New Beer Weekend #32

Thank you @SawDog505 for kicking things off! Starting the weekend with a new to me New Glarus. Wheat beers are not a style I naturally turn to, but my brother recommended this strongly so here we are.

New Glarus Dancing Man Wheat



Bottle notes: May 22, 2021 @ 09:56 pull date code (E 22 1), so fresh, but still would rather have bottle date. 12 oz bottle, no ABV listed.

Bottle Taste Notes: If you dream of wheat this brew will get your toes tapping. Since 1995, we have brewed Bavarian style wheat beers exclusively for the same great state that grows and malts our own Wisconsin wheat. In a world full of posers this is a true Hefeweizen naturally 100% bottle fermented and hazy. Expect this beer to cascade effervescent into your glass. The rich spicy clove and cinnamon notes will greet your nose while sweet fruit and wheat kiss your lips. Lick the foam from your mouth and admit sometimes you just gotta get up and dance.

Daniel and Deborah Carey


Appearance: 12 oz pour into snifter, best glass available. Orange tan murky pour, bright creamy head lingers briefly before receding to leave a rich ring around the top. 4.0

Aroma: Nice pleasant wheat aroma, backed by a well incorporated banana, enticing. 3.75

Taste: Taste consistent with aroma but much more vibrant. Banana leads and while historically it not my favorite flavor, this exceeds even style expectations and I really love it. Wheat backs well. Much sweeter than the typical Hefeweizen. The Clive dies shine through and I do get a hint of cinnamon. Overall this is a very well crafted beer, but then again it’s a New Glarus beer so no surprise here. Definitely my favorite Hefeweizen to date, can’t see how this is topped. 4.75

Mouthfeel: Rich, sweet, creamy, light fizzy carbonation, medium creamy body, slight sweet aftertaste though pleasant, easy finish and drinking. 4.25

Overall: This is my favorite Hefeweizen, better than the classics I have enjoyed in the past. Sweeter than my typical preferred beer preference, though it really works well and is very enjoyable. Will definitely hunt these down in the future. 4.5

Hoping the rest of the weekend goes as well. See you back with more Wisconsin beers!

Cheers!

 

Operation Cohoperation--Lupulin/Melvin:

Appearance: Hazy gold, good head.

Smell: Good, citrusy, dank, citrus rind.

Taste: Nice sweet and citrus balance up front. A little cake-like note, bready sweetness. Pretty good bitterness in the finish.

Overall: Lupulin makes some good hoppy beers here in MN and I've heard good things about Melvin despite never having any of their beers. This beer has a good balance between sweetness and hoppy bitterness. About $16 for a 4 pack, not too bad!

 

Let’s Lager Up!

A fellow BA very generously sent me a beer I never had before: Red Oak HopGarten Bavarian Pils.

I am very much looking forward to drinking this beer since I have had other beers (lagers) from Red Oak in the past and I have very much enjoyed drinking them. Those beers were Hummin’Bird Helles and Bavarian Amber Lager.

On the can Red Oak proudly proclaims their brewing ethos:

“Fresh lagers brewed under the Reinheitsgebot … 1516 Law of Purity. Bavarian malted barley, noble aroma hops, lager yeast and naturally carbonated. Unfiltered, unpasteurized, no preservatives. Fresh, pure and wholesome. Real Beer.”

I went to the Red Oak website to see if there are additional details on this beer and I found:

“Style: Bavarian Pilsner

Barley: Barke

Hops: Spalt and Saaz

Alcohol: 5.3% ABV”

For today’s NBW I will be conducting a pseudo-blind side by side tasting of this Red Oak beer with another Pilsner I have in my fridge: Mainstay Poplar Pils.

The brewer/co-owner of Mainstay Brewing is Brian O’Reilly who was the head brewer of Sly Fox until a couple of years ago when he left to start Mainstay. I am very familiar with the various high quality lagers that Brian brewed at Sly Fox and to a lesser degree the beers he has brewed for his new brewery of Mainstay. This is the first time I have purchased Poplar Pils in cans.

Some information about Poplar Pils from the Mainstay website:

“Imported malt from Bavaria combines with Tettnang and Hallertau hops to create a bone-dry brew with a bracing hop forwardness.

Hop & Malt Profile:

Bavarian malt; Tettnang and Hallertau hops.

5% ABV”

For this tasting I solicited the help of my wife to pour these two beers into two Polish Pilsner glasses and while I can see the beers I have no prior knowledge of which beer is which: pseudo-blind like I made mention earlier.

As they would say in Bavaria: Oans, zwoa, drei, g’suffa! (one, two, three, drink!)



Appearance

Left: Straw yellow, crystal clear with a white head.

Right: Straw colored, very slightly hazy with a white head.

