New Beer Weekend #17

This is going to sound stupid but one thing that hit me today after reading posts for the last few days is temp and how important this is to almost every style. I have 3 beer storage facilities ( beer fridges). Two are cold and my cellar beers are kept around 48- 55 degrees. It hit me today that my temps have been set to summer weather. True temps in your house may remain relatively constant but in many situations you may have to adjust your fridge temp. Stuff I had coming out today was too cold and needed to open up a bit to get the full experience. Sorry for the PSO and interruption. Just a thought.
Edit: Basement Fridges

 

Any possibility of a review during the holiday season?

 

Went for something easy drinking as my last beer of the weekend. This one is The Cottage from Fox Farm. I could have sworn I'd had this before, but based on my check-ins here and on Untappd, apparently not.

The verdict....good Helles.

4.08/5 rDev -5.6%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Golden and very clear with close to two fingers of dense white head with good head retention and lacing. Aroma is bread, crackers & dough with some grassy notes lurking underneath. The aroma hints at a beer that will go down easily. Taste largely follows the nose, in paricular with the dough and grass. Just a mild amount of bitterness and a nice clean finish. Medium carb, crisp and fairly clean. Not quite on par with Suarez's offerings, but that's a tough bar to reach.

 

It is my entirely amateur opinion that serving temp impacts a beer significantly more than serving vessel/glassware. Too cold is no bueno, IMHO.

 

Both my cold beer fridges are the half size ones while my "cellar" is actually a wine fridge which works great. I guess my point is even in a closed environment with what is set to be a constant temp these small fridges still run hot and cold depending on ouside temps.

 

Another NBW Day 2, another pair of beers. The first is from @Roy_Hobbs from NBW BIF #12 which is still going strong.





4.33/5 rDev +0.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Pours a beautiful rose color with a smidge of haze and sudsy, bubbly white head that dissipates quickly. Nice funky aromas per the style, a bit of citrus, and a load of cherries.

And oh those cherries on the taste - ripe, juicy cherries with some tartness that works very well with the funky saison flavor without becoming cloying, which illustrates Suarez’s prowess as a brewery, because it would have been very easy for this to be just that (cloying). It’s not.

I wonder, though, if the cherries impacted the mouthfeel, because it’s a little softer than expected for a saison. But what a flavorful pleasure this is to drink, a common characteristic of all the Suarez beers I’ve had the opportunity to try.

 

I have to agree with this. I have had many a beer that at cold was not too good but as soon as it warmed up a little it was almost an entirely different beer and far more enjoyable.

 

Last new beer for me this weekend is the new Trillium - Daily Serving: Apple Cider variant.

Brewery notes:

4% abv, can dated 11/12/20


Pours an opaque dark yellow orange bronze color with a creamy white foam head with lasting retention and lacing.

Smells like funky apple cider, apple pie notes, crisp apples, wheaty malt, slight graham cracker, with floral earthy hop notes.

Taste follows with juicy mildly tart funky apple cider, fresh apples, apple pie notes, apple sauce, wheaty graham crackery malts, and mild earthy floral hops. Not very complex, leaning mainly on a fermented apple cider taste. The ingredients say apple, the can says apple cider, it tastes kind of like a funky apple cider so not really sure what's happening here.

Feels medium plus bodied, smooth and thick, creamy with moderate low carbonation. Nice fresh apple taste lingers in the back end.

Overall this is a real interesting beer from Trillium. I suppose a nice fall time fruited Berliner weisse style. The apple/cider comes off a bit funky and putrid at times, but I feel like it's growing on me as I drink it. The hints of fresh crisp apple are what really saves this and maintains the crispness of overall flavor and drinkability. It tastes like you just went apple picking and decided to ferment some excess apples into a beer. Pretty delicious, slightly unusual, I'm digging it. Cheers all and happy NBW!

 

A long, long time ago, I used to stick my beer in the freezer for 15 minutes or so, simply because I wanted to enjoy that flavor progression as the beer warmed.

I don’t do that any longer, but I pay a lot of attention to the beer, the beer style, and the serving temp. It makes a HUUUUUGE difference, IMHO.

 

Which was exactly my original point. Even IPAs can be served too cold. Its a pretty important part of enjoying beer to its fullest qualities.

 

#2, Transient’s my favorite brewery, and their imperial stout game is a big reason why. This dessert stout is on point.





4.59/5 rDev +2.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Pours jet black with a dense, dark tan head that is literally sizzling and disappears in seconds. Interesting. The nose has hints of the pecans and marshmallows, but make no mistake about it - this beer is all about the rich, indulgent, dare I say decadent chocolate. O. M. G.

The pecans actually come through a bit more on the taste, which is good, because they provide some balance to the chocolate sledgehammer this imperial stout is packing. Just a massive amount of chocolate, which this inveterate chocolate lover is digging SOOOOO much.

The mouthfeel is creamy and commensurate with what this beer is packing. What a magnificent beer this is - a true “dessert stout” in every sense.

 

Modern Times/Cellarmarker Spectrum of Desire, perfect for ending the night, thanks @Dimidiata!
4.55/5 rDev +3.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Thank you Dimidiata for this
22 oz bottle poured into a tulip

A- Black with a small mocha head.

S- Chocolate, fudge, vanilla, coffee, some roasted malts, bourbon, hints of oak.

T- Chocolate, vanilla, bourbon, dark fruits, coffee, some roasted malts, oak, touch of caramel.

M- Smooth, full body.

O- A big and tasty stout. Definitely on the sweet side but the barrel and coffee do bring a balance to it.

Cheers NBW, stay safe until next weekend!!

 

This is a Collab between Trillium and Equilibrium and let me tell you as a fan of good TIPAs this hits on all cylinders. Wow. I should review this but Im not sure if Im up to it. Cheers.

 

That wording "for a good long while" is a phrasing I know well and is music to my ears. I love it!

 

Last new beer of the weekend...



Won't Back Down, an 8.0% imperial oatmeal porter from Deciduous Brewing Company

Imagine my surprise to discover that there really is such a style as an imperial porter! As such, it doesn't seem to adhere much to the style guidelines but, hey, oatmeal stout is one of my very favorite things so I'm not going to be much concerned.

From a 16oz can, undated, purchased at the brewery 11/12/20. Served in a cervoise.

Pours thick-appearing and to-all-intents-and-purposes black, with a feeble little scant quarter-finger of head that was gone too quickly to really get a look at. Well, one doesn’t expect a porter to look like much, so there’s that.

Aroma of unsweetened baking chocolate and a little toasty something. Fairly faint but pleasant enough.

Tastes of baking chocolate and, interestingly, I’m getting more than just a little cinnamon, both on the palate and in the sinuses - well, that’s nice. And an interesting contrast between a creamy, almost porridgy Hershey's chocolate pudding character and dry bitterness of the scraped-burnt-toast and empty-coffee-pot-left-on-the-burner-too-long sort.

Feel is smooth with mouth-coating creaminess, fairly hefty bodied with gentle carbonation.

Overall, doesn’t look like much but it’s a really very nice... imperial oatmeal porter? Really? Fine, whatever, you brew it, you can call it whatever you want. In any event, I rated it a 4.27 overall which coincidentally is a 0% rDev.