively but not take over in any way. Oak comes on late and drives things home with just enough woody/grape skin astringency to be noticeable, but again, not overtake things. A real treat, A (4.6).

Thanks again, Terry!

 

No, you were clear here. You posted: "I just may go back and buy out the whole supply..."

It was me that did not enjoy the "meaty" that this beer has in its bottled format.

The good news is: more beer available for you!

Cheers!

 

Happy Saturday, NBW.

Today's (first) new beer is Sabro, a hazy fresh hop IPA from Crux. Met my friend for dinner and beer last night and came home with this as well as a couple others you'll probably see this weekend.

16oz can served in a big snifter. Gift from @mr-jj. Canned 09/14/20.

Pours hazy yellow-orange with a moderately large head that collapses to some islands and a pretty even sheet around the edges. Smell is mildly resinous, maybe some citrus. I could believe melon.

Taste is really fruity. Maybe a hint of citrus, but more papaya (I think), really juicy, not much bitterness. Melon rind bitterness comes through on a second taste. Definitely has some fresh hop characteristic, but it comes across with too much of a candy sweetness characteristic for me to love it.

Mouthfeel is medium and somewhat still. Overall, it's not a bad beer, but it's probably bottom quartile on my list of fresh hops this year. And that's not a terrible indicator -- there have been a lot of really good fresh hops this year.

 

Pours a hazy golden color with a slight head and lacing
Aroma has slight clove and banana hints
The taste follows the nose with a very slight clove and banana flavor
A light bodied decently carbonated beer
A decent Hefeweiss

 

Nice. Bellwoods is releasing a Trillium collaboration stout in a week or so as well.

 

Mountains Walking Brewery's Opaque Thoughts Double Milkshake IPA with Pineapple, Peach, Tangerine, Vanilla Bean, and Lactose.

16oz can served in a big snifter. Dated 09/08/20.

Pours a hazy pale yellow-amber with a smallish head. Looks like a shake, almost. Smell is surprisingly mild, a little vanilla and a little pineapple.

Taste is much louder. The vanilla and lactose come screaming out followed by the pineapple which melds nicely with the peach. The peach and tangerine I probably would specifically point out if it wasn't on the label. Happily, it's not super sweet -- definitely sweet, but also with a respectable hop resin bitterness and maybe a little bit of citrus zest bitterness to help it out.

Mouthfeel is thick, but carbonated enough not to feel heavy or oppressive. Overall, really enjoying this beer.

 

Seen this offering many times on WBAYDN threads, first time I came across it in the wild. Hoping it’s good since it has been refrigerated by the Speedy Mart here.



Pizza Port Swami’s IPA. 6.8% ABV canned 7/30/20 at 9:25, cheers!

Appearance: Cloudy slightly hazy golden tan pour, light carbonation, creamy white head leaves clumpy lacing. 3.25

Aroma: Faint lime lemon citrus aroma, not very sweet. 3.25

Taste: Nice firm pine bitter hoppy profile leads, mild good. No other taste profile noted. Good classic WCIPA. 3.75

Mouthfeel: Creamy medium full body, nice dry bitterness, dryness lingers. Nice body. 4.0

Overall: Solid old school WCIPA, only hesitation on my end is whether the 10 week lag in canning impacted the freshness or taste profile. No defects noted, just less bold than I expected. 3.75

 

Good Saturday afternoon, New Beer Samplers and commentators. It's a simply gorgeous mid-Oktober afternoon in North Jersey; perfect for Märzens on the deck. I'm drinking East Sixth Brewing's Festbier courtesy of @jdell15. While I generally prefer darker, more full-bodied festbiers, this is outstanding! It pours a clear, golden-straw color with a half finger of foamy, bright white head and it's clearly effervescent. It has a robust aroma of grainy bread, nuts, and spice. The taste opens with a nice balance of sweet Bohemian Pilsner Malt and spice with notes of nutty bread. It's very lite and crisp with lively carbonation, and at only 4.9% ABV it's positively crushable. I really enjoyed it and thank Jake for sending it to me. This is perfect for outdoor events.

