New Beer Weekend #38

#3, courtesy of a ninja box from my beer nerd friend @BBThunderbolt, the lagers are still flowing. This would be a nice lawnmower beer, IMHO.



3.56/5 rDev +2.6%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.5

Pours a brilliantly clear golden straw color with a white head, the nose is pretty straightforward with some grain and grass notes.

The grain flavor is forward on the taste, and has a bit of sweetness, so I’m wondering if there’s corn in this beer.

The mouthfeel is crisp per the style, putting th

 

High Gravity Brewing Co.'s The Legend of El Dorado New England Style IPA, 7.0% ABV 4.34

Pours a slightly hazed and effervescent gold with a thumb of cream colored head. Good lacing and above head retention

S: Pineapple, coconut, mango & oranges

T: Mango, coconut, guava and dryness upfront. Grapefruit & dryness as this warms. Finishes dry with grapefruit & pine

MF: Medium body, restrained carbonation, good balance

A solid take on the style, super drinkabilty

 

Cool Magritte reference there, guys. To be fair, this pretty much does not feel like a beer whatsoever, so I guess I kinda understand where they're coming from. This is Short Throw's Treachery of Fruit: Apricot-Mango Gose, and it is my first experience with the brewery.

The pour here is... um, yeah. Look at it. It looks like a glass of mango-infused eggnog, for Christ's sake. The head is somewhat longer lasting than most other kettle-soured ales, and the body is a sludgy and opaque deep-orange. Let's see what's going on here.

Nose is plasticy and odd, with some notes of mango and grassiness. Honestly, though, this smells like it's going to make me very, very sick. Currently, this beer has three ratings on BA, and all of them are well above 4/5, and it has a ton of positive Untappd reviews. I guess I'll... hold my nose and give this a sip?

NO. Ew, no. Absolutely not. This is just a gross smoothie masquerading as a beer. Oh wait, I guess it's fine, since they made the "this is not a beer" joke on the label, real good one guys. There is no way I am going to finish this. I can feel myself getting a massive headache from it already. This is one of those things that makes me lose faith in the modern beer world considering all of those glowing ratings and reviews on Untappd. God, this is really what people want, isn't it. And, honestly, I think beer is in pretty good shape these days, and I think hazy triple dry-hopped triple IPAs can coexist peacefully and nicely with the most delicate German pilsners, both in a tasting/beer share capacity and next to one another on taplists at brewpubs and bars alike but... FUCK THIS. This is awful. I immediately feel like I never want to buy anything from this brewery again because they had the audacity to produce it. And I'm sure they're doing well by it, monetarily speaking, but... pass. Hard, hard pass. Undrinkable and unconscionable. Stop making things like this.

/rant

Back with something hopefully much better soon. Ugh.

 

Correct, the only constant in the Chaos Grid series is that they're all some sort of blend of barrel-aged strong ales - mostly imperial stouts, but barleywine has worked its way in to a couple of them. This particular edition of The Final Course features bourbon & Rhum Agricole barrel-aged Beastmaster and bourbon barrel-aged Dragon Mask, Mega Devil’s Teeth, Modem Tones, Monsters’ Park, Oblivion Ring, and Suggestion of Mass.

Glad you enjoyed it!

 

Drekker Mango Apricot Cobbler Slang Du Jour Sour à la Mode, 8.1% ABV. Pours thick and bright opaque orange with a ring of bubbles. Nose is mango, apricot, brown sugar, and granola. Taste follows plus vanilla, and cinnamon, quite sweet, slightly tart. Excellent thick and smooth mouthfeel, overall outstanding. I really like the brown sugar and granola in this series, and this variant is one of the better examples.

4.42/5 rDev +2.1%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

This is my 100th Drekker review, my favorite brewery by far. They're what got me into sours and IPAs, which I despised two years ago.

 

Im on a collision course to get screwed up here..
Hoof Hearted $60 Nachos...
Fkrs better have caviar or White Truffles on them and not just gas station cheese...haha!
Pours a cloudy oj with a large white foamy head, tons of lacing and great retention.
Aroma is typical of turbid IPAs: Citrus, Pineapple, Passionfruit, Cannabis, Melon, Peach.
Citrus is like the oils emitted by squeezing a tangerine peel.
Taste follows all that with a fruit cocktail like sweetness, pleasant mild bitterness, a little hop astringency coats the the tongue.
Feel is medium, fluffy/soft feel, no hint of 8%, mild but present carbonation.
Good Beer. Hoof Hearted is now being brewed by Twelve Percent in North Haven CT, probably the only reason I can get access to this now. Not TH level (who is?) But tasty.

