New Beer Weekend #26

I haven't been here in awhile, it was NBS then, so my contribution is 2020 BBA Sleepy Bear from Werk Force brewing in Plainfield, Illinois. It's a goodie too.

4.37/5 rDev +2.8%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Pours a thick'n chewy black, no light passes thru, small quickly fading head and leaves an oily film on the glass.
Of course bourbon, vanilla, roasted malts, a hint of licorice.
Tastes follow the aroma, some candy flavor, toffee and vanilla.
Smooth, creamy texture. I'd prefer a bit more carbonation though.
My 1st brew from Werk Force, won't be the last, really good stuff!

 

Good evening, everyone!

Our driveway is a skating rink (wet snow fell at just above freezing temps, so a struggle to clear the drive, and left behind enough water so the freeze overnight leaves things a bit treacherous). The forecast is for below freezing daytime highs for the next week, so here's hoping for some sunshine at least to create some open blacktop. Ah, early winter life in Minnesota.

Anyhow, lined up for tonight I have another crowler, a pale ale this time, from my local pub.

Lakeville Brewing Momma Tried Pale Ale
ABV: 4.7%
IBU: 45

Apart from some sillliness about the titled country music song, the brewer's notes say:

This pale ale is packed full of aroma and light on the bitterness and abv. Packed full of Citra, Sabro, and BRU-1 hops, this beer is jam packed with aromas of stone fruit and tropical fruit.

Let's see.



Clear-to-partly-hazy light golden amber with ample active carbonation rising to a 1 inch thick white creamy head with excellent retention. As it does recede, it has a pitted and rocky surface and leaves a good amount of lacing.

Pine and citrus at the forefront of the aroma backed by hints of what must be the stone / tropical fruit the brewer mentioned - it's there, but only just.

Classic American Pale Ale flavor, a nice bready malt backbone, pine and citrus more subdued than in the aroma, and the tropical fruits a bit more discernable, with a nicely bitter middle and finish. Easy drinking, flavorful, with a dry-ish finish. The flavor remains in the aftertaste, but the bitterness fades. (Although it does get a bit more bitter in the aftertaste as the beer warms.)

Moderate body for the style, good carbonation tingling on the tongue.

Overall, a quite nice pale ale.

L: 4.0 | S: 3.75 | T: 3.5 | F: 3.75 | O: 3.75 | Rating: 3.67

 

Greetings fellow sots ready for something new



4.51/5 rDev -1.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

2020 12 ounce bottle poured into a DFH tulip. Inky dark brown body through which no light travels topped by a small dark tan head which quickly dissipated to a thin ring. Smell is of vanilla, bourbon and malts; can't detect any coconut. Taste is very full and complex with shifting tastes blending together including a hint of coconut on the back end. Really a rewarding sipper and typically of Prairie stouts nothing is out of balance. Mouthfeel is perfect for the style. A home run.

 

I've really been enjoying these Fox Farm beers, and I'm becoming jealous of people in Connecticut. Someone from Connecticut needs to post of picture of the snow, so I get back to reality. This beer smells amazing from several feet away.



Pours a straw-orangish color with a tall, soapy head, long retention and thick, stringy lacing.

The smell has strong citrus orange and sweet mango with some pineapple underneath.

The taste shows more tropical notes up front with a nice lingering, bitter floral finish.

The mouthfeel is slick and slightly oily, medium body and medium/low carbonation.

Overall this is really enjoyable, excellent nose and easy to drink.

 

Hey @SawDog505 , do you also get beer from The Beer Store in Nashua, NH on Amherst St.? I feel like we have some very similar selections at times, and they're one of the only places I can think of in that area that gets the rarer Bunker/Kettlehead/Modestman stuff. Cheers if so, we've probably run into one another before.

As some of you here know, I only participate in NBW once it becomes "New Beer Sunday." Otherwise you'll find me reviewing beer for the site proper, if I have new beers in my glass on Saturday. Guess old habits die reeeeaaally hard. Not sure why, though, but it is what it is. So, before I go to bed for the night and return tomorrow with a few more (including one that the aforementioned user already featured!), let me treat y'all to a fun new one that doesn't have anything in common with my loose theme of skulls/heads tomorrow...

Definitive "Behind the Light" DDH IPA w/ Citra, Mosaic, and Simcoe hops



Definitive has, to me, been one of the most consistently high-quality IPA breweries in recent memory, and this particular beer should logically be no different from that level of quality. The pour is a medium-orange/light-amber color with an essentially-opaque body, topped off with a couple fingers of head that build up and eventually settle at a solid single finger, leaving behind some spotty lace and good legs. A weird appearance, in a sense, because the initial pour is great but some of the aspects I use typically to judge the overall look of a beer are not as great as I expected. Ah well.

The nose here is papaya, pine resin, and passion fruit, with hints of tangelo in there as well. For some reason, it's not as aromatic as a few other recent Definitive IPAs I've had, and I'm not sure why. This is only nine days old, after all, and, being DDH, it should be pretty freaking intense. I mean, so you'd think. I just don't get a ton here. The brewery says we should be picking up "cantaloupe, tropical fruit juice, and FruitStripe™️ bubblegum," and I guess I get some of those elements in a sense, but... alright, BA, maybe I'm crazy... but when I think of these three hops, I really don't think of those elements. Mosaic and Simcoe alone should be absolutely crushing me with intense pine/dankness and maybe even some odd earthiness. Citra should be hitting the subtle tropical elements that those two hops miss. Am I wrong? I really don't think I am...

