New Beer Weekend #15

I'm delighted to see people discovering these fantastic 3 Fonteinen beers...they're so good!

Totally understandable sentiment, bad marketing choices on Other Half's part if you ask me. However, my experience with their beers has been excellent. I deeply enjoyed every beer I tried when I visited, even the terribly named ones.

 

Cantillon Menu Pineau


Pours a slightly clouded orange color with no head to speak of at all.


Smells of slough, sea buckthorn and nutty bee honey among muscat heavy white wine grapes. The aromas inherit a fruity apple note as well, blending very smooth into lighter leather, wet hay and dried wood.


Has a refreshing, light bodied mouthfeel with a softer carbonation, which turns more sparkly during mid palate, lending a lighter mineralic quality to the flavors while making the beer even more refreshing.


Tastes of an aqueous softness which gets immediately washed away by an intense honey flavor, entangled in matured hops, white wine grape skins, which appear peppery with a dry muscat quality. Turns a little sweeter then with apple piths cutting trough among an effervescent stone appearance. Finishes grassy, with a mushroom funkiness which brings dried orange peel to the palate, as well as even more honey, as well as a balancing dry- and tartness.


This got an intriguing wine complexity to it onwards from the nose till the finish. The beer is a well balanced, yet untamed roller coaster on the palate with a well working sweet and sour peak, clashing for supremacy.

 

Starting my Saturday with Tilquin Oude Pinot Noir.

4.4/5 rDev +0.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

750 ml bottle, 2019/2020 brew season, poured into a flute

A- A clear reddish orange with a small off white head.

S- Sour, grapes, oak, leather, some barnyard funk, tannins.

T- Sour, grapes, some lemons, oak, tannins, mild barnyard funk, leather, slightly herbal.

M- Smooth, light to medium body.

O- A tasty lambic, 8% ABV is well hidden as this drinks like a lambic that is around 5%.

Cheers!

 

4 Most recent NE IPAs all over the map!
Premiere IPA - Double Dry-Hopped | Interboro | 6% | Brooklyn
4.11/5 rDev +1.5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
20th review. My first from this "local" Brooklyn brewer.
a) Hazed expected body, with reviving head and lacing suds.
s) Myriad hops. Maze of flavors.
t) Atop a pilsner, lighter, more sessionable base... The myriad hops maze into a lovely arch of woody, cedary, powdery finale.
f) Likewise chalky, powdering, yet some how juicy. Lovely texture
o) Clearly a brewer I want to visit and stalk.

Barbarian Haze | 3 Floyds | 6.5% | Indiana
4.02/5 rDev +0.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
3 Floyds arrived in NJ. 23rd review.
a) Hazed golden bod with lasting, lacing head.
s) Non-descript Citrus hop, with dank notes, citrus fruit salad, and malt.
t) Follows smell, but more ample, sharp and tangy finish. Big for 6.5%.
f) Also big for 6.5, lots of mouth tickle, perhaps a little too much citrus but that's to style.
o) Juicy and will test nicely in a blind test batch.

Whaler | Carton | 6.5% | Atlantic Highlands NJ (My home town)
3.81/5 rDev -4.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
5th Review. This NE IPA falls short for me. Perhaps too simple, like a Boston Whaler?
a) Look is great, another lace, slash, completely cover the glass all the way down, over a lasting film and haze body.
s) Melon, white fruit flesh. Unripe Mango.
t) Warms a bit, get better as it warms but too fruity for me. An OJ (dont drink it), chalky, cardboard grain back.
f) sharp, astringent, balancing the fruit.
o) Not refreshing enough for me, and neither is OJ.

Lost Palate | Goose Island | 6.9% | Chicago
3.65/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
Lovely back story, and I'm sure Jonny loves this beer because it has ample cinnamon and mango.
a) great looking hazed IPA.
s) odd aroma from the cinnamon.
t) Odd, strange flavor continues along with some mango, fleshy fruit - lost in space?
f) nice feel but finishes on that odd, medicinal, spice cabinet note.

 

Happy Halloween, New Beer Samplers and commentators. After lots of rain the past few days it feels like late autumn today: crisp and chilly with temps in the mid-40's. One of the treats in @jdell15's second BIF box was a bottle of Ghost in the Machine, a NEIPA I've been wanting to try. This is one highly-rated beer that deserves its acclaim! Big, tart lemon and grapefruit, orange/tangerine, and a hint of melon, with a bitter blast of Citra hops. Just great! Here's my full review:

4.48/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Received from @jdell15 in a BIF. Bottled on 8/20/2020. Poured into a Spiegelau IPA glass. It pours a turbid, pastel brownish-tangerine color with over a finger of fluffy, bright white head and extensive soapy lacing. It has a fragrant smell of lemon, lime, grapefruit, tangerine, onion, and lite, floral hops. The taste open with a blast of tart citrus - lemon and grapefruit - along with sweeter notes of orange/tangerine and a hint of melon. The Citra hops really shine. They also provide a strong, bitter bite throughout which nicely compliments the fruit. This ale has a good, full mouth feel with a pleasant level of carbonation, and the 8.5% ABV gives it a nice pop. Overall, Ghost in the Machine is a tour de force. It was a long-time want for me and didn't disappoint. I would never have guessed this bottle is nearly 10 weeks old. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would seek it out.

