New Beer Weekend #35

As a transplanted Terp who is old enough to have seen Gary Williams play at Cole, I had mixed feelings about leaving the All Carolina Conference. Still Gary won a championship while still there as he finally landed his types of players when it came to mental toughness. Having Debbie Yow as AD was a different type of experience and made leaving a lot easier, although a better experience would have been to have a university president reminding her that she was supposed to represent the school instead of the conference.

But yes, it's all about money.

 

Happy Spring, fellow NBWs



4.23/5 rDev +1.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

One of the side benefits of group tastings is finding about beers I either overlooked or was unaware of. This fit in the latter category so I picked up a single of this today.

Poured into a tulip a full khaki head sat atop a dark brown body. Head slowly dissipated with sticky lacing. Maybe it's force of habit but the smell initially had a chocolate component before warming, after which the maple and vanilla became more prominent along with the malt. Not much barrel or alc burn. Taste followed the smell with perhaps more maple. Mouthfeel was good for a robust porter.

A group tasting of a style lets a person become conditioned to what to expect. If I'd been expecting this to be just another Founders drop the hammer Imperial Stouts I'd have felt underwhelmed. But this is what it's supposed to be. Maybe I should pick up more.

 

Greetings NBW. Unfortunately no dancing for me (though nemesis school lost today!) but we’ll try again tomorrow when the women get started.

Next up after Orval is Fox Farm Welly, a Best Bitter courtesy of @Roy_Hobbs from NBS BIF 13 (thank you!)

A: Pours a hazy orange brown with a medium off-white head that leaves lots of lacing while fading to a thin cap.

A: Bready malt, herbs, hops, lemon

T: Follows nose, with light honey sweetness, biscuit, peppery hops, the lemon in the aroma is replaced by orange flavor.

M: Light body, light carb, lingering peppery finish with mild hops bitterness. Extremely drinkable

O: Well made and very tasty. Not a style I get to enjoy very often, but this makes me wish for more. 4.0

 

Double Homestyle from Bearded Iris.

16oz can served in a big snifter. Dated 02.21.21. Bought it in Bend, not sure if it was Market of Choice or Newport Street Market.

Pours a moderately hazy golden-yellow with a smallish head. Smell is tropical, pithy, and green.

Taste is darker, earthier, bitterer. Somewhat herbal, more resinous, somehow both overripe fruit and fruit skin bitter.

Mouthfeel is medium, fairly light and dry. Overall, it's pretty good.

 

I had to chuckle at this, mainly revolving around concept of room temperature and beer, let alone British pubs and 72°, let alone cask [and the unmentioned "cellar"] temperatures.

Based on your description, it definitely seemed more likely to be a not-so-good beer versus a failure on you to find a proper way to enjoy it

 

OK, well, after a somewhat underwhelming option after work/before bed this morning, I decided that this evening needed something exciting and rich and all that. Well, I hadn't cracked into Fremont's big variants this year: the Cinnamon Coconut BBOMB, nor the Coffee Cocoa Vanilla KDS, so it was quite a decision to make. We ultimately settled on the BBOMB, and I think it was a great choice! I mean, I think the KDS would have been a great choice too, and we'll probably find out tomorrow, but anyway, BBOMB: good.
Haul hints?



Pour is beautiful, if nothing particularly groundbreaking. Rich dark that borders on black but doesn't quite get there, initial swell of head that gets to maybe half a finger and matches the colour of the label in a quite satisfying manner. Head recedes pretty early on, leaving a cuff and slight swirl. Tilt looks as if it'll leave some lacing, but it drips down the legs pretty quickly.

Nose is more to the roasty side and very cozy. The coconut is toasted nutty coconut all the way, except for a few little flights of fancy that offer some candied coconut meat in passing. No cinnamon on the nose for me.

Flavour is immediately an explosion of rich luxuriant layers, like those .gifs (soft, of course) of blossoming images like a perpetual flower. Rounded burnt caramel and toasted coconut and there's the cinnamon but it's more woody cinnamon sticks than the other thing and it blends with the vanilla and spice from the barrel and rich fudge that melts on your tongue like a really good piece of dark chocolate and it all coalesces and ends with a lingering chocolate/coffe/brings in bitterness from each of the above listed elements... it's a complex beer that offers more than I can do justice here, and I'm really enjoying sipping on it.
It's not as sweet as a lot of big stouts these days (including a lot of their bigger offerings I've had recently), which appeals to me, but don't take that to suggest that there's no sugars here at all. The alcohol is well integrated, and doesn't butt its head in, but it also isn't exactly trying to hide the fact that it's 13%.

I don't really taste the alcohol, but I certainly feel it, especially with the bottle >half way finished at this point. It's incredibly drinkably smoothe, but it's not as oily nor as thick as some of their other BA offerings. It's absolutely a sipper, but it's one that I'm enjoying sipping, and find myself lamenting the nearing visibility of the bottom of the glass.

I love big dark brews like this, especially when the spring is dark and dripping all around outside, and this certainly hits the notes for me. Fremont has a reputation for their barrelling game, and, in my opinion, it is well deserved. This bottle does nothing to dissuade me of that notion.