 

Next up, from a ninja box from @Rub_This_BBQ , a nice Helles Rauchbier from Notch, Lost In The Dream. Nice smoke, maybe a bit too much malt sweetness, especially on the finish, but a very nice brew.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22723/508661/

 

Another new one for me straight from H-Town:

Saint Arnold's H-Town Pils • 5.2% • canned on 2/10/21

Listed here as a Bohemian/Czech pilsner, H-Town is definitely full of barley malt ... no corn/rice adjuncts. The sweet bready malt flavor has a twinge of peach to it, and the hops are giving it a nice earthy/black pepper kind of background bite that is balancing nicely.

I don't have a full official review, but I did rate it 3.91 (-2.5% rDEV) for what it's worth. It's just a one-off single for the day, but it's showing more character as I work through it and would be an easy 6-pack to down. At times the malt is drier and more cracker like than full-on bready.

Cheers!

 

Good evening NBW
I've been holding this pint for too long and today is the day...

Rochester Mills Dubbel Fisted

16oz can stamped 1103 01/20/22 poured into a chalice at fridge temp 8% ABV 21 IBU per can label. The beer pours mostly bright dark amber in color with ruby highlights and light khaki colored head. The head recedes to a thin ring and island of head coating the glass with lacing. The aroma is mild with clove, bready malt and banana. The taste is semisweet malt with notes of clove, molasses, burnt sugar caramel and heavily toasted malt. Minimal bitterness. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with average carbonation and a mostly dry finish. Overall, very good. Excellent for an American attempt.

I always hesitate before buying anything from Rochester Mills. I've had great beers and drain pours from them, but for certain styles I will roll the dice. Glad I picked this one up.

Cheers all!

 

#4, courtesy of my beer nerd friend @WunderLlama. Best beer of the day.

So far.



4.35/5 rDev +15.1%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Pours the slightest bit of a hazy golden straw color with a white head that provides some nice lacing. The nose is bready malt and spicy, grassy hops. Officially salivating.

The spicy grassy hop flavors have the lead on the taste, and are deliciously balanced by the bready malt flavors.

The crisp mouthfeel is on point. What a fantastic example of the style this is.

 

Time for my mystery beers!

So the box I got from Kevin for this NBS BIF included both "new" beers and some "old" beers from his cellar. My two mystery beers were similarly labeled "new" and "old." With some of the older bottles being from 2014, I wasn't sure if that was also the age on this "old" mystery beer. With no hints as to abv or style, I poured it into a Spiegelau tulip. Looked and smelled like a stout, so gave it some time to warm up.



Mystery beer "old" from @LehighAce06 from NBS BIF #13

A - Dark chocolate black with a thin layer of mocha head that settles to a thin ring.

S - bit of roast (is that coffee?), tons of chocolate, and something sweeter, might be vanilla?

T - Alcohol is strong, might be barrel aged although I didn't get any barrel on the nose, chocolate, tobacco, roasty malts.

M - medium body, low carb, alcohol heat lingers a bit

O - Definitely a stout, higher abv, might be barrel-aged? Don't think there's any adjuncts. Nose suggested something sweeter, but on the palate it's a pretty straightforward tasting stout with noticeable alcohol heat. Can't think of any brewery that was canning stouts in 16oz cans back in 2014, so what is this?

And the reveal:





Tired Hands - Gatherer 2017 - Honey Imperial Stout - 11.3% abv

Stout "brewed with Appalachian allspice, mugwort, honeysuckle, lemon balm, mint, and local wildflower honey."

Love the artwork! And it's quite fitting for a blind tasting.

The honey explains the sweeter aroma, but if any of the herb/spice adjuncts were there, I think time has muted them, and the alcohol is more up front as other flavors have faded. I would not have guessed it was four years old however, as I didn't really notice any oxidation or off-flavors. Thanks for this, Kevin! On to the "new" mystery next...

 

These more delicate new-school interpretations of WC IPAs seem to fade faster, and this particular batch of Sorta Mostly Dead started degrading noticeably after about three weeks in the can. Still a good beer, but fresh, it was legitimately one of the best IPAs I've ever smelled with a truly massive aroma.

 

My second beer for this NBW is right another newly available Trappist one from one of the greats. Coming across two of them in the same week looking almost like a “once in a lifetime” event if you think about it.

