New Beer Weekend #52

Good morning NBW, hope everyone is doing well! Yesterday was a busy day get down to the beach so today is the day to relax. This might be my only entry this weekend, have to see what the wife wants to do when she gets up. Starting this lovely Sunday morning with Dovetail Rauchbier, thanks @FBarber!
4.2/5 rDev +0.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Thank you FBarber for this
16 oz can poured in a mug

A- A murky brownish amber with a three finger light tan head.

S- Smoky, caramel malts, touch of doughy grains, a little earthy, hints of dark fruits.

T- Caramel malts, smoke, some toasted malts, hints of dark fruits, earthy, slightly herbal.

M- Smooth, slightly chewy, medium body.

O- A well done Rauchbier, taste is a little weak on the smoke compared to the nose but this is still nicely balanced.

Cheers!

 

Thanks! My in-laws did a great job finding this place, definitely going to be enjoying view when we aren’t out and about.

 

Good Morning NBS/NBW and thanks @jkblr for hosting this week. Still grey raining in WMass.
Local farms were in full swing, but with inches of rain the focus now is more toward crop loss.
On a positive note the hills are alive with mushrooms! We went out to our first live show last night, all trepidation aside it was good to be with people and music again. Its just magical to seel the artist beaming to be performing with an audience.
Todays grey rainy WMass offering is Surly Vietnamese Coffee. There is quite a bit going on here, with sweet barrel elements, adduncts on full parade, atop a luxurious base stout.
Cheers all
Darkness Rum BA - Vietnamese Coffee

Stout - Russian Imperial | 12% ABV

Surly Brewing Company
Brooklyn Center, Minnesota

4.21/5 rDev -5.2% | Average: 4.44
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4

Poured from a 16 oz can dated 11/16/20 into the goblet.
A - Inky cobalt black in color, hides all the interior from view. A quick to receed thin cap, leaves any evidence of carbonation in the form of an archipelago hanging during the experience.
S - Dark fruits, date, plum, cocoa, espresso, hint of vanilla. The barrel treatment adds a lot to this already complex offering.
All this is under the umbrella of fudgy chocolate volcano cake.
T - Vanilla, dried dark fruits again, coffee is stronger on the palate than the aromatics, Char, bitter chocolate wrap around that dark fruit. There a hint of tobacco, and anise, as the offering warms the coconut sneaks in, reminds of a rum soaked dark chocolate almond joy,with sharp bitter bite.
M - Chewy, viscous, semi sweet start quickly accelerates toward the bitter side, layer after layer, with a surprisingly dry roasty finish. The palate is wiped a bit with an alcohol swab of boozy 12%.
O - Wow, thats the way to start the day, coffee, vanilla, all that dark fruit , the rum kiss avoids being too sweet.
Well done on every level

 

For me, it's mostly the aesthetic vs. being an indicator of quality. Either way, nice lacing can definitely contribute to my overall enjoyment of the beer, as can time / place / setting. I try to not let those last three influence my ratings, but I'm sure sometimes I'm not completely successful.

 

Alright, I shared what a Karakasa Obake was earlier, but I'm at a loss with this one from the same brewery and I'm curious. Anybody? It looks like a skeleton wearing an owl headdress with a (cough) certain part of human anatomy prominently displayed on it. Maybe @rgordon knows about this one 'cause I'm pretty sure he knew about the Karakasa Obake - he has old umbrella spirits hopping all over his property.

 

Thanks to @colby600 for this . . .

Tree House Brewing Julius IPA

Deep hazy orange gold color with white cap and lacing.

Aroma is ripe citrus forward with a sharp herbal background. The scent is rich, heady and earthy like the grounds of an orchard with ripe fruit strewn about.

In taste the citrus is more tropical without losing it's sense of depth. I also get something more melon like in the flavor like ripe honeydew that lends fullness and balance to the rich citrus/hop mixture.

Full, soft, velvety texture with balancing carbonation.

A remarkable beer with an impressively balanced range of flavors.

 

It's the spirit of fertility for the Akitas of Hokkaido up in the snow if I'm not mistaken. And yes, my backyard is a magical place!

 

Watching The Open with my father-in-law and drinking this nice beer from Rowley Farmhouse Ales.This is a "farmhouse-style kellerbier brewed with Sonoran white wheat." ABV is 4.9%.
The beer is a clear gold color with a one-inch white head.
Sweet malt aroma, grassy.
Malt-forward, caramel, bready. Late hit of hops.
Nice mouthfeel, sweet then bitter.
I would be happy to drink this beer at anytime.

