New Beer Weekend #50

You look older than I thought, Maynard.

 

When the kids were younger and family got together we used to have some great parties here. 75 peeps. Inground pool, horseshoes, ping ping, campfires, smoker and grill both fired up. Id pretty much be up all night getting things ready. The cooler was full of ice cold Summerfest...those were the days. Today nothing going on but a couple steaks on the grill, restringing one of my acoustics and sitting on the deck overlooking the pool strumming the six string. However this beer should be decent.
Burlington Beer Co Seventh Anniversary Septuple Dry Hopped TIPA with Terpenes and Honey.....
I actually cant believe I just wrote that but lets get LAARRGE as @TheIPAHunter would say! Its the 4th and Im not working.
Pours a beautiful golden sunset orange with a huge white head that lasts and settles to a nice cap. Lots of sticky lacing.
Aroma is lots of sweet tangerine and orange, red grapefruit, ripe pineapple, passionfruit, mango, cannabis, pine, juicyfruit.
Taste follows with an amazing blast of flavors; tropical, citrus, green bud from the terpenes. With this ridiculous hop schedule the beer manages to balance quite incredibly with the addition of the honey. Bitterness is I present in the form of citrus peel and damp pine.
The body is medium but drinks lighter.
You wouldnt suspect that this is 11% going down your gullet. This beer reminds me of Trilliums Cutting Tiles with the addition of honey. Carb is present lightly throughout. Im feeling pretty good after drinking this one probably way too fast. My first beer of the 4th. BB has not let me down. This was way out of their usual 15/16 dollar a 4 pk price range at $24 plus.
This ridiculously hopped beer was a good one for a Triple really nice. Worth it if you see it. Cheers!

 

That's great. They look like pals! We've never not had a dog or two and a cat. We've had Labs for years and now have Walker Hounds, and Greta is now 16 and seems just fine. Here's my son's new pup Watson, a mix of Aussie Shepherd, Blue Heeler, Texas Heeler, and Doberman. I think he's smarter than me. We take care of him during the day weekdays and he's hysterical and has added a lot to our lives. Sorry about your missing friends but you'll soon know new ones. Cheers, Dick

 

Hilarious review...Kind of sounds like the guy just did 2 rails of blow and was trying to copy the style of @RaulMondesi but went way too far.

 

That one sounds stellar Mike. We get random distro hits of Maine BeerCo out here. I doubt that one will be seen.

 

I used to see a lot of Full Sail here in CA, but kind of rare now. That used to be a go-to.

 

Happy 4th everybody, and I hope most of you have had better weather this weekend than those of us in New England. Struggled to get out of the 40's on Memorial Day weekend, and struggled to get out of the 50's these last couple days, so we're 0 for 2 with the big holiday weekends so far this year.

Anyway, my first and only new beer of the weekend is Rivulet, from Oxbow. I've heard great things about Oxbow, but ironically have never had any despite my love for saisons, the fact that I know one of the founders, and the fact that their original location is not far from my in-laws. Glad I'm finally getting around to trying one out.

Overall, this is fine, but fairly underwhelming. I will have to find some of their other offerings to better evaluate Oxbow.

3.56/5 rDev -9.9%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Light and straw-like in color. Medium amount of fizzy white head leaving behind a think lasting layer. Semi-translucent. Nothing inherently wrong with the appearance, but for unknown reasons it's not calling to me. Aroma has a little bit of barnyard funk, but not a ton. Taste is ok, but I'm not quite sure it's hitting the mark of whatever it's trying to be. Not much in a the way of funk or zing to the taste. It's just kind of underwhelming. It's not bad, but it's in this weird middle lane where nothing is standing out. I'm a huge fan of farmhouse beers, but relative to Hill Farmstead, Fox Farm and Suarez, this particular beer is a clear couple notches below.

 

Today's new beer (if you don't count the sample last night ) is Shiny , a new pils from The FarmHouse.
Short version : it's everything you'd want and expect from a good pils. Lightly toasted, slightly-sweet grain aroma and flavor, with some light floral & spicy elements. Light, crisp,not-watery, and refreshing. Glad I got it.

