New Beer Weekend #38

That one also had some Saison-like phenolic spiciness, too. Good stuff, though I haven't seen it for a while now.

 

Picked up the New Belgium variety 12pk this week when searching for Voodoo Ranger IPA to honor Scream with, so there's a couple new to me beers from them. I'm a fan of Fat Tire amber from the last time I had it so looking forward to that as well. Voodoo Ranger I'm pretty sure I had before but never rated it apparently. Right now I'm drinking Mountain Time premium lager from New Belgium. I usually enjoy a crisp lager so I was happy this is in the pack.

11 JUL 2021 best by date

Pours a clear golden straw yellow color with a frothy white foam head that recedes and mostly dissipates without leaving behind any lacing.

Smells fairly mild, sweet and malty, beery with some orchard fruit esters and a very slight medicinal note. I'm picking up some honey, doughy bread, biscuity crackers, hint of vanilla, pear, green apple, grape skin, light citrus, and grassy floral earthy herbal spice hops.

Tastes pretty clean with some bready biscuity crackery lightly toasty malts, a hint of grapefruity citrus, orchard fruit, apple, pear, touch of grape skin, and earthy grassy floral herbal notes before a quickly fading dry finish, leaving behind a little vanilla and white bread crust.

Feels light bodied, creamy and slick with moderate crisp carbonation.

Overall not one of my favorite lagers, still drinkable though and pretty refreshing. I think if the malt was a bit more pronounced and the ester production was toned down a tad perhaps I might be enjoying this more. Right now this seems a bit watery and tasting too similar to some BMC Big Beers for me to really enjoy, which is odd considering the hop and malt bill. A pretty decent light lager I think. Cheers all!

 

Bottle Logic Fractal Curve Peanut Brittle-Inspired Strong Ale with Lactose, Roasted Peanuts, and Coconut. Not a mystery beer per se, but easily the most mysterious of the beers in my huge BIF box o' cans from @2beerdogs. The beer's name might cause one to cringe or salivate; personally, knowing Bottle Logic, I feel the odds are good that they're going to pull it off. I've never had a Bottle Logic beer that's less than very good, and many excellent. A few years ago they tried a similarly ambitious baklava stout, many bottles of which were infected, but mine was not only uninfected, it was a wonderful execution of a very tricky concept. This past Fall, they did an equally amazing mint chip stout that shouldn't have been as good as it was. With all that said, on to the beer . . .

Pour is a thick, copper-caramel with a thin head that dissipates quickly into an oily swirl on the beer's surface. My first thought is, this looks a hell of a lot like a barleywine, which I know is often considered a subset of Strong Ales. With an ABV of only 8.8%, though, I don't think it qualifies as a barleywine . . . maybe one of you reading this can clarify. Aroma is roasted peanut, caramel, burnt toast, pine, and something a little diesel-y that's making me apprehensive, and not necessarily in a good way. Not really detecting the coconut. First sip and wow: there's the coconut! Not tasting the diesel, although it hovers over the glass persistently. Peanut, caramel, and cocoa are prevalent, with the coconut seemingly keeping the sweetness from becoming too cloying. Mouthfeel is incredibly creamy and round given the low-ish ABV, which I'm guessing is due to the lactose. Taste mellows and complexifies as it warms, with some dark berry and cherry, as well as some tobacco emerging, but I still get that diesel hit on the nose, which keeps me from fully luxuriating in something that's becoming more liqueur-like as it goes. I'm somehow reminded of Armagnac much more than peanut brittle per se. In the end, overall, the persistent diesel keeps the experience more heady and intellectual than fully satisfying, more at the level of very good than excellent. Very glad to have tried, though. Thanks, Derek!

 

Next, also from @WunderLlama, the first Vienna lager of today’s Lagerville Extravaganza!





4.25/5 rDev +3.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Pours a gorgeous copper color with a light tan head and is perfectly clear. The nose is toffee, a little grass, and stone fruit (cherries on my nose).

The taste is led by the toffee flavor, and there’s a grassy flavor as well, but the stone fruit flavor (again, cherries for me) is the star of this beer, IMHO. An excellent Vienna lager, again IMHO.

 

Poured into a 16 oz tulip glass canned on 3/18/21. Pours a hazy orange with a finger sticky white head that leaves thick streaks of lace with excellent retention. 4.25

Aroma is tangerine, passionfruit, papaya, apricot, and grapefruit. 4

Taste follows tangerine, papaya, passionfruit, apricot, and grapefruit. 4

Mouthfeel is bigger than medium, fairly soft carbonation, not sticky or dry, and at 9.3% it goes down very easy with a ton of flavor. 4

Overall this is a nice NETIPA, not much wrong but also for me no wow factor. Absolutely worth a try. 4

 

There's a time and place for everything. My son and I were playing golf on a very cold and windy January day and we had about finished what beverages we had. But, lo and behold, down in the bottom of my bag was a Smuttynose Wheatwine. I hated this beer the first time I tried it, but 34 degrees with a steady 25+ mph wind was just perfect for this oddball beer, for oddball golfers.

 

Doing more QA for the upcoming barleywine share by having this barrel-aged Behemoth from 3 Floyds, courtesy @ovaltine . Nice brew, and enjoyable, but doesn't really stand out from others of its ilk.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/26/34631/

 

Yes, I thought those were knives, too!

 

Last one, also courtesy of @WunderLlama. Stick a fork in me, NBW.



4/5 rDev +1.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Slightly hazy straw color with a white head, the hops are really forward on the nose, and very fruity, maybe tangerines or oranges.

The taste is those same fruity hop flavors, and a little smidge of bready malt. This most resembles an APA, except for the mouthfeel, which is crisp like a lager.

It straddles the line between ale and lager, which is why I don’t go the IPL route very often, but it certainly is a flavorful beer.

 

Electron brown
...cola brown
...carbonation is light with about a medium body. Has a slight creamy pleasant feel
...aroma is espresso beans,black coffee, roasted malt,and burnt dark chocolate.
...taste is fresh ground espresso beans,black coffee, roasted malt and dark chocolate.
...a very flavorful beer that gives you everything you could want from a coffee beer

 

Good afternoon, all, and Happy NBW! I've been planning on this one for a while now. I'm not big on milestone beers, but this is my 800th review and I thought to myself, "What could possibly go wrong?"



I fully expected to drain-pour this following a scathing review. Ah, the best-laid plans, etc., etc. This turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. Poured cold from a 42-ounce plastic bottle into a Miller Lite Taste Activator Glass. Beautiful crystal-clear golden-colored body, with a three-finger snow-white head that lingered on and on, leaving sheets of lacing. Aromas and flavors of corn, grain, and grass, with notes of tart Granny Smith apple and a slightly floral and herbal undertone. I was expecting a lot of sweetness, which surprisingly never materialized. There is a bit of sweet and tart fruit lingering on the finish, which is mostly dry. The alcohol is well-hidden, making this an easy drinker. For anyone in search of "beer that tastes like beer," look no further. Best of all, it's cheap!

4.06/5 (rDev +89.7% )*
look: 5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

* I'm so far off the reservation here that the Ohio State University Development Fund couldn't track me down.

The #proper treatment:


Cheers!