New Beer Weekend #27

All right, as I prepare to watch some football, I figured I had some time to share a new beer the GF bought last week. I've seen it around on the site for a little bit, and this bottle is dated mid-December, from one of the original brewers of this new age, Sierra Nevada, this is Wanderland:


Golden body supports modest white head,
Near clear, with mild haze given it a backlit glow.
Watermarks left in each sips stead
From the white collar's ebb and fow.

Acclaimed fruit shines on the nose,
Though crisp grains and fruity hops
Help ensure that I continue to suppose
That this is a beverage with beer chops.

And beer is what my tongue greets
On the liquid's entry to my mouth,
Flavors start more bitter than sweet
With grain and hops mingling about.

Nectarine shines though, as well,
As the beer travels my palate,
The bitterness is not quelled
And ends up in a tussle with it.

Acidic fruit and mint are not atop
My list of favorite things,
And my mind cannot stop
That impression from lingering.

So kudos for the nectarine flavor,
And for staying true to hops and grain,
But this beer did not gain my overall favor,
Though finishing it was not ever a strain.

 

Good afternoon NBW
House is quiet, so I pulled out what I thought was a spirit barrel aged quad...
Pannepot Special Reserva matured for four years in Bordeaux wine barrels

The review:
330mL bottled 24/04/2018 (nearly 3 years ago) after aging for 4 years in Bordeaux wine barrels 10% ABV 27 IBU. The beer pours mostly bright medium brown in color with sparce khaki colored head. The head settles to a thin ring constantly fed by the nucleation point on the glass. The aroma is akin to a very oaky red wine. The taste is very tart red wine with residual brown sugar and faint malt. Negligible bitterness. The mouthfeel is thin bodied with above average carbonation and a very dry finish. No trace of the 10% ABV. Overall, ok. So I'm sure this was not intended to be tart and dry. It really tastes like an oud bruin at this point. The label contained a wealth of information, I just missed it. Now that I'm reading, it's also unfiltered, unpasteurized and bottle conditioned. Go figure. This was a one time release, so hard pass if you're not into sours. I will add mine was on the unrefridgerated store shelf for quite some time before purchase.

I should have ponied up the money for this one when it hit town, instead of waiting a year or two. Had I read the label, I wouldn't have purchased anyway, so there's that as well. Hopefully I'll be back with something more in my wheelhouse later.

Cheers all and enjoy the new beer in your glass today!

 

Covert Artisan Ales Supercoconutdelicouspeachygoldenberry with Passion Fruit Sour, ??% ABV. Pours hazy orange. Initially had about a five-finger head but it dissipated in seconds. Nose is coconut and a fruit mashup, presumably as labeled. Taste is light fruit taste, less coconut, moderately tart, slightly sweet. A bit undercarbonated, overall good.

3.64/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

This was a bit disappointing, not much fruit flavor.

 

New Glarus Cherry Stout.

4.09/5 rDev +7.1%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

12 oz bottle poured into a tulip

A- A dark brown with a two finger light tan head.

S- Tart, cherries, some chocolate, roasted malts. Smells like a blend of a Flanders Oud Bruin and a stout.

T- Tart, cherries, brown sugar, some cola like sweetness, some chocolate and roasted malts.

M- Smooth, medium body.

O- A fun and nicely done fruited stout. As usual New Glarus does a great job with fruits.

Cheers!

 

Nice poetry there...

 

East Sixth Brewing ( RIP ) Black Duck Revival, a Delta Inspired Lager with Oslo Kviek yeast toasted rice and toasted acorns; 5.0% ABV. Since a review isn't allowed for the now defunct brewery, I'll give some general tasting notes.

Nice amber color, pretty darn dry. Some astringent & nutty notes I presume from the acorns. Other than that, a solid lager the I'd rate somewhere around 3.8 overall

 

Nice? I'm not so sure. But it does have a rhyming pattern

Ha!! Yeah, that's what ruined it
If only there were a moderator who could fix that faux pas.

 

Nice job with the poetry up there, @cjgiant... I'm not sure if you're tall or short, but you're definitely a regular Longfellow...

