New Beer Weekend #17

Poured into a 16 oz Nordic glass, not sure when it was canned but just arrived at the store on Wednesday. Pours a murky orange with a 2 finger sticky white head that leaves thin streaks of lace, with excellent retention. 4.5

Smell ripe melon, guava, blueberry, peach, and apricot really nice. 4.5

Taste follows cantaloupe, guava, peach, blueberry, and apricot really bold flavor but balanced. 4.5

Mouthfeel is big, soft gentle carbonation, a tad sticky but not dry, and at 9% ABV really easy drinking. 4.75

Overall this is a really nice NEDIPA and this brewery impresses me often, just wish they would start marking dates on the cans. They want us to store cold and drink fresh, but we have no idea when it was actually canned. 4.5 Nice start @zid cheers all.

 

Thank you @zid for kicking this week’s NBW 17 / NBS 820!

I never had Fernet, but did have a milk stout barrel aged first in a bourbon barrel and then a Fernet barrel. This was an incredible Imperial Milk Stout brewed by Lake Effect Brewing here in Chicago a few years ago, which unfortunately 1. I drank on a weekday, so never made it to this series (review linked here) and 2. I only bought one bottle, and it was a one time release. It is one of my top rated beers in any style. I will definitely seek Fernet offerings in the future. I’m 100% with you on the dates, stopped buying non dated except right after a release from the brewery.

Speaking of one of the best beers I’ve had, it took a lot of will power to hold off cracking open my new WCIPA until the weekend, after reading all of the great things about it. I made it to early morning today and was extremely pleased.

Revolution Brewing DDH West Coast-Hero





Specifications: 16 oz, 8.0% ABV, canned 10/27/20 @11:29:38, poured 11/14 into a Revolution shaker pint glass.

Online Brewer Notes: Catch good vibes and endless sunsets with a new crystal-clear DDH West Coast-style IPA. A camper van's worth of Simcoe, Centennial, Cascade, Amarillo, and Citra bring huge hop waves to a bright, refreshing pint.

Appearance: Clear golden tan pour, light carbonation, egg white bubbly head leaves generous lacing. 4.25

Aroma: Pine strong and pleasant, grapefruit citrus backs well, light malt sweetness detected. 4.0

Taste: Oh yeah, Revolution nailed the West Coast style, not a MWIPA with medium/heavy malt presence. Firm very dry pine hops are kicking ass, a most excellent hop blend. This tastes like you're knee deep in a pine forest. Citrus backs, light tropical notes as well but this is glorious pine all the way. Light sweet malt taste noted, but proper in strength for this style, letting the hops reign supreme. You nailed this Revolution!!! 4.75

Mouthfeel: Medium slightly creamy mouth feel. Very dry and bitter, most pleasant for my palate and consistent with the best in style. Faint carbonation, dry bitter aftertaste lingers. 4.5

Overall: Overall, this is an excellent Old School WCIPA, so glad Revolution came out with this offering. Bursting with pine flavor, backed well with complementary fruit flavors, malt stays in it's lane, dry and bitter, very well crafted. Will definately pick up more and I really hope this becomes an annual release. 4.5

Have a few more in store for this weekend including one more from Revolution, IMO Chicago's premier brewery. Looking forward to reading your reviews.

 

Thanks to @zid for a start today. I too will miss the many brews that the Shelton Bros helped deliver. I have not been traveling or visiting boutique bottle shops in recent months, but I did venture out to a spot that usually has a couple of Fantome bottles, a favored experience (even if every bottle is a bit different).
I have a couple of herbal liqueurs (always trying for a special Negroni recipe).
This brew holds no such mysteries, except in name. Got Caught in the Spotlight IPA is a DDH offering from Singlecut.
This densely cloudy yellow can pour hosts a 1 cm cap of fine foam.
The aroma is of orange juice with a slight bitter note.
The flavor is of orange, grapefruit and grapefruit zest.
The finish is dry. Zest flavor persists.
This is not sweet at all. There is a lot of flavor in a relatively light-bodied brew.

 

Pours a nice solid jet black color with a nice tan head and lacing
Aroma has generous bourbon hints
The taste follows the nose with a silky chocolate milk and generous bourbon flavor
A light bodied decently carbonated beer
A well done stout

 

Modestman Brewing Center Of Attention. Pours a very hazy and attractive yellow orange with a 2 finger sticky white head that leaves loads of sticky white head with excellent retention. 4.5

Smell is sleightly dank marijuana, mandarin, pineapple, papaya, passionfruit, apricot, and grapefruit rind. 4.5

Taste follows mandarin, mandarin, papaya, passionfruit, pineapple, marijuana, apricot, and some bitter grapefruit in the bold long lasting finish. 4.25

Mouthfeel is bigger than average, plenty of life, a tad sticky and dry, and at 7% ABV it drinks more like 8%, but still pretty easy drinking. 4

Overall this is nice, a little dryer than most NEIPAs and more carbonation, but a very nice brew. 4.25

 

Take out wrenched ankle!

