New Beer Weekend #15

Welcome! Nicely done, and come back often.

 

I've liked just about everything I've had from Weyerbacher, even with age on the malty stronger beers. Cheers!

 

Good Sunday afternoon, New Beer Sippers and commentators. It's a great day for a sipping beer: raw with lots of wind driven rain. When I received @jdell15's fantastic second NBS BIF box this week, my attention was drawn to this Barrel-Aged American Barleywine. And I'm drinking it from the tulip glass from COOP Ale Works in Oklahoma City that Jacob sent me. I bet there's not many guys in Jersey with this glass!

I haven't had an American Barleywine in awhile as I usually prefer the English style. But this is great! While the appearance is pretty standard the smell is wonderful with lots of caramel, brown sugar, raisin, plum, and the telltale bourbon barrel. The taste features a great balance of caramel, brown sugar, raisin, fig, smoke, and earthy peat. The barrel notes are evident but delicate. The 9.9% ABV is noticeable and warming but not overpowering. There is very little bitterness at the finish. Overall, this is very enjoyable drinking. Thank you, Jacob for your generosity. I've enjoyed every beer I've received and have a bunch more to review in the coming weeks. Cheers, NBW!

 

A second offering for the weekend
Leaves of Grass, Hops not Hate I cannot say enough about this bottle condition
program that HFB has undertaken.
Do good
Be well

Leaves Of Grass: Hops Not Hate

Farmhouse Ale - Saison

Hill Farmstead Brewery
Greensboro Bend, Vermont

4.21/5 rDev +2.4% | Average: 4.11
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Poured from the 750 ml bottle into the test glass
A - Slightly hazy goldenrod colored backdrop, excited carbonation feed an initial thin cap, and relentless ring that clings to the glass.
S - Semillion, some tropical fruit, pineapple reduction, green apple , white pepper, a whiff of sulfur
T - Green grape skin, oak tannin hiding in the back, orange reduction with a touch of honey. This all ceneterd around a strong wine barell thread. That farmhouse touch that is just HFB for sure
M - Bright on the palate, a line walk of tart and sweet, a very nice acidity leads to a bit of ashen finish
O - What a delight, this bottle conditioning program is exceptional

 

Glad you decided to join in. Good work! Love seeing new people join in, and with @MNAle (and I'm sure many others), I hope you find the time to join in more than once

 

Thanks for the first post, hope to see you back a bunch.
Cheers

 

My wife brought this beer into the house. We visited this brewery 3-years ago and frankly I was not impressed then. Read on.

4.41/5 rDev +5.3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Poured from a 16oz can stamped "9/10/20 Social Climb" to a Nonic at refrigerator temperature.
Cloudy orange body sits below a puffy, multi-sized bubble white head.
Smell-Probably the most orange juice smelling beer in recent memory.
Taste- Again pretty much orange juice with hops and alcohol. I don't know how that sounds, but its really good.
Mouthfeel is medium for the style, not thin, not super sticky.
I'm impressed with this beer.

A pretty impressive beer. And look at this head.

 

Drinking a Mikkeller Spontancassis lambic-style sour ale with blackcurrants right now. Brewed by De Proef in Belgium for Mikkeller in Denmark.

"Sour Ale with Cassis Berries & Aged in Oak Barrels
Our Spontan Series is 100% spontaneously fermented beer aged in oak barrels for 1 to 3 years. It is made with wort produced by lambic producers, not with wort and microbiological cocktails.
For this variation we are excited to present SpontanCassis – forming an alliance with Cassis berries which are native to Northern Europe and are known for their sweet and astringent flavor. By generously adding these during the brew process we have created a uniquely delicious and sour beer.

Aged at our barrel house in Belgium."



The cap has a 2027 best by date, not sure if this was bottled in 2017 or earlier.

Pours a cloudy hazy near opaque dark ruby red with a dense creamy light pinkish off-white foam head with lasting retention and good lacing, sticking around forever.

Smells immediately fruity and soured, tart funky blackcurrants, notes of dried cranberry, leathery grapes, dark forest berries, sweet vinegar, dessert wine, dried leaves, oak barrel, some woody spice, and mild dusty earthy herbal hops. Moderately fruity and funky, kinda bretty smelling, a little leathery, earthy, bold blackcurrants.

Tastes really tart and puckery, fresh sour blackcurrants, dried cranberry notes, leathery grapes, funky tart berries, dark forest fruit, acidic citrus, slightly acetic sherry dessert wine, dried autumn leaves, hay, oak barrel, some woody spice, wheaty malt, vanilla, and mild dusty earthy herbal hops. Moderate high level of acidity and tartness, moderately fruity, light funk and barnyard earthiness.

Feels medium bodied, creamy smooth and slick with moderate high carbonation, finishing fairly dry.

Overall this is a real nice lambic style sour ale with blackcurrants aged in oak. It isn't quite on par with some of the real lambics from Belgium, but this comes closer than a lot of American wild ales. Pretty complex, a nice amount of fruit, aged earthiness and dusty barn-like notes. Really nice beer from Mikkeller. Cheers all!

 

Moving on to a lambic brewed in New Jersey, The Referend This Is Just to Say. This is a very well brewed plum lambic just like the few other beers I’ve have from The Referend. Thank you to @thebeers for this one!

4.46/5 rDev -0.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Thank you thebeers for this
750 ml bottle, bottled on 1/18/19, poured into a flute

A- A hazy golden orangish color with a small white head.

