New Beer Weekend #41

Good afternoon NBW
Another great beer from @Victory_Sabre1973

Nose Hozzle by Oliphant Brewing (a Baltic Porter)

16oz undated can poured into a tulip pint glass at fridge temp 8% ABV. The beer pours bright medium brown in color with chestnut highlights and light brown head. The head recedes to a thin ring and single layer of bubbles. Minimal lacing. The aroma is deeply roasted malt manifested in coffee and dark chocolate. The taste is semisweet roasty malt with even more cocoa, dark chocolate, cold brew coffee and earthy notes. Mild to moderate bitterness. The mouthfeel is medium plus bodied with average carbonation and a mostly dry finish. Overall, very good. A very clean, very tasty Baltic Porter.

I can draw a lot of parallels between Oliphant and semi-local Against the Grain over in Louisville. Weird, not necessarily tasteful, can graphics and beer names. No can dates. Really tasty beer. Super happy to have had the chance to try a couple of their beers.

I'm going to cook dinner and finish this beer before wrapping up with a bang here. Cheers all!

 

Well, I was surprised more because of my personal history. It's like they didn't run my name through the system. Having been the defendant in a couple jury trials, I am certainly biased towards the defense.

 

They probably need all hands on deck right now ha. Cheers!

 

Old Milwaukee was my beer of choice in college in the 90's. My personal favorite version was the Old Milwaukee Red that came out after Red Dog debuted, but there were inevitably a few Old Milwaukee Ice consumed along the way. Thanks for bringing back a memory, however foggy.

 

Next up is a beer so kindly sent to me by @jkblr


Crossroads Cream Ale - Terre Haute Brewing - 5.5% ABV.

This is a very clean, and easy drinking ale. The cream flavor is just right for this beer, and I'm happy to have tried it.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/46684/547354/

3.85/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

This beer pours a nice straw color. This beer is very heavily carbonated. That being said, the head retention isn't the best, and there's minimal lacing on the glass.
The nose has a hint of cream in it. I also get a hint of a malt/biscuit aroma.
Taste - Really nice cream flavor here. I don't drink soda pop anymore, but this reminds me of a cream soda flavor. I also get a malt/biscuit backbone to the cream.
The body is decent. Crisp feeling.
Tasty, and easy drinking.

 

Doing a shout-out to @FBarber for this exceptionally tasty Mineshaft Gap Cognac barrel aged Barleywine, from Revolution. We have an annual BW share, usually in February, but not this year, and he made a very solid contribution to it. We're doing it outside, and we've all had a least the first shot, and most of us both.

Anyway, great beer: https://www.stoupbrewing.com/

 

#2, this is from my beer sensai. He’s the husband of Mrs O’s best friend (besides me!!!) and is the person that really launched a full-on beer nerd when he sent me his “beer’s consumed” spreadsheet in November 2009. That we get along great AND love to drink a couple of beers together whilst our brides comment on our beer nerdery is pretty phenomenal.





3.97/5 rDev +3.1%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Gorgeous rich, copper color with a smidge of haze and creamy light tan head that laces the glass nicely. Absolutely beautiful amber ale. The nose is caramel and bread.

The taste has the caramel and bread flavors, but there’s an almost smoky thing going on that I’m wondering if it’s the rye. It’s good, I just wish there was more of it, because that would provide a little more “ooomph” to this flavorful amber.

The mouthfeel is medium and a bit creamy. I’d love to drink this beer really fresh sitting around a campfire on a chilly October evening, because I think it would be PERFECT in that setting.

 

Alright, well the weather today can't seem to make up its mind, so I figured Cloudy With a Chance of Charcuterie would be thematically appropriate for this afternoon. Looking outside, it looks overcast and grey, but then you look up and there's patches of blue sky, it's just that none of them are where the sun is. Not gonna lie, that works for me just fine.
This one came to me courtesy of the ninja box that @JayORear sent me during the BIF. Before we get to the beer itself and what actually matters, I do have to say, I enjoy Free Will's design aesthetic, and this can is no exception.



