New Beer Weekend #69

903 Brewers -- Sun Kissed Wheat Beer (American wheat beer with coriander and orange peel)



3.81/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

Slightly hazy yellow-orange body; roiling carbonation; thick, bubbly white head. Light cracker and citrus aroma; sweet coriander. Light biscuit backbone with a mild lemon and orange taste; strong overall bitterness. Medium body; sharp prickliness on the palate; some juiciness overall yet with and underlying dryness.

This wheat beer is tasty enough. Its high point is the aroma.

Poured at 47 F; no canning date noted.

 

Morning, Weekenders! I skipped last weekend's thread, but I'm back today. This morning's beer requires some story time, so I'll limit my notes on the beer itself and, as always, link the full review if you want more detail.

Founders Imperial Stout (FIS) has long been one of my "benchmark" stouts. From the first time I had it (my boozy banana chocolate smoothie), it quickly established, for my palate, this is what a world class stout tastes like. It doesn't mean it was the perfect beer, but it was a style-defining example.

When Founders (temporarily, it would turn out) discontinued FIS, I was not happy. Then when they finally made the obvious leap to barrel age it, I was thrilled - except that I couldn't get any (and I wasn't going to trade for it).

So this has been a major "Want" of mine ever since it was announced (on par with how much I was salivating over BA Narwhal, except that FIS is a better base beer for my palate). So much so that I'm opening my Saturday morning with a 12+% ABV BA imperial stout, because I want to enjoy this one on a fresh palate.



This was unfortunately a gusher. What you see is the entirety of the bottle that remained: enough for two full glasses, but obviously quite a bit was lost in the process.

I was surprised, and even worried about infection - and then I remembered that the last time Founders released FIS for distro, the vast majority of bottles I opened were gushers (and I bought three 4-packs, IIRC). So this doesn't seem likely to be an infection issue, exactly, and is something that, for whatever reason, was common with this batch of FIS.

And sure enough, the beer is absolutely fine: no indication of infection at all, on either the nose or palate.

Well, "absolutely fine" seems like a rather modest description of one of my most anticipated beer reviews of the last two years. Don't worry, I've got lots of words - some people call them the best words, huge words!

Speaking of those words, here are my thoughts! About the beer. It's about time (@cjgiant thinks he tends to ramble on ... ).

As you might tell from my description of OG FIS as my boozy banana chocolate smoothie, I have a set of expectations going into this beer - and those expectations are largely not met, although that's not a bad thing.

First, let's talk about the deltas between BA FIS and OG FIS.

This beer is less thick and chewy. It's still full bodied, and despite the boozy harshness, you can still easily sip, sit, and savor the brew.

This beer is less sweet. That might sound odd for an RIS, and OG FIS isn't overly sweet, but there is a rich depth to the chocolate notes that stands out. This beer also doesn't feature the banana-like yeast expression (probably nuked by the bourbon and alcohol sting), and I'm not getting much of a nutty flavor.

And of course, there's bourbon - technically a delta, obviously.

That's where the differences end. As far as the similarities?

Well, it's still a big, bitter imperial stout, but without much hop flavor expression, and only moderate char at most. There's a ton of espresso, molasses, and bitter Baker's chocolate from the malt. It does actually grow in rich chocolate sweetness ever so slightly over the course of the glass (I've still got almost half left), but the booziness also grows in potency.

Yep, I definitely notice the 12.5% ABV.

Summary of tasting notes: espresso, oak, molasses, a big hit of bourbon at the midpoint (with an accompanying boozy light harshness), leather, red grape, bitter Baker's chocolate.

Overall summary: this beer really delivers. I love a good BBA imperial stout without additives; my #2 and #3 highest rated beers are both BBA without any AdJunks (although I enjoy those beers, as well). When a brewer can really extract worlds of flavor from "basic" beer ingredients, not only is that more impressive to me, but it often just works for my palate better, as well.

This one isn't top-3 worthy, but it's really, really damn good. I would have preferred something richer, thicker, and just a touch sweeter: a Bourbon County take on FIS, perhaps. But that's more personal preference than it is execution.

Full review (in case you haven't had enough of my words just yet!) below:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1199/576995/?ba=Roguer#review
4.38 / new entry

Thanks, Craig, for ticking this Beer Bucket List item off my list!


