New Beer Weekend #76

I promised earlier to go back and answer the OP's challenge to reflect on my favorite new beers for 2021.

Since I "only" had 95 new-to-me beers reviewed in 2021 (actually pretty high for me, but not a record), I don't have the large data set to choose from that some of you do.

Add to that, my rating is notoriously non-linear. By that I mean the difference between 3.75 and 4.0 is MUCH less than the difference between 4.25 and 4.5 or the difference between 3.25 and 3.0. IOW, above 4.5 and below 3.0 are both pretty rarified air for my ratings.

So, with that, my highest rated new beer for 2021 was "only" rated 4.41.

In the Minnesota category:
Platinum: La Doña Ocēlōtl Mezcal Barrel-Aged Barleywine (Minneapolis)
Gold: Fulton Pale Ale Project (Minneapolis)
Silver: Hammerheart Hokan's Brown Ale (Lino Lakes)
Bronze: Waldmann Brewery & Wurstery Schokoladeweizen Chocolate Wheat Beer (St. Paul)

In the Midwest category:
Platinum: Bourbon County Kentucky Fog Stout, 2020 (Illinois)
Gold: Founders Velvet Rush Barrel-Aged Imperial Brown Ale (Michigan)
Silver: Bourbon County Cherry Wood Stout, 2021 (Illinois)
Bronze: Bourbon County Caramella Ale, 2020 (Illinois)

In the Rest of the USA category:
Platinum: Clown Shoes Crunkle Sam 2020 (Massachusetts)
Gold: AleSmith Speedway Stout (California)
Silver: Dogfish Head SeaQuench Ale (Delaware)
Bronze: Deschutes Black Butte (Oregon)

In the Outside the USA category:
Platinum: J.W. Lees Harvest Ale (Calvados Cask) 2013 Barleywine (England)
Gold: Collective Arts Barrel Aged Imperial Porter (Ontario)
Silver: Andechser Doppelbock Dunkel (Germany)
Bronze: Leffe Brune / Brown (Belgium)

Best in Show: J.W. Lees Harvest Ale (Calvados Cask) 2013 Barleywine (England)

All of the above were rated at 4.0 or above.

Inglorious Awards: The Bottom Four (All rated below 3.0, listed in order of low score to high - well, higher)
1: Corona Extra
2: Schell's Strawberry Hefeweizen
3: Ommegang Everything Nice
4: Hamm's

Category Score for the Year:
Lowest:
Look:
1.0 Humble Forager Coastal Sunshine V14 (Wisconsin)

Highest:
4.75
(4-way tie)
Taste: Wild Mind Festival Of Oak 2019 Wild Ale (Minnesota)
Taste: J.W. Lees Harvest Ale (Calvados Cask) 2013 (England)
Feel: Bourbon County Kentucky Fog Stout, 2020
Look: AleSmith Speedway Stout (California)

 

Thanks! It was a gift from the missus

 

Marto Grand Prize Imperial Stout, 12.2% ABV. Pours black with a four-finger medium-brown head that left no lacing. Nose is faint coconut, taste is coconut, chocolate and caramel, slightly sweet, moderately bitter. Excellent mouthfeel, overall excellent.

4.18/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

 

Happy New Year, BA’s. Let’s get decocted!!! Beer courtesy of @snaotheus and glassware courtesy of @BBThunderbolt. Mrs O commented on how cool the glass looks.

I think she’s gonna try to swipe it - not happening!!! A man’s gotta have boundaries.

Let’s go!!!





4.5/5 rDev +10.8%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Pours a gorgeous clear golden straw color with a substantial, sudsy white head that provides significant lacing. Gorgeous beer. The nose is crammed full of bright grassy notes and rich, sweet bready aromas. Wow!

The grassy hops are forward, with a spicy bite that is delicious, but is that sweet bready flavor that makes this beer for me - it is richer than most Czech Pilsners, yet still maintains a crisp mouthfeel that pulls you back in for another drink before you’ve finished the current sip.

World class stuff, IMHO, I need more Wayfinder beer in my life.

 

First beer of the year, first new beer of the new year: XPA Citra Pale Ale from Flying Fish.


12oz can served in a tulip. Date on the can appears to be 04/03/22, which I presume would be the best by date. Day 6 of Brewvana's 12 beers of Christmas.

Pours hazy light golden with a big fluffy head. Smell is super tropical, very powerful.

