New Beer Weekend #55

A couple of new beers for me this evening, none of them sours - I’ll save a couple of those for tomorrow and do the whole “cross thread” thingie.

First up, a collab beer from a couple of excellent breweries that is to my surprise NOT the lowest ABV beer I’ve ever tried that would be PBR Extra Light at 2.16% ABV, which I rated a solid 2.0. Let’s hope to the beer godz that Trillikini fares better.





3.95/5 rDev -5.3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

This certainly looks the part of a hazy IPA, with a hazy pineapple colored body propping up an off-white head that is creamy and laces the glass nicely. The nose is dank citrus aromas, with grapefruit rind and lemons most prominent. I am now officially intrigued.

The taste is …… like the beer is being run through a mask. It’s got the grapefruit and lemon flavors and they’re a bit muted and a LOT watery, impacting both the taste and the mouthfeel. My guess is that’s the trade to keep the ABV so low.

I’m glad I tried this, but it definitely pump faked me after drawing a whiff from the can.

 

Apparently getting Mrs. snaotheus to share that first one inspired her thirst, and for once I didn't have to instigate the second beer: Tove from Fair Isle, an oak-aged ale refermented with blackberries.

750ml bottle served in a snulip. Batch number 2, bottled October 2020.

Pours a clear purplish color with a medium sized pale creamy head. Smell is a little spicy, a little funky, and fairly jammy, berries and tartness.

Taste is funky / yeasty, hay and oak. Spiciness I got from the aroma is unfortunately lacking or muted in the flavor. Tartness is very dry, not overwhelming at all.

Mouthfeel is dry and light. Overall, very nice beer.

 

Poured into a 16 oz Nordic pint glass canned on 8/2/21. Pours a very hazy milky yellow with a solid finger sticky white head that leaves a thin wall lace with excellent retention. 4.75

Aroma is buttery Chardonnay, peach, mandarin, apricot, and a little grapefruit rind.4.5

Taste follows immediately get white grapes, peach, mandarin, apricot, and white grapefruit. 4.5

Mouthfeel is bigger than average, soft gentle carbonation, maybe a little dry, and at 8.4% really easy drinking. 4.75

Overall this very unique and the Nelson was used wonderfully. I would say it will be difficult to forget this beer and it might not be for everyone, but I am a big fan. 4.5

 

Poured into a 16 oz Nordic pint glass canned this week. Pours a hazy orange yellow with a half finger sticky white head that leaves plenty of thin webs of lace, with nice retention. 4.5

Aroma mango, mandarin, melon, pineapple, apricot, and a little hint of grapefruit. 4.25

Taste follows cantaloupe, mango, mandarin, pineapple, apricot, and again just a little hint of grapefruit bitterness. 4.25

Mouthfeel is above medium, not dry or sticky, soft gentle creamy carbonation, and 8.4% goes down really easy, but big on flavor. 4.75

Overall this is excellent, but I honestly think it will balance out with another week in the can, maybe a touch green. 4.25

 

#2, at the other end of the beer nerd spectrum, I’ve had this big, brawny BA imperial stout for a while. Time to fix that.





4.49/5 rDev +2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Pours black with cola colors on the edges. The head is a sudsy, fizzy dark tan color and dissipates in seconds. The nose is led by really oaky barrel notes, and there’s also caramel and dark chocolate notes, and a bit of roasty coffee.

The taste is led by the caramel and dark chocolate flavors, and they’re accompanied by a roasty coffee flavor and balanced by the oaky bourbon flavor, which is quite a trick (the bourbon barrel providing balance instead of leading with a right uppercut to the chin). Truly delicious.

The mouthfeel is very full and on the creamy side, fitting a beer of this heft and gravitas. The Transient imperial stout game is stellar - what a pleasure this is to drink.

