New Beer Weekend #42

A Belgian Pilsner?

Well, this beer was not brewed in Belgium but by Allagash who know how to brew Belgian Ales.

Below is how Truepenny Pilsner is detailed on the Allagash website:

“A truepenny: one both trusty and honest. This Belgian-style Pilsner delivers on its promise of refreshment with a classic grain bill and noble hops. It distinguishes itself with a hint of wild beer, blended for balance. A beer that refreshes while it delights, a Truepenny.

Beer Details

Grains: German Pilsner Malt

Hops: French Strisselspalt, Czech Saaz

Yeast: Lager, House Brettanomyces

Ideal Within: Six months

Package Size: 16 oz. Can, Draft

ABV: 5.1%”

https://www.allagash.com/beer/truepenny-pilsner/

Quite intriguing that they decided to use some Brettanomyces (Brett) in the fermentation of this beer. I am a familiar with brewing with Brett, I have a homebrewed clone of Orval in secondary fermentation with Brett right now. For this beer the Brett will produce a notable amount of funky, barnyard flavors.

I wonder how Brett would express itself in a lager (Pilsner). Perhaps with the colder fermentation temperatures used for lagers the Brett flavors will be subdued? Well, let’s find out.

Served in my Polish Pilsner glass:

Appearance:

Straw colored with a big white head.

Aroma:

An interesting aroma with a combination of bready Pilsner malt, some herbal, a bit of spicy and even a subtle aspect of white wine (from the Brett?).

Taste:

The taste sorta follows the nose but it is mostly bready malt flavor with the other aspects (e.g., herbal, spicy,…) much more muted in comparison to the malt flavor. There is a moderate bitterness to this beer.

Mouthfeel:

Light – medium body accompanied with a dry finish.

Overall:

The highlight of this beer is the aroma which is quite enticing. Unfortunately the flavor is somewhat lacking in comparison to the nose. Overall a pretty good beer.

Other than possibly the hint of white wine on the nose there really is nothing in this beer that speaks to me concerning Brett. Maybe that was the intention of the Allagash brewers and if this is the case they achieved here.

@rotsaruch @KOP_Beer_OUtlet @RobH

 

New to BA & me - American IPAs - Happy May 2021

Neath the Refinery’s Glow | Carton | 7% | Atlantic Highlands, NJ (enjoying now)
4.2/5 rDev +0.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
2nd review. Canned on 4/6/2021.
a) pours a hazed lemon-yellow body with lasting and lacing head.
s) Soft, floral , lemon, hints of Klosch, white pepper.
t) Follows nose, adding peach, peeling orange, and finished with the pepper notes.
f) Creamy, smooth, with nice finishing bite. Inviting, good food beer.
o) Agree with @MacMalt on NJ IPAs are a great idea based on our natural order and water. NJ attitude indeed.

IPA | pFriem | 6.8% | Oregon
4.2/5 rDev +4%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5
College buddy’s #1 IPA, must pay attention. My first from brewer. Great stuff.
I rate this as high as any recent IPA
a) Golden clear, lots of head and lace.
s) the weakest link but made up for with the taste.
t) Pine, peach, lynchee, fruit, a bit of hemp, based on strong spicy malt core. Great bitter finish
f) Great Mouth feel.
o) Sum greater that the parts.

Sea Chest | Cape May | 7.4% NJ
3.93/5 rDev +2.1%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
3rd Review. Etches a 4 overall. Love the brewer. Go visit at Cape May airport and get the mex food next door.
a) Slightly hazed golden head, ample lace, loose head.
s) Peach, peppercorns, orange rind.
t) Adds more dimensions including hemp, herbs, orchard fruit, more peach, pine.
f) Silky, cleans up nice in a see saw toward sharp pepper finale.
o) Works as a complex, herbal, not citric NE IPA.

 

@JackHorzempa very, very cool sounding beer! thanks for sharing!

 

Thank you, @WunderLlama, for getting this thread started.
We took the dogs for a nice long walk this morning, before it gets too hot to walk them. The puppy, who just turned one, is starting obedience classes today. With the pandemic he hasn't socialized much at all, so it will be interesting to see how he reacts to the other dogs.
Today's new beer is Walk in the Parfait from New Terrain Brewing. It is a sour with an ABV of 5.5%.
A hazy dark pink color. Small pink-tinged head that disappears quickly.
Sweet fruit, citrus fruit in the aroma.
Sweet and tart raspberries, lemon in the taste.
Sour, but not aggressive.
Nice beer.

