New Beer Weekend #40

Ozark Beer Co.'s Southern Hemi NZ Dry Hopped Lager, 4.0% ABV; 4.47 overall

Pours a chill hazed effervescent gold with 2 fingers of pearl colored head. Above average head retention & lacing

S: Grassy, bready, & lemons

T: Grainy, lemons, passion & Kiwi fruit up front along with dryness. More Kiwi & some Guava as this warms, a little dryness & grassyness too, Finishes a little dry with Kiwi & grassyness & green melon

MF: Medium body, delicate carbonation, great balance

So easy to drink, Ozark's Bottom fermenting game is solid

 

Poured into a 16 oz Nordic pint glass not sure when it was canned. Pours a hazy dark yellow with a 2 finger sticky white head that leaves thick gobs of lace with excellent retention. 4.25

Aroma lime, biscuit, passionfruit, slightly herbal, and apricot. 3.75

Taste follows lime, passionfruit, biscuit, pine, and apricot fairly balanced with a little bitterness. 3.75

Mouthfeel is medium, a tad sticky not dry, soft carbonation, and at 8% it goes down rather easy. 4

Overall this one is not knocking my socks but still really solid. Definitely worth a go, but honestly was expecting more. 3.75

 

#2 (of 3) from Minnesota today, and the 2nd maibock.

Utepils Springbok Heller Bock
Bock - Maibock
ABV: 6.8%
IBU: 36



The brewer labels this as a Heller Bock ("pale bock" - extra credit for the proper spelling). It is entered in the BA database as a Bock - Maibock. IDK if there is a real difference, but probably not.

Aroma of bread, somewhat sweet caramel, a little spice. Hints of fruit, but only hints - imagination? - something airy, though, perhaps floral.

Moderately carbonated crystal clear light amber (not as dark as the photo might indicate). 1 inch white-to-off-white thick head with OK retention, leaving a thick coating of lacing down the glass.

The taste has a great malt flavor, bread, a bit sweet - almost honey; perhaps hard cookie (i.e. English biscuit). The initial taste starts out smooth and reminiscent of an all-malt pilsner, but without the pils hops. There is a very mild tartness/bitterness in the middle and through to the finish, but it has faded before the aftertaste. The aftertaste is bready malts, a little sweet and coating with just a tinge of tartness on the back of the tongue.

The mouth feel is smooth and with a moderate body.

Overall, a very tasty spring beer; a nice transition beer from the heavy beers of winter to the crisp beers of summer, which I suppose is what a heller (mai) bock is. Very nicely done.

L: 4.0 | S: 3.75 | T: 4.25 | F: 4.0 | O: 4.0 | Rating: 4.04

 

Good afternoon NBW

Up until today, I had reviewed at least one beer from each style except Gruit, Sahti and Braggot. Today I'm knocking Gruit off that list through the generosity of @Victory_Sabre1973

Oliphant Brewing Groot

16oz undated can poured into a tulip pint glass at fridge temp 6% ABV. The beer pours hazy, reddish brown in color with khaki head. The head recedes to a pencil thin ring and a few bubbles. No lacing. The aroma is bready malt, juniper and caraway. The taste is semisweet rye bread punctuated with pepper spice, caraway and juniper. Mildly bitter. The mouthfeel is thin to medium bodied with average carbonation and a dry finish. Overall, interesting and unique. Super happy to tick this style!

I would be interested to try the Williams Brothers beers again. I bought a 4 bottle variety pack from them many years ago and I believe 3 of them were Gruits. I understand their beers are no longer imported to the US, so maybe someday.

Cheers all!

 

Apologies upfront to either @FBarber or @ovaltine , for I forgot to tag the can as to my sender. I are an idiot. Anyway, I am finishing up a very tasty Honey Jacket barleywine from revolution. So far, I've been very impressed with everything I've had from them, wouldn't mind if they were local to me at all.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22072/426997/

 

NBS #2. This one comes from @Roguer's seemingly bottomless box of Stouts. Aardwolf Brewing Company's Whiskey Barrel Aged El Mariachi. First, I'm liking this Jacksonville brewery a lot! This bottle was released in 2020 so the pepper influence has mellowed it bit - which is a positive for me since I'm not an aficionado of "hot" stouts. I should have read first that this is an Oatmeal Stout, which would have informed my initial impressions.

