New Beer Weekend #47

Drinking an old Vertumnus dry-hopped ale aged on oak with brettanomyces from Banded Horn/Banded Brewing in Maine. This beer was released at the end of 2016 and is probably past it's prime now, still drinking anyway. This is something like their Veridian IPA aged in oak with brett.




This beer pours a lightly hazy golden yellow orange with a creamy frothy white foam head that lasts with decent retention and lacing.

Smells quite nice to me, some tart citrus acidity, sweet leathery funk, toasty hay, straw, subtle vanilla, floral notes, lemongrass, some earthy hop, dill, hint of oak, pale bready malts, pretty simple yet complex.

Tastes a bit dusty, floral, citrusy, tart, leathery, funky, some toasty hay, straw, subtle vanilla, oak, dill notes, lemongrass, earthy hops, pale bready malt, tropical melon, woody barnyard spice, somewhat juicy with a fairly tart and dry finish.

Feels medium bodied, creamy smooth with moderate crisp carbonation.

Overall this is a pretty nice brett IPA aged in oak. My guess is that the years of bottle aging have detracted some flavors in the beer, this is still drinking pretty nicely though for me. Some faint hops and IPA quality remain with a somewhat citrusy freshness, while the brett funk is mostly taking over here now with a nice crisp refreshing body and slight leathery barnyard nuances. Some leathery funk, toasty hay and barnyard woody spice notes from the age are almost reminiscent of a lambic quality which I like. This may not be the same as fresh, either way I'm enjoying and think I'll pair a little with some leftover Chinese food. Cheers all, and happy NBW!

 

Wheat beers are always welcome in the hot summers here in Florida. While this one from Sixpoint Brewery is not top-tier, it is refreshing and has the characteristics of the style. Cloves and bubblegum are present, albeit somewhat muted, and there is a very pleasing flavor of marmalade in the aftertaste. Again, not up to the great German standards but it is flavorful and quaffable.

 

Trying a Paulaner Pils for the first time. It doesn't disappoint.



Appearance - clear golden body with white head (4)

Smell - bread, toasted grains, buttered biscuit (4)

Taste - bread, honeyed biscuit, toasted grains, herbal hops on the back end (4)

Mouthfeel - medium bodied, medium carbonation, slightly sweet upfront, herbal and slightly bitter on the back end (3.75)

Overall - solid offering here from Paulaner, doesn't disappoint, crisp, refreshing, good representation of the style. Worth a try. (4)

price Point - $7.99/4PK 16.9 oz cans

 

Due South by Vitaminsea

4.25/5 rDev -2.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Canned 5.6, opened 6.11



“Bottom of the world”

Poured into an ipa glass , hazy orange liquid capped by a three finger foamy off white crown , good retention, settles to a ring and plump island. With good lacings

Aroma is orange citrus, pineapple, grapefruit

Taste is pineapple with a grapefruit finish

Good sudsing, gentle hop nibble, semi dry finish

Good beer

 

That’s my 2nd highest rated Goldfinger beer, and IIRC, it really hit my palate well. I need to head back their way, and I need to let you know in advance so we can hang out and celebrate our mutual magnificence.

 

4.49/5 rDev -4.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

2017 vintage courtesy of warmlager from Minnesota
Look: Black color fairly minimal brown/tan head. Minimum-moderate carbonation.
Smell: light bourbon, light vanilla, chocolate, wood.
Taste: vanilla, oak, chocolate, molasses, bourbon, maybe very slight oxidation.
Feel: medium-thin, smooth, very slight bourbon burn. “Booziness” well-hidden.
Overall: well incorporated vanilla stout with 3+ years on it. I heard the recent vintage was “not the same” so wanted to try one first that had a good reputation.
It is good? Yes. It is #13 beer in the world? No.
Solid 4.5.

 

Good evening NBW
I've been putting off this review, but I felt like today was the day...

Taxman Gin Barrel CiTrust - Imperial Saison with lemon aged in gin barrels

12oz canned 3/12/20 (3 months ago) poured into a tulip glass at fridge temp 9% ABV 25 IBU. The beer pours cloudy, brown tinted amber in color with a small light khaki colored head. The head recedes to a thin ring and single layer of bubbles. The aroma is mild with malt, saison yeast, hints of wood and citrus. The taste is semisweet malt with notes of caramel, gin botanicals, wood, and citrus. Mild bitterness. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with average carbonation and a mostly dry finish. Overall, very good. I love the saison style, but don't care for gin at all, so I hesitated to pick this one up. It all comes together nicely.