 

T R I B E
I may have rated this one a bit low as it could very well be a 4.5. Just a dynamite DIPA. The folks at TG really know how to brew it up! They could use cats for the can art and call the beer "Mole Hunter".
Cheers! It's great to be here!
16oz can mfg date 7/16/21 poured into a 16oz nonic pint glass.
L: Pours a pale, thick, murky, chalky white-yellow with a 2.5" white rocky, open, creamy head. Some thick random lacing.
S: Mango, papaya, orange, tangerine, guava, apricot, grapefruit, distant pine. It is moderately dank.
T: Cat pee on the xmas tree dank hop flavors then accompanied by yellow sweet bread then some bitterness rolls in. It has a fairly solid biscuit malt halo and hosts a lot of fruit tastes all over: fresh berries, tropical fruits, very ripe apricot, lime, mango, papaya, tangerine, guava and grapefruit. It is semi-tart. Not a lot of lingering tastes.
F: Soft cream-like semi-pillowy medium to med-heavy bodied mouthfeel with moderate sweetness and is not overly drying. This ale feels large and somewhat juicy and has a moderately fast finish.
O: A deeply flavorful and hop-forward American DIPA that is jam packed with hop aromas as well as tastes. It drinks quite easily for it's 7.8%ABV. An excellent example in it's style.

 

One of the places I’m looking forward to having a beer at in September. Their taproom looks really unique and seems like a cool place to enjoy a beer. I was looking at their to go and it’s neat they offer 750 ml and 375 ml (or 500ml maybe?) of most beers it seems.

PS…@BillAfromSoCal hopefully you can join us this weekend.

 

Alright, here I go. North Coast Old Rasputin XXII (Aged in Rye Whiskey Barrels). 11.4% ABV



Pours basically an opaque black color. A dense tan head rises to over two fingers. Excellent retention and plenty of lace left behind. It's a looker.
A big nose, up front is baked dark brown bread that I just love. Wonderful wood aromas with vanilla, and bakers chocolate. Light espresso and roast in there as well. Its all really well integrated.
Taste wise, like the nose, that big baked dark bread up front. Wood, vanilla, semi sweet dark chocolate. The woody/oak flavors are aggressive but far from overbearing which I love. A bit of alcohol in there as well, which is to be expected. Really loving this.
A full body with moderate carbonation. Perfectly weighty, without being to syrupy or thick, but reaching a great balance in that regard. A bit tannin like as well. Really enjoyable. There is certainly warming heat here, which just makes this more welcoming to me. This is going down way to fast for the style and ABV.

Not surprised at all, but I love this. All around well balanced, with a ton of character at the same time. Barrel aged stouts don't always excite me anymore, but this is done right. Without being over the top or overbearing. Just all the great stout and barrel character mingling, and it works perfectly.

4.36, an A boarding on A+ territory for me.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/112/552065/?ba=champ103#review

Even though it not Brother Thelonious, always got to respect Monk, so spinning Underground. Not only is it a great album, but maybe my all time favorite album cover As well as The Brother Thelonious Quintet which was a sponsored jazz program North Coast did for the Monk Institute, and the student band is/was incredible (I think now it changed to the Hancock Institute). Music over at the WBAYDN thread

 

There are *so many* places in that area to visit.

Just a vacation, or some specific purpose?

 

@champ103 you just made that beer sound so good. As soon as I come across it I will buy one.

@snaotheus my wife’s in a wedding there mid/late September. Timed perfect for fresh hop too, I hate flying but I’m pretty excited for this trip. We’re staying in Ballard, I’ve gotten some great advice in the visiting Seattle thread.

 

Fridge cleaning meets New Beer Weekend at my place today:

Buffalo Bayou's Wake 'N Bake, a blonde ale with coffee • 5.4% ABV • 28 IBUs

I had zero hope for this one, expecting either a lactose-infused mushy mess or an earthy yeast bomb. No offense meant to Buffalo Bayou, but their track record with me isn't the greatest.

However, Wake 'N Bake is an all-around tasty beer. It comes off much more like a standard blonde ale, very down the middle of home plate with some grain notes (corn) and some sweetness, and what coffee aroma/flavor exists is very restrained and well integrated. If you're looking for a coffee beer, this will disappoint. What coffee notes exist here are very light and serve only as accents. But if you just want a beer beer with a little twist, this is darn near perfect. In fact, it could serve as a gateway beer to get the macro drinker into the craft scene.

Official review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/28255/411722/?ba=Premo88#review
3.89 (-1.5% rDev)

Hope your weekends are going well!

Cheers!

 

Oh man...yeah, that's a great time to visit a great area. I think you'll love it. I'm sure you have a packed schedule, but let me know if you need me to come out and buy you a beer. It would be such a chore to drink exciting beer at a great brewery, but for you, internet stranger, I'm willing to make such a sacrifice.

I don't get a lot of excuses to go to Ballard.

