New Beer Weekend #56

This Florida brewed American pale ale pours a murky honey hue with a quickly receding white head. The aroma is quite dank and complements the bitter hop explosion in the flavor - largely pine, but some citrus does come through. A very flavorful ale that is not very balanced; another good Florida beer that falls a little short when compared to the classics, such as Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Brewed by Swamp Head Brewery in Gainesville, FL.

 

OF COURSE! I knew you would, but in the absence of my own listed numbers, you won't be in a position to disagree with my rating numbers unless you later go to look at the numbers in my formal review. I always thought the numbers game was too subjective and only of value to the rater. I could potentially have whacky criteria for what gets a 3.5 v. 4.5 but at least I am generally consistent, thus my numbers are of value to me. I see far too many examples of reviews where the assigned numbers are not backed up by, or (worse), directly conflict with the description.

 

There have been a few occasions where I have decided not to actually share a review, but it's usually because I feel like the fault is partially mine -- bought a beer from an unknown brewery with no date on it from Total Wine, for example. I tend to be a pretty positive person, and tend to look for the best in the beers that I'm drinking. I also allow for "is it what the brewer was going for" (with some thought toward "was it a terrible idea to begin with"), and I try to rate to style, so I might bump up scores relative to how I feel about the beer, if I think it's a desirable trait that I just don't appreciate much. But if a beer is flat out bad (which is rare in my experience, partially because I've grown somewhat selective about what I buy), I won't say nice things about the beer.

You know, I am a Fremont fanboy, and I continue to be puzzled by the love this beer gets. It's well executed, but I'm so damn sensitive to cinnamon in my beer. I can enjoy like three ounces of Rusty Nail.

Happy birthday!

 

Second prob last...
Founders Bottle Shop Highball Drifter
Pours a reddish tinged cola color with quite a large foamy tan head that has excellent retention and many rings of lacing.
Aroma is bourbon right out, caramel, vanilla, toffee, fig, black cherry.
Taste follows bourbon, oak vanillin, getting essence of cherry, barely a hint of orange peel, licorice. Sweet and boozy much like an old fashioned. Tiny bit of bittering hops.
Medium/heavy bodied, a little slick, oily, slippery, low carb, good booze presented but as in a cocktail/bourbon not pure ethanol. Drying pithy orange peel fits perfectly.
Many of these "cocktail" brews get overkilled but when they are good its really a treat. Founders seems to nail these. No exception here. I liked it and a good one to try before they are gone. Cheers!

 

Back to report that, sadly, there's no new beers on at Iron Goat, although the Tamales they're selling as a special today are pretty righteous. Here's two of them, seen here with IG's Hazer Quest, an 8.4% hazy(ish) DIPA in the background.

Speaking of hazy, I'm back home right now, drinking a NE style hazy from Hello Brewing called Refuge. Here's the write-up for it:
"Double dry hopped hazy IPA.
Galaxy, Amarillo and CTZ hops.
A portion of sales from this beer will be donated to support the work of the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project."
Sadly, it's posthumous, as Mr. Hello Brewing's wife got a big job in Colorado, so the brewery has been "dis-established." Perhaps it will revive in the future for the delight of all y'all in CO.

Very tropical fruit-juicy, with a soft, creamy mouthfeel. 6.7% abv and fairly easy drinking. Hello Brewing will definitely be missed, locally.

That's probably all the new beer drinking I'll do today, but I've got a couple more arrows in my quiver for tomorrow.

 

That requires me to be in their head and think what they're thinking. Can't do it. If it looks, smells drinks, and tastes like a stout, but they call it "our modern interpretation of a Pilsner", it's getting dinged. A lot of brewers aren't as "creative" as they think they are.

 

Yah, admittedly, some of it is going to be in my imagination. But, Outlander made a nacho beer once that I tried, and while I didn't particularly enjoy it, I could for damn sure recognize corn chips and cheese sauce in the beer, and I was pretty impressed at the execution, even though I dumped it out. Pretty sure they hit what they were going for there.

(I didn't review that beer)

 

Not gonna lie, a nacho-inspired beer sounds frightening. I'm a firm believer in the old adage that just because something can be made, it's not automatically something that should be made, and that sounds like a great example of that.

 

We trekked back to the stronghold today from the great state of Maine. Our unsupervised week on Cargill Pond included seeing an adult mink walk as calm as could be in between me and the missus not six feet apart. The regular compliment of loons and herons. At about 2 am on the second night we were awakened by very human-sounding cries outside...after what the f*** and fumbling for the outside lights, a great gray owl swooped by and landed on a tiny branch of a very a skinny pine tree. Completely awesome sight. Bass fishing, kayaking, swimming, and blissful quiet except for the wild life! Not to mention an awesome outdoor shower...

I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that Mrs. LeRose has decided that fruited kettle sours are her thing...yikes...thank you Barreled Souls Little Havana and Boulevard Tiki Island ( which I have to say are both pretty good, tasty brews for the right situation).

Stopped at Allagash and picked up candidates for future NBW adventures.