Another innovative and interesting beer from the crew at Taxman Brewing. Cheers all!

 

First off, thanks for getting the much discussed NBW started for us once again, @SawDog505.

Second, very busy Saturday for me followed by the promised triangle blind tasting.

This means I've only now opened the thread. I'll catch up later.

For those of you who have not read the thread on American vs Mexican macro lagers, I said in that thread that during the summer I would do a side-by-side tasting of the much-marketed and #1 import "premium" Mexican lager - Corona Extra and the cheapest American adjunct lager I had readily available.

Well, since we've been in an oppressive heat wave here in the Twin Cities area for the last 2 weeks, this is as summer as I hope it gets this year. So ... (fair warning... a long post...)

Blind Tasting Corona Extra vs Hamms
Corona Extra Lager - Adjunct
IBU: 18
ABV: 4.6%

Hamm's 6pk Lager - Adjunct
IBU: 20
ABV: 4.6%



Tasting background:
These beers are adjunct lagers of identical strength.

Corona Extra is marketed as a premium beer, with heavy lifestyle advertising (tropical beaches, palm trees, sand, and sandals).

Hamms (now owned by Miller) is long past its "Land of Sky Blue Waters" advertising of 40+ years ago, and is sold as an economy beer.

Here is the price comparison:

Corona Extra was 2.4x the price of Hamms.

Premise this tasting will test:
Corona will not justify its premium price over Hamms. In fact, it may not be any better at all on an objective scale. Corona is, as they might say in the Southwest, all hat, no cattle.

Since I went into this with such an obvious bias, this had to be a blind tasting. In fact, I considered a simple A-B paired blind tasting to be inadequate.

With the assistance of Mrs. MNAle, I did a 2-stage triangle tasting. This should eliminate my bias from the ratings.

Method:
1. Triangle test 1.
a. Glasses 1, 2, and 3. Two are the same beer.
b. I will identify which glass contains the different beer.
c. Review each by L-A-T-F and O.
2. Triangle test 2.
a. Glasses 4, 5, and 6. Two are the same beer. The duplicated beer may be the same beer as test 1, or it may not. I will not know what my wife chose to do.
b. I will identify which glass contains the different beer.
c. Review each by L-A-T-F and O.
3. The results
a. Refer to my wife’s notes to identify the beer in each of the 6 glasses.
b. Log the results, now identified by brand.
c. Identify the “winner.” Confirm or refute the premise.

Well, the triangle test is now complete.

The results
Actual beers in each glass:



[1] Hamms
[2] Corona Extra
[3] Hamms



[4] Hamms
[5] Corona Extra
[6] Hamms

Devious Mrs. MNAle... made stage 1 and stage 2 identical!

(Before we started, she asked if she could make the all the same! Devious woman!)

My identification during the blind tasting

[1] Different
[2] Same
[3] Same

[4] Same
[5] Same
[6] Different

I did not correctly identify the different beer in either round of the triangle test. The obvious conclusion is that I could not reliably tell the difference between these two beers. What I thought I was detecting as a primary difference was the presence of a sulfur-like aroma and taste. But obviously, that was actually present in both beers. I will say it took me a long time to finally settle on which beer was the different one in each round, so I was searching for subtleties.

Backing this up, my tasting notes were very, very similar, with the higher ratings going to those beers that seems to have more flavor, as opposed to better flavor. In look, the color (pale yellow), head (short in both stature and longevity) lacing (none) were identical. The aroma seemed to differ, but that was illusory. The body (thin) was identical as was the finish (somewhat sweet, but not overly so). The taste for both was grainy, corn, sometimes some vegetable, sometimes some sulfur, but all of that was detected in what turned out to be both beers.

By the numbers, here are my ratings (now identified by the actual beer):

In summary, then, both are reasonable representatives of the style, and the style clearly does have its place.

The Corona did rate a bit higher (since I couldn’t really tell them apart, the is likely just happenstance). These beers are, for all practical purposes, identical.

These results cannot justify the nearly 2.5 times price difference between Hamms and Corona Extra.

Corona Extra is all hat, no cattle.

The premise is proven (at least to my palate).

Final caveat: the Corona was well-protected by its packaging, and I did not allow the clear bottles to be exposed unnecessarily to light. So, perhaps Corona suffered from not being in its "prime" condition - skunked with lime!