Do you remember that from the game Operation?



Well, today’s beer is Torque Wrench DIPA from Industrial Arts Brewery and this beer name made me think of that game. I am very fortunate to have this beer to drink since it was gifted to me by @cavedave.

The owner/brewer of Industrial Arts is Jeff O’Neill (aka Chief) and I was a fan of his brewing when he worked at Ithaca Brewing Co. many years ago. I was a HUGE fan of Ithaca Flower Power ‘back in the day’ but when Chief left the brewery that beer’s quality just wasn’t the same. People will claim that Flower Power is still brewed via the same recipe but as a person who has homebrewed for over 25 years I fully recognize the value of the brewer in producing a beer brand. There is zero doubt in my mind that Flower Power is not the same beer as it was when Chief was brewing there.

I have had a couple of beer brands from Industrial Arts brewing but this is my first time drinking Torque Wrench. I visited the Industrial Arts website to learn more about this beer:

“Torque Wrench

DOUBLE IPA

Presents with pale haze, intense aromas and a chewy mouthfeel that bites you back. Torque blows up the tropical base of Wrench and then tightens it with a big old dose of that CRYO SIMCOE.

8.2% ABV”

Well, not a heck of a lot of information there other than this beer seems to feature Simcoe hops in the cryo format.

Somewhat ironically I just added some dry hops to an IPA I recently brewed (Centennial, Simcoe, Amarillo and Chinook hops) and both the Amarillo and Chinook hops were cryo hop pellets. For the interested student a quick tutorial about cryo hops:

“What ARE Cryo Hops®? Well, hops cones are frozen with liquid nitrogen, then the lupulin glands are separated from the now nearly completely debittered leaf, or low alpha bract. The glands that make up Cryo Hops® are the concentrated bittering and oil containing portion of the hops. They are extremely high alpha acid, but using them just for bittering is kind of a waste. The real beauty of them is the intense aroma and flavor they bring to your beer. Without the vegetative material that traditional hop cones and pellets contain, Cryo Hops sucks up less of your precious beer and doesn’t give you the astringency you can get from traditional cone or pellet hops. If you love to brew NEIPA, this is the hop product for you. Because of the heavy load of late hops in the style, many people find them to be astringent. Cryo Hops® eliminates that issue.”

https://www.yakimachief.com/homebrewing-with-cryo-hops/

Well, I am a fan of Simcoe hops so I am quite excited to try this new beer: let’s drink!

Served in my Gulden Draak Tulip glass:

Appearance:

Very hazy (turbid) yellow with a big white head.

Aroma:

Wow! A powerful aroma of tropical fruit & citrus.

Taste:

The flavor follows the nose with a prominent flavor of tropical fruit & citrus. As the beer warms/opens up there is a hint of pine as well.. There is a notable bitterness.

Mouthfeel:

Medium bodied with some smoothness. There is a dry finish.

Overall:

This beer is very, very good! I really enjoyed the hop flavor/aroma profile plus the noticeable bitterness. I also enjoyed the mouthfeel of this beer.

Cheers!

@KOP_Beer_OUtlet @rotsaruch @RobH

 

Hey what's going on!?

Well I am aching for this weekend and enjoying the fact that the rain has finally stopped.

Now I have a giant mud pit in my backyard, so there's that fun...

Still i really stocked up on beer for the coming weeks. Which means lots of new goodies!

So what's new for our hero today?



Poured from the bottle into a Libbey style pilsner glass.

Beaming light copper and dark brass amber body color, with excellent clarity. Quite a good forming and better than average head too to go along with it. Thick and rocky bright white at easy three fingers tall, with sheets and touches of light scattered lacing all over.

Real nice nose too. Soft malts, a touch of caramel sweetness and sticky yeast on the aroma. Mellow herbal hop just a touch, lacks a little bit of classic bready aromas though. Otherwise solid and inviting.

Palate is a bit of a shocker. Quite a bit of a light body here, but exceptional wet and water mouthfeel. This really shows up in the palate. Light airy and faint flour notes with virtually no backbone on the tongue. Faint touches of light caramel and dry grain, but with a wet cracker almost cardboard like character. Dull. Non existent hop finish, with just not much of anything to remark on in the aftertaste.

This seemed at first like a great solid beer, but it really got disappointing.

Cheers!

look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3 | 3.32/5 rDev -6.2%

 

Great stuff about Cryohops, cheers!

 

Have you had any Czech Dark Lagers (Tmavý Ležák)? If so, any similarities between Death & Taxes and a Czech Dark Lager?

