New Beer Weekend #44

Just got home from a private birthday party for one of The Alchemist's brewers at Moog's Joint in Johnson, VT. I had a Lost Nation Lokal Resident followed by a Bitburger and a beet and goat cheese salad (tasty!) while listening to the Dead Sessions Light Quartet with Seth Yacavone on guitar and vocals. They brought it!

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/17980/378525/



16 oz. can.
Canned 05/13/21.

Moderate pour yields a 1/2" inch fleeting white head over a bright and nearly clear straw colored body with no lacing at all. Nose of fruit and spice with a very slight funk aroma. Taste follows nose pretty closely with a spicy finish. Nice feel and overall, a more than decent, easy-to-drink, and smooth saison from the Mad River Valley's epicenter of hops.
Cheers to the crew in Waitsfield!

 

I'm celebrating the sale of our house by drinking what is likely the most I've ever paid for a beer. It's also the only beer I've ever bought "after-market." It smells divine. Let's see how it tastes.



Pours a deep black with no head and only a thin ring of tan around the edge.

The smell is divine. Dark fruits, bourbon, vanilla, brown sugar, and now dark fruits.

The taste is bourbon, vanilla, raisin and finishes with char and leather. The 14.6% abv comes through but minimally and warming.

The mouthfeel is velvet. It coats the mouth with low carbonation and a long, slightly dry finish.

Overall, this is excellent. Great flavors that balance well. A slow sipper for sure.

 

Great Raft Old Mad Joy Baltic Porter, 8.0% ABV; 3.97 overall

Pours a chestnut tinged mahogany with 3 fingers of pillowy caramel colored head. Only better than average head retention & lacing

S: Roastyness in spades, some chicory coffee, a touch of vanilla. trace amounts of licorice

T: Follows the nose, very dry as well, some acorns & hazel nut& charred grains. Some vanilla, but mostly roastyness/dryness with a touch astringency & caramel sweetness once warm, a little more chicory as well, Finishes dry, roasty with a touch of charred grain & molasses

MF: Medium body, creamy carbonation, warming

Solid take on the style that will fortify you on a cold damp night. Happy to see this is a regular here now

 

Happy Saturday BA!

Tonight I'm finally getting around to finally trying the Special #4 Oatmeal Stout variant of Goose Island's 2020 BCBS.



This is actually my first time trying a BCBS variant despite having had many vintages of the standard version. I've always enjoyed the standard and respected its place in beer, but at the same time I felt it had somewhat been left behind nowadays by more affordable barrel-aged stouts from certain breweries (*cough* Founders).

But I surprisingly preferred this variant to the standard BCBS and really, really enjoyed this beer. For my palate the addition of coffee and maple combined with the oatmeal stout characteristics provided a more complex flavor profile compared to standard BCBS's flavor which at times can come off a bit bourbon-dominant to me.

And despite the price I'd gladly purchase another given the chance, but I'm also guessing the next time I see this on shelves it will be a 2021 bottle assuming they do another oatmeal stout this year. At this point, I certainly hope they do.

Cheers BA!

 

Greetings All from the Great Northwest where we are still in a drought.

To wet things down this weekend we have Peak Seeker IPA.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/25393/533597/

A very drinkable IPA from Leavenworth. Taking a trip up there this week as a matter of fact.

Until next time,

 

Hello New Beer Weekend!!!

Wow. Have any of you had a day at work where you needed several more hours to get all you wanted done, in spite of getting a whole hell of a lot done?

That was me today. I was so busy that the sample I brought into work today, that we opened at around 3, was still sitting in my work glass when I was about to set the alarm when
I closed - I chugged what was left. So, it's time for a beer.

I believe @jkblr sent this to me.

Wainbows - Pale Ale - Lil Beaver Brewery - 5.5% ABV.

This is totally hitting the spot tonight. Really good flavor, and a nice body to boot - boy, that sounds like my ideal wife.

Ummm, but to my review:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/50997/338743/


3.98/5 rDev -1.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

Pours a nice murky golden color. There's a decent amount of carbonation that translates into a 3 finger white head. The head looks pretty fluffy. There's a bit of lacing on the glass as the head recedes, from the decent head retention.
The nose is has a nice hop aroma. It isn't too strong, and I can't pull out individual aromas.
Taste - Decent hop flavor. I do get some pine. I also get some mango, and lemon as well. I also get a hint of a wild floral funk to this beer.
Nice body here. Better than expected for the ABV.
Decent, and delicious beer. Very easy drinking.


Maybe another? Not sure tonight.

 

Hit downtown for a few.