 

Jack, I don't know anything about their process for producing Truepenny, but since they claim that it has "a hint of wild beer, blended for balance," I'm assuming that it is a lager blended with a tiny portion of a separate brett beer... and that brett beer used for blending wouldn't necessarily be produced like a lager. I think you are right to include a question mark after "A Belgian Pilsner?" because their claim that it is a "Belgian-style Pilsner" strikes me as an incredible amount of illogical nonsense even by fuzzy beer "style" standards. I know I'm a cynic, but to me it seems pretty transparent that this was Allagash's way to include a pilsner in their lineup while still feeling like they only produce beers descended from a Belgian framework. Optics is a part of this. I guess all of the actual Belgian pale lagers weren't justification enough for Allagash to produce a pilsner without "British fungus." Dupont didn't seem to have the same issue.

 

@JackHorzempa - I just remembered something. You probably also recall Ommegang's Idyll Days. They probably felt like they were in the same identity trap but they found a different way out of it. They said that one was a "Belgian-style pilsner [...] fermented with a Belgian lager yeast."

 

On Friday I came across a new summer seasonal from Jack's Abby; Ray Catcher, a "lemongrass lager".
Not a lot of info on the can or website, just that "Pilsner malts and citrusy hops join to create refreshing flavors of lemon and tea." IBUs16 OG 11.5 ABV 4.6


Not the most beautiful beer around, clear yellow/gold with a thin quickly dissolving head.
The lemongrass is noticeable in the smell, along with grassy aromas and a hint of honey and mint that might be the green tea.
Flavor follows aroma with a base of sweet malts followed by mild, but not sour, lemon oils and weak green tea, there is some honey and mint back in there somewhere.
Finishes off full and rich with citrus zest.
I wish it had been a warm sunny day because this will be an excellent summer beer
4.14/5 rDev +1%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

 

Chris, in the absence of more details from Allagash concerning their brewing process your guess is as good as mine.

FWIW I have produced a number of Belgian Pale Ales w/ Brett where the primary fermentation was a co-pitch of Brewer's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and Brett. My clone of Orval is a primary of Saccharomyces cerevisiae followed by a secondary with Brett. I have yet to brew two batches of beer, one with Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the second with Brett, and then conduct a blend but maybe sometime I will do so in the future?

Needless to say but lots of different ways to utilize Brett in the production of beer.

Cheers!

 

Yes, I do indeed recall Idyll Days. I was gifted this beer from a generous BA and I discussed it in a past NBS.

An extract from that post:

"Overall:

I think this beer is pretty good.

I didn’t really perceive any qualities of the flaked corn (maybe it added to the dryness of the finish?) and nothing ‘special’ concerning the Belgian Pilsner yeast. FWIW this beer tasted like a German Pilsner to me; a good German Pilsner."



https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/new-beer-sunday-week-788.636827/#post-6849705

It seems to me in that today's very competitive craft beer market (e.g., 8,000+ craft breweries) that breweries are looking for some 'difference' to advertise about their beers in order to obtain a marketing 'advantage'. I suppose a business needs to do what they think they need to do in order to stand out in the crowd? FWIW I view the 'gimmick' of some breweries marketing their dry hopped German Pilsner as being an alleged Italian Pilsner as part of this stuff. I have yet to see a commercially brewed Pilsner labeled as being a New Zealand Pilsner but I have little doubt I will see one (or two) in the next year or so.

Cheers to the next 'shiny new thing'!?!¯\_(ツ)_/¯

P.S. I posted the above reply before reading the post by @officerbill on the Lemongrass Lager he discussed today. One more example of creative marketing of Lagers/Pilsners.

 

Well, I did state this beer is "Overall a pretty good beer".

I will have no problems finishing the remaining beers of this pack.

Cheers!

 

I think I had this in a von trapp variety pack of bottles some 4 years ago but I don’t remember it and never reviewed it so...new it is. Von Trapp - kölsch



Pours a very cloudy dirty straw color big airy bubbles of head that popped very quickly, no retention or lacing. Head was gone not long after this picture. Not the most appetizing looking beer but it’s just looks so let’s see how it tastes and smells.

Aromas of white bread, honey, and some pleasant fruitiness.

The taste is fruity, pear and a white grape to me, and crackery, with a very small amount of sweetness.

I would describe the mouthfeel as light but a little hefty and full. It is a clean finishing beer with no bitterness.

I enjoyed how this beer, the only thing I didn’t like was appearance. Looks aside though it is a very good beer, not as light as I hoped it would be on the mouthfeel but still very good. This was a good purchase.

 

In post #11 I discussed some of my thoughts about creative marketing/branding of beers.

There is a show that is broadcast in the Philly area What’s Brewing which is hosted by Joe Sixpack (Don Russell) and Glen Macnow. A few weeks ago they visited a brewery that is in my hometown: Workhorse Brewing. The beers of Workhorse Brewing have simple, short names/branding. For example their core beers are

· West Coast IPA

· Vienna Lager

· New England IPA

· Golden Lager

· Etc.