[Beer cleanup note: BA FIS was initially released under the Mothership Series label - available for release only at the taproom only. Some of these beers then see wider distro under their proper label, with or without tweaks. That is the case here. If you have a bottle of the regular label BA FIS, please drop your review under the appropriate entry. If you already reviewed this distributed take on BA FIS, but put it under the Mothership Series entry (which was the only one that existed until now), please move your review over to the appropriate entry if you so desire. It takes about a minute to open, cut-and-paste, click the same numbers, and delete the old review - but that's up to you. ]

 

Good Saturday Morning all! I am getting in a couple of beers this morning. Thats the nice thing about Dark Milds ... they aren't going to carry much impact on the ABV side of things.

This first one is Threes Brewing - Little Did We Know brewed in collaboration with Forest & Main Brewer & Pub - a dark mild with forest honey. Threes Brewing ships their beers to IL, so I recently took advantage of that to get a handful of their lagers to try along with this collaboration and an Alt collaboration with Fox Farm which I will be reviewing tomorrow.



This one pours a dark mahogany brown. Its actually rather cloudy when held up to the light. The head on this is fantastic - thick, velvety khaki colored head settles in on the beer. The head recedes a bit, but ultimately settles in with a thin layer of velvety foam on top. The aroma on this has notes of grain, barley malt, a mild, wet earthy note (think early morning field with the frost melting on it), a touch of unsweetened cocoa, and some very subtle woody notes. Not getting much in the way of the honey.

The taste follows the nose with notes of grain, dark bread, barley, with a lightly toasted character, but not at all roasted. There is an ever so slight twangy note along with a lovely wet earthiness to the beer. Its not really sweet, but there is a light brown sugar quality to it. Finally, those cocoa notes on the nose come through in the profile with a light powdery cocoa note on the back end of the beer. I am not getting much honey or honey-like flavors from this. even so, the flavors are lovely with some nice complexity. Feel is smooth, moderately bodied but stlll very easy drinking. Mild carbonation. Like any canned dark mild, it does not quite capture the feel I want from this style, but this is not offensive.

Overall this is a lovely Dark Mild from Threes and Forest & Main. I really need to try some of Forest & Main's milds. Hopefully I can find time to swing by there next time I am out on the East Coast.

4 | 4.25 | 4.5 | 3.5 | 4 = 4.21 (rDev % 0 - first review)

 

Unlike @ChicagoJ I have hot had this one before - although its been a beer that I have wanted to try for quite some time, but just never got the chance. Revolution Brewing - Working Man. A Dark Mild that checks in a 3.3% ABV.



This one pours a dark chestnut brown color, brilliant and clear when held up to the light. There is a lovely thick frothy tan head on the beer. Aroma has notes of dark bread, biscuit, toffee, burnt sugar with just a hint of earthy hops.

The taste is not at all what I was expecting from the aroma - there are some notes of dark bready malts and some light toffee, but there is also a watery cherry cola-like flavor to it. Some mild earthy hops come through on the back end, but they are very much a complimentary piece of the profile. The feel is light, smooth, with mild carbonation. Semi-dry on the finish.

Overall its a solid English Mild - I would love to try this on cask as I think it would be only improved.

4.25 | 4 | 3.5 | 3.75 | 3.75 = 3.74 (rDev -4.1%)

I am big fan of English Dark Milds, and I love seeing examples available, but it seems like its really a hard style for brewers to market - its low ABV, not "sexy" and honestly, tends to be better on cask or draught anyway. I do really appreciate the brewers that try to make it work though and the few examples I have had last night and today were great. I especially like what Fox Farm did with releasing a nitro version of their dark mild - I think Bissell Brothers did one like that as well?

I am rambling a bit, but here is what I am driving at. There is always room for innovation in the brewing world and I think finding ways to capture the sublime beauty of a dark mild on cask in cans or in boxes, like Forest & Main has done, is a unique area of innovation and an area that I hope other brewers explore.

 

I think this is the kind of beer that would be wonderful to try fresh, with a year, and with two years of age on it. I do that with Narwhal (much easier based on distro). I think fresher, this beer might be more bitter and roasty - and I still got plenty of bourbon, so this was probably right around my sweet spot.