Taste is juicy, citrusy, light, slightly watery.

Mouthfeel is slight, smooth, slightly watery. Overall, it's a pretty good beer.

 

#2, I held this multiple BA imperial stout from late fall of 2020 from my favorite brewery and I’m glad I did - I was worried about the sweetness, and either the aging took care of it, or my taste buds have deteriorated with my old age.

Either way, it’s a victory for me!!!





4.59/5 rDev +7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Pours a black color with mahogany brown on the edges, all underneath a creamy tan head. The nose has no discernible booze from the barrels, but includes a graphically discernible hazelnut and maple aroma, as well as some chocolate and a bit of char. There’s a LOT going on here.

The taste has a significant hazelnut and maple flavor up front, but it’s not overwhelmingly sweet, which was a concern, because there’s stone fruit flavor I’m assuming from the barleywine that kicks in, and an appearance (finally!) from the barrels at the very back of the palate as a warming note.

This is not your father’s impy stout aged in barleywine barrels and multiple booze barrels - with a dollop of hazelnuts on top.

The mouthfeel is decadent, rich, and more than a little creamy. I wish I had a keg of this.

 

Wow! One of the OG NJ craft breweries all the way in Washington, that I would not expect; and it’s brewed just 8 miles from my house. Haven’t been there in a long time.

 

Greetings All and Happy New Year from the Great Northwest where we are very cold, and have been for several days. 6 inches of snow on Thursday and hasn't melted at all. We were right at 10 below at midnight New Year's Eve and now we are a balmy +12.

So today we have the winter warmer. Cherries Jubelale from Deschutes.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/63/575960/

Dark sugar and fruit flavors and boozey. It will warm you some, but I recommend just staying inside and watching football.

Until next time

 

Our vet gave us some trazodone for the dog. Not sure how effective it was.

 

Hopworks Barrel Aged Abominable.

16oz can served in a footed pilsner glass. Dated 08NOV21. Day 7 of Brewvana's 12 Beers of Christmas.

Pours a surprisingly clear caramel-amber color with a large head. Smell is a little tea, a little fruit, a little bourbon, a little honey. Bit of a smokey / oaky character, too.

Taste is tons of caramel, toffee, nuts, chocolate. Smoke might still be there, but the oak is missing for me now.

Mouthfeel is also a surprise -- it's light, smooth, slight creaminess. Overall, very good and very interesting.

 

I wondered about where it was in relation to you...I enjoyed that pale ale.

 

Alright I can finally taste and smell enough to attempt enjoying a new beer. I have been staring at them since Tuesday and I could wait any longer, courtesy of @BBThunderbolt

I’m enjoying this one watching the winter classic, something I look forward to every year. This year especially, cause it’s finally in the state of hockey and Kaprizov is incredibly fun to watch. Onto beer…

Kulshan - Sunnyland (5.5%)



This one pours a cloudy straw color, very cohesive perfectly white head.

Smell is sweet citrus, a beer like orange juice aroma. It’s very lively in its intensity, almost like it wakes you up.

The taste is the same citrus but it’s accompanied by a nice pale malt flavor.

Light, not watery, body makes this one very easy to drink. Bitterness is medium and just right for this beer, it works well with the refreshing citrus flavors. Tongue drying finish says “take another sip”

I’d buy this regularly if it were here, I love it now but this beer would be a perfect outdoor warm weather beer. It’s refreshing and thirst quenching. As an added bonus I don’t think I’ve seen better can art than these kulshan cans, they’re all going up in the garage can shelf. Thanks Terry!

 

I’ve thought about asking our vet about it but you’re not the first person so say that it didn’t seem to do much.

I don’t know why but locally home fireworks have got way worse over the past few years.

 

Dreary New Year's Day here in the stronghold...they claim winter is coming, but it was near 50 and drizzling. Not the best thing with a cooler full of leftovers sitting in the back porch... But happy New Year to NBW nation and here's to looking forward to 52 weekends of great posts in the best thread on BA.

@Roguer and @JackHorzempa - thanks for "holding class" - excellent reading/conversation.

If you held my feet to the fire, I would swear I had drunk this beer before, but I have not. I have had van De Kaisers Gouden Carolus Rood and Blau, but not the Noel from Brouwerj het Anker and it is being shared with the missus.