The flavor is similarly kind of... meh. I am somewhat crushed, not gonna lie. I have described almost every beer I've had from Definitive recently as "unfairly good." They have seriously been crushing the entire game, and this is the first beer from them that I'm having that is just not convincing me. I get some boring, one-dimensional dankness, passion fruit, and hints of guava and mango, but... meh. Ya know? Feel is crisp and lively, sure, but the flavors here just aren't doing anything that feels up-to-par given what I know they're capable of. This is really letting me down, and that doesn't feel great. I have had weirdly bad luck with IPAs recently, though... even those that are coming from breweries I usually trust to kill it, so, maybe that's the beer universe's way of telling me I should take a break from them? For my "proper NBW" entries tomorrow, I have one IPA, one stout, and one weird experimental sour. If the IPA isn't great, I might consider taking a break from the style for a bit. Consider it...

Cheers... have a good night, y'all!

 

I hear ya. It's a stellar hop. And Founder's hits it lovingly.

 

Really?!? Suicidal was your first?

 

Ballast Point Victory at Sea - High West Barrel Aged


Just realized after I did my review, that this was actually a 2018 bottle of VAS, I purchased the 4 pack a couple weeks ago but did not notice the 2018 on the label. Doesn't taste oxidized, I'm actually surprised I noticed alcohol in the taste since it is 2+ years old, usually that fades over time.

Appearance: Black, good firm head.

Smell: Nice! Rich chocolate, vanilla notes from the barrel.

Taste: Chocolate, sweet, a little booze, barrel notes-vanilla. Medium body.

Overall: Ran out of Lagunitas Willetized but still wanted some reasonably priced barrel-aged goodness. This is a chocolate bomb without being cloying. The barrel and booze are apparent in the taste but not overpowering. Nicely done!

 

First up today is something that @Dragginballs76 so kindly sent to me. Thank you!

Pineapple Upside-down Cake from Prairie Artisan Ales - 4.9% ABV
A nice easy drinking sour. Not too strong, not too sour. Tasty.
We don't get Prairie distro here any more, but I am a fan of their beers, and we still have several Bomb bottles at work. This is good.

Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30356/498460/


3.84/5 rDev +4.3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

Pours a hazy murky straw color. 1 finger white head. The retention isn't the best No lacing on the glass.
The nose is just chock full of pineapple. I'm also getting the aroma from the cherries added, it's faint, but there.
Taste - Ok, there's a bit of pineapple here, and it seems to come more in on the back. Up front I get a faint hint of the cherries. Slight tart flavor as well throughout.
The tartness lingers in my throat. There's a crisp feeling to this beer. Body is decent.
Very interesting beer.


Be back later for some more.

 

Up next, and I'm not too sure about this one:


Moo Joos Blood Orange - Brau Brothers Brewing - 5.5% ABV.

I remember when Goose Island made a orange variant of BCBS a few years back. It blew me away. This beer - not so much. It's ok, but could be way better.

Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/14967/261150/

3.78/5 rDev +3.3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

Pours pitch black. 1 finger tan head. Retention is ok. No lacing on the glass.
There's a nice orange and chocolate aroma. A good combo.
Taste - The 2 flavors aren't working as well as the aroma let on. There's a bit of bitterness up front.
The body is ok. About what's expected for this style and ABV.
Not a perfect combo here. I think the original is better.


Be back for more later.

 

Somebody better get that deer a horse blanket.

 

Greetings, NBW family. As usual, I hope that the weekend finds everyone doing well. The post-Christmas hunkering down has begun for my wife and I for the winter. Luckily my fridge is full of beverages to help keep warm, but it's down a bottle after last night. That brings to attention a beer that was sent to me by @BBThunderbolt recently - Kuhlshan's Barrel Aged Kitten Mittens Winter Ale.

This beer came in at 11% abv which is much higher than my admittedly limited experience with winter warmers. The pour was an unexpected dark cola brown with little light making its way through. The head was thin and fizzy with little retention. Bourbon aromas came pouring from the glass. For some time bourbon and vanilla with the only smells that I could detect. As it warmed the base beer became more apparent with notes of roasty malt, toffee, and very little dried fruit and chocolate. All I could taste was bourbon on my first couple of sips accompanied by some vanilla. Once my palate adjusted I could find more of the beer beneath. Some nice toffee and malt, a bit of smoke/char, limited dried fruit sweetness, and even chocolate on a few sips. The feel was well carbonated and had a medium body. It was thinner than I had anticipated, and did it a bit of a disservice. While it's probably not always the case, I usually equate a fuller bodied beer to have a higher concentration of it's base flavors. While I enjoyed what I could find of the base beer, it was often overshadowed by the intensity of the bourbon barrel treatment. That said, I really enjoyed sipping this bottle while watching a 2004 Ween concert followed up by tuning in just in time to witness the Ravens' collapse last night. The only other barrel-aged winter warmer I've had is Barrel-Aged 12 Dogs of Christmas, and this was the superior beer to me. Thanks again to @BBThunderbolt for the chance to try it.

4/5 rDev +2.6%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4