Here's an interesting one. Not only is this beer new to me, but the brewery is as well! I picked this up as a recommendation from an employee at one of my favorite beer stores who I shoot the shit with for a while every time I end up there browsing. Hope it's a good one!



Tilton Brothers Brewing Apple Pie Winter Warmer... the back states that this was a collaboration with a local farm and features UK base malts, a blend of specialty dark malts, Applecrest cider, and an "Apple Pie spice blend" of allspice, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and vanilla beans. Okay, that sounds like it might actually be kinda good. That's a lot of effort to go through for an average beer, after all, in my opinion.

This is way darker than I expected. I mean, yeah, it does say there are dark malts here, but I did not think I would be pouring a porter-looking beer into my glass. Cool, though; I sometimes appreciate being a bit thrown off by how a beer looks. The head is a slightly off-khaki color that builds up with aplomb, eventually ending up at about three fingers with a rather aggressive pour. It retains pretty damn well, never really going below a finger and bearing solid-as-hell legs, too. Hell, even the lace looks great! Alright, I think this will probably be impressive for what it is. Calling it now.

The nose is pretty unlike what I expected... but it's also very charming and definitely carries some weight with it. It's very roasty like an American porter in a sense, with some hefty nuttiness to it as well. Some of the spices make their presence known, and I do get hints of cardamom, nutmeg, and allspice. The cinnamon isn't really too prominent, but I have also had some beers in this general style (spiced beers/Winter warmers, I guess) that have relied too much on that aspect leading to those beers becoming one-note very quickly. I'm kinda grateful, then, that this leans on some more "unusual" spices, at least based on the smell.

This tastes freakin' great! It reminds me a lot of Anchor's Special/Christmas Ale with incredible complexity from the spices and the base beer. I get a lot of cardamom, mace, nutmeg, nuttiness, licorice, leathery undertones, and a helping of evocative roasted malts mingling with some light cider-like fruitiness in the finish. It's actually pretty cohesive. I guess I would want it to have a little more apple cider flavor if I had to nitpick at all, but this is much more interesting and fun than I assumed it'd be. Feel is medium but bold with adequate carbonation underpinning the experience. Recommended, and now I will keep an eye out for future Tilton Bros offerings, as this was an intriguing little first brush with them!

Speaking of new breweries and new beers... one more coming up that I am hopeful will impress. An imperial stout with honey AND maple syrup. Wondering if it'll all lead to a very dry beer or if they can bring some balancing sweetness to the equation somehow. It can really go either way, and I'm pumped to see how it turns out...

 

I was able to pick up a bottle of Lunch this week. Only 18 days old so still in its prime. Very tasty!

 

Another beer into my house courtesy of my middle son. Its nice that he buys beer now and than but I think balance sheet is still tipped such that I supply more beer to him. This is Godmother from Lord Hobo and coincidentally that particular son's godmother is visiting today. Its a cold windy day here so a stout is welcome. Dry stouts are really welcome.

4.06/5 rDev -3.6%
look: 4.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Poured from a 12oz can dated 10/26/20 to a diagonal cut tumbler at room temp.
Really pretty topographical dark tan head. Dark body with brown edges when back lit.
Smells of musty alcohol if that makes any sense. Some chocolate hints, some caramel.
Nice dry mouthful. Chocolate in the front, but the 12% octane certainly lets itself known in the sips.
Oily and creamy describes the feel.
A nice stout. Sip slowly for ultimate enjoyment.

 

Transient Bad Hombre Imperial Cream Stout aged in Rye Whiskey Barrels (2020), from @ovaltine's mini-BIF box. I thought I was going to get to this last Sunday, after trying the Maple Barrel variant last Saturday, but forces conspired against me. I said last week that it was hard to imagine this Rye variant being better than the Maple, so let's see what's what. (As I've disclosed on BA a few times, I'm not usually a fan of rye-barreling, so I'm going in with some trepidation.)