Aroma

Left: Mostly bready but with some herbal hop aroma as well.

Right: Mostly sweet-ish Pilsner malt aroma but there is a hint of herbal hop aroma too.

Taste:

Left: A combination of bready malt and herbal hops (more noticeable as on the nose) with a moderate bitterness.

Right: Mostly sweeth-ish Pilsner malt but with some herbal hop flavor and a moderate bitterness.

Mouthfeel

Left: Medium body with a dry finish.

Right: Medium body with a dry finish.

Overall

Both of these beers are very good. I thought that the left beer was a bit more balanced between malt and hops vs. right but frankly I enjoyed drinking both of these beers.

The BIG reveal: the left beer is Red Oak and the right beer is Mainstay.

My wife was intensely watching me taking notes throughout this tasting session and I asked her: what do you think? As she drank one beer vs. the other she muttered: “The two beers taste very similar” and “I really can’t tell them apart”. So, I asked the ultimate question: “Which one would you like to finish?” She kinda shrugged her shoulders and picked the Red Oak beer. No bad choices here.

Cheers!

@KOP_Beer_OUtlet @rotsaruch @RobH @nc41

 

Based just on looks I would have thought the hazy beer would have been the Red Oak. Sad they’re going to a July release only vs year round.

 

A major benefit of Bifs is the opportunity to try new beers from different locales and new, different styles. A new ipa variant is the cold ipa . Kevin Daley of way finder beer describes it as,

“What we ended up with is decisively unique from IPL or Dry hopped lager. It has a magnificent hop aroma, clean assertive bitterness and a bold, clean finish that makes the drinker crave another sip. I felt it needed a name to differentiate it. So it’s a bit Wester than West-coast, it’s crisp and sessionable, but strong and sneaky. It’s Cold IPA. ”



What struck me me first was the appearance. The can states Ipa and I am thinking haze bomb. This looks crystal clear, bright golden yellow, that pours like a pils or Helles. Submitted for your consideration is

cold pizza by hop butcher for the world

4.09/5 rDev -3.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Can received from @FBarber in a ninja strike

“Call me cold pizza Pat”

Canned 1.29.21, opened 2.24.21, poured into a Willie becher glass.

Clear golden yellow with active streams of carbonation. Looks like a Pilsener, frothy one finger white foam cap, good retention, settles to a pencil thick thick layer , good lacings

Aroma notes on the can read : orange zest, dried mango , juicy pineapple . I get orange citrus, pineapple, whiff of mango

Taste is orange rind, citrus , grapefruit rind

Medium sudsing , hop bite that lingers , quenching, semi dry finish


Good beer, nice ipa variant

 

That's just not fair! And it's a nasty cold rainy day here, don't get too excited about coming back... but welcome back.

 

Good morning BAs. Tavour recently sent me this beer instead of the Black Mirror (which I’ve had) that was part of a Deschutes bundle I had purchased...a bourbon barrel aged imperial stout with maple syrup, vanilla and coffee added; sounded good to me so I didn’t make a fuss...let’s go:

Abnormal Beer Co., San Diego CA, Maple Bourbon “BA Maple Mornings” (2020).





At 54 degrees pours jet black with thin ruby edge; fast fizzy dark tan head disappeared immediately leaving no cap, no ring, no lacing; heavy legs sheet the glass. Nose is sweet maple syrup followed by bourbon on exhale. Taste is sweet maple syrup, bourbon and molasses; toffee, caramel/maple candy; some vanilla as beer warms; bitter roast coffee beans on backend; not too sweet, just right. Thick viscous feel; full body; moderate minus carbonation; face flushing warmth from 14.3% abv; for all the adjuncts, this stout still finishes kinda dry in the mouth. Overall, very well balanced between the base, barrel and adjuncts; tastes like pancakes with boozy maple syrup; a heck of a breakfast beer - delicious!

4.0 | 4.5 | 4.75 | 5.0 | 4.75
Score: 4.67 rDev 0%. I’m the first review on BA.
Cheers y’all!

 

I may be getting out to Fox Farm very soon. Its a trip long overdue. My work schedule prevents it right now as I believe they are only open Thurs-Sat.
Best part of this post though is hearing youre moving back to area. I see a meet up sometime in the future...... Cheers!

 

Thanks to @SawDog505 for kicking things off this week, and greetings to the rest of you new beer drinkers. I was talking to a friend yesterday about smoked beers. He's relatively new to the modern world of craft beer, but has taken to it very quickly. He picked up a 4-pack yesterday of a local smoked imperial stout, and was concerned that it might be too overwhelming for him. Personally, outside of the beers by Schlenkerla(which I enjoy), I haven't found many beers that really packed the smokey punch that I craved. He ended up really enjoying the stout, but the conversation left me craving something smokey myself. I only had one bottle in the fridge that would satisfy this craving, Hill Farmstead's Fear & Trembling Smoked Baltic-style Porter.

