New Beer Weekend #35

Coach Jamieson told us to let Pete score, that he couldn't beat us by himself. As a younger guy I went to Campbell College basketball camp where Press Maravich and Lefty Driesell coached us individually.. Pete was everywhere, ubiquitous, and just so **** sure. He was an awesome player, but Bob McAdoo from here in Greensboro was amazing. From Gillespie Junior High through Smith High School he was a very nice fellow and friend. I am more proud of Bob than I could ever be of Pete.

 

Greetings, NBW, I hope that your spring is off to a good start. It sounds like @ovaltine is having a great start by celebrating an anniversary, and congrats to him. Also, congrats to @FBarber on his new arrival! Thanks to @ChicagoJ for starting off the thread. I appreciate the fact that you tried to initiate some added conversation to the thread with your prompt asking about other passions than beer, and wish more folks would have taken the bait. For myself, thankfully, my other passions often collide with my love of beer. One of my earliest passions was music. My mother was a piano teacher when I was a kid, and I spent endless hours with my dad listening to his 45's and lp's on my Fischer-Price turntable. My first major concert was Pink Floyd at Three Rivers Stadium when I was 13. That concert warped my young mind in the best way possible, and I was hooked. I went to as many live music events as possible, and when I got older I began traveling to satisfy those cravings. When I met my wife, we immediately bonded over our love of music, travel, and beer. Since we started dating we've enjoyed hundreds of concerts, brews, and experiences. Though international travel is something we enjoy, we haven't yet made it to the country of origin of that birthed this next beer. It's also an experience in itself that was long overdue for me as a beer lover.

Poured into a goblet, Orval filled it with a beautiful amber liquid with a gentle cloudiness. A careful pour yielded a one inch off-white fluffy head that receded into a blanket of carbonation that lasted throughout. The aroma was that of some yeast, grassy hops, slight spice, malt, and barnyard funk. The first sip was full of unctuous yeast with an almost juicy quality that settled into spice and bitterness. As my palate adjusted and the beer warmed, the juicy qualities intensified along with the funky notes on the nose. The bitterness also mellowed pleasantly and worked well with a somewhat dry finish. The hops brought some brightness with their grassy and sometimes floral notes. The initial ample carbonation was almost unpleasant upon the first sips. It did not stay that way for long and found a middle ground of keeping the soft mouthfeel vibrant. It should not have taken this long, but my first experience with Orval was overwhelmingly positive. A great beer.



In retrospect, this was a surprising experience for me. I drank a good amount of Belgians in my early beer drinking days, but probably long before I could appreciate the nuance. I sometimes unfairly write them off as something I'm not interested in, but this experience opened my eyes. This leaned into farmhouse ale territory much more than I expected, and I really loved that about it. I can definitely see myself grabbing a bottle of it here and there sporadically, and I believe this experience will push me to try more beers in this vein. Thanks to everyone to that was involved in the Orval Day thread because they inspired me to give this one a shot.

 

First new beer of the day, and it's a big one. This was so kindly sent to me in an outside BA BIF by a great former member here.


Veneration by 3 Sheeps Brewing - Belgian Quad - 12.1% ABV.

I love a good Quad, and this one fits the bill. I'm really enjoying this a lot.

Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/28879/256501/

4.49/5 rDev +4.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Pours a reddish brown color. 1 finger tan head. The head retention isn't the best, though not surprising. There's no lacing on the glass.
The nose is a beautiful mixture of caramel, toffee, plum, and raisin. So beautiful.
Taste - There's a good amount of caramel here, and it hits up front with toffee. The backside seems to be more plum and raisin, with the caramel and toffee still mixed in.
Thick and full bodied. Very little booze burn, but there's just a pleasing hint of it here. You know this is a sipper.
I love a good Quad, and this is for sure one of them. Delicious!

 

I had always heard that Orval is a different beast than many of the Belgian produced beers, but I still didn't know what to expect. I was still thinking it would be close in nature to a Dubbel or Tripel though for sure. The fact that I've come to really enjoy farmhouse ales and saisons definitely helped me appreciate this better now than I ever could have back when I first started dabbling. I'll probably go buy another bottle to age and compare. I meant to include in my first post that the bottle I had was from early March of 2020. It's been interesting to note that people in the Orval Day thread even noticed variations between bottles from the same bottling date when had side by side. I'm now in the camp that is fascinated by and a fan of Orval.

 

Happy Anniversary to you and Mrs O!

 

Yeah, cinnamon is a flavour that has a very narrow range of enjoyable application for me: too little and there's no point, but get juuust too much and it can be cloying and annoying. Combined with the tendency of spices like that to build up on the tongue over time as opposed to kind of washing over and away, and it's easy for it not to work. To my tongue, Fremont does a really good job of threading this needle. It's not as pronounced as their Spice Wars and Rusty Nail of the past, but it offers a nice warm compliment to the woody elements around it. I, of course, am biased, but I do think that's a reasonably objective approach to it.
Speaking to the buildup nature of cinnamon... As stated, I didn't feel like it built up too much (and neither did the better half), but we also found that having a glass of seltzer to hydrate while slowly sipping the beer helped to cleanse the spices off the tongue a bit better as well. *shrug*

 

Howdy NBWs
Enjoying this glorious day with this glorious beer


4.5. 4.5. 4.25. 4.25. 4.25. 4.33

Poured from a bottle dated 02/sept25 2020. 14.6 abv
Darkish cider color, thin quickly dissipating head. Champagne like bubbles as it sits

Aroma is apples, cinnamon, toffee caramel. Green apples dominate

Taste is like eating a piece of very good apple pie, apples, cinnamon and caramel

Mouthfeel is sticky sweet, some tartness in the finish. Medium carbonation, full tasting and heavy

Overall this one I feel is meant for sharing, high abv and heavy flavoring is a lot to drink in a 16 oz format for 1 person. It is really tasty though.
Nicely crafted

 

More basketball to watch today (both men and women). Condolences to @cjgiant and my golf partner, a big Texas fan.
I figured the second day of spring was a good time to drink this winter saison. I don't drink many saisons, not because I don't like them, but because there are other beer styles I'd rather drink. This one is pretty good.
A dark brown/red color. Small beige head with some spotty lace.
Aroma a bit understated. Citrus fruit and spice.
Taste of coriander, orange. Some late herbal hops.
Medium-bodied.

