New Beer Weekend #39

So after the lager of this afternoon, it's time to transition to the hops. Plus, I've got to dip back into the ninja box from @JayORear, you know, to keep things balanced.

My first ever Tired Hands beer is going to have been DDH Grassman, with Citra and Nelson Sauvin.



Pour is a pale pale chalky orange. Big billowing white head that maintains it's structure impressively, and what can't hold itself up tries to retain its lofty status by clinging to the glass.

Nose is more muted than I anticipated, and is driven primarily by citrus and a fruity sweet note I was having a hard time pinning down until I read their copy and realized that it was what they were describing as lychee, and that fits.

Taste is up front bitter, with grapefruit meeting a fleeting black pepper bite. The lychee/rambutan fruitiness is less pronounced, but it's definitely still there. The bittering sits directly next to the nelson sauvin's white wine character that can be a bit grape-y and a bit oaky, in my experience. This aspect of the beer builds upon itself sip to sip, and gets overwhelming before long.

Carbonation is prickly/pervasive and the finish drops off the table like a well thrown changeup (GOMS), and finishes bitter and slightly dry.

Thanks Jay for sending this my direction, and cheers, all!

 

Another new brew (likely last new one for the day, but almost certainly not my last) is another from Lucky Envelope, Galaxy Pale Ale. After some skunk/cat in the aroma, the taste was mostly citrusy hops.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/40494/544969/

 

82° in Seattle is a beautiful day.

 

The way I've heard that anecdote, it was the then-Prime Minister's wife, Lady Asquith (in theory, Churchill's boss at that time), who he had that exchange with, although I've also heard it was Lady Astor (to mention the nickname of a fictional Sub Sandwich driver).

 

Gotahold Brewing's Batch# 01Barrel Aged Imperial Stout Crooked and Steep Next 22 OZ Drink With Care, 11.0% ABV; 3.76 Overall

Pours an effervescent chestnut tinged mahogany with one finger of tight tan head. Traces of head retention & lacing

S: Dark fruit, a little dark chocolate

T: Cocoa, woody hops, oaky dryness& a little char up front. Dryness, roastyness, a little vanilla & cocoa as this warms, some figs as well. Finishes roasty, dry with vanilla, figs, dark chocolate & just a little booze warmth

MF: Medium body, fairly firm carbonation which smooths out as it warms

Not bad, but was looking for more barrel aspects, ABV is well masked

 

One of my favorite Belgian beers, I love that one. Cheers!

 

Dinner tonight consisted of Corned Beef & Cabbage from the crock pot, which turned out fine:

and a bourbon barrel aged imperial Guinness, which was fine, if you like the taste of bourbon and nougat that's been left out on a counter for a week or so.

Not a fan.

 

Alright BA, I made it! Tonight I have one beer to share: Weldwerks Coffee Coconut Stout.



This is my first stout from Weldwerks, who are known for their Juicy Bits IPA (which I enjoyed quite a bit when I first had it last Summer). We only recently started getting some more stuff from them, and this was one of the new drops, though it was canned 2/10/21. Ah well, it's a stout so it should be basically the same a couple months later, so no biggie.

The pour here seemed a little inactive at first, so I went ahead and hard-poured, which resulted in what you see in the above image. The nearly-vertical pour I gave this one resulted in a nitro-like cascading effect to the head, which sank to near-nothingness after only a few minutes post-photo. Kinda not sure about this one appearance-wise. It's kind of a dark cola-brown instead of a pure black like I usually want my bigger stouts (this is 8% by the way) to be, and that head retention is a little sad. No lacing here, either, so... eh, I've seen much better.

The nose is... what else? Tons of coconut! Some nice berry-forward, earthy coffee with a hint of spice and chocolate making up another layer. This is, unfortunately, kind of metallic, however, and that seems a bit disappointing. I only really noticed it after the initial head cleared, but yeah. That said, I do like the combination of coffee and coconut here, when all's said and done. The subtle dark fruit and nuttiness of the coffee helps tame the obvious coconut aspect, which as I'm sure many of you will attest, can get a little over-the-top pretty quickly in beers like this.

Good flavors here, and luckily the metallic element does not carry over to the tongue. Pretty big body, as expected, with a smooth hit of complex coffee upfront followed by chocolate, nuttiness, roasted grains, a hint of English toffee, and earthy undertones. The jammy berry of the coffee really does do a lot here, and I'm glad it feels like they chose a characterful roast instead of some cheap burnt tasting crap like some coffee stouts can unfortunately settle for. Despite the poor appearance and hint of something "off" in the nose, this did seem to overcome the latter to some extent and therefore, I think it is a fairly-quality adjunct imperial stout. Tiny misgivings are not really worth thinking about, and I just feel like this is growing on me as I sip at it and write about it. Worth a shot, for sure.

Good night, and I hope everyone has a good week!

 

Sneaking in from the left coast with my first beer of the night - from @LehighAce06 out of the delightful box of beer I received from him for the NBS BIF #13.



Tired Hands - DDH Oblivex (Citra) - dipa - 9.2%

A - Pale opaque orange with ample off white head that sticks around for a while before settling into a ring that leaves blotchy lacing.

S - So much citrus - mostly orange but there's some grapefruit here, on the sweeter candy side rather than the ripe fruit side. Stone fruit as well floating around, rather peachy. Some dankness and pine in the background. Intense aroma overall, hoping the palate follows suit...

T - ... and it does. Tons of citrus varying from straight orange juice to grapefruit flesh. Sticky apricot and peach. Finishes with a bite of citrus rind and pith to balance the sweet fruit.

M - Creamy and thick, sticky juice.

O - Intense hop aroma and flavor without any burn. Hides it's stupid high abv quite well. Sweet and creamy, but not too sweet. Damn good ipa, as I've come to expect from Tired Hands. Thanks, Kevin!

4.5

 

Sounds like a great beer. Not surprising if it's from Tired Hands. Also not surprising is that it's got an unusual label. TH has got some interesting folks working in the art direction side of things.

 

@Roguer advised that you like rye beers. They're not easy to find in these parts. I wish more brewers would make the effort.