A co-owner of Workhorse Brewing is Dan Hershberg and this fellow is quite the salesman. I took a tour of the Workhorse Brewery conducted by Dan and that guy spoke continuously for 45 minutes without ever seemingly needing to take a breath. And lots of stuff coming out his mouth was classic business-speak. Words/concepts of: leverage, value added, best of breed, flexibility, quality driven, and on and on. But instead of choosing a ‘flamboyant’ branding of their beers Dan chooses to keep things simple & straightforward. You can hear him discuss this at the 26:30 mark of the below video (Dan starts discussing at 22:40).



Cheers!

 

My recollection is we discussed this beer before.

For me Von Trapp Kolsch is an excellent example of this beer style with just a right mix of aromas/flavors which are subtle but just right for my preferences/palate.

Cheers to Von Trapp Kolsch!

 

Starting today with one of two brewery next door neighbors. Half Acre and Spiteful, the only two breweries I am aware of that are literally next door to each other on the 2000 block of West Balmoral Ave. in the city named after my Beer Advocate ID.

While I am partial to the Balmoral location of Half Acre, my OG spot, there are many like @eppCOS who are partial to Half Acre's OG spot, on Lincoln Ave. Sadly that location closed permanently last March and did not reopen except for to go sales (Balmoral still is closed except for outdoor seating). I doubt they will reopen the Lincoln location before transferring ownership to Hop Butcher for the World in October.

Today's first beer is Half Acre's Parrot of Paradise



Can Notes: 16 oz canned 3/15/21 @ 3:49 PM, "Duncazord". India Pale Ale, 7.0% ABV.

Appearance: Clear golden pour, light to mild carbonation, generous bright white head lingers for a few minutes, nice generous lacing throughout the pour.4.0

Aroma: Light in strength, light pine and tropical fruit, pineapple, mango. 3.5

Taste: Light tasting, though pleasant. Pine backed by pineapple, kiwi, mango. Nice blend, sweet fruit nice contrast to the strong dry bitter taste. No sweet malt mucking it up. Well done. 4.25

Mouthfeel: Dry and bitter, sweetness slightly offsets but you must like dry and bitter to like this beer. Feels creamy, faint fizzy carbonation lingers, dry and bitter aftertaste, strength consistent with the 7.0% ABV. 4.0

Overall: This beer is in my wheelhouse. Dry, bitter, pine, pleasant fruit backing. Old school IPA. Well done Half Acre, hoping HA doesn't haze it up next year. 4.0

Last call for today will come from Half Acre's next door neighbor.

 

Forgotten Boardwalk
DDH tower # 4
New England ipa
6.8% ABV
Cherry Hill NJ

from the can;

OLD SHAKY COLLAPSES AT SEA

“Once a poorly constructed early warning device disguised as an oil rig, Tower 4 did little to protect the US against Soviet threats before claiming the lives of its crew as it buckled from monstrous waves. Today the wreckage sits at the bottom of the ocean 150 miles off the coast of New Jersey. Visited by sea creatures and the infrequent diver”



Review;

Murky. Full almost beige color. Off white soapy head. Smells of candy watermelon. Peach rings. White bread. Sweet grapefruit. Lemon.


Feel is silky. Velvet. Low carbonation. No perceptible bite but the end is clean. Sweet but not sugary. Sweet like as in how fruit is sweet. Watermelon, peach, mango, gooseberry. Minimal heat as it warms. It also gets tingly and dry. Not sticky at all. So silky smooth.

Fantastic for what it is. Sweet and cooling lemon, watermelon, gooseberry juice. Monster lace

 

Looks like Anchorage Brewing is available in NY; Wolf Child DIPA.


Color is a cloudy orange color. The white soapy foam settled fast, as I had a hearty pour. Scents of citrus and pine, but nothing overpowering. The flavors were somewhat mellow for the style, though highly drinkable. Very chill beer. Had I not cracked this on the heels of IPA-Fest, I'd be more into this beer. On its merits this is a solid offering, but its not a true west coast IPA, nor a NEIPA. So its an outlier, though I'm certainly happy to have tried it.

 

Good afternoon NBW, hope everyone is doing well. Starting my weekend with Suarez Stands to Reason, been loving smoked beers lately and this doesn’t disappoint.
4.38/5 rDev +4.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

16 oz can poured into mug

A- Brown with a small mocha head.

S- Smoky, caramel malts, earthy, hints of dark chocolate.

T- Smoky campfire, pales malts, some caramel malts, earthy, some dark chocolate.

M- Smooth, crisp, light body.

O- A well done smoked lager.

Cheers!