Across the street we tried four new beers at Foundation. La Luz is a Mexican style lager brewed with key lime. It was OK, but the lime flavor just didn't work for us. Brambleberry's My Jam is a fruity sour with a mixture of berries - decently sour, very tasty, and four followed us home. Riverton Flyer pilsner - nice beer, and a decent enough pilsner. Then came Bocce - an Italian-style pilsner that will likely be tomorrows victim for the full treatment - just a lovely beer, probably should have bought more than four...

On to Barreled Souls. Pogs and Slammers fruited sour with passion fruit, orange, and guava is a tropical fruit cocktail in a glass, yet you can taste the beer. Speakeasy Red Sangria is a trusted sour gose with Concord grape, cranberry, orange, red currants and lemon tastes like its namesake, but again the base beer is there. Four each stuck to my wife's hands. Space Gose is the base beer for the first two and was a disappointment, quite salty, and something was off but I couldn't put my finger on it from a taster. Then Big Bang American barley wine and OMG what an awesome beer...I talk about big boy beers and this is certainly one at 11.9. Only available there...bummer. Huge toffee flavor luxurious and decadent mouth feel, slight alcohol tingle and immense sweet malty goodness, nicely hopped. A cold night by the fire sipper...not for halfway thru the drive home, but glad to have tried it.

So we are more or less back to the rat race. I will have an official contribution tomorrow.

 

Ta Victory_Sabre1973 for this weekend thread! and CHEERS ADVOCATES!! I really like this beer and FW is essentially all new to me minus a lager that I disliked a long time ago. This is a hop frwd IPA with a hint of diesel, tropics, and a bakery makin' fruit bread. A great clean American IPA.
FIRESTONE WALKER LUPONIC DISTORTION IPA
L: 3.75// S: 4.0// T: 4.0// F: 4.0// O: 4.0
12oz can fill dated 6/21/21 into a 16oz pint glass.
L: Pours a light yeast hazed clear pale gold. Good carbonation with a thin white dissipating head. No lacing.
S: Papaya, mango, orange zest, light bread crust, coconut, vanilla, light honey, dank diesel.
T: Zesty and floral, peach, sweet grapefruit, tangerine, white berries, lime, caramel. It is moderately tart and the hops go wide. It has a medium-long bittersweet dry finish and is semi-rich but not overly sweet.
F: It has a broad, clean medium-bodied mouthfeel with a medium-long tart and drying finish that is flexible and not stiff.
O: A clean and simply colorful tasting American IPA that is hop forward and also retains a very great tasting malt platform. A very good example in it's style.

 

Nice choice. My favorite posts in NBW are for beers like this rather than local product... but since the theme is "new to me" beers, the latter will clearly be far more common (as you pointed out, this one wasn't even really new to you). Boddingtons (as it is today) almost always gets derided on BA. I like it. It's nice to see someone else like it. I would think that you might find Boddingtons far lighter in flavor than the local bitter if you go forward with having them together... but this depends a lot on the local beer.

I don't knowingly do it, but I don't think many here will say that they do it... so I'm not adding much with that. There were two times that I can remember where I criticized a brewer on BA and someone from the brewery actually responded to the post in the thread. In one case, I was criticizing the marketing of a beer that I never had. The brewer politely disagreed with me. (But that opened the door for others on BA to disagree contemptuously... as is sometimes the case when "authority" weighs in.)

In the other case, I was providing a very harsh reaction to a beer I drank. I was being totally honest, but in my eyes, I was also being unusually harsh because I didn't just think that the beer was unpleasant for me, I actually thought that the brewer shouldn't have released it. I never expressed that before. It's one thing to criticize the product, but another to directly criticize the people behind it (there's a subtle difference even if they both ultimately feel like the same thing). Given that, I felt a little bad when the brewer responded, but they were very polite about it and understood that I was being honest with my take.

I remember talking to a brewer at a bar one time, and out of the blue he asked me what beer of theirs I didn't like. When I told him my answer and why, he said, "I agree with you." Maybe he didn't really agree with me, but it felt like a genuine response from him. Brewer's don't necessarily like all of the beers they release... or even feel good about them. I respected him for the question and his answer.

Maybe they are an overly traditional brewery making "true-to-style" beer. Märzen means March. "March beer" goes back to the time when it was illegal to brew beer in the summer. "March beer" aka Märzenbier had to withstand age and last the entire summer until brewing could resume in the fall. That story of yours is ONE HELL of a coincidence..... or is it?? Did anybody on BA make the same connection as me back when you first posted about it?

 

Oh I'm with you. But that's basically Outlander's thing, in my experience -- trying to make "out there" flavors. To be honest, it's not really my thing, but they're pretty good at it.

 

Crane Brewing Orange Lassi Sour Ale, 5.0% ABV; 3.69 overall

Pours a very effervescent gold with rapidly falling beige head. Zero head 7 retention

S: Tart orange & a little vanilla, nose could've been more

T: Sweet orange, slight tartness & dryness, plus a little saltyness up front. Some pineapple notes as this warms, still tart & salty, plus a little vanilla, there is a touch of lactic sourness as well. Finishes tart, salty & with plenty of pineapple

MF Medium body, minimal carbonation, slightly acidic

Pretty drinkable, especially this time of year, wish the lactose would've popped a bit more, didn't really make think I was drink a Lassi