What Beer Are You Drinking Now? #3207

Sorry I have been bit absent from the party lately: was traveling ,such that the demands of work and family kept me crazy busy. Just paid my youngest first housing installment at University of Michigan. Finally have a bit of time to sit down and relax, so thought my last Haze from Tree House Brewing (Charleton, Massachusetts). Purple ... Haze ...



Stay Safe, Mi Irie, and Sláinte!

 

Tonight's Blind Battle Beer Tasting Lineup: (2 out of 3 pairs correctly matched blind)

1) Warsteiner Pilsner (4.8%): A pilsner from Germany with flavors of earthy German pale and toasty malts, yeast, and faint grass. Leans smooth and malty
versus
2) Paulaner Pilsner (4.8%): Another German Pilsner with complex flavors of German pale malts, yeast, and lemon citrus and grassy hop notes. Dynamic and drinkable.
(mismatched these two in the blind taste test)

3) New Belgium Summer Bliss (5.5%): A tropical summer wheat beer from Colorado, this beer has juicy flavors of mango, guava and wheat, but also with some lemon, lime, and coconut flavors. A tropical drink in a glass.
versus
4) Sam Adams Summer Ale (5.8%): A citrus summer wheat ale from Boston that has flavors of citrus, wheat, with a bread spice from the African Grains of Paradise used in this beer.

5) Toppling Goliath Psuedo Sue (5.6%): A NE-style pale ale from Decorah, Iowa made with Citra hops for flavors of green citrus, flower, and hints of spearmint.
versus
6) Three Floyd’s Barbarian Haze IPA (6.5%): A NEIPA from Indiana with juicy and dry-hopped flavors of citrus, peach, pineapple, and strawberry.

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Winners:

2) Paulaner Pilsner: This is my first time trying this pilsner, but this was an authentic and complex German pilsner. Nailed all of the notes of German malts, yeast, and hoppy/grassy notes. It probably didn't help Warsteiner that it had been bottle conditioned rather than canned.

4) Sam Adams Summer Ale: This one drinks with a strong fruity and summer presence, but also has quite of bit of spice to balance the fruit so that ultimately it allows the complexity of flavors to shine over a dry finish. Aongside Dayfall, this is one of my favorite Summer Ales of the year.

5) Toppling Goliath Pseudo Sue: Really hard to call a winner here. Both are good, but Barbarian Haze is larger and sweeter. Pseudo Sue gets the win for being 1 month past the expiration (4 months old), but still drinking like a world-class IPA.
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Agree/Disagree with the head-to-heads? (Warsteiner vs. Paualaner and Sam Adams vs New Belgium)
What is your all-time favorite German Pilsner?
What is your favorite Summer Wheat Ale?

 

I bought 'em. I guess I'll drink 'em.

 

La Cumbre?

 

Grimm Tesseract. Another great local DIPA. Why did Grimm take so long to distribute its beers a scant 30 miles from the brewery?

 

Honestly, TE has been rather inconsistent lately. I'm not sure why. I'm not aware of any significant changes in personnel. But the place is always packed.

 

Real good stuff here:

 

Pumking now...

Cheers...

 

Heaven and Helles, a tasty Munich style Helles lager from Thirsty Dog, is an easy drinker at 4.7%. G’suffa!

 

Watching Jack Reacher Never Look Back pretty entertaining. I have a hard time accepting Tom Cruise as a bad ass, but I liked both of the first 2 in the series for sure. KC Bier Co. Weizenbock

 

Heretics x 2!

 

When that beer is on, it’s great. Was inconsistent for a while.

 

Harrsonburg/Elkton VA brewery tour today

Three Notchd Plum Outta Your Mind Gose
Friendly Fermentor Brehfuss White Stout/coffee blonde
Cave Hill Farms Hoppy Gator WCIPA
Elkton Brewing PB Banana impy stout

I'm done

 

Lager. Pork. Beans and onions. Cheers!

 

No, no. It's only August 1! The problem is that when I'm ready to drink pumpkins it's almost too late. Cheers!

 

Usually when I have jalapenos, they're not very hot - that's because most of the ones on the market are Tam jalapenos for people who think they like hot stuff but really don't. Tonight I finally encountered the jalapeno from hell, damn, this was a HOT one. Enjoyed it immensely too! Now I'm having a Second Fiddle while the heat calms down ...

 

Big Daddy is home