Pouring into the glass, it yields a pale yellow liquid that's quite hazy, but not particularly thicc. Respectable white head, but that's about it. Minimal retention, and some initial lacing, but not much after that.

Nose is... strangely absent. There's some sweet lemon, and maybe a faint hint of orange blossom, but I'm kind of reaching.

Sipping on it continues the citrus-heavy theme. Initial impression is again of lemon, with a light touch of orange marmalade. As it warms and I continue to work through it, the lemon shifts over to oily lime bitterness that ends up being the dominant aspect going forward. They look to balance some of the bitterness with milk sugar, and that doesn't work for me at all. I don't understand the need to pump extra sugar into everything (I mean, I do... it's the same reason Sweet'ums made such a great villain in Parks and Rec... evolution is slow to adapt, and our bodies still trigger our reward pathways when sugar is introduced, so cranking up the sugar or fat content is an instant way to create broad appeal, even if it doesnt' actually improve the product, hell, even if it is actively deleterious to the flavour of the product. /end rant. For now), and in this case the added milk sugar I can only assume is to try and provide a sweet counter to the bitter oily lime from the hops (I mean, if you don't like what hops impart, don't use hops. I think this beer actually perfectly embodies a lot of my frustration and confusion regarding the current era of craft in general). Anyway, the sweet from that blends with the oily lime bitterness to create a kind of cloying sickly sensation that, suffice to say, is not my jam.

Body is somehow simultaneously dry and oily bitter/sweet. The bitterness is cumulative and builds as I drink through the glass. Actually, as I get closer to the bottom of the glass, I find myself enjoying it a little bit better, but overall it's still largely a miss for me.



This is also a great example of where I sometimes have trouble with the BIFs, etc. This beer didn't really work for me. I'm still grateful to Jay for having sent it my way, and letting me discover that first hand. Sometimes it feels somehow disrespectful or something to admit that a beer someone sent you with the best of intentions isn't to your liking, but it needn't be that way. Maybe it's just me, and I just need to get over that fear of needing to please everyone and avoid anything even vaguely confrontational. It's not a reflection back on the giver, nor should it detract from the generosity involved in my acquisition of the can that said beverage was not to my liking. After all, it's ultimately beer, and rooted in a desire to share and bring about positivity in someone elses life, and those are unequivocally good things, in my estimation!

Cheers!

 

No, man, that's exactly what's hoped for, at least on my end: the unvarnished truth, even a subjective one. I had mixed feelings about that beer myself, liked it somewhat better than you did, but totally see where you're coming from. I've had a lot of BIF beers that didn't hit my sweet spot, but helped develop my overall taste repertoire and vocabulary. If I were you, I'd be thinking, "at least I didn't buy a four-pack for myself!" It's all good, brother.

 

Barrel aged Ruckus by Melvin

4.37/5 rDev +0.9%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Can received from @colts9016 in Bif 13

aged in Bourbon, Port, Sherry and neutral oak barrels

Poured into a snifter , motor oil black liquid , crowned by a one finger brown foam cap , quickly recedes to a ring

Aroma of bourbon on the pour , sherry ,

Taste is bourbon, port, sherry , hint if blueberry

Mouthfeel is fizzy , bit of alcohol heat

Good beer

 

Last one, this is from @WunderLlama, aka “The Crusher”’ for the damage he did to my porch in NBW BIF #13.





4.1/5 rDev +5.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Pours a clear light golden color with a a soapy white head. Nice bready malt notes and grassy hop notes on the nose, and there’s maybe a bit of corn.

The bready malt and grassy hop flavors are on point, but it’s that subtle sweetness from what I’m guessing is corn that works really well for me.

Just a crispy, crushable lager that would always be in my beer fridge if I had regular access to it.

 

Another of yesterday's gifts from Northwood, NH:
Northwoods Brewing Co.'s "Trapper's Pack."

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/54955/547359/



16 oz. can.
Can's bottom reads:

"03/23/21
Give Me Liberty"

Moderate to vigorous pour yields a nearly one inch slightly off white head over a very hazy golden body with sticky lacing. Nose of tropical fruit, citrus, and a bit of pine. Taste is melon, cantaloupe, watermelon, and strawberry. Very soft feel and overall, here's a NEIPA packed with flavor and so easy to drink!