Beer District Brewing Complicated Times



Brewer Notes: This is a cuvée first anniversary release, 2/3 Vegas Nights 1/3 CocoNillaCan. 10% ABV

Appearance: Pitch black pour, thin tan ring around the ring. 4.0

Aroma: Nice barrel on the nose, smooth bourbon, chocolate. 4.25

Taste: Consistent with aroma, sticky sweet maple taste, bourbon smooth and wonderful when this warms. Bakers chocolate, sweet but measured. Excellent. 4.5

Mouthfeel: Rich, full, creamy. Light fizzy carbonation. Lightly sweet, light and easy drinking. 4.5

Overall: Solid easy drinking full of great flavor, nice barrel. Overall solid anniversary pour. 4.5

 

New location, my favorite Vegas bar, The Silver Stamp in the Arts District.

Solid draft list, over 50 more great packaged offerings.





Starting with #18, a German Gose.

Bayerischcher Bahnhofstrasse Pineus Leipziger

Appearance: 10 oz $9 draft pour into a tulip glass. 4.5% abv. Golden bright orange pour, clear. 4.0

Aroma: Pine needles and sweet white grape. Sour, pleasant. 4.25

Taste: Wonderful tasting gose, tart lemon, pine white grape, salty back. Nice Gin notes, pine a nice touch to a well rounded gose. 4.75

Mouthfeel: Light crisp and fresh, mild carbonation. Very easy , consistent with style. 4.5

Overall: Very nice light and easy gose, pine gives an interesting twist, closest I’ve gotten to a nice gin tasting beer, perfect for summer or anytime. 4.5

 

That has got to be one of the more 'interesting' descriptors I have read to describe a beer!

Cheers!

 

Haha, my tipsy brain might have been thinking of something else

 

I had my first sip of Hopping Nomad IPA last evening when having Happy Hour with some friends (Marilyn & Harry). Marilyn told me that she buys this beer because it is very inexpensive and she thought it was a good beer (for the price). I only had the one sip but I thought it was good.

I asked to see the can when she was done to see who brewed the beer: "State of Brewing Wauankee, WI". That looks like a DBA company and I did a web-search earlier today and according to BA this beer is brewed by Octopi Brewery (Wauankee, WI).

If I am ever offered to drink a whole can of this beer in the future I would accept that offer.

Cheers!

 

Good day BAs! Another rainy day here in New Braunfels, TX. Today's New Breakfast Beer is also a New Beer Sunday (Weekend) entry:




Figaro, Figaro, Figaro, FIIIGAAARO from Buffalo Bayou Brewing. Purchased on 17/5/21 from Spec’s on DeZavala, SAT, room temperature shelf, $ 12.66 (including tax and discount)/22 oz bomber ($0.575/oz). Stored at home at 42 degrees. Reviewed 23/5/21. Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Only date appears to be “2021” on front label. Served at 55 degrees in a hand washed and dried glass coffee cup. Final temperature 57.5 degrees.
Appearance – 3.5.
First pour – Gold (SRM 6), hazy.
Body – Medium Amber (SRM 12), murky and opaque. When rear-lite, same but effervescence is evident.
Head – Tiny (Maximum one cm, aggressive center pour), cosmic latte, medium density, and fizzy, short retention, diminishing to a one to two mm crown and a thin partial cap. Second pour produces a one cm high density (still fizzy) head.
Lacing – None, as expected at 11% ABV.
Aroma – 3 – None - no hops, no malt, no yeast.
Flavor – 3.5 – Begins slightly sweet with a light figgy and cookie taste, quickly smothered by alcohol (11% ABV, as marked on the container), no hops, no yeast. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl. Ends sugary.
Palate – 3.5 – Medium, more watery than creamy, soft but lively carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 3.5 Really not particularly good as a quad. There is only a hint of figs and no other “dark fruit” flavors normally associated with a quad. Alcohol is the predominating taste until the sugar kicks in. Despite the disclaimer “Defying archaic brewing guidelines …”, if they had called this “An American Quad” they’d probably be better served – then I’d have had no expectations.
Rating 3.37, rDev -7.7%.

 

This new beer is appropriate for this hot day.
Crispy Morning, a Pilsner style from Finback, pours a very pale yellow with a 1.5 cm cap of fluffy foam.
The light aroma is of hay and woody hops.
The flavor is of cracker-like malt and the hop notes that were in the nose.
The finish is somewhat crisp ( due to hop bitterness) but not as dry as expected.
This is a refreshing brew in which the hop aspects persist.

 

Greetings fellow NBSers! I've lost track of what NBS week this is, hopefully someone still knows. It's a cloudy and breezy morning here in the Fourth Corner, following a few sunny and breezy days. It's been pretty slow for me the last couple weeks, but it looks like I've got some stuff lined up for the future.

You can't drink all day if you don't start in the morning, so I'm kicking NBS off with a Light IPA from Alesmith, Kickbackrelax: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/396/532139/