Poured into a tulip glass (received from @jdell15 in NBS BIF # 12) at 54 degrees. It pours a very dark walnut - almost black - and the light mocha-colored head fizzled away almost immediately. The aroma is lovely: dark chocolate, freshly-brewed coffee, brown sugar, tobacco smoke, and subtle but discernible whiskey. When first sipped the coffee and chocolate dominate. As it continues to warm I start to taste the vanilla and peppers. But they are very delicate. This isn't a "hot" pepper stout. The commercial notes describe it as "fiery" but it's not - perhaps because it's a year old. I like the fact that the whiskey compliments but doesn't distract. The mouth feel is creamy with lite carbonation, and it drinks very easily for its 10.2% ABV. Overall, I'm enjoying this version of El Mariachi. If it were still winter, then it would be perfect for sipping beside a fire with some smoked gouda cheese.

Thank you, Andrew! I'm humbled by the fantastic Stouts you've sent me. And the thought of box #2 is inspiring! Cheers, everyone!

 

Good afternoon, NBW. I decided to enjoy a beer while waiting on a pizza to finish baking, and I'm glad I did. I picked this beer up yesterday in order to participate in the ongoing bock tasting. While I think this qualifies, I'm really not sure what it's official style is. Fossl(Fire Oak Stone Smoke Lager), by Eleventh Hour Brewing, is listed on the can as a Steinbock, but I don't see that as an officially recognized style here on BA, and Untappd has it listed as a Steinbier. It's definitely an interesting beer, and as you'll see begins as a Maibock wort. Here is the description taken from Eleventh Hour's Instagram post:

"We are super pumped to share our latest creation with you. We have created our own Steinbock, which was born from a traditional method of heating the brewing wort by using extremely hot stones as the heat source.

The kettles were made of wood and the stones were typically heated over an open fire, with the resulting liquid having complex layers of smoke, oak, toffee and leather.

Inspired by breweries where this method was a necessity (late 1800s Germany), we did it because we thought it would be a blast (and being in quarantine sucked)

For our version, we tore the heads off a couple of our leftover barrels and installed sanitary fittings to allow for the transfer of the wort into and out of these makeshift kettles.

We stoked a fire using additional deconstructed bourbon barrels and heated the rocks on the flames. With the stones reaching temperatures upwards of 500 degrees, they were added to the wort, caramelizing what they touched and adding a smoky layer. Once the boil was complete, we fermented the wort and then transferred it to neutral Pennsylvania white oak barrels where it lagered for 4 months in our cellar. The winter treated this beer well and the result is everything we hoped for and more! We created this beer with wort stolen from our Maibock, but this is something completely different."

Fossl poured a transparent copper with lively carbonation forming a one inch amber-tinged foamy head. The aroma was bready and caramel malt with some oak and leather, but little smoke to be found. If anything, there was only a touch of char on the nose, and that was not something I experienced consistently. The first flavor I noticed was sweet caramel malt up front with the wood notes coming in on the dry finish. The smoke, while relatively weak, built as I worked my way through the glass. This medium bodied lager is very easy drinking while coming in at 7%. The dry finish and carbonation is keeping me quite thirsty. Overall, this is a pretty complex lager that seems to accomplish its objective. I hope this is a beer that returns annually.

I'm going to need to add this to the BA database before I can log my official review on the site. Any suggestions on what to use for the style classification? I'm a bit at a loss. In any case, I enjoy seeing locals getting more adventurous with their lager game and I'm glad I have a few more of these in the fridge.

Edit: I meant to include this in the original post. If anyone is interested in seeing some video footage of the wort being boiled with the hot stones they have some available at this link. I don't think you need to be an instagram user to view the footage or anything.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CNnanopBYwP/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

 

Ozark Beer Co.'s Kickin' Bass Hazy IPA, 6.2% ABV; 4.35 overall

Pours a very hazy gold with 2 fingers of tight cream colored head. Great lacing & head retention

S: Tangerine, peach

T: Peach, orange, green melon, powdery dryness & strawberry up front. More green melon & a little strawberry, plus dryness & a little more peach as this warms. Finishes with a little lime bitterness, green melon & strawberry

MF: Medium body, creamy carbonation, nice balance

Easy to drink, wish the nose was better ( the only real nit pick ), prefer this can version to the draft I had yesterday. This is one of their better hazy offerings

 

Pours a hazy burnt orange color, frothy off-white head. Fresh citrus and leafy hop aromas dominate the nose. Flavor begins with grapefruit and orange peel, not much lease happening to be honest. The hop notes are there, but it’s kind of muddy.

Wanted to like this, but I just don’t. The sum of its parts just isn’t amounting to much with me. I’ll give some of their other offerings a shot. I was just hoping for more from this one.

 

That (Honey Jacket) was definitely courtesy of @FBarber. I tried a bit to secure it, but no luck. Not even sure it hit distro here in Northern Indiana, at least in any significant way.

 

Victory - Sour Monkey, a "sour brett tripel"

12oz bottle served in a tulip. Bottled on 14 Nov 2019. Gift from a friend.

Pours clear yellow with a small head and not much carbonation. Smell is a little spice, a little yeast, a little banana, something slightly lemony.

