New Beer Weekend #56

Scottish Whiskey and Drambuie is a dangerous drink. I've made many back in the day.

 

I've never not posted a review on NBS/W nor in the official reviews due to the beer being bad.

I do admit to a certain homer bias, though, in that I tend to be more willing to recognize well-brewed local beers with reasonably high marks .

I also allow for the intended market for the beers. For example, if a local brewery is not distributing and is operating as, essentially, a neighborhood pub, I will rate the beer in the review by how good it is as a "pub beer" to have with friends, family, and food at the pub and not necessarily compare it with best-in-style beers. OTOH, even for local pubs, if the beer is bad, I show no mercy.

I also tend to be more critical of highly hyped beers / breweries even if they are local. Just the contrarian in me, I suppose.

 

Makes me feel better I'm not the only one

 

Thanks @Victory_Sabre1973 for opening the early tap

Of first and last things by Hill Farmstead



4.23/5 rDev -1.9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Canned 7.7, drink by 8.4, opened 8.12

Can given to me in. Trade with my dentist

Can poured into a teku , dense creamy , solid one finger off white foam cap , settles to a thin layer , spotty lacings ,over a solid orange liquid

Aroma is citrus orange, tangerine, candied orange, white grape , whiff of pine

Taste is dank, pine , earthy

Smooth , almost creamy , hop bite



Good beer

 

Risking another collab because its my birthday.
Back in the Zone - Mast Landing and Orono brewing. Two great Maine breweries.
Pours a hazy orange-gold with a nice 3 finger foamy white head with decent retention falling to a thin white cap with spotty lacing.
Aroma of mango, grapefruit, cantelope, tangerine, pineapple, and some nice earthiness.
Taste follows w/ tropicals and the addition of some pine and pithy bitterness. Lightly toasted malts, but not sweet. Earthy. Would be surprised if there wasnt Simcoe in the hop bill.
Feel is nice prickly carbonation throughout with a little oil in the front followed by a drying finish. The feel is medium but aggressive in its first assault followed by a softer feel.
One of the best collabs Ive had in recent memory. These can be underwhelming but not in this case.
Good brew.
PS Im going to get away from the old school rating of
A-T-F-O in a formal way.
Just going to lay back and let the music flow going forward. Poetic is my goal. Cheers!

 

But but but...I can drink my weight in Tim Taylor Landlord on cask. The perfect pub bitter and one of the best beers anywhere, especially in a dark UK pub

I get it though, and generally agree.

 

I also decided not to rate to those criteria in a numeric fashion for this thread. There are a bunch of highly experienced Poo-bahs in here that probably look at my written description and would assign different numeric values to them, so I think I prefer to try to be as graphic as I can in my description and let everyone decide for themselves what that attribute deserves as a numeric rating. When I do my formal review for the beer I will assign numeric values.

 

NO!

Love, hate, indifference, what I think is what gets posted.

 

Good evening NBW
My first beer of the day. It was purchased online in a Brouwerij Van Steenberge mix pack. Gulden Draak Imperial Stout


11.2oz undated bottle poured into a tulip glass at 60° Fahrenheit 12% ABV per label. The beer pours opaque dark brown with prolific light brown head. The head recedes to a rocky and uneven cap and ring. Heavy lacing. The aroma is faint with some chocolate and coffee plus a hint of Belgian yeast. The taste is semisweet with the clovey yeast flavor popping through first and the restrained dark malts offering coffee and chocolate on top of the Belgian malt base. Moderate bitterness. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with above average carbonation and a mostly dry finish. Overall, delicious in it's own world. Classified as an RIS currently on BA, I would offer that it's more of a love child between a BSDA and an RIS. The type where all the good stuff from both comes through in the offspring.

There you have it. I purchased a temperature gun for my new pizza oven so I'm justifying it's purchase with exact temperatures on reviews now. Things get really boring when your kids grow up and spend less time at home.

I do tend to give some grace when reviewing a trade beer or a local brewery. I once went on a rampage here about purchasing a Marzen at an Indiana brewery in early August that was canned in March. That brewer, who is active here on BA, sent me a PM stating that he sampled the beer weekly and would not offer it for sale if it had significantly deteriorated. I felt like a dick and have bought some great beer from them since then. If they brew something bad, I score it low, but I save the harsh words and focus on what's good. You can be truthful without being an asshole.

Also, I tend to curate my NBW beers to be winners most of the time. If I receive something that's not my thing as a gift or trade or I'm checking out a new to me brewery it's probably not showing up here. A quiet weeknight review is best.

Cheers all!

 

Greetings all! I think this is my last one from @samkuhgee 's box in the recent Can Cans BIF, Moderne Dune's Welcome Party murkster. Fairly typical for the style, although the body was lighter than average, almost pilsner-ish:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/61081/552268/

 

OK, but even though I'm not the most highly experienced, I'll do that whether you assign numbers or not!

 

Add retirement to that!

 

Heard there. I decided shortly after joining here I wasn't interested in putting numerical/numbers on beers. So you will see I dont rate just do NBW and formerly NBS. I completely respect all the heavy hitters that do.