By the way, I didn't try to match my rating to the BA average. I'm not good enough in math to pull that off. Just a happy coincidence.

Enjoy your festivities tonight, everyone!

 

Crane's 106C Tripel. No idea where I got it.

12oz can served in a tulip. If there's a date, I don't see it.

Pours clear light golden-yellow with a respectable head and moderate to high carbonation. Last splash brings some sediment that adds a bit of cloudiness to it. Smell is mild, some kind of a banana aroma (maybe overripe banana?), clove is there as expected but altered somewhat, maybe a slight twist toward vegetation.

Taste is surprisingly bitter, the clove and the vegetation kind of dominating, maybe bringing a fresh cut grass (or maybe freshly weed-wacked wild vegetation). Banana is there, lacking in the sweetness I expect in the style. I definitely get some brett funk from it, too.

Mouthfeel is medium, not sticky, doesn't feel particularly effervescent. This is an interesting beer. It's kind of a cross between a Belgian IPA and a Belgian Tripel, not entirely successful, and not entirely unsuccessful.

As I drank more of it (it's mostly gone now), it transition more and more to straight up Belgian IPA.

 

Thursday my son came home with the perfect beer for a cold Halloween day. This is Belladonna from Tox brewing in New London Connecticut. I've been to this brewery twice and none of their beers have ever been mediocre let alone bad. One of the owners studied toxicology which is how they named the brewery. All of their beer names are a nod to some kind of poison. Some marketing guy would probably recommend against that, but the theme is kind of cool and certainly consistent.

Halloween reference- look at the can art. The nymph is observed by a small green toad like thing and off it the woods a devil-like being stalks her.

3.69/5 rDev -12.1%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

Poured from an undated 16oz can purchased 2-days ago at the brewery. Poured at fridge temp, but I may edit this later with a warmer can.
Body of opaque black sits below a medium head of dark beige. Lacing exists as spots, but is persistent.
Smells like a fresh bag of coconut and the front end of the taste is the same. This fades to a quick vanilla hit then a caramel/toasted effect with a milk chocolate finish. The end result is kind of like a better version of the flavors from a Mounds bar.
The mouthfeel is a little thin for a stout and slightly oily, probably due to the coconut.
I know that coconut can be either liked or disliked. Seems no one is neutral on coconut. I like coconut, however the effect in this stout is sweeter than I prefer stouts and I'm no fan of vanilla in beer either. I rated to the advertised description, rather than than my personal preferences though.

 

Always more new beer!

Lav Premium - Carlsberg Srbija D.O.O. Pivara (Serbia)



Poured from the bottle into a pokal style glass.

Lemon dark yellow body, slightly hazy but not terribly, with some nice lighter and brighter hues. A real simple creamy short two finger head, but with a bright white top and some good one finger presence as it slowly settles. Nice light looking lager.

The aroma is actually pretty solid. It's a simple one trick pony, but it's a clean sensing nose, with a nice touch of light white bread density. There might be a hint of dry flour like malt touches in the back but otherwise this is pretty pleasant if basic.

Palate is just not much to say. Fairly decent depth and mouthfeel, but lacking in much flavor. Sticky slightly light grains, a bit of hinting buttery quality (minor diacetyl possibly), and touching some minor corn like sweetness. Odd aftertaste mixing in dried honey and sour grain.

It's not horrific, but not much to say here about this mass market lager.

look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.25 | 3.55/5

Cheers!

 

Bell's Best Brown
Abundance of carbonation that accentuates the pleasant ginger and caramel aromas. Toasty nutty bready flavors. A style that I always turn to when the weather cools off and days are shorter.

 

Halftime beer...Fn Pokes need to stop with the damn turnovers. This beer is both new to me and BA.

Flatland Brewing's To the Moon and Back, 7.2% WCIPA with Galaxy, Strata, and CTZ. Fitting beer for today's full moon. I'd originally planned to do a full moon dayhike of Mt Whitney tonight/tomorrow morning, but Inyo National Forest still has closures for the fires...so I'm home instead of the wilderness .



Can dated #BIGPOPPINN2020 10/14/20 into a imperial nonic pint.

L: Vibrant golden with half finger of low-density white head with moderate retention and left mixed lacing.

S: Tropical bubblegum, damn near like a pack of Papaya BubbleYum.

T: Quite different from the nose, while the bubblegum/tropical elements are still there and subtle, the CTZ dominates the taste profile. Heavy citrus, lemon, and pine. Finishes with moderate bitterness, lingers and drys the palate.

F: Low-medium bodied with moderate carbonation, slick and tingly on the tongue, crisp on the swallow.

O: Interesting but disconnected WCIPA. I'm not a huge Galaxy fan to begin with, so this is an easy one-n-done for my palate and preferences.

