New Beer Weekend #22

@JamFuel thank you kind sir for kicking this off nice and early. Cheers to you!

Poured into a 16 oz Nordic pint glass canned on 12/08/2020. Pours a very attractive hazy yellow with a 2 finger sticky white head that leaves big thick streaks of lace with excellent retention. 4.5

Smell is papaya, tangerine, pineapple, peach, marijuana, and apricot. 4.25

Taste follows marijuana, papaya, mandarin, pineapple, peach, and apricot really Dank and tropical at the same time. 4.25

Mouthfeel is big, rather soft slightly sticky carbonation, and at 8% ABV it really goes down easy. 4.5

Overall another really nice NEDIPA from this brewery. I often purchase this brewery because I know they almost always deliver a high quality brew. 4.25 Cheers all and let’s roll out some pages!

 

Canned on 12/14/2020. Poured into a 16 oz Snulip glass. Pours a very clear amber red, with a solid finger sticky off white head that leaves some thick patches of lace with excellent retention. 4.75

Smell is fig, dates, caramel, toffee, cherry, and brown sugar. 4.25

Taste follows dark fruity esters, cherry, caramel, toffee, and brown sugar, really balanced and kind of seductive. 4.25

Mouthfeel is above average for sure, gentle slightly dry carbonation, and at 9.2% you know you are drinking a sipper, but it is pretty darn complex and makes you want more. 4.5

Overall in a world with few BarleyWine’s these days this is a really nice brew. I could sip on this malty and rather hoppy Bastard for hours. I am confident you all will see this in my glass soon. 4.25

 

@JamFuel - Thanks for starting this weekend's thread! If the Covid Crap ever ends to the point we can internationally travel again, I'm hoping to FINALLY get to Sweden for a couple of weeks. Today's New Breakfast Beer:




Peanut Butter Hazelnut Caramel Chocolate Cake Stout from Hoppin’ Frog. Purchased 11/13/20 for $6 (Including tax) for 16 oz can ($ 0.375/oz) from Franklin Beer, Franklin, PA. Reviewed 12/19/20.
Marked on bottom of can “Best By Oct 26, 2023”. In reefer at store and stored at home at 42 degrees. Served at 47 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. Final temperature 56.3 degrees.
Appearance – 4.25.
First pour – Brown (SRM 20), clear.
Body – Black (SRM 40), opaque. When held to direct light, it remains opaque with a large amount of precipitate clinging to the glass.
Head – Large (Maximum six cm, aggressive center pour), earth yellow, high density, average retention, leaving a four to seven mm undulating crown fed by effervescence, a beautiful reticulum as the head collapses, and a complete cap. Second pour produces a rocky 0.8 cm head.
Lacing – Excellent! Narrow bands of near-microscopic bubbles with long thin stalactites, connected by thin columns. See also above.
Aroma – 3 – Overpowering hazelnut, no malt, no hops, no yeast, no caramel, no peanut butter. Lasts but weakens slightly, allowing a bit of chocolate cake to finally appear.
Flavor – 3 – Improves as it warms, as the hazelnut weakens a bit. No malt, no hops, no yeast. No caramel, no peanut butter (thankfully), some tentative chocolate cake (although a subsequent belch or two leans toward chocolate). No alcohol (8% ABV, as marked on container) taste or aroma. Gastric warming eventually occurs. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl. Palate – 3 – Medium, watery, soft carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 3.5 Looks quite good. The hazelnut aroma approaches stench proportions, blocking out everything else. Too much of too many good things – the flavor is a mess. Very thin for the stout end of the spectrum. Seems to have been designed by a committee - a rare miss for a Hoppin’ Frog stout.
Rating 3.18, rDev -19.7%.

 

Have a good NBW. I haven't been in here for over 2 months. I have better things going on in my life. I have a girlfriend that is moving in with me in about 2 months, and working 3rd shift at a gas station to barely get by on finances. Still looking for a design engineering position close by while I work minimum wage. So basically my best life right now, aside from the job. I have reviewed 6 new beers in that 2 month time. I rather just drink stuff I already like instead of concentrating much on reviewing. Been working with my GF to share all of the 13 some cases of cellar beer I had from when I lived in Michigan. Haven't even made a real beer singles haul at all so far since the beginning of October. Also now drinking way less than I was last year. Just feeling a lot better overall, with Prozac and my GF included. Also not sure if my cats were moved in yet since I've been here, but here they are bothering me like every morning after work. They get in a fight at least twice a day. My GF is coming over tomorrow to stay 2 nights. I am working tomorrow night but off mon/tues so I can come home to her from work.