Taste is very tart, very citrus juicy. Very very citrus juicy. I get almost no funky brett characteristics, I do get a bit of a bitter finish, maybe lemon zest or herbal bitterness or a combination of them.

Mouthfeel is light and smooth. Overall...this is one of those beers where it's definitely not a good example of the style it's categorized as on BA. But it's actually quite enjoyable. Since the label clearly states it's a sour brett tripel, I'll score it as if it were supposed to be sour. I mean, Victory isn't trying to pass it off as a standard tripel, so why should I pretend it is? Consequently, I dub this a quite good beer. Dangerously drinkable at 9.5%.

 

Was at Great Heights Brewing in Houston this afternoon. Two new beers for me...

First up is Blue Tile IPA. 6.6% ABV. A Mosaic hopped IPA.



Pours a slightly hazy golden/yellow color. A one finger white head forms with good retention and some left behind.
Aroma is full on berry fruit salad. Blueberry, strawberry, and melon. Enjoyable if a bit predictable.
Like the nose, taste is that berry and melon fruit salad spread. Which is the show up front, but that hoppy woody characteristic shows up, which I can get a lot of sometimes in IPA's. Just the bare minimum of bitterness.
A medium body and particularly "soft" carbonation. I would say this is bordering on under carbonation, at least for my tastes. Though becomes fairly smooth and non-offensive in that regard. Easy enough to drink, I could come back to this. Just not one of their better IPA's IMO.

Its a Yellow Rose Lite as far as I'm concerned. Needs more bitterness, and a more crisp bite. That being said, its not a bad Mosaic IPA. Just isn't up to my particular tastes.

Overall score is 3.58: B
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/50326/517754/?ba=champ103#review

---------------------------

Second beer is Great Heights Dunkelweizen, 4.0% ABV


Pours a light brown/reddish color. A two finger white head forms with good retention and plenty of lace left behind.
Aroma is all darker malts. Bread and husky wheat. Not a lot of esters, which might have added some complexity, Though not bad overall.
Like the nose, the darker malts are the show. Which run from baked bread to grains, and husky wheat. While I do enjoy that, its missing the banana esters and clove/spice I love with both regular and dark Hefes.
A medium body with good carbonation. Smooth at the same time, and finishes dry. I'm actually surprised this is at 4% ABV as I would have pegged this at least 5.5%. Drinking above its weight as it were. Which is a good thing for a session beer.

I'm glad Great Heights tried this style. While I wouldn't say its a great example, the darker malts are nice and enjoyable. Along with the low ABV, this gets repeat drinks from me. Though, I would say lacking a bit in the style category. It got the malty part of the Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier Dunkel correct, but missing the great fruity/spicy ester and yeast for balance.

Overall score is 3.61, again B
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/50326/523533/?ba=champ103#review

 

* Well, actually, I did think it was quite average. Since it is an impy stout, I assume the ethanol level is relatively high, although it wouldn't hurt Tree House to put the ABV on the bottle - they do it on their cans. The alcohol was well hidden if it is indeed high. And the flavors were pretty weak. The difficulty is in determining whether this is the goal (a mild blend of a few flavors) or just brewing happenstance. In general, I'm not greatly familiar with Tree House products - the only ones I've had have come from @Rub_This_BBQ in the latest NBS BIF. I know - blasphemy to consider a Tree House product as average.

 

I’ve got a trio of beers for Day #2 of NBW, and all are tied to NBW BIF #13 - and so is the glassware, courtesy of @BBThunderbolt, from a BIF long, long ago.

First up, this excellent NEIPA from @WunderLlama.





4.35/5 rDev +2.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Pours a very hazy pineapple color with a foamy white head that beautifully laces the glass. The Galaxy/Mosaic hop combo practically has me drooling, and the nose doesn’t disappoint, with dank passion fruit, juicy pineapple, and ripe tangerine aromas.

The passion fruit flavor is forward, an exotic flavor that works perfectly with the pineapple, tangerine, and creamy oat flavors that follow. This is delicious, IMHO.

The mouthfeel is softer per the style. Vitamin Sea is a legitimate player in the juicy NEIPA style.

 

#2, courtesy of @larryi86. Absolutely love this.





4.34/5 rDev +0.9%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Pours a clear mahogany brown color with a minimal light tan head - this literally looks like a glass of iced tea in my glass. The nose includes wheat bread, toffee, and a roasted coffee aroma, but a “light” coffee like Sanka, for those of a certain age.

The taste has that wheat taste up front, and the toffee is present, but that roasted coffee flavor is the star of this beer for me - how so much flavor can be crammed into a 4.2% ABV beer is beyond me. A fantastic beer, IMHO.