BA score = 3.89, rDev = 0.0%

 

Halloween set-up complete, now onto another lambic.

I will follow in the footsteps of @beergoot with a Boon Oude Geuze, albeit of a different vintage. This one is 2012 / 2013. Not on par with the Cantillon I had yesterday, but the Rose de Gambrinus was probably one of my highest rated beers, so it's an unfair comparison. Either way, this one was tasty. Will save the last one I have of this vintage for several years down the road.

4.16/5 rDev +4%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

2012 / 2013 brewing season batch 59. Served at 50 degrees and poured into a 3F lambic style glass.

The very satisfying pop of the cork hinted that there was plenty of carbonation in this bottle, which the pour has reinforced. Plenty of fizzy white head that didn't hang around long. Color is clear and like rusty water (not in a bad way). Tons and tons of carbonation coming up from the bottom of the glass.

Aroma is quite vinous with some funky, earthy undertones. There's more going on beneath that, but I can't pick up / describe what it is.

Taste is a really intersting mix of apple, bit of grape, a nice underlying barnyard funk that shows up more on the back end than the front / middle, and a bit less tartness than I expected. This is well balanced, albeit slightly less complex than I had expected.

Carbonation is actually slightly less than I thought based on the appearance, but there's still plenty of it. Nice and dry going down. Good beer.

 

Evening is officially underway, starting off with this one thanks to @FBarber :

Dovetail Vienna Style Lager

Very well made beer. Rich honey Graham cracker malt sets the stage for a drizzle of caramel, sprinkle of lavender, and a nice slightly toasty finish. Moderately full on the palate, but crisp and drying at the end. Well balanced and elegantly constructed. A genuine pleasure, and I'd happily drink it all night long. A (4.4).

Thanks again Frank!

 

Happy Halloween everyone! I'm trying to get in the spirit even though it looks more like Christmas outside here with all the snow we got yesterday. I don't have too many new Halloween themed beers but I thought this one looked pretty cool like most TRVE labels. Right now I'm drinking a TRVE - Departure Of Consciousness amber mixed culture ale aged on Colorado peaches.



This bottle is probably a few years old, no dates on it that I'm aware of. I've been a fan of a lot of the wild/mixed culture/sour and other beers that I've had from TRVE Brewing, and some of their styles like this one intrigue me as I don't usually see beers like this around. I've had amber ales, mixed culture ales, and ales aged on peaches, but not all three of those in one I don't recall.

This beer pours a mostly clear bright amber orange with a thin dissipating white foam head.

Smells pretty funky with a slight sour cheesy note, some mild toasty malts, dust, and a hint of peach fruitiness. Overall a rather muted aroma right now, possibly due to being cold from the fridge or maybe even age, I'll keep taking notes until this is finished.

The intriguing taste is where this beer really shines. Fairly rich toasty caramel malts, toffee, a hint of chocolate, baked bread, fruity tart peaches, orange citrus, wheaty hay, and mild earthy floral hops. Great combination of malts, mild funk and tartness with the fruity peaches. Wonderful balance, slightly rich, malty, fruity, tart, refreshing, very interesting.

Feels medium bodied, creamy slick with moderate high carbonation, finishing pretty dry.

Overall a really interesting beer that I'm liking the taste of. A real intriguing combination of flavors with rich toasty caramel malt and chocolate melding with the fruity peaches, slightly funky mixed culture and earthy floral notes. It seems a bit simple but I like it right now, and I'm not sure if I've had any other beer quite like it. Cheers everyone!

 

This is truly a hopped up "harvest ale" with a very sharp, piney profile; there is a complement of tangy malt to tame the hop bitterness. Overall, it is flavorful and somewhat unique; however, I am amused by the lack of consistency in naming the style by the brewery. The website refers to this one as a red IPA, while the bottle calls it a "hoppy red ESB ale." It definitely drinks like a hoppy, red IPA!

 

more tasty beer!



Poured from the can into a branded tulip glass.

Fluffy and creamy fine forming head. Billowing with an easy three fingers on a controlled pour, while letting it settle. Rings of lace sit a top a simple opaque and hazy lemon yellow, slightly dull but not entirely. Cake like topping and simple IPA good new age presence.

Fantastic hop nose. Varied, and diverse. Perfume like spice notes of sweet tropical fruits. Boy that's a mouthful, but it is descriptive. Sweet exotic tasting mango to pineapple with a breath of almost nutmeg sweetness kicking in. Malts and yeast stay neutral and get out of the way for this bounty. Real impressive nose.

This beer on first sip is not messing around. It is huge. Large mouthfeel but without syrupy or sugary flavor. Rich depth filling a hop bonanza. Guava mango tropical rush, with a much nicer contrasting spicy herbal note of strong mint and sharp green tea for really nice balance. Hits heavy, somewhat boozy but tolerable and gives a real sense of Imperial classic IPA. Finishes spicy warm, with soft sweet malt to match.

Real big enjoyable IPA from these guys, rarely disappointing.

look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5 | 4.47/5

Cheers!