Here's the break-down of my rating:

3.97/5 rDev -0.5%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

I'm only the second reviewer after @jvgoor3786. For context, this is a very good rating for me for a Märzen.

I'm starting to get the hang of doing reviews throughout the weekend and have more new beers to come. Cheers, NBW!

 

Good afternoon NBW, hope everyone is doing well! Today is my mom’s birthday and celebrated with nice lunch in a park with my parents, sister, brother in-law and nephew. It was great to see them and enjoy their company! Relaxing at home now with Modern Times Extraordinary Time DIPA with 2020 Crop Nelson Sauvin Hops, thanks @Dimidiata!

4.4/5 rDev +0.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.25

Thank you Dimidiata for this
16 oz can poured into a teku

A- A hazy golden copper with a two finger white head.

S- Citrus, grapefruit rind, pineapple, a little dank, slightly earthy and hints of sweet malts.

T- Citrus, pineapple, grapefruit rind, melons, slightly earthy, a little dank.

M- Smooth, creamy, medium body.

O- A tasty NEIPA, on point with the Nelson hops.

Cheers!

 

New beer #2 comes courtesy of @Whyteboar from NBS BIF #12. I was definitely looking forward to trying this one. Two hearted is a classic, and this will be a first (obviously, or I wouldn't be posting it in this thread) for Double Two Hearted.

I ended up coming in under rDev on this, which is almost unquestionably style bias on my part. Thanks, Craig for hooking me up with this.

3.9/5 rDev -6%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

Attractive almost glowing dark orange with a finger of thick, foamy head that hung around for a while and left behind an almost solid wall of lace. Aroma is bright and floral with some depth on the nose that I can't quite put a finger on. Taste is somewhat heavy on the pine, along with the bitterness I typically associate with it. This is definitely a bit old school, and not in a bad way. Good beer.

 

Festival Lager from Elder Pine.

16oz can served in a big snifter. No date on it that I see. I'm pretty sure I got this on Tavour.

Pours deep clear amber with no head. Smell is rich malt with a burnt toffee / chocolate bitterness. Moderate grassiness.

Taste is tea and grain, most of the bitterness is diminished and has turned into nuttiness. Pretty sweet.

Mouthfeel is medium to light, smooth. Overall, pretty good but not wowed.

 

Good afternoon NBW
A new to me beer from Revolution's latest League of Heroes pack

Jukebox-Hero Black IPA

12oz can stamped FILLED 09-16-2020 (1 month ago) poured into a Spiegelau IPA glass at fridge temp 7.5% ABV. The beer pours bright medium brown in color with ruby highlights and light brown head. The head recedes to fluffy cap and leaves behind a web of lacing. The aroma is pine, candied orange, caramel and grapefruit. The taste is bittersweet pine, coffee, roasted malt and citrus with a moderately bitter finish. The mouthfeel is medium to thin bodied with average carbonation and a mostly dry finish. Overall, good.

I'm a big fan of black IPAs, but Revolution didn't distribute to Indiana back in the heyday of this style. Grabbed up a mix pack immediately after seeing this and a rye IPA included. Happy I did. Love Revolution. Cheers all and enjoy the new beer in your glass this weekend!