 

Much appreciated, I may just take you up on that I’d just hate to give you such a chore though

 

Once again, I'm skating the line of legality for this thread. I had a sample of this beer in March at the brewery in Bend, although I didn't review it, I remember enjoying it very much. So, here are my notes from sitting down and focusing on it for a while for the first time.

750ml corked/caged bottled served in a snulip. Bought it at the brewery in March. Bottled March 2020, 9.12% abv.

Pours a dark reddish brown with a very small head. Lots of very slow, very fine carbonation, especially when disturbed. Smell is plum/prune with a little booze, maybe some very ripe dark cherry, maybe a bit of sweet/tart.

Taste is tart, plums (actually reminds me a lot of these tart pickled plums from Japan, umeboshi based on Googling and pictures), fruit skin bitterness, maybe some grape must. Very interesting.

Mouthfeel is very dry and light, especially considering the abv. Overall, I really like this beer.

 

They kids are down phish is on the tv and I just poured myself a new beer. Life is pretty good tonight. This is a new to me brewery that I’ve read about on BA several times through posts. Well they just started to distribute in NJ , they have a west coast ipa so I had to try it.

Workhorse Brewing - west coast ipa



This beer is very good looking, it has an almost orange/copper hue to it, very opaque with a nice dense white head on top. Settles to a nice layer white. Some minor lacing from initial pour.

The aroma is nice and pungent, very resiny with hints of orange rind and pine sap. Also a subtle malt aroma in the background, it takes the backseat but it’s definitely there.

The taste is pretty similar to the nose. I first and foremost get the pine sap, it is glorious. Up next is the orange rind, coupled with some malty sweetness. It’s almost like biting into an orange skin, you know when it’s to hard to start the peel with your hand so you bite it and get some orange flesh too? That’s exactly the orange I get from this beer.

Mouthfeel is medium sticky and resinous, it finishes dry and has a really nice low end of high bitterness. It just linger and lingers in such a nice way on the finish.

I really like this beer, it’s exactly what I want a west coast ipa to taste like. Resin, bitter pine and rind all the way. This beer really reminds of my favorite ipa, fresh squeezed, except a touch more malty and sweet maybe. I’m glad I gave this beer a try.

@JackHorzempa

 

Keeping it going with Aslin Apizza, too much lactose but actually comes closer to a beer than a lot of the others I’ve had so far this weekend.
3.92/5 rDev -3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

16 oz can poured into an oversized wine glass

A- A hazy bright burgundy with a small pink head.

S- Tart, berries, lots of lactose, slight yogurt quality, hints of watermelon.

T- Tart, raspberry, some blackberries, touch of watermelon, lactose, hints of mint.

M- Smooth, light to medium body.

O- Nose is all over the place and unbalanced, but the taste is much more focused and balanced.

Cheers!

 

OK, this is my inaugural post on this forum and I feel like I'm diving into the deep end of the pool after only having seen pictures of water before. A bit of context here: I generally prefer any kind of IPA or stouts, especially barrel aged stouts. My sense of smell is bad so I tend to prefer beers that deliver an unambiguous smell and which look GREAT! Subtlety doesn't cut it with me. I tend to prefer IPAs heavy on the Citra and Mosaic but in the 50 weeks that I have been a BA member I have tried 123 new beers, the majority of which are some kind of IPA so I feel comfortable rating this one: the latest in the Freemont Brewing Head Full of Dynomite series which has only a couple reviews and 5 ratings on BA. This one is a hazy IPA featuring Enigma, Mosaic, and Nelson hops. 6.7% ABV The 16 oz can was made 6/21, bought off a room temp shelf on 8/2, refrigerated, then consumed today, 8/7 from a tall tulip glass.

Upon pouring, it is BOOM! grapefruit on the nose!

I love the appearance. Opaque but without any evidence at all of discreet particles; it is a perfect solution. A few fingers of off-white head that generates some really nice complex contours as it dissipates and leaves some nice lacing.

Taste follows smell but with some more subtleties added that I have a hard time identifying. Much more than just plain grapefruit. Nice balance with the hop bitterness. Mouthfeel is outstanding with heaviy-ish body and minimal carbonation unless swished around in your mouth. Very, very smooth.

I tend to be generous in my ratings but I am leaning strongly toward a 4.5 look / 4.5 smell / 4.25 taste / 4.5 overall when I write my review.

 

First post? Sounds like a pro.

It helps that I'm a big fan of the HFoD series (though I haven't gotten this one yet)