S- Sour, plums, plum skins, oak, slightly earthy funk.

T- Sour, lemons, plums, oak, hints of herbal tea, earthy funk, just enough fruit skin from the plums.

M- Smooth, light body, fairly dry.

O- A great plum lambic and I feel this can hold it’s own against many Belgian lambics.

I am really enjoying this lambic tasting this weekend, hopefully I can get one more review in before the weekend is over since I tend to slowly sip on these lambics. Cheers NBW!

 

Poured into a 16 oz Snulip glass, not sure when it was canned but it arrived this week. Pours a dark purplish pink with a half finger sticky pink head that leaves that leaves thin streaks of lace, with excellent retention. 5

Smell is blackberry, black cherry, raspberry, and vanilla very nice and bold. 4.75

Taste follows that blackberry steps up immediately, with raspberry and black cherry in a supporting role, balanced by a healthy dose of vanilla really awesome. 4.75

Mouthfeel is bigger than medium, plenty of life but actually a little soft and creamy, not dry, and at 10.2% loaded with flavor but goes down extremely easy. 4.75

Overall this for me is the most amazing beer in this style I have ever had. Will be heading to get more. Not a style I purchase a 4 pack of normally, but that is going to change. 4.75

 

Thanks to the Iambic tasting I drank some fabulous beers this weekend. I finished up with Founders Harvest IPA.

I don't remember seeing this beer in the stores here. Some of our local brewers are doing wet hop beers now. The more, the better.
This one showed up with a bottling date of 9/21/20. Looks great and has a strong hop aroma which reminded me of Hopslam. Vivid pine and citrus. Coating mouthfeel and hop aftertaste, but dry finish. Very good and on my radar for next year.
4.26/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

 

After a short shopping outing (which will result in a Beer Haul post in a bit), back on the couch with a new beer and a laptop: Flensburger Dunkel.

330ml swingtop bottle served in a tulip. Date on the back is 02.19.21.

Pours a rich brownish amber with a big pillowy head and moderate to high carbonation. Smell is lager yeast, grain, cut grass. Maybe a hint of something metallic.

Taste is toffee, nutty, nice, except for the metallic flavor that's coming through here.

Mouthfeel is light, thin, almost dry. Overall, it's not bad, but it would be really good without that metallic aroma/flavor peeking through.

 

Great review! Need!

 

New Beer #2 for the weekend:
A Collab between Rhinegeist and Boulevard while getting some ingredients ready for a veggie chili...
Crust Fall Peach Berry Pie Sour
Imperial Berliner-Style Weisse Ale with Blackberry, Peach and Blueberry.
Pours a beautiful dark hued ruby red with tinges of orange around the edges. The head is 3 finger plus with decent retention eventually falling to a thin ring with spots of lacing.
Im getting all that fruit in the nose here-The blueberry and blackberry up front with peach notes up next. Has a red wine quality and a touch of sour wheat and lemon as well.
Taste follows with huge juicy fruits- lots of blackberry and blueberry preserves and a not quite ripe sour peach. The beer is fairly sweet at first but in a natural and not artificial way. Jammy is what Im feeling. That bold fruit is rounded out by a tartness and there is a light toasty malt somewhere that seems to emulate a crust? In any case this definitely drinks like a freshly baked summer fruit pie. Pretty damn good.
The feel is medium and the carbonation is light but remains throughout the drink. The very fruity sweetness is rounded out by a tart and drying finish with just a faint hint of bittering hops. This is 7.5% and you would never know it.
All about the fruit here. It might be the most fruit Ive ever experienced in a domestic brew. Add some wood/oak and you might think you are drinking a Lindemans beer. Overall I really enjoyed the natural tasting big fruit in this one. If you like fruited beers its highly reccomended.

 

Welcome to the NBW party! Nice review, I agree wholeheartedly with your thoughts on that beer.

 

Welcome to NBS, @RobertB412 . Hope to see you here regularly.

1st new-to-me brew of the weekend, & my first ever from Central Waters(No distro here, so props to the bottle shop for getting this) : Brewer's Reserve Rye Barrel Chocolate Porter.
Short version : reminds me of aged KBS (coffee ~gone, & really smooth) + a bit of rye spiciness. The price was a pleasant surprise (saw it on the shop's social media, with no price mentioned - they had me at the mention of Rye ) $7.50/32oz.

A : Dark brown (not quite as dark as photo) , with long-lasting ring of tan foam.
S : Chocolate, rye bread, & whiskey.
T : Dark chocolate, roasty nuts, rye bread crust, oak, vanilla, & whiskey. A bit of (rye) spiciness, & light bitterness linger awhile past finish.
F : Slick, slightly oily, with light, soft carbonation.Actually seems surprisingly light, for the abv. No alcohol warming on the palate, & just a bit of warming in the chest.
O : Enjoyed it. dangerously easy-drinking. I'd get it again, & encourages me to try any CW beers that I might see in the future.
4.19/5 rDev -2.8%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4.25
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/652/119725/?ba=mikeinportc#review

 

Must be something in the air today that calls for a hearty bean soup:

Mine was made with a guajillo and pasilla chile base. Definitely got the chill out of my bones.

 

My first entry on the sunny but chilly day here in the Fourth corner comes from @FBarber , and is Rauchbier from Dovetail. it's probably my favorite of the 5 Dovetail brews he sent, but I do love me a smoked beer.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/45802/232379/