A : Pale gold with 1.5 fingers of fine white head.
If I have any bone to pick with this beer, it's that it is sooo pale. Not that that is inherently bad, just that it reminds me of some of the lesser lights of the light lager world.

S: Smell is lightly-sweet toasted grain, with light floral and spicy hop aromas.

T: Taste is similar to aroma, with a bit more noble hop spiciness. Light drying bitterness that lingers awhile.

F: Feel is light, with moderate, very,very fine carbonation bite.

O: Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable, easy-drinking* beauty . My new favorite pils? Could be. Exceptional example. Also a wonderful surprise, as this is not their normal sort of thing.[Marty has said that if he could get by with it, he'd brew just Belgian styles.]
* I just went through ~28oz while doing this review/post.
4.46/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.75
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35315/557435/

 

Hell, rarely see it even around here these days.

 

It's those new breakthrough Botox Hops from up near Eureka, growing in alternating rows from the local weed. Youth is really a great illusion, even when young.. Everything always never changes over and over again.

 

About a year or so ago, MBC stuff arbitrarily started showing up in Northern Indiana. Sometimes the stuff is old, other times, it’s uber fresh.

I am not complaining - I’ll take all the MBC I can get into my beer nerd world.

 

Happy 4th, NBW beer nerds. A couple of beers today, one from my local in a style that doesn’t always work for me, then a second from an Oklahoma brewery that has a MASSIVE stout game.





4.25/5 rDev +1.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Full disclosure: I’m not the biggest fan of session IPA’s, so take that into consideration when reading this review. Having said that, this beer pours a nicely hazy (as in hop haze) orange color with a substantial, creamy white head and features resilient tangerine and resiny pine aromas on the nose. Very, very nice.

The tangerine is forward on the taste, and the resiny pine lends a really welcome bitterness to the drying finish. Looks I’ve now got a “go to” session IPA from my local.

 

Next new one is Head Full of Dynamite, V29, from Fremont. Yet another average murkster:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/20680/553623/?ba=BBThunderbolt#review

 

#2, I bought the base beer of this in a gas station outside of Austin TX 4 years ago. That beer was fantastic, IMHO, and this is fantasticer.





4.5/5 rDev -1.5%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Pours pitch black with a dark tan head. Fits the style perfectly, IMHO. The nose is led by the bourbon, but it’s surprisingly not too hot, and there’s a really nice vanilla note to accompany the dark chocolate and char notes, and there’s maybe a smidge of coconut.

Dark chocolate leads the taste, accompanied by the bourbon, and balanced by the vanilla and a more substantial coconut flavor. This is hefty and brawny, yet also well balanced, something that requires a lot of skill from the brewery in my experience. Prairie definitely has that skill set.

The mouthfeel is rich and slightly creamy, well suited to the beer. I really liked the base beer - a LOT - and this is better, IMHO. World class stuff here.

 

Been a bit since my last NBW, but I'm back tonight with (at least) one new one! Since I was last here, the new lady in my life and I have made it "official" and have been hanging out a lot more often. It's been a long time since I've been "in a relationship" proper, but luckily hanging out with her is like hanging out with a good friend first and foremost, and I've heard those are the best kind of situations. Guess all of you BAs' positive vibes a few weeks ago worked, so thanks for that!

Right now, I'm sipping on a new-ish (canned 6/16/21) Equilibrium DIPA brewed in collaboration with Obercreek Brewing, and it's called Linear Phase. The Untappd notes for it say it was brewed with Citra and Strata with both hops also being utilized in the dry-hop along with Galaxy. I mean, that sounds difficult to mess up, but I've been a little iffy with EQ recently since I find their yeast profile to be very homogeneous and sorta boring at this point. Let's see how it is!



Good pour. Nice and hazy... a solid orange color with a modest but well-built cap of foam that measures about two fingers at its highest point, leaving behind cobweb-like lace and nice legs as it slowly fades to a small ring. Not much to say, but it's a nicely-structured pour that seems indicative of at least a "good" product below the surface.

