New Beer Weekend #35

Good afternoon NBS/NBW and thanks to @ChicagoJ for the hosting this week, much appreciated. Today was the calender/weather spring day in WMass, lots of people out walking, yard work etc. Me I brewed a spring red ale, just completed the cleanup. While brewing enjoyed
Dynasty from Nightshift Brewing. A fine Imperial Stout, the high points for me were the texture and a fine bitter bite to close each draw.
Do good
Be well

Dynasty

Stout - American Imperial | 10.8% ABV

Night Shift Brewing
Everett, Massachusetts

4.03/5 rDev -2.9% | Average: 4.15
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

Poured from a 16 oz can dated 12/11/19 into the test glass
A - Cobalt black color, thin off white cap quickly outta there. A nice ring cirlces the glass for the duration
S - A bit of Anise, bakers chocolate, char, espresso, and roast malt
T - Add to the aromatics a hint of smoke, with a bit of vanilla
M - This is the hightlight for me, silky smooth, lovely start then a big shift toward bitter dark chocolate, Ending on a fine cigar note with that linger for days.
O - A very good Imp Stout with every trapping to draw you in for another, on that cold night.

 

Hey all you Sunday reviewers! Got a few to try this afternoon thanks to my son and wife who just keep bringing new beers into the house unsolicited.
First up is a 7% NEIPA from Two Roads with wheat and lactose, Hay-Z Boy. The wheat probably lead to the name. I was kind of excited about this one as I think Two Roads Two Juicy is one of the most underrated NEIPAs out there.

3.84/5 rDev -3.3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

Poured from a 16oz can stamped "best by 24JUL21" at Fridge temp to a Nonic.
Light orange hazy body sits under a snow white 3/8" head that yields medium lacing.
Smells of orange pith with some sweetness and a volatile I can't describe.
Taste is sweet in the front with a bitter finish. Quite a trip around the taste buds.
Body is relatively thin for the style.
Overall okay, but not the best haze can from these guys.

 

O'Brien and Howard White were Lefty's first big signings; he also went hard after James Brown from my high school, DeMatha, but Ted Kennedy was instrumental in him attending Harvard. O'Brien hit the game winning buzzer beater against South Carolina in the slowdown game for Lefty's first really big win at Cole. He lived in a dorm across from me and was a pretty good guy. I think he had an ulcer which cut down on his partying with us. He eventually played for a few seasons in the ABA, I think with DrJ's Nets team.

You have had some great experiences. I was just a gym rat.

 

Yes, as both @tasterschoice62 and I have remarked, you can hardly call those beers at all. But they're incredibly tasty and addictive; I'd probably drink them all the time if they were readily available.

 

Ok, so finally time to get to that Panther Cub from Founders, @lordofthewiens - plus I see @CaptainHate also reviewed it this thread. Let's see what I get and then I'll compare notes.

I wasn't too rough on the pour, and still got a fair level to the brown head. As I type up my intro, it has collected mostly in a ring that stretches itself from its current level to the level I force on it with each tip of the glass. We'll check on actual lacing after taste...


My initial tentative whiff brings to mind other Founders barrel-aged beers, specifically KBS variants (I do have a CBS and I think a KBS left, so a side-by-side may be in order). A quick sip has a chocolatey opening with a medium body that has a little more fizz than expected. There's a little woody bitterness to the ending. The beer's also still fairly cold.

The head is leaving distinct shapes on the glass, spread out in a line the formed the high-water mark for my sip. Paying more attention to the nose, I am getting more maple, with a hint of the the vanilla extract. The bourbon barrel treatment seems to be coming in at a higher than I'm used to, helping to emphasize the extract side of the vanilla. The base is a coffee that exhibits berry notes.

Taste continues to have a brownie note in the opening. Vanilla and maple back this up, sweetening it a tad, but a mix of roast and light barrel wood reign in the sweetness fairly well. The wood notes continue to stick out the back of the bed of this truck as it warms. Warmth seems to expand the sweet notes a little deeper into the taste, but also accentuate the bitterness in back.

Ok, let's see what others found...