Surprisingly after 10+ years of beer reviewing I've not had this before. Saw it at work lol. This was very good. Lasting fluffy head retention, foamy lacing. Crystal clarity. Aromas and flavors of big lemon, cracker, corn, white bread dough, biscuit, wood, pepper, herbal, grassy earthiness. Some DMS fruity aromas, but not overwhelming. Light-moderate herbal, grassy, peppery bitterness on the finish. Medium-plus carbonation and light-medium body; and fairly crisp/clean finishing. Balanced bready/grainy malts and sticky hops in the mouthfeel. Light-moderate increasing bitter dryness. No hop astringency. Very clean lager flavors, not overly fruity/yeasty. Pretty refreshing, zero warming 4.5%. Very flavorful and not watery. Nice clean pils/grain showcase, and earthy hop balance for the style. Minimal residual sweetness with crisp dryness. Impressive for the style. 3.81


Cheers

 

Let’s spice things up for the holidays!

I am not a big spiced beer guy and consequently I have never been motivated to buy Anchor Christmas Ale. Anchor has been brewing this beer since 1975 and this is the first time I have bought this beer – just a single bottle from my local beer retailer’s singles section.

Anchor brewmaster Tom Riley in a Q&A article discusses:

“In 2020, however, it made sense for us to arrive at a more traditional and approachable spice blend with a large malt build. We peeled back some of the spice layers of recent recipes to create a subtly spiced brown ale with a more silky and chocolaty malt, bursting with classic holiday flavors that remind us of a different time—when it was normal to spend this special season with a multitude of friends and family. The 2020 Christmas Ale is an easy-drinking winter warmer for a year that’s anything but traditional.”

https://beerandbrewing.com/behind-anchor-christmas-ale-q-and-a-with-brewmaster-tim-riley/

Well, since this 46th version of Christmas Ale is “peeled back” this sounds like the sort of beer that may be appealing for my palate. Let’s find out.

Served in my Heavy Seas Tulip glass:

Appearance:

A very dark brown, approaching black, color with a bit of a ruby hue. A dark tan head.

Aroma:

An intriguing combination of caramel, some roastiness, menthol, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, molasses and toffee.

Taste:

The flavor very much follows the nose. It also has an aspect that reminds me of Coca-Cola. A low bitterness.

Mouthfeel:

Medium bodied with an off-dry finish.

Overall:

I enjoyed drinking this beer. There is indeed notable aspects from the spices used to brew this beer but they are indeed “peeled back” for my palate they played very nicely here.

@rotsaruch @RobH @KOP_Beer_OUtlet

 

!968 was super weird. The Viet Nam war was raging, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were murdered. I was a junior in high school and my Dad was in the hospital for three months. Through it all I had a great basketball season and sports and competition sustained me. I was always most alive playing basketball. I still have a deadly corner shot. This year has been like no other. I have read a bunch into different genres and really learned more about me than I ever knew before. Writing and reading urges me through the days revealing ever more. Cheers to everyone and I look forward to 2021 and official sanity..

 

X-post from the Holiday Beer tasting thread. Stop on by

Hardywood holiday beers just showed up here a couple of weeks ago, but none of their other brews have hit our market.

This is their Christmas Morning a 9.2% "Imperial Milk Stout with Ginger, Cinnamon, Honey, Vanilla, and Coffee"

The website & can say

The can says to "drink fresh" and this was canned 11/24/20, so I guess that's fresh enough.


I can't comment on the base stout, but this is a very, very good Christmas beer.
It really does capture Christmas morning. There's coffee, gingerbread & sugar cookies dunked in milk, chocolate, you taste the spices from a scented Christmas candle.
Christmas Morning is an excellent holiday breakfast beer. The only drawback is that it comes in a 16oz can; frankly it's a little too much if you have plans for the day and would be better suited to 12oz servings.

4.35/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
L: deep, dark black with a thin dark tan head that quickly dissolves into a ring with film islands
S: coffee, cocoa, gingerbread cookies
T: more of the same; cocoa, coffee, gingerbread cookies dipped in milk, sugar cookie, cinnamon, nutmeg, a dash of vanilla
F: medium bodied with mild carbonation, dry across the tongue with some ginger heat and a coffee with sugar aftertaste
O: very, very good. Christmas Breakfast is an excellent holiday brew that hits all of the right seasonal notes; gingerbread, coffee, cookies, everything you want in a Christmas beer. So much so that this beer would not work any other time of the year, but I'm glad it's here in December

 

Greetings, new beer boys and girls of all ages. I hope the week was pleasant enough for everyone and you're all prepared for the coming holiday. Thanks to @JamFuel for getting this week's thread started. Like him, Christmas will be a pretty solitary even for my wife and I. On Christmas morning we're going to make the drive to my parents' house to exchange gifts in the winter air and part ways. Christmas Eve will be a 20+ person zoom chat with my extended family who all typically gather at my parents' house for a large meal and gift exchange. This year we'll talk virtually for a short while and then go our separate ways. It will be odd, but I'm thankful to be able to spend time with my wife and dogs(and of course my beer fridge).