 

Today, I'm having my final new-to-me beer from Hammerheart, at least until (unless?) they get their contract brewing arrangement underway.

I didn't seek them out much before their announcement about going contract since smoked beer is not in my mainstream of styles. However, I have discovered that the beers (at least the ones that I have tried) have ranged from imperceptibly to relatively lightly smoked, and (most importantly) the base beers are very well done and not just chasing trends.

Today's beer, according to the few existing reviews here (and on RB), will have the smoke more prominently on display. As I type this intro on Notebook, I have not yet opened the beer, so we'll see.

Brewer notes say, in part,

"This beer was brewed using Lutra, a pseudo-lager Kveik strain with Sainnhus malted Alderwood-smoked barley produced by Sugarcreek Malting, and then run through a hand hewn kuurna filled with juniper and brewed with juniper berries."

I had to look up "kuuma." Kuurna is a wooden vessel used in the brewing of the Sahti style farmhouse beer from Finland. Hammerheart doesn't claim this to be a farmhouse beer, so I'm not sure what being "run through" the kuurna actually accomplished beyond the cool factor.


(Photo is not from Hammerheart.)

Hammerheart Immigration Amber Lager
ABV: 6.9%
IBU: NA



Smoke dominates the aroma, although the aroma overall is not too strong. A nice campfire smoke, backed by roasted malts.

The body is coffee brown, clear, with ample carbonation. It is topped by a short off-white tending toward tan head, very thick and creamy, with decent retention.

The taste also brings the smoke at the initial taste, carrying through the middle and remaining on the tongue in the finish and aftertaste. As with the aroma, it is a campfire smoke, perhaps with hints of smoked meat, but only hints. The juniper/pine flavors hit immediately on the initial taste as well, transporting me to memories of campfires in the north woods. The roasted malts poke through in the middle bringing a bit of earthiness along. The finish and aftertaste are smoky and mildly bitter. The bitterness does grow in the aftertaste as I drink.

The mouth feel is on the thin side, but with sufficient body for the style.

Overall, a well-done smoked lager. It is definitely the smokiest of the Hammerhearts that I have tried. Even so, I am enjoying this one a lot.

L: 4.0 | S: 3.75 | T: 4.25 | F: 3.75 | O: 4.0 | Rating: 4.02

 

Hello NBW. I'm alone in an emptier than usual house. Our kitchen remodel has started, but all that's happened is our entire kitchen has been thoroughly emptied of anything useful. That's OK, the kids have enjoyed painting on the walls that will eventually be covered up by cabinets.

Today's first (and maybe only?) new beer is Barrel-Aged Imperial Dirty Chai Stout from Saltfire, a beer that has been lurking in my fridge for about five months. Shortly after opening, I discovered that this beer is clearly less resistant to gravity than most, and I spent what felt like an hour wiping beer off the floor. Luckily, plenty remained in the bottle for today's task.

500ml bottle served in a St. Bernardus chalice. Born on 12/10/20.

Pours a dark black with a (now) relatively calm level of carbonation (as opposed to the vigorous effervescence evident when the bottle was on its side), a ring of creamy head and a few little islands floating on the surface. Smell is black licorice, burnt sticky toffee pudding, a little alcohol, a green herbal aroma that I'm assuming is the chai.

Taste is first black licorice and second medicinal, almost a menthol. Reminds me of a cough syrup I used to hate when I was a kid (robitussin?).

Mouthfeel is medium to thick, surprisingly lively despite my depletion of the carbonation. Overall...it's not bad, but it's not going to be a favorite.

Additional commentary for today's new beer experience:
Gravity susceptibility is surprisingly high for the first alcoholic beverage of the day. I will thank the brewer for whatever step in the brewing process managed to keep all of the spilled beer on wipeable surfaces and none on the upholstery. Kudos!

 

Hey NBWs
I’m drinking this for the first time
Hell Lager from the good folks at Surley





Pours straw colored fairly clear with a thick white fluffy head. Medium lacing full white cap
Aroma of bread/ cracker and yeast, faint roasty malt note
Taste is peppery, a little hoppy and yeasty. I got a slight floral type of taste
Mouthfeel is spicy and carbonated, slightly bitter dry finish
Overall it is a nice crisp, clean tasting shiny lager. Extremely refreshing

4.25/ 3.75/ 3.75/ 4/ 3.75/. 3.81. rDev -08%

 

Happy weekend all, and thanks for getting us started @Victory_Sabre1973 ! Now get some sleep!
Okay, I’ll admit to geeking out about Three Floyds being locally available and I’ll be trying every variety of theirs we can get here.
This one is Barbarian Haze and it’s the third beer of theirs that I have tried and the least favorite, even to the point that I doubt I would buy them again.
Poured into my mug club glass and had a very pleasant aroma of citrus and hops, typical hazy. Then you look closer- the haze is floaties, not typical, or as the can states, “It’s Not Normal” so there is that.
The taste was good on the initial hit but the back end just dries out the throat. Like citrus peels, ya know?
The feel was appropriate for the floaties, I think.
Oh well, I guess they can’t always be awesome!