Pretty much in line with what I got. That late kiss of relative bitterness was nice, I thought.

I was sort of thinking this as well. I mention a little bitterness, which I think fits fine in a porter. I also wonder if the perception is swayed a bit simply because I sort of expect more sweetness from the ingredients.

So, there seems to be general agreement here on the beer.

As I sip my last sips of the beer, here's a photo I shot today on our walk. The eagles were out. Pretty sure we saw three, although there are only two in this shot (there was one on the other side of the tree but couldn't be 100% sure it wasn't just a different angle of the one eagle). One of these took off shortly after the shot (which came out ok for 10x zoom) and boy, did s/he have a large wing span.


Cheers, all!

 

New beer #2 is courtesy of @WunderLlama. This is Kolsch Money, from Springdale Beer Company. Springdale is an offshoot of Jack's Abby. I'm a big believer that most states have at least a couple unsung breweries that consistently kick out great beer but have never been highly hyped. IMHO, Jack's Abby / Springdale fit that bill to a T.

3.77/5 rDev -3.8%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

Pours a deep gold color with plenty of fizzy white head and moderate lacing. Mostly clear. Aroma is grains, grass and bready malts. Smells good, but slightly weak. Taste is more bready malts & grains with very low bitterness. Medium carb, and crisp. Good beer.

 

So.... what is the beer?

 

Greetings from the great Northwest o this first weekend of spring. Not a Chamber of Commerce spring day cloudy and blustery, but I'll take it.

Today we have Off-Grid IPA. A citrus brew with a pine scent.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/29765/539989/?ba=RJLarse#review

It would be better on a warmer day. Something to remember for the summer.

Until next time.

 

One of these days I need to make it down to Jazz Fest in Nola, it's one of my bucket list items. Genesis must have been an incredible show. I was born in 1980, so I never even had a chance to catch Zeppelin, but I did get to see Page and Plant in 94 or 95 on the No Quarter tour. Unfortunately, I only ever caught Pink Floyd on the Division Bell tour, but have seen Roger solo 2 or 3 times since. I did get to see the Grateful Dead with Jerry in 95 at Three Rivers. That was the last concert I ever saw there. I never had a chance to see the Steelers play there, but saw a bunch of great Pirates teams in the 90's before they completely nosedived. It feels strange that so many of my early concert memories took place at venues that don't exist anymore when you add in the Civic Arena.

 

Really enjoyed reading your thoughts on this one. Agree with you on all of it. Wonderfully balanced, while still managing to let the hops shine in true FFF fashion. Was pretty confident you’d like it, but nice to see it come to fruition. Cheers!

 

Today is a beautiful mid-60's and sunny spring day here in western PA, so I spent a little time out in the back yard with a bottle that has been haunting my fridge for well over a year now. How it evaded my attention for so long is a mystery, but today was the day. Fruit Draft is a rum barrel aged sour ale with blackberry, ginger, lime, guava, and pear. It's a collaboration between Speciation Artisan Ales and Homes. This, I believe, is my first taste of anything from either brewery.

Poured into a wine glass, Fruit Draft pours a cloudy pink bringing to mind the color of guava. A wispy white head lingered only briefly before dissolving. The aroma was that of a mixed fruit blend that made it difficult to pin down specifics. One smell would yield the blackberry, another a bit of pear, but the rum and ginger were not noticeable. The first sip was surprisingly tart, even for a sour ale. It immediately made my mouth pucker and then water. My palate adjusted and then was able to try to pick apart the nuance. Blackberry, lime, and pear stood out the most to me when it came to fruit additions. I'm not the most well versed on guava, but it didn't jump out at me. While I found the ginger to not be an overwhelming flavor, it added a little bit of burn to my palate that was an interesting accompaniment to the high tartness. There was also a bit of spice that helped offset the fruitiness. It was a light body with a well adjusted carbonation. Overall, a very tasty sour ale that lacked a bit in depth of flavor, but was heavy handed in fruity refreshment.

 

Howdy all. I have two new beers for today, and both seem pretty exciting. They're both from NH and are both wildly-different from one another, which usually makes for a fun NBW.



