New Beer Weekend #38

Week old Heist Brewery Citraquench'l appeared in a local shop

Luminous golden haze, huge fine bubbled head, no clumps or sediment.
Strong citra aroma as soon as you open the can. Grapefruit, guava, yeast notes.
Grapefruit, peach, pineapple, tangerine, pale malt flavors.
Smooth creamy feel, bitter hop aftertaste. Lasting carbonation and dry finish.
I like all of their hazy IPA's but it all comes together in this one. $5 a can, they know what they got.

4.71/5 rDev +4%
look: 5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75

 

This new beer is an odd feline. All Cats are Gray in the Dark is a white stout from Fat Orange Cat.
The brew pours a deep orange with a haze and a 1 cm beige foam cap.
The aroma has cupcake/latte aspects, not immediately beer-like.
The flavors include vanilla, mocha and a bit of allspice. There is late-arriving, moderate hop bitterness.
The mouthfeel is a bit sticky.
This is a unique style and beer. I do not know the derivation of the flavors.

 

Their wild beer program is rather interesting. A lot of their actual sours have trended in a direction I'm not particularly fond of - overly acidic, linear, and lacking balance - but their funky stuff (saisons, grisettes, and other farmhouse styles) tends to hit the mark rather well. When this particular beer was announced, I was fairly apprehensive about the idea of chamomile, since that sort of thing can go sideways quickly, but it was deftly adjuncted and it integrated beautifully with the oak, funk, and light acidity in the base.

In choosing this as a blind beer, I was mostly curious to see how the chamomile would factor in to your evaluation. It's used so rarely that I wouldn't think to guess it, but once you know it's there, you can pick up hints of it.

Glad you enjoyed it so much!

 

Thanks for the link,
from mid paragraph down really does reflect my experience.

Cheers

 

It seems like that could also maybe be described as an altbier or roggenbier even. Pretty interesting. Cheers!

 

Good afternoon NBW
I'm a bit surprised to be the first review of this beer. Forge of Mars Intergalactic Porter by Warpigs

Canned at 3 Floyds of course...

16oz can stamped PKGD ON 03/22/21 poured into a tulip pint glass at fridge temp, no ABV listed on label. The beer pours dark brown with mahogany highlights and light brown head. The head recedes to a thin ring and single layer of bubbles over time. Minimal lacing. The aroma is moderate in strength with a big hit of cold brew coffee up front and lesser notes of dark chocolate and vanilla. The flavor is rich, balanced porter with coffee prominent, but not overbearing. The vanilla and dark chocolate notes are there too with mild bitterness. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with just less than medium carbonation and a somewhat dry finish. Overall, very good.

There you have it. My only complaint is the lack of ABV on the label. Easily found at the Warpigs USA website:

FORGE OF MARS

Our Intergalactic Porter available in stores now for a limited time.

ABV. 6.8% IBU 25

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

 

After wracking my brain I came to the conclusion that it's just a joke. I have no issue drinking a BA barleywine in the middle of summer, but it does feel a bit like the antithesis of a summer beer.

This sounds really interesting and I enjoyed the journey. I often wonder how much dry-hopping effects a saison that's been aged or bottle conditioned. I know that it effects the final product of course, but, for example, the flavors that dry-hopping imparts to an IPA seem to be the first to fade over time. I'd be interested to explore that a bit more with different saisons.

 

You summed it up perfectly with "perfect pub beer". I wish more breweries would tackle beers like this.

Well done guessing this beer!

Not going to lie...when I saw that @FBarber hadn't reviewed Heady before, it became an obvious (to me) choice for a mystery beer. I wanted to see a blind review unbiased by knowing what it was.

This was a brilliant idea!

 

One of my favorite brews! And a top notch Mosaic IPA.

 

After a productive morning of cooking and cleaning the kitchen, I was finally ready for a beer. This is another from @Dimidiata and it's a collaboration between HenHouse Brewing and the Pink Boots Society. Well, Actually... is an IPA made with Citra, Wai-iti, and Moutere hops. If you're not familiar with Pink Boots Society, they're an organization that "was created to assist, inspire, and encourage women beer industry professionals to advance their career through education." I hear great things about HenHouse and the Pink Boots hop blends, so I was excited to dive in.