For reference below is information for Bernard Tmavý Ležák that I had in a pub in Prague:





There are some US craft breweries that produce Czech Dark Lager. One example is Triple Crossing; I had this beer at the tap room in downtown Richmond, VA:



Na Zdravi

 

Thank you, @zid, for getting this thread off to a good start.
It's Masters weekend, something I never thought I would be saying in November. When I lived in South Carolina I went every year for eight years. In the spring, with the azaleas and dogwoods in bloom, the course is beyond beautiful. It's still beautiful in November, but in a starker sense. It's also rather weird to watch with virtually no spectators there. I would like to see Tiger Woods retain his title, but really don't care a lot about who wins. The leaderboard is most impressive!
I found this Clown Shoes beer languishing in my refrigerator. It's a blend of a barrel-aged imperial stout and a barrel-aged barleywine.
Black color, small tan head.
Aroma of booze, chocolate, vanilla. Some dark fruit, a little coffee.
Taste of bourbon, chocolate, vanilla. Dark fruit and coffee later. Peppery finish.
Medium to full bodied. Good sipping beer.
To me, the barleywine contribution is to mute the stout a little.

 

4 4.2+ NYC-NJ New to BA Small Craft Ales.
Mind Control | Sixpoint | NEIPA | 8.1% | Brooklyn
4.26/5 rDev +11.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5
5th Review of a favorite local Brooklyn brewer. This works. Hops from NZ, ID, WA, OR, and Germany - and they play well together and explode in flavor. 8.8% is actual ABV.
a) Hazed creamy lacer.
s) More fall orchard, tea-like, hop, than just citrus and orange peel.
t) Melange of flavors: Cannabis, (all the above), PLUS Mango, over-ripe fruit salad, nectar.
f) Creamy, dreamy, and brightens with more pepper than pucker into finale. Big explosion.
o) Among 6 Points finest, NY's finest.

United Rye | Interboro | Stout | 6% | NYC
4.27/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
2d review. Wow, already a fan of brewer, and its cause ReThink, on election Wed, this is welcome treat.
a) Pours a brown-black, with crema lasting and lacing head, resumes with a swirl.
s) All kinds of autumn bon-fire with dry and wet wood smoking along with wet leaves, damp fall earth.
t) Follows smell, just what you want in a complex fall stout, with the rye sharpness adding a high sharp and then a hop note.
f) mid-weight, good sharp smoky finish.
o) Great cause, great beer.

White Caps | Cape May | DIPA | 7.7% | NJ
4.2/5 rDev +2%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
10th Review. Fan of this brewer which I visit annually in July. I being from Sandy Hook at the top of the Jersey Shore and it being at the bottom at Cape May Airport on its own private well. Visit often and share the mexican food.
a) Hazed yellow body with white caps lacing head as promised.
s) Big, tropical, fruit salad, lime, and grassy. Blossom perfume.
t) Bigger and adds more pine, resin, tangerine, cushy hemp.
f) Creamy yet resinous, cleansing. Lively carb.
o) One of their best.

 

Do you have any idea how old it was?

 

First beer for today is courtesty of @Whyteboar in the recent NBS BIF #12. Somewhat amazing that I've never tried this before, but here we are! Overall, a very good imperial stout that I will enjoy as I watch The Masters and get some stuff done in the old home office.

Bottled 11/6/19 and poured into a tulip. Very dark with a faint redish hue around the edges as it poured. One finger of tan colored head that left behind some nice lacing. Aroma didn't waft out of the glass, but once I get close to get a whiff, it's a really nice maltly smell with distinct chocolate notes. Taste is roasty malts, chocolate and coffee. Medium bodied, and actually a hair thinner than I was expecting based on the ABV. Good beer.

 

I'm not trying to rush the season with this beer, (No) Santa. My wife came home with this for me as she knew I enjoyed some Sloop Brewing beers in the past. I looked this up on their website and found its a series, a (No) series actually. Website says-
Hops, yeast, barley & water come together to make beautiful IPAs for real beer lovers.
No nutmeg. No coriander. No pine trees. Just real beer.
I like the idea, but honestly, I haven't drank too many NEIPAs with adjuncts anyways. Here we go-

3.96/5 rDev -2.9%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Poured from a 16oz can stamped "canned on 10/30/2020" to a Nonic at fridge temp.
Very pale yellow hazy body. Super opaque. Frothy white head that fades in about 3-4 minutest to significant lacing.
Pithy, hoppy aroma. Subtle mustiness while sipping. Some pine needle smell also.
Taste is similar, and not sweet except for a few milliseconds in the front. Nice bitterness with citrus background.
Carbonation takes off in the mouth, I'm on the fence about this feature.
Pleasant beer with decent taste.