This week brought the first significant snowfall to this area in some time, especially this early in the season. The shoveling and hunkering down has kicked my stout craving into high gear. A few weeks back I picked up a number the Big Bad Baptist variants by Epic. This is a series of barrel-aged stouts that I've had good experiences with and look forward to each year. This year the price of the bombers went up by a few bucks around here. I bought them anyway and chose Big Bad Baptist Chocolate Raspberry for my first sampling. This is an imperial stout aged in whiskey barrels with coffee, cacao, and raspberries. The pour was a nice jet black color with a one finger tan head that did not stick around for very long. The aroma was nothing but raspberry with some chocolate notes beneath. There was no coffee to be found on the nose, or anywhere else for that matter. Unfortunately, the same rang true for the whiskey barrel. I got none of it on the nose or the flavor. The taste itself was all superficial raspberry and bitter baker's chocolate. Even the roasty malt that I'd want from any imperial stout was nowhere to be found. I sipped this beer over a long period of time with significant warming, and nothing helped what I found to be a major disappointment in taste. The body was quite thin and I'd place it at a low-medium body. This was by far the most disappointing variant of this series that I've ever had. I still have a bottle each of Bigger Badder Baptista and the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup variant, and I'm hoping for better things from them. I have to admit, this experience has definitely lowered my expectations for them.

3.36/5 rDev -16.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.25

Look - Pours a jet black with a fleeting one finger head.
Smell - The aroma is all raspberry with chocolate lingering beneath.
Taste - Raspberry is the biggest tasting note, and one of the few that are distinguishable. Bitter baker's chocolate comes in a close second. The only hint of coffee that I can detect would be the bitter finish that is only reminiscent of black coffee. I taste no barrel or whiskey whatsoever, nor the rich malt I'd hope to anchor the beer.
Feel - Quite thin with a medium body.
Overall - This is the most disappointing variant I've had in the Big Bad Baptist series.

 

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

 

A very nice clear light amber color
Aroma has malt, tropical and citrus hints
The taste follows the nose with a unique malt, tropical and citrus flavor
A light bodied well carbonated beer
A well made DIPA

 

3 Best IPAs From Collective Arts: Art on and in the can. Happy Holidays!

Ransack the Universe | Collective Arts | IPA | 6.8%
4.27
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
A) Turbid, yellow-gold froths up a lasting and lacing head.
S) Very dank tropical note, with dominant grapefruit, bitter orange, apricot, mango.
TF) Follows smell but massive mouth-filling flavors, feel and fizz. Now there's more mango and complexity, wth a grassy, then piney development. musty, oily, sticky, bitter. (Watch your palate)
Mouth is medium, creamy, fizzy carb.
O) Ontario's craft always appeals and in this case with a massive bitter bomb.

Radio The Mothership | Collective Arts | DIPA | 8.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
4.2
40th review. Beautiful from Wisconsin & Toronto. Collective Arts
a/ pours a hazy, yet bright light golden body, with ample fingers of puffy, bubbly white head, that lasts and laces.
s/ Aromas of dank grass, pine resin, minerally water flint and lots of hempy, leafy, weed.
t/ As with aroma, plus bright, piney hops. Fine hop complexity and bittering in finale.
f/ creamy mid-weight, smooth, resinous candy like without being sweet due to astringency.
o/ great feel and taste, had me wanting more and to blind test against some great dipas.

Life in the Clouds | Collective Arts | NEIPA | 6.2%
4.11/5 rDev +0.2%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
I've found Canadien beers tasty, you? Life in the Clouds- flagship New England style IPA - is no exception.
a) Totally hazed clouded with particulate body pours a rippled cloudy head that laces well but faces to seaside cap.
s) fruit forward with citrus and melon prominant and sun-baked hay.
t) the bitter hops restrain the fruit to a sharp and pungent finale.
f) Chalky, juice like, unfiltered, with a peppery bitter finish.
o) NEIPA - at its best from North of the border.

 

Dunkirk is an amazing film. I love pretty much all of Nolan's movies. I just rewatched Tenet.

 

Thanks for the review. I passed on these beers after being pretty disappointed with all of them last year, after being impressed by them the year before.

 

Thanks to @JamFuel for getting us off on the right foot.
Like many others we will be celebrating the holidays remotely. Tomorrow our grand-daughter will have her first birthday and there will be a Zoom party. We still haven't seen her in person. Christmas Eve Zoom with my side of the family, and Christmas Day Zoom with my wife's side. With all that is going on, virus-wise, it seems the prudent thing is to stay home.
There's a good supply of beer in my fridge, and my son has hinted there will be more by next weekend. I found this guy lurking in my fridge and today seemed like a good day to drink it. Gulden Draak Limited Edition 2018 Imperial Stout, 12% ABV.
Black color, modest off-white head. Good retention, scattered lacing.
Aroma of dark fruit and chocolate.
Dark chocolate taste, plum and raisin, a hint of coffee.
A bit thin in the mouth. Sweet, alcohol not apparent.