So if the Rochefort Triple wasn´t exciting enough I found this week that Westmalle has released their table beer for us mere sinners to enjoy, and I will be reviewing Westmalle Extra next. I am really excited as a lover of these beers, and happy that this brewery enters the game while sharing its little gem, as there are only a precious few beers of this style.

You can look at a brief note on different aspects/history of the beer at their website here.

First thing to notice is that they are not only using the same name as the St. Bernardus cousin “4” (Extra comes from “Extra Gersten”/extra barley apparently) but also a similar straw blue for the label, which I already loved in the SB. The contrasting red notes and straight typography only add to my enjoyment, and really love the design.



Also very nice from the monks for showing both the bottling date and best by. The beers are two months old and have a couple of years left, which is great.



I have a a third bottle I bought next day so I will not fall short if the beer turns out to be as good as I am expecting, and to round things up I have some nicely aged Gouda around for the tasting (this wasn´t planned at all but the set up couldn´t be better now, almost as in the Abbey itself!).



Move on. The beer looks clear golden "pilsner like" with lots of champagnesque carbonation and a beautiful white head with nice retention. On the second serving it looked slightly hazier so I noticed I hadn´t been careful enough again, as there was some yeast in the bottom of the bottle.



The nose is a perfect balance between soft malts and noble hops, with just a suggestion of flowers, a citrusy note here and there and a certain rusticness which might remind of Saison Dupont. Elegantly restrained and definitely promising, as I can´t wait to have a taste of those noble hops.

*I get more things by the end (toasted grain, dough, bubblegum, and further complexities) but I will leave it here as I am thirsty.



Oh yes, this is pretty much what I wanted to get (and more) in the taste. The hops are pretty bitter and wonderfully tasty at first, but the “soft” malts are also really solid and cover a wide range along the sip, with just a hint of residual sweetness and some subtle fruitiness by the end. It finishes dry and leaves a bitter aftertaste full of grassy hop and even liquorice. This beer is so refreshing and full of taste.

Light to medium body, the powerful carbonation has receded a lot by the middle of it (which I prefer), and the beer somehow feels like a bitter but drinks like a pils (you´ve heard that one before).

Overall fucking great, the beer has exceded my already high expectations and I am pretty happy/excited after the first one, which doesn´t happen often. Someone drinking DIPAS all the time might find it boring, but this is a very tasty beer for its weight, as they say in the website. Also the “Extra Gersten” bit now makes total sense (the malts are almost as solid and fantastic as the hops, if subtle). Light but tasty, no voids anywhere in the flavour, and the subtle brushes of complexity being carefully orchestrated to elevate this beer to the heavens.

A side by side with already loved St. Bernardus Extra 4 is due, as I think this one might be just downright better, and ideally I´d have a Taras Boulba after those for science. Chimay Doree is just a different beer imo even if "table" (more mellow, spicier and fruitier, almost relating to witbiers).

Sorry for the long post, but I really enjoyed this one. Easily a 4.5+ for starters.

Extra cheers!

 

Okay, this feels promising. Lone Pine has been pretty solid to me lately, so I took a chance with this beer that I got a few weeks ago when I stopped up in Portland for the day. Imperial Maple Sunday is an imperial brown with maple syrup, clocking in at a solid 8.5% ABV.

Very attractive pour...dark brown with chestnut/mahogany highlights when held up to direct light, topped off with a couple fingers of khaki colored foam with wonderful lacing and good retention as it slowly fades to a single finger. Good looking stuff.

The nose is a bit woody and stiff, kind of like I expect most maple beers to be, but there are some good roasty qualities in there with hints of mocha, caramel drizzle, and even some light fennel. Definitely a licorice-like undertone, which I usually would find kind of off-putting, but it works well here as it's just something that sorta comes out here and there instead of being part of the main attraction.

Chewy grains with a front-loaded caramel flavor make up the majority of the first few sips of this, and the sweetness of the maple addition comes out a bit as it warms to room temperature. Good balance between that sugary adjunct-ness and the complexity of the malts. A bit of dusty chocolate and toffee along with just a hint of tannins that carry over from the maple-centric aspect of the nose. Feel is well-rounded, somewhat sweet but still very enjoyable. It's kind of between a pastry-type beer and a regular strong American brown ale in terms of sweetness, I'd say, which is probably one of its best qualities. It's one of those beers you want to sip and enjoy (and respect, given the strength), but also could totally drink more than one in a row because of the complexity and enjoyability factor.

In other words, it's a hundred percent better than the other crap I just poured down the sink a bit ago. I have two more tonight, and they're quite different beers, so I'm excited for both. Thanks for listening to my ramblings!