Poured into a willi becher, Fear & Trembling poured a dark mahogany that allowed little to no light to penetrate the glass. An inch and a half tan creamy tan reached reached for the rim of the glass and lingered for some time. The aroma was beautifully toasted malt while sitting next to a smoldering campfire. The smoke didn't hit you with every inhale, but the occasional shift in wind carried the scent to you. As it warmed, the smoke became more prevalent. It was not hard to give it that time to develop as this was clearly a beer that demanded your patience and attention from the first sip. That first taste revealed a remarkably rich and robust porter with just enough smoke. Dark chocolate malt, toasted grain, and a bitter and dry finish defined the opening notes. The longer I sipped, the more smoke made it's way closer to the top of the flavor profile. Everything was in perfect balance. The mouthfeel was silky smooth with a body that was well past medium, but not quite full. Fear & Trembling was an absolute stunner.



It's always exciting to me to open a bottle from a brewery like Hill Farmstead, and this one lived up to that anticipation. It opened my eyes to what a Baltic porter can be, and has made me more interested in seeking out the style. Personally, this is part of what makes a bottle like this so special. It not only provided me an incredible sensory experience, it has also inspired me to learn and grow as an advocate for beer.

 

Nice review. I wish I was more capable of writing a nice review but I'll settle for reading others. FF is my favorite brewery as they have such a wide variety available and I've yet to find one I dislike. Also, you're now obligated to use me as your supplier.

 

Hmm? Maybe my proctor (my wife) screwed up here? The price of free labor?

Regardless both beers were very comparable - very tasty!!

Cheers!

 

Hello, new beer guzzlers with a gift for gab about the qualities of the quenching beverage they quaff. Today I have a little something I don't do too often any more, review a couple beers that you are unlikely to see around you any time soon. It is a brewery from north central Virginia that opened in 2018, Front Royal Brewing Company.

When I was paying for the fresh beers (2/16) I grabbed at my beer shop, one of the clerks indicated that the brewer was the original brewer from Aslin. Now the first beer I had earlier this week when I wasn't in a reviewing mood. However, I can say with complete confidence that there's a definite chance that maybe, perhaps, the clerk might have possibly misspoke and meant Ocelot brewer, but probably not.

Anyhow, I mean to say this beer, South Bound west coast IPA reminded me of an Ocelot beer more than an Aslin beer, so I chose proper-ish glassware.


There's a good haze to this, but it's not cloudy. The head you see lefts a fair amount of its outer edge upon the glass. There is a sweet fruit aroma to this - a mix of papaya and melon - along with some lighter coconut and unripe peach. A light shroud of herbs and evergreen might've been missed if I wasn't thinking about the west coast moniker.

I'll note the brewer indicates the makeup is Pilsner and Vienna malts with Nelson and Montueka, but also proclaims the beer is low in bitterness ("west coast" must mean something a little different than what I imagine)

The flavor starts with an mix of bitterness and pilsner malts. This is where it reminds me of Ocelot - a quite clean malt profile to let the hops shine. The hops in this case bring that grape leaf note I get from Nelson, and a reedy, almost coconut husk I get from Montueka.

A lighter heft but with a hint more thickness than the weight indicates. The sweeter fruit notes fade and there's just a little bit of nectarine and berry in the middle, followed by the return of an herbal, leaf-like bitterness in the end.

I quite like this beer, and the freshness may have at least something to do with it.

---

And for a truly new beer to me from the same brewery, I give you Shooting Brake, proclaimed as an ESB by Front Royal Brewing Company.


A refreshingly clear amber colored beer fills my Sierra Nevada glass. The head didn't show itself much on a decently aggressive pour. The nose has a fruity malt note similar to a Vienna lager - a very nice toasted malt profile. There's a slightly unexpected note in as well - that of coffee.

The taste doesn't betray the nose, but the malt notes aren't as strong on the palate as they are to my olfactory sense. Toast with a bit of berry jam with a little citrus thrown in. It's a fairly straightforward flavor, but an enjoyable one to me. The feel is medium light and crisp, with a slightly above average carbonation.

Well, I'd say the brewery is 2-for-2 so far. The store had a couple other of their beers, so I may have to stop by and see if they're still available or otherwise be on the lookout for them in the future.

Cheers, and I hope you have as good of luck this weekend on your new beer(s) as I did.

 

Take that suspicion to your wife and suggest she screwed it up , lol.

But thats the side by side part. The Red Oak was a bit hazy as compared to the Hibani if I remember right, but Red Oak isn’t really hazy only by comparison, by itself I’d never think hazy even thought it’s unfiltered and completely natural.