Pours a thick near-black, with a thin, cocoa head that quickly dissipates. Not as dramatic or oily as the Maple version, making me think that quality had something to do with the maple? Smell is just as strong of a vanilla as the maple was of chocolate, like a just split-open vanilla bean, with a slight booziness, although I'm not sure I can identify rye by smell. Smells a little hotter, less restrained than the Maple version; not bad, just different. First taste is definitely different from the Maple version, more assertively "stouty," with roasty malts and leathery tobacco. The vanilla is wonderfully creamy and well-integrated, with cocoa shimmering just underneath. Alcohol becomes more prominent as is warms, and the rye becomes more pronounced. I'll have to say, this is probably the best rye barreling I've tasted, and yet there's still something about it that doesn't quite "finish" in a way that's satisfying to me. I'm not skilled enough to describe this properly, but good bourbon barreling, to me, always leaves a sense of closure, of sealing the flavors on the tongue with a period. Rye somehow keeps the flavors dangling, more like an ellipsis . . .

Sorry if that's too abstract. This is obviously in a very high tier of stouts, but doesn't quite slay me the way its maple brother did. I think it's really my "rye issue," which is strange because I love rye in a traditional Old Fashioned, and the original Alpine Nelson was made with rye malts. Very glad to have tried both versions, and hoping to try more Transient in the future. Cheers!

 

Greetings fellow NBSers! A chilly, wet day (or, in a word, January) here in the Fourth Corner. Not overly chilly here at sea-level, but apparently 100 miles south in Seattle, they are expecting sea-level snow. Suckers!!!!!

My opening salvo today comes courtesy of @vurt , and is Baerlic Brewing's Jim Parker's Holiday Ale Winter Warmer. Jim Parker was a friend of mine (and many in the industry. He seemingly knew everyone who was anyone, and a lot of us nobodys) who passed away a year ago. He was a beer writer, bartender, brewer, aficionado of whiskey, puns, and jokes. Baerlic brewed this beer, based on a recipe he brewed at his first brewing job, in his memory. I met Jim when he moved to Bellingham to be the first sales rep at the (then) newly opened Chuckanut Brewery. He also worked at a couple other breweries in town, and a several bars, before his journey took him to PDX. He was good man, and I miss him.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/36868/523207/

 

The Abyss Rye


Pours pitch black with a smaller, soon vanishing head, which leaves a small lacing behind.


Smells of molasses, burned oak, cinnamon and distilled rye. Has a caramel peak on the nose, balanced by leather and wood fire.


Has a full, smooth and creamy body, revealing a great complexity while maintaining its balance throughout.


Tastes of fresh brewed coffee, rock sugar and matured hops among an equally dry alcohol soaked oak barrel. Turns spicier, with molasses, cinnamon and char playing along with bitter chocolate and soothing whipped cream. Finishes with toffee accompanied vanilla, boozy praliné, toasted walnuts and a long going Bourbon glow, wrapped into spocy oak and bitter chocolate.


Fantastic, roasty, bitter and spicy stout with a lingering, taste defining barrel presence.

 

Good Sunday afternoon, New Beer Swiggers and commentators. Burlington Beer Co. recently began distributing to New Jersey, which is welcome given this brewery's reputation. But I have to say, the first couple of IPAs I tried were good but I wasn't getting the hype. @SawDog505 has been very positive about It's Complicated Being a Wizard so I thought I'd give it a try. The cans are less than 3 weeks old. I have to say, I'm impressed with this one! It's as easy drinking but flavorful a DIPA as I've had.

It pours a hazy, pastel orange with a large, foamy, bright white head and thick lacing. A fragrant, fruity nose with pineapple, lemon, grapefruit, honeydew, and pine needles. It's a fruit bomb with abundant orange/tangerine, pineapple, lemon peel, and grapefruit, along with oats and resinous pine. The Idaho 7 and Chinook hops really shine. As it warms I'm noticing more earthy dankness from the Simcoe. There isn't a lot of bitterness. The flavors are distinct yet delicate. For 8% ABV this ale is positively crushable. It went down fast. It's moderate in body and the carbonation level is appropriate.

I'll keep on buying beers from this brewery especially if we get them fresh. I rated this a solid 4.25.

I'll be back with a RIS shortly. Cheers, NBW!

 

I've enjoyed Baerlic beers on a few occasions to PDX, especially since one of their tasting rooms is really close to family. Assuming you've maybe had a few by them, what do you think of the brewery's offerings in general?