Find it, buy, it, savor it!!

Cheers!!!

 

Yeah, exactly! Thanks again for that whole box of goodies, and cheers!

 

Ooopsie, sources have informed me that I'm an idiot: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22072/155905/?ba=BBThunderbolt#review

 

Also, I realized, I shan't actually be joining you, as @FlintB sent me one back in BIF #007, and so I reviewed it about three years ago. Perhaps something else from them, though, or a different midwestern barleywine!

 

Pretty good weekend here at the hideaway. Got some gardening done, yard cleaning, and other chores with my sidekick 4 year old grandson. Hey, he thinks he is playing in the dirt...who am I to tell him otherwise. Smoked ribs for dinner tonight, so looking forward to a beah.



Foundation Brewing Forge - a Russian Imperial Stout - graces the tulip. A 10% ABV, brewed with 2-row, Munich, Oats, Chocolate, Brown, Roasted Barley. Crystal. Hopped with El Dorado and Centennial.

Well, like you can see it's used motor oil with a decent cocoa head that ends up as a ring and a couple of floating continents.

The smell is quite forward with bittersweet chocolate and acrid, possibly burnt, coffee. Fruit brightens things, and weirdly I am getting strawberry???

The flavor is bold. Big chocolate and coffee that is a bit too acrid for my taste. There is some sweetness, and definitely a fruity ester of some kind that's striking me as generic berry...strawraspcranblueberry... Massive bitter hit on the back end, and it nears the unpleasant in terms of that burnt coffee note. Medium bodied. Low carbonation. Astringent.

Am I really diggin' this one...sort of middle of the road on the enjoyometer. Is it poorly made...no. I can't say that and I may hold judgement until I taste one with some age on it. I think it might calm down, even as it warms it draws back some. But the level of char and acridity is too much to me.

 

Yet another from the yesterday's surprise!

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/54955/483763/



16 oz. can.
Bottom of can reads:

“04/14/21
Heart Of The Ocean”

Moderate to vigorous pour yields a 5/8 inch, very light pink head over a rosewood colored body with some lacing. Nose of all kinds of berries with a hint of citrus. Taste mirrors nose, very fruity, with an ever so slightly sour finish. Good feel and overall, this would make for a refreshingly sweet summer beer to enjoy on a hot day.
Cheers!!

 

Up next is a light, crisp, easy drinking lager that I'm a bit surprised I hadn't ticked before: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/45955/512148/

 

Closing Sunday with a new to me beer from Allagash - Curieux



Pours a very cloudy light shade of honey with a puffy white head, lots of nice little tiny bubbles. It settles to a pleasant looking white with some bubbly islands in the middle.

Very pleasant aroma coming off this beer. White wine aroma is the most noticeable to me. There is also something lemon like to the aroma. I think it’s just a very lively smell and it reminds me of all things refreshing. It’s not minty at all but it has that sort of liveliness. As it warms up there is also some sweetness to it too.

This was a complete mindfuck, tastes way different than you’d expect from aroma. There is still the liveliness to it but there is a tad more sweetness, honey like, definitely some oak as well. It almost had an earthy quality to it that was nowhere at all in aroma.

Mouthfeel is medium, bubbly carbonation, and a touch of woody bitterness. Surprisingly I do not sense any heat for a lighter bodied beer at 10.5%, a pleasant surprise.

I am really enjoying this beer, it’s complex, hard to describe (tried my best) but refreshing and not heavy at all for the abv.

 

Next up for me is one I got from NBS BIF 12 or 12.5 from @jvgoor3786 and been saving for the first 80 degree day, and today was the day.
Poured almost clear amber color with no head at all and smelled of sugar, vanilla and peach with just a little funk thrown in.
The taste flipped this around with the funk leading the band and the vanilla and peach played backup with the sugar MIA.
Really enjoyed this, bummer it’s a one off.