I poured Well, Actually... into a becher and was treated to a hazy yellow brew, topped with an inch of fluffy white foam. The foam left considerable lacing behind on the glass. You can see a touch of that around the rim in the picture. The aroma was a heavy hit of citrus, mostly tangerine, but with some mango as well. The taste was another big hit of citrus with orange and tangerine up front. There was a dank and somewhat bitter finish, and some bready malt appeared then as well. The feel was medium bodied and a soft liquid, but had a bit of hop bite on the palate. This was a solid hazy IPA, with a balance of citrus and dank that only got easier to drink through the pour.

I usually try to show the side of the can with the information, but this artwork was too good to hide. Thanks for this, Christine! This was a great way to start my day of imbibing.

 

Next new beer for me is another one brewed by Trillium, a Freaky Friday variant of the Omnipollo original, Bianca guava mango lassi gose, a sour ale with guava, mango, vanilla & milk sugar added.

16oz pint can dated 04/08/21 pours a pulpy thick opaque sunset burnt orange color with brown floating sediment, and a white frothy foam head that lingers for a bit leaving some lacing. Nice color, the particles in suspension throw it off a bit, though looks rather cool in my opinion with the sediment just sort of staying in place and swirling around when the liquid is moved. Not even sure what it is to be honest, pieces of vanilla bean maybe?

Smells like a fantastic guava nectar and ripe mango juice smoothie, maybe a hint of vanilla underneath, mostly just fresh tropical guava and mango though.

Taste brings mild salinity, sweet confectionary vanilla, lactose milk sugars, fresh guava paste, ripe mango, tropical fruit juices, mango lassi, sweet honeyed dessert guava pastry, tart acidity, definitely leaning on the sweet pastry/dessert sour side, I think the vanilla could be toned down a little bit, though interesting and nice for the style.

Feels medium bodied, thick, smoothie-like, nearly viscous and creamy with smooth moderate low carbonation.

Overall this is really tasty and the more I drink it I like it. Sweetness and guava are an indulgent combo I think, and this is highly reminiscent of a guava pastry if anyone has had those, with a sweet guava paste-like flavor, and also reminiscent of mango lassis that you can get at Indian restaurants, with the beer's thick smoothie mouthfeel and sweet honey mango juice taste. Really nice one here, not too sweet, not too sour, not even too fruity imo, great balance of all the ingredients and a truly remarkable tropical and refreshing dessert-style sour beer. Cheers everyone!

 

It was a fantastic idea. I've seen so many people drink Heady for the first time and then give it an average review because they're expecting a taste of perfection that they'll probably never find. Nothing will kill potential joy faster than having expectations.

 

My first new beer of the weekend...I had hoped to obtain a Voodoo Ranger IPA, which would have been new to me, but the only singles I found were woefully aged. Instead I got the IIPA, which is good, but not new to me.

This Best Bitter from Machine House is definitely new to me, though.

I wrote out the following review before sipping any of the Laphroaig.

500ml bottle served in a nonic pint. Don't see a date on it. Poured somewhat aggressively, and completely.

Pours a mostly clear deep amber color, some cloudiness and some sediment floating around likely due to my thoughtless pour. Pours with a medium sized, fairly creamy head, which settles into a several millimeter thick creamy layer with thick, creamy lacing. Smell is bread, tea, grain, maybe toast, and maybe just the tiniest hint of toffee.

Taste is moderate to light floral sweetness, still has the bready/doughiness from the aroma, tea, and a nutty bitterness.

Mouthfeel is medium thickness, clean and smooth. Overall, very nice beer.

 

Cruz Blanca Loco Dinero, an imperial blonde ale aged in rye whiskey & rum barrels with Sparrow coffee.

4.26/5 rDev +1.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

500 bottle, 2019, poured into a tulip

A- A clear ruby red with a small off white head.

S- Caramel, coffee, rum, rye whiskey, oak, touch of dark fruit, slightly earthy.

T- Caramel, toffee, coffee, rye whiskey, some rum, oak, earthy, some dark fruit.

M- Smooth, full body.

O- I am reviewing this more as wheatwine/barleywine with coffee seems to be a better fit to how this tastes. A taste big beer that is nicely balanced.

Cheers!

 

All NEW from the gang at 'Turning Point Brewery'. All Double NEIPA's.
Australian Kiss
Where's The Car
Store Cold Stunner
Good, Great, Grand, Wonderful

 

Being that I just read the contents of that bottle recently thanks to @Dimidiata, I felt like I wanted to guess Chaos Grid - The Final Course based on your review. Well done! I like this system of @Xul sending you stuff that @Dimidiata slammed me with, and then you getting me even more excited to drink them.