Nose is light spice and melon with some bright pops of tangelo and grapefruit rind coming out as it warms. I love when Galaxy plays up its odd spice notes; they kinda remind me of Thai basil or something, like a tiny hint of fennel in there adding some complexity to the otherwise-unexciting fruitiness this gives off. Seriously, something about EQ's yeast is really irking me in some of their recent releases. I feel like they lean on the ester profile much more than on any of the prominent characteristics of the hops they choose, and it kind of makes things boring; nothing really makes itself known. Not bad, but not really a premium product so far (their cans are typically $7 or so per in my area, and most other comparable-strength IPAs are ~$5.50).

Flavor profile leans, again, on yeastiness without much that makes it exciting. I get a little bit of grapefruit and mango with anonymous melon-like qualities in the mid-palate. It's overly soft and seems afraid to really push a lot of the more intriguing flavors that I personally know Strata alone can display, so it's just kinda not impressing me. I always feel a twinge of regret that I don't like these guys as much as everyone else does, but I don't think this style of IPA is really my favorite. Cheers to those who love EQ, but I think I'm gonna pass on them for a bit.

Maybe back later with more? Hope everyone's having a good 4th!

 

Greeting NBW faithful and thanks to @WunderLlama for getting the party started. Mostly rainy and fold this weekend, but getting some garden work in. Tomorrow I have to take the car in for a new windshield. I was rolling on Rt. 3 at about 70. Saw a full adult red tailed hawk stoop down behind the guardrail to catch its lunch. I saw it coming back up and needed about another microsecond of brake to avoid it, but with limited options in traffic at speed the collision occurred. Unfortunate and I am still quite upset over the accident. Such a beautiful bird.

Anyway...Sherman, set the wayback machine to January 2016. Smuttlabs Brett & I is in the glass.



Not a lot of Intel on this beer that has been in the archive for longer than it should. Pours a deep bronze color and the head was about an inch deep before the fiddling with the phone to take the pic. It falls to a ring and huge island on top of the large Sam's glass.

The smell is lightly fruit, estery, just a bit of funk. I am getting apple, white grape wine aroma, apricot or peach. Maybe a tad bit of cherry. A little bit of bread flows in the background. It is weak, but it is five and a half years old.

Taste is actually pretty pleasant, not oxidized at all. It maintains the fruit in the flavor - actually fairly strong white wine grape, leaning to apricot, and apple. Slight but if cherry. Not highly distinct, but discernable flavors. A nice level of funk. Slightly tart, and a little bitter with an acidic aftertaste with some sweetness.

Medium bodied, well-carbonated.

For a beer with this much age, it is still pretty good. Lightly fruity, but maybe not as bright as it was. Mildly acidic and pleasantly funky. If I review it at all, I'd land around 3.8 or so, but it seems pretty pointless to review this one and maybe a bit unfair.

Cheers!

 

Our 4th of July hosting for the Main Street parade went great today. Perfect weather, great food and great company. I drank several yards loyal lager, a fitting beer in style and art/name, for such a day. @tasterschoice62 I will soak up these memories as much as possible cause I know I can’t stop time, and as the boys grow our parade filled 4th on Main Street will surely changes as the years go by. If we have a good view of fireworks tonight we plan to wake up our oldest so he can catch a glimpse.

Onto the new beer red white and blue label so it’s fitting.

Schilling - Augustin 13



Pours a medium brown with hints of amber. The initial head popped very quickly, mostly big quick diminishing bubbles. What remains is a layer of off white with lots of little wholes in it.

The smell hit me as I opened the can, mostly in the caramel malt kind of way. After that it’s grains, and an almost oak like smell. It also has a little bit of fruity hop character to it.

First taste is toasted bread crust. That is followed by a subtle sweetness that reminds me of a rich toffee. It ends with spicy and earthy hop notes.

Drinks very nice, body is full and complex but light. There is a low residual sweetness present in this beer. There is just enough of a low bitterness to notice it’s there and it brings the beer together nicely.

Pleasant beer to drink on this unseasonable cooler fourth of july. Schilling is 3 for 3 so far, I am a true believer now. Just wish their stuff made it to NJ again.