Cheers!!

 

Awesome ! Happy Anniversary ! 31 years is a good stretch of time. You both must be doing things right. Keep it up and keep enjoying each other !

 

Jim O'Brien was a freshman when I was and our freshman team from Richmond won at Cole Field House against a very good Maryland team. Freshmen then were not eligible to play varsity, but we were second best in the nation to a stellar Duke team. Those were the best moments and sports moments for me in a very eventful life. I played against Pete Maravich at Raleigh Broughton when his dad was coach at NC State. Pete was a pure asshole but Jim O'Brien was a very good sport. Pete probably had eyes in the back of his head..

 

@ovaltine congrats to you and the miss on the 31 years!


Now from yesterday, a special treat





Rub_This_BBQ from Massachusetts

4.39/5 rDev +1.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

3/20 bottle poured into a hf mug

Had a tasting side by side with the standard.

Overall the look and taste is very close to the standard (a great beer on it own)

Here I’ll focus on the differences, they have subtle the smell is identical.

Taste, touch sweeter picked up some
Honey like notes did not get In the standard.

Mouthfeel the carb seems lighter so little smoother

Both are so tasty and it was a special treat to have side by side

 

Poured into a 13 oz tulip glass bottled on 2/12/2021. Pours a very hazy yellow with a half finger white head that leaves thin streaks of lace, with solid retention. 4.5

Aroma is tangerine, pineapple, passionfruit, and apricot really bold at only 5.5% ABV.

Taste follows tangerine, pineapple, passionfruit, and apricot really balanced and intense considering the reasonable ABV. 4.5

Mouthfeel is a solid medium, not dry or sticky, soft creamy carbonation, and it drinks bigger than it should but really goes down easy. 4.5

Overall this is without a doubt the best under 6% NEAPA I have ever had. I could drink this one all the time and can my total hop fix. 4.5 Cheers all.

 

Happy Anniversary to you both

 

I love reading reviews of beers that I know are coming my way soon. I have a bottle of this variant of B-Bomb in an open Tavour crate right now. It sounded delicious from the description, but your review just got me more excited.

 

Good day BAs! Off to a sunny start here on the tundra of sub-Arctic NW PA. We're back from a beer run to MI (and IN and OH) so target be warned. First box for BIF 13 will be in the wind Mon (or Tues latest) and the LIF box the same. Today's New Breakfast Beer (Not in either box - non-haul hint):




Butternut Spiced Ale from Rockford. Purchased on 18/3/21 at Riverside Liquors, Grand Rapids, MI, for $ 7.51 (Including tax and deposit) for 22 oz bottle ($ 0.341/oz). On room temperature shelf at store. Stored at home at 42 degrees. Reviewed 21/3/21. Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.

Undated bottle. Stamped on the bottom “2725 A2 2308“. Served at 53.4 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. Final temperature 58.6 degrees.
Appearance – 4.
First pour – Deep Amber (SRM 15), clear.
Body – Brown (SRM 20), opaque and muddy. When rear-lite, red-amber and hazy. A thin layer of sediment remains on the bottom and a ring remains on the neck.
Head – Small (Maximum one cm, aggressive center pour), almond, low density, fizzy, gone in less than ten seconds, leaving neither crown nor cap.
Lacing – None.
Aroma – 3.75 – A bit of brown sugar and a pleasant spice blend – cinnamon, nutmeg, maybe allspice. No hops, no yeast. As it warms, the aroma weakens, leaving only brown sugar.
Flavor – 4.5 – Begins slightly sweet with a bit of brown sugar and a mild mélange of fall spices, much less forward than the average pumpkin ale, and the gentle earthy fruitiness of butternut squash. No hop flavor, no malt, no yeast. No alcohol (6.6 % ABV, as marked on container) taste or aroma, although a gentle gastric warming occurs. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl.
Palate – 4 – Medium, almost creamy, lively carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 4 (After deducting 0.25 point for undated personal container) Is there such a thing as “Comfort Beer”? If so, this is the poster child. Mild, non-threatening spices, lightly warming brown sugar and butternut squash, you cannot go wrong.

Rating 4.14, rDev +5.1%.

 

They throw a good amount of heat once you get some of those embers going (like any fire). In my experience they don't throw as much as a traditional fire pit, but the largely "smokeless" nature of them is fantastic. The Bonfire (which is what I have and looks like Mrs. @WunderLlama purchased as well) is perfect for a small group (2-6 people).

This sounds fantastic. I'm alway wary of cinnamon in beers, as many of the beers I've had with it have overdone it. This sounds like it's balanced very well with the other flavors.

Maravich may have been a a-hole, but it's still pretty freaking cool you got to play against him.

 

It's springlike this morning in Minnesota, so let's have a Utepils Springbok:



Appearance: Clear gold, good head.

Smell: Bready, caramel.

Taste: Nice caramel sweetness backed by solid breadiness. Nicely balanced, very clean feel and easy to drink.

Overall: Really impressed with this maibock from a Minneapolis local brewery. Nicely balanced beer, leans a little to the sweeter side but finishes clean. Other maibocks I've had seem boozy, this doesn't have that issue even with almost 7% abv. Good stuff!