Up first is Moat Mountain's Old Man of the Mountain BA imperial Irish red ale, clocking in at 8.3% ABV. Moat has been pretty good to me in recent years, honestly. Though they've always kinda been a bit meh, their Call It A Day DIPA and RIS have both been standouts in their long-running stalwart lineup, and I enjoyed the rye barrel imperial stout they did a few months back well enough to give something else barrel-aged from them a good shot.

The pour is pretty beautiful, though it is certainly a much darker color than any sort of traditional "red ale" to my eyes. Red ales are one of those weird styles that I think varies the most in terms of actual appearance, though, so perhaps this is somewhat within the right realm. It's really more like a ruddy ruby/garnet/brown-ish color if held up to direct light, and the head that forms on top almost immediately after pouring is a low-medium density khaki-colored foam that leaves behind awesome, sticky lacing as it pretty quickly wears down to a thin, half-finger ring. Decent but not amazing legs here, but the rest of the look of this one seems quite nice!

The nose is light caramel, a bit of brown bread, some notes of ginger-like spice, molasses, treacle, and maple with some light tannic elements coming across in a fleeting but noticeable way. Not sure how long this was barrel-aged but it doesn't seem like it was very long, honestly. Though the tannic notes and slight ethanol-forward barrel aspects are pretty prominent right after the first pour enters my glass, they don't stick around much at all and feel pretty volatile. This really reminds me of a gingerbread beer you'd have in the early days of Winter (which, by the way, we seem to have escaped in MA for the time being; it's like 60 F out right now; thank the gods) from the nose

Cola-like body with flavors of woody earthiness, toffee-laden malts and a nutty graininess in the mid palate, forming somewhat of a solid backbone. I have to say this is pretty plain-tasting, which follows from how ephemeral the barrel aspects were in the nose. I do find it a little odd that it isn't as bruising as you'd expect, but that could have been by design. For some reason, before finding the ABV on the bottom of the can, I had assumed this would be some stupid 11%er or something, so I was surprised to find it clocking in at under 9%. A kiss of herbal hops in the finish, but otherwise, it's just kinda bready, a little roasty, and medium-sweet. No diacetyl or odd flavors at all, and I guess in a sense I'm kind of glad it doesn't just taste like a bourbon/booze bomb, but I guess I'm not overly drawn to the flavor profile here. Just feels a little underdeveloped or plain, and even though that might work to the benefit of a more traditional Irish red recipe, I kind of expect more from an amplified version aged in bourbon barrels.

I will be back soon with a new sour IPA from an underrated brewing outfit... cheers!

 

Happy anniversary Guys

 

Ecliptic + Wayfinder collaboration, Cold IPA, made with lager yeast I guess?

16oz can served in a big snifter. Dated 02/16/21. Think I bought it in Bend.

Pours a clear light golden with a big, fluffy, tumultuous head. Smell is primarily lemon pith/zest. Maybe a little tropical juice.

Taste is very juicy, leaning toward citrus -- lemon and grapefruit with a little orange, and a grapefruit skin bitterness finish.

Mouthfeel is fairly light, slightly watery. Overall, pretty nice beer.

 

Just did a quick check of the two reviews, and while we all appear to have slight differences, there is a lot of similarities. I think I'm sitting a little more in the @FBarber camp in that the mix of notes aren't striking a chord with me today. We'll see after I have another if I'll want to get another 4pk . The GF likes it pretty well, so the decision might already be made

 

Ralphius smore
...solid black appearance
...light carbonation with an above average body. Theres a slick,thick,creamy, slightly oily feel which all adds up to one of the best bodies on a beer I've ever had
...aroma is a shot of booze,alcohol, vanilla, Graham cracker,vanilla, and milk chocolate.
...taste is alcohol, sweet bourbon but not nearly as intense as it showed up in the aroma. Vanilla, Graham cracker, and milk chocolate.
Overall this beer had one of the best bodies I've ever had on a beer. Delivers the smore experience like no other beer.if you want to bust the budget and have a high end smore this is the beer for you