 

Hello friends! This lovely drop from Hop & Barrel is quite a surprise given it's light color and 6%ABV. Lemon, sour candy and grapefruit dominate this IPA but they're not free range. The sweet/bitter balance is well done. It is curiously good and cheery!
L: 3.75 S: 3.75 T: 4.25 F: 4.25 O: 4.0
L: Pours a pale yellow straw with a very light haze, good carbonation, thin head with no lacing. Edge foam.
S: Pineapple, grass, lemon.
T: Pine, pineapple, lemon rind, some grapefruit, resin. Long slightly bitter finish. Lemon suppresses the malt which is faint. It is lightly sweet. More resin in it's semi-long finish.
F: It has a somewhat light mouthfeel with a surprisingly exciting hop sensation and great balance between sweet/bitter. It has a moderately dry finish.
O: A lemon hop forward clean tasting IPA that is packed with good flavor, it retains it's vibrancy and is moderately bitter. It is extremely drinkable and has a very nice lighter resinous linger at the finish. I likey.
Prost!

 

I was hoping Flanders Oud Bruin and Flanders Red Ales (one of my all time favorite styles) would be included in the upcoming Sour tasting, but they are being excluded. Really need to have a tasting next year, as these two styles are the best sours around, IMHO.

M-43 (or Alarmist Le Jus) are among the few NEIPAs I like/purchase, precisely for the balance. Glad there are other options out there for you to choose from.

@MNAle - I concur on the overpopulated Midwest form (and Pacific). Wish we got as many beers (including Schell) from Minnesota in Chicago as we get threads/posts since the merger.

@CaptainHate - Glad you are on the road to recovery, and welcome back to NBW/NBS!

Another light and easy pour this morning as I watch Movies the end of The Open Championship on New Beer Sunday #856! I've tried a few of Off Color's "Beer For XXX" series, with Beer for Burgers my favorite to date.

Off Color Beer for Movies



Note: No can date, but per social media this was released 6/24/21.

Can Notes:
Popcorn Kolsch Style Beer.4.5% ABV.
Malts: Pils, Smoked Malt, Torrified Wheat, Vienna, Carapils.
Hops: Magnum, Tettang
Secret Ingredients: Popcorn, Salt, Grapevine Smoked Malt

Appearance: Multiple pours into a shaker pint glass (picked the wrong glassware).Murky white golden pour, light creamy white head leaves nominal head. Heavy carbonation. 3.5

Aroma: Strong smoky malt, similar to a Grodziskie, not much else..3.25

Taste: Consistent with the aroma, very smoky. Tried hard to get anything else, but failed after focused attempts. Smokey malt is nearly the entire sensation, salt comes through on the back. No traditional Kolsch, or even a hint of popcorn. Points deducted for lack of Kolsch taste. 2.5

Mouthfeel: Thin body, persistent fizzy body. Slightly dry, leans bitter, easy drinking, smoky aftertaste. 3.0

Overall: Unless a weak Beef Jerky is your idea of movie food, you are likely not going to enjoy this one. Wish the smokey malt did not overwhelm/cover all other sensations. Was a marginally OK smoked beer, looking for more of a kolsch experience per the brewer noted style, and at least a hint of the popcorn. My advice, sneak in your own popcorn and kolsch into the show, and enjoy the film. 2.5

Powered by a review of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, and I'm just a regular guy, goin' to the show, drinkin' beers, and listinin' to ninety tree XRT (and WDCB), Chicago.

 

Greetings fellow NBSers! Earlier this week NBS' own @Harrison8 visited The City of Subdued Excitement, and we hit a couple local breweries, it was fun meeting him! Then, I went about an hour south to Everett, and spent a couple days visiting friends, and ticking off some new brews, here's a quick recap:

Got out for a couple nice walks, went to an Aquasox game, and drank some beers. Hit Scuttlebutt's mothership location. Large, concrete, and packed. I had been to the OG location years ago. This is not that. The beers weren't terrible, nor great. Same for my Porter Chicken sandwich.

Hit a neat little bottleshop/taproom, Toggle's, where I had a Hop Capital Tiger In my jungle IPA, Barrel Mountain Ash Cloud Amber, and Occidental Hefe. Stumbled across a little bar called Brews Almighty on one of my walks, where I scored a pint of B5K for $7, and a Boneyard Hop Venom. At Large Brewing was also visited, and a nice Triple called Helen Wheels was consumed, along with a Pale Ale that I forget the name of.