 

Hmm, interesting. Well I still have one more. Just got back from some good happy hour cocktails, and about to put on How Green My Valley (great John Ford picture that won the Oscar instead of Citizen Cane) as it was just added to Hulu, and I haven't seen it in years. Anyway, might have it again tomorrow, and will see if that butter shows up. My friends always joke that if any beer within a Houston block radius has diacetyl, and I'm in that block, I will smell butter

 

Super busy but fun family filled rewarding day so far. We finally saw my brother in law's and fiance's new house in a small south jersey town called estelle manor. If you haven't been here or for non NJ people, southern new jersey aside from close to philly, is very rural. They live in a really cool spot. Both boys had a blast exploring the wood and digging out back finding old matchbox cars left behind by previous owners. Another highlight was them dancing to the background music/video of Winterland '77 Sugar Magnolia. Then more playing outside before a drive home and then family dinner.

Keeping the family theme going...last weekend was basically a family induced BIF. I got three four packs of free beer from three different states (VA, MI, and MD) from family visiting. This is the last of the michigan four pack and it is a pretty tasty one, canned late March.

Brew Detroit - Campin’ Beer, a blonde ale



Pours a very pale straw color, pretty clear with a very minor cloudy appearance. Nice lingering thin layer of head.

Aroma to me is floral, some honey, sweet smelling bread dough, and a little bit of citrus. It’s a very enjoyable and refreshing combination or aromas.

Taste leans mostly towards bread and citrus with the other aromas taking a back seat in the flavor department. There’s also some fruit note I can never put my finger on in most blondes I’ve had. It must be yeast driven because I pick it up in every blonde, fruity like esters which are almost banana like in this one.

This beer has a very pleasant and soft mouthfeel. It’s incredibly smooth and drinkable. The carbonation is spot on, just right for me. Low to no bitterness.

This is probably my favorite beer from the MI four pack, granted the others were semi dated ipas but still I think I’d like this most no matter what. A beer I’d have no problem drinking again. Very well made tasty and refreshing.

I’m hoping to make it to a local brewery to get another new beer to share tomorrow. Heck maybe I’ll sneak out tonight after kiddos are down.

 

Samuel Adams Lawn Chair Lager - Pours a clear yellow with a fluffy head, solid carbonation. Smell is a little yeasty and picking up on the Huell Melon hops. Taste is excellent and perfectly balanced. I could drink this one regularly, especially on a hot day. Prost!

 

I'm sorry to hear about your situation @SawDog505 and wish you only the best going forward.

Tonight's new beer is from a box of smoked beers generously sent to me by @FBarber

Dovetail Rauchweizen

I very much appreciate the opportunity to try something like this, but unfortunately it's not quite working for me, and it kind of falls into the "more interesting than memorable" camp.

It's kind of like if you took a nice dunkelweizen and swapped out smoke for the clove- and that seems to make sense in that they both fall into the phenol family. But any clove that's there is being overshadowed by the smoke. Which is fine in and of itself, but something else is going on that seems to be working against that overall flavor profile.

The finish is quite dry and more than a tad astringent, so the result is like you just chewed on some wood. And in a beer that wants to be lush up front there winds up to be a kind of harsh clash at the end. It feels like more of an execution flaw than a design flaw to me, but it's there either way. It is certainly drinkable, but it also feels like a wasted opportunity at the same time.

Sorry I couldn't be more positive about this one Frank, but everything else has been stellar so far.

 

We had a camper in Minnesota for 5 years, have been away from the camper lifestyle for 4 years, but we are BACK, baby. Breaking in the camper with the beer #1 from the ultimate iconic brewery (IMHO) in our corner of the beer nerd world.





4.25/5 rDev +6.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Pours a gorgeous clear golden color with a soapy bone white head that laces the glass nicely. The nose has really nice mango and grapefruit notes, and there’s a significant malt note as well.

The mango leads on the taste, and there’s some grapefruit and (surprisingly) a nice berry flavor to accompany the sweetness from the malt. This is a really balanced, drinkable DIPA that drinks significantly smaller than the 9% ABV this beer packs.

SN did this really well, if a bit “by the numbers.” Glad I picked it up.

 

Wow! Nice job and very thorough.

 

Much more fun hanging with you all here in Nbw than arguing about it elsewhere.
..black hog granola
...reddish brown appearance
....at least medium carbonation with a slightly thin body
...aroma is dark honey, granola, mild amount of chocolate and coffee. There's also an odd aroma that I can only describe as clay.
...taste is honey sweetened granola,malt, mild chocolate and coffee.
...its an interesting beer but not sure I would seek this out again