 

Poured into a 16 oz Nordic pint glass canned 10/4/2020. Pours a slightly cloudy straw yellow with a 2 finger sticky white head that leaves plenty webs of lace as it slowly settles into a thin layer of bubbles. 4

Smell is passionfruit, Marijuana, pine, and grapefruit rind. 4

Taste follows marijuana, passionfruit, pine, and mild grapefruit.4

Mouthfeel is medium, rather gentle carbonation, a tad sticky but not dry, and at 8% ABV it goes down very easy. 4

Overall this is a very nice DIPA definitely worth a try. I would purchase again. 4

 

Next up for me this weekend is Trillium - Fated Farmer: Apricot, a barrel-fermented wild ale with apricots. I've had every release from this series so far I believe unintentionally, which was 11 different fruits plus a couple different Fruit Salad blends. A few new ones were released last year in small 330ml bottle format, and a couple others were just recently released, this Apricot and a Chardonnay grapes version. It's not my favorite sour/wild line from them, and I think I only got all of them because they stick around for a while and aren't as hyped up. In the past they were pretty acidic and sour though lately their barrel aged or fermented wild ales have been a little less acidic and puckery and a few of the last ones I tried, Pinot Noir grapes, Pluot and Seyval Blanc grape Fated Farmers were really complex and great and probably some of my favorites from the series.




Notes: "Our Fated Farmer Series is a landmark step toward realizing our foundational vision for Trillium: Build a place that intuitively celebrates the intersection of New England farming, agriculture, brewing, and integrated community experience. The grist of each of the dynamic Fated Farmer wild ales is set on the structure of Valley Malt and is barrel fermented in 500L puncheons with our Native New England Wild Culture and aged for 5-7 months, before refermenting on freshly harvested fruit.

Bottled in March of 2019 and enjoying an extended period of bottle conditioning, Fated Farmer: Apricot presents a bright, light straw color in the glass. Pretty aromas of peach mist, apricot preserves, lemongrass, and a kiss of pineapple weave in and out across the palate. Medium-bodied and highly refreshing, this wild ale finishes with structured acidity."

Looks like they held back on this a bit after bottling. I usually find oak aged wild ales to be very pleasing with extended age, so I'm looking forward to imbibing here. Pours a hazy golden yellow with loads of floating sediment, and a creamy dense white foam head with good retention surprisingly for a wild/sour.

Smells amazing, almost like a peach pie lambic. Fresh apricots and stone fruit, peaches, cinnamon-esque graham crackery pie spice, some toasty malts, oak barrel, mild hints of vinegar and vinous cider, musty funk, with herbal earthy dusty hops.

Tastes really tart and puckery, sour lemon, fresh apricot slices, peach preserves, stone fruit, hint of pie spice, toasty bready wheaty malts, slight acetic vinegary white wine, farmhouse apple cider, musty funk, peppercorn, with earthy herbal dusty hop notes.

Feels lighter medium bodied, creamy with smooth moderate crisp carbonation. Fairly dry with a peach apricot toasty wheaty malt and oak barrel finish.

This is a real nice and complex barrel-fermented wild ale with apricots. Super complex aroma, puckering taste at first but I warmed up to it. Complex flavors too, and for a wild ale with fruit to be sitting around like this is a gift to have. This is the type of wild ale that reaches near lambic-like complexities. I enjoy wild/sour beers like this even more than ones that enhance fruit over everything or are super tart and not as complex. They really harnessed the wild musty barnyard farmhouse funk in these beers now, and maybe the age contributes to the complexities as well. I know the owners and team are into beers like Cantillon so the inspiration is there I'm sure. This is probably the closest beer to Fou Foune I've had, simply because most wild ales with apricot are really fruity or not as complex, and I don't think I've had any real lambic with apricots before. This is a pleasure to have at home, and I am grateful to have Trillium as a local brewery, who can now deliver no less. Another great beer from a great brewery as far as I'm concerned. Cheers all!

 

Zero gravity oktoberfest
... cloudy amber
..medium light carbonation with about an average body. Does have a little bit of thick fullness to it though.
Aroma is caramel,malt,grain,yeasty bread
..taste is caramel, malt,honey,grain,yeasty bread. Has an almost mild sugar sweetness balanced with a slight hop bite.
..overall its a really decent beer that was very enjoyable.

 

These Aecht Schenkerla beers are elemental and are beautifully rendered and a nod to the deep past. These beers are truly classic.