On the way home yesterday, a stop at the Ram at the large outlet mall in Marysville scored me a nice pint of ZZ Hop, and a hit at Garden Path scored a pint of an experimental roasted wheat with their native Skagit wild yeast was nicely intriguing.


I'll be back in a bit with a new review for NBS proper!

 

Howdy NBSers! A warm, sunny summer day here in the Fourth Corner. Had a nicely beery week, and am continuing that with this nice brew courtesy @samkuhgee and the recent Can Cans BIF:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/45802/274160/

 

Why would they bother adding actual popcorn to the beer (and a smoked malt beer at that)? The novelty. If only there was a flavoring compound that was added to movie theater popcorn that gave it lots of flavor AND ALSO happened to be a potential by-product of brewing that didn't need to be added to a beer as an extra ingredient.

From the brewer: "And no, we are not letting it develop a whole bunch of diacetyl."
I understand why they wouldn't actually want to have a little diacetyl in this beer since people in these parts think of it as an off-flavor first and foremost (and to be fair, I don't care for it in beer), but what a missed opportunity and an example of craft beer at its most backwards.

Instead of making a "zwickel style kolsch" (their words) with popcorn, this was their one opportunity to make something like a Czech lager and broadcast to their audience that diacetyl is in their beer by design. In the realm of novelty beer production, if there was ever a moment to try to coax flavors out of fermentation and the basic ingredients of beer rather than adding other foods to the product, this one was it.

@jesskidden

 

Good Sunday afternoon, New Beer Swiggers and commentators. We're in Chapel Hill, NC visiting our son and daughter who both live here. Both are engaged to long-time significant others whom they met during college. We're thrilled. Yesterday, my wife, daughter, future daughter-in-law, and fiance's mother and sister all went dress shopping in Greensboro. Meanwhile, our son, future son-in-law, and our son's childhood friend from New Jersey who lives down here took Chambo the dog and me for a hike along the Haw River and then to some breweries. In other words, they babysat me. My only job was to pay for food and beverages all day (no complaints!).

In my opinion Durty Bull Brewing in Durham is the best up-and-coming brewery in the Triangle. Yesterday, I had a very good New England IPA and an excellent Imperial Stout. And I bought cans of the newly-released West Coast IPA, Select All Delete. It's hopped with Mosaic, Comet, Columbus, and Chinook hops. This is a legit West Coast IPA; the "southern" style often brewed in this area is malty and bitter but without as much citrus. This is the real deal.

It pours a slightly hazy, bright golden-orange color with a thin, ecru-colored head and lacing and is highly effervescent. On the nose there is grapefruit rind, lemon peel, pine needles, and a slightly sweet malty base. Classic West Coast taste: opens dry and bitter with tart grapefruit pith, lemon, resinous pine needles, and hints of tangerine and cannabis from the Mosaic, Columbus, and Comet hops. It also offers herbal, grassy notes. There is only a very subtle malty sweetness. The Chinook hops provide a clean bitterness throughout. It leaves a nice, bitter aftertaste. The mouth feel is crisp and clean with lively carbonation, and at 6.2% ABV you'll want a second pour. Select All Delete is a great beer! It's perhaps the best pure West Coast IPA that I've had in North Carolina.

4.18/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Tomorrow I intend to do some serious beer shopping and try another new brewery in Carrboro. Cheers, NBW!

 

My first non-alcoholic beer:

It comes off like a decent grapefruity American pale ale. There's more biscuit-malt presence in the aroma than the flavor, but there's enough in the flavor to make it seem like a beer. The added "natural flavors" work well without tasting like an obtrusive syrup or a chemical additive.

Official review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/26762/514997/?ba=Premo88#review

3.48 (0 rDev — my review is the first)

It probably deserves a bit higher rating for tasting more or less like beer. I could see this working well for someone needing an APA fix without the alcohol.

Cheers!

 

Love the music! Not lame at all: damn if those bagpipes don’t git you in the feels!!

 

Poured into a 13 oz Nordic pint glass not sure when it was canned, but judging when it was added tells me within the month. Pours a cloudy orange with a half finger white head that leaves thin streaks of lace, with nice retention. 4.25

Aroma is ripe melon, mandarin, papaya, mango, apricot, and a little hint of alcohol. 4

Taste follows mandarin, cantaloupe, mango, papaya, apricot, grapefruit, and again a little tickle of alcohol. 4

Mouthfeel is above average, a tad sticky not dry, gentle carbonation, and at 10.9% huge on flavor, but goes down rather easy. 4.25

Overall I would highly recommend this monster from The Brewing Project. Maybe a tad sweet and a little alcohol forward, but still well made. 4