 

Thank you all for the good wishes. I'll be back with a new beer (or two) later today and will post a pic of us from the day we were engaged (otherwise known as "the olden days") and you all will see by just how much I outkicked my coverage.

PS: On Wednesday, she walked around the house, muttering "31 years - 31 WHOLE years" like she was repeating back her sentence in a trial that had gone horribly wrong. It was hilarious.

 

And how did I miss this one? I read this entire review (and agree with it wholeheartedly). Thanks for the good wishes.

 

Time for another great beer:


Mega Cherry 7 Slushee from Lion's Tail Brewing - Kettle Sour - 5.1% ABV.

So thick and full bodied - from the look to the feeling. This beer has a ton of cherries in it. While I can not distinguish the individual cherries, I am enjoying this.

Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/43624/539978/

3.99/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4

Pours a nice deep red color. Looks really thick and it looks like there's a lot of pulp in this beer. 1 finger off white head that dissipated rapidly. There's no lacing on the glass.
The nose has a nice cherry aroma. Not too strong, but there.
Taste - cherry. There's also a creamy taste going on here, and the can confirms that there's lactose in here.
Super thick and full bodied. There's also a slight carbonation feel here, even though the head retention was minimal.
Very tasty and interesting beer.

 

We just celebrated our first date on the Irish Saint's day, marking 40 years. We went out and had a few beers. 39 years of marriage, two amazing kids, and a stunning array of mostly good memories. Cheers to all that remain strong through these really strange days. It's like science fiction living with us. Things do look a lot better....And congratulations.

 

A long-distance toast to @FBarber for what's been a big weekend for the family. What better way to celebrate than with a beer he sent me last year. This one is Thoughts Without a Thinker from Keeping Together. It's a "Saison with Oranges, Earl Grey Tea, and Saffron". I've had a couple beers made with Earl Grey Tea and have been largely underwhelmed. Not so in this case. This beer is fantastic.

4.47/5 rDev -2.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5

This was an absolute Mount Vesuvius style gusher. One to two seconds after opening it, I had beer everywhere. After a couple minutes of cleanup, it was time for the pour. Putting aside the gushing, the beer itself is beautiful. A delicate pour resulted in a couple inches of fizzy white head that eventually receded to a thin, quarter inch that would have stayed for a long time had I let it.

Aroma brings spices, floral notes, hints of orange, and golden raisins. I can't detect the tea, but not to its detriment.

Taste is really interesting. I can pick up the tea, but it's well balanced with a really nice amount of funk, citrus notes & saffron. I knew right away that I liked how this tasted, and had it at a 4.25 at first, but then each sip found me craving another, which was enough for me to jump up to 4.5. Carbonation is lively, but not over done, and this has a nice, dry finish. I'm not the most sophisticated reviewer, and I don't know much, but I do know that this beer is freaking delicious.

 

Doing some research (it is hard hard work) for the current NBS BIf 13

not sure on fence if this will make the box, tasty yes , but will have to see how the 1st hop box comes together.


4.02/5 rDev -3.1%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

16oz can poured into a teku
L: deep Orange all most amber with a slight touch of haze
S: pure west coast pine and caramel malt
T: nice bite with some resin and citrus notes and some sweetness on the finish.

Overall and soild throwback, whish it finished a touch drier

 

Starting today with DDH Death Tripper. I’m really enjoying this one but it’s not as good as the other DDH beers I’ve had from Tired Hands.

4.24/5 rDev +1.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

16 oz can, dated 3/2/21, poured into a teku

A- A hazy golden straw with a two finger white head

S- Citrus, piney/dank, some tropical fruits, hints of melons.

T- Citrus, piney, a little dank, some tropical fruits, touch of melons.

M- Smooth, medium body.

O- Easy to drink with a nice bitter finish.

Cheers!

 

Here’s to a relaxing Sunday NBWer’s. Cheers all!

Pours a hazy yellow straw, creamy white head. Nose is fresh lime and sea salt...just like the can says. Flavor follows perfectly in line. Juicy like character up front, sea salt comes on without killing everything, which is nice. Crisp finish, mild lime zest aftertaste & moderate carbonation make this quite easy to drink. Much more palatable than most of the other sours I’ve had. Will certainly have on hand for a cookout or two.

 

Thanks, I really appreciate that - and I appreciate your basketball posts. I grew up in Indiana and went to IU-Bloomington from August 1981 - May 1985 (I was in Assembly Hall when Coach Knight let the chair fly in February 1985), so the Love of all Things Hoop is strong with me. What’s happened to the B1G and ACC with conference realignment is especially egregious to me.

And don’t get me started on the shift to “ISO/Dribble Drive” offense ..... pretty much at all levels of basketball in the last 20 years or so.