It has been in the bunker a while, that I do know, and I would guess it a 2018 vintage. It pours a murky reddish brown with a tight beige head that lands as a thin layer of foam, but sticks to the glass with tenacity.

The smell is muted but it is Christmas BSDA all the way. Dark malts, fruity dark like plums and dark sweet cherries. A little mixture of seasonal spices and cinnamon and nutmeg, I think, anise and clove for sure as it warms a bit.

The taste is layered and pretty tame. I hear this a high ABV beer but you can't taste or feel the alcohol. Big dark malts up front, followed with lots of plum prune sweet cherry taste. Spices are fairly vague and more of a general sensation, but cloves and anise are definite participants. It is reminding me of a cross between Dr. Pepper and root beer. The fruit flavors linger, devolving into mostly seasonally-spiced cherry. But as it warms, that spice note gets more prevalent, then dominated the aftertaste. Still puts me in mind of the soda flavors but amped up with the spices and phenolic bite.

The feel is creamy but medium bodied. There a spicy and phenolic tingle, but no sensation of alcohol.

Even though this bottle is on in years, it a fantastic brew. I would try a fresh bottle in a heartbeat. It doesn't displace St. Bernardus as my holiday favorite, but it is pretty close and freshness may make that even closer. As it sits, feeling a 4.2 or so, but we have a lot left to drink...going to hold off until it warms a lot more as I sip thru.

 

Happy 2022, New Beer Weekenders! After a big night we spent a quiet day of reading and watching sports. I wanted to open the new year with something special. English Barleywine is one of my favorite styles and I've been looking forward to opening this bottle of Fremont's Brew 5000, which I received from @snaotheus in the recent BIF. What a wonderful beer!

Poured into a snifter at 58°. It pours a pretty, dark cola with a foamy, medium khaki-colored head that dissipated quickly leaving modest lacing. A very fragrant nose featuring toffee, brown sugar, raisin, fig, and earthy tobacco smoke. There is also a subtle aroma of bourbon. The smell continues to improve as it breathes in the glass. The taste opens big and sweet with abundant raisin, plum, vanilla, brown sugar, and toffee. In fact, it's as sweet a Barleywine as I've experienced, coming close to cloying. But the earthy leather and tobacco notes provide balance. The bourbon influence is delicate and effective; it compliments the other flavors without distraction. Its mouth feel is superb! Viscous and chewy with lite carbonation. The 12.2% ABV is warming but not overpowering. The boozy sweetness makes it a delightful sipper.

4.51/5 rDev -0.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5

Ryan, thank you very, very much for this treat. Happy New Year!

 

Poured into a16oz chalet glass bottled on 8/10/21. Pours near pitch black with a half finger head that settles really quickly, leaving little lace if any. 4

Aroma strong cola, vanilla, orange zest, and oaked woody bourbon. 4.25

Taste follows cola stands out, with vanilla, orange peel, and bourbon hits you hard in the lingering finish. 4.25

Mouthfeel is above average, very gentle carbonation, maybe a tad dry, and at 14% it is a sipper, but goes down fairly easy considering the slight alcohol burn. 4

Overall I felt I had to try this one and not sure why, especially at $25 a bottle. Only bottle of this I will ever purchase, but still a nice beer experience. 4

 

Great start!

 

4 Hands Chocolate Mint Cookie Milk Stout, 6.5% ABV; 4.11 overall

Pours an effervescent chestnut color with one finger of tan head. Some head retention & lacing

S: Just like a thin mint cookie, fades as it warms

T: Taste follows the nose, getting some Baker's Chocolate notes as well up front, along with a little dryness. Some lactose dry notes as this warms that marry well with the mint cookie elements. Finishes slightly dry with thin mint cookies

MF: Medium body, restrained carbonation

To me this was the best of the 3 in the mixed box and the only one to really come close to my expectations

 

Day 8 of Brewvana's 12 Beers of Christmas is Sunday Paper Imperial Stout with Coffee from Exhibit 'A' Brewing Company in Framingham, MA.

16oz can served in a tulip. Packaged 03/17/21.

Pours black with a small head. Smell is coffee. Lots of coffee. Also, some coffee. I can get some anise and roast grains, but I think that's just picking apart the coffee.

Taste is tons of coffee and a blast of anise, maybe beyond that provided by the coffee itself.

Mouthfeel is very smooth, fairly light. Overall, it's good, but fairly one-dimensional in terms of being so much coffee and so little else.