New Beer Weekend #80

Back with another beer from HammerHeart. They announced on Facebook that January 18 was the final Lino Lakes made beer, the last beer until "Ely beer is made."

So, I take this to mean the business will continue (following the previously announced plan), but the operations at Lino Lakes are now done. So, grab it from the shelves while you can. I won't be rushing out, so the 10 or so cans I have left will be it for me, I expect, until - unless??? - they start up their contract brewing plans, which according to their somewhat vaguely described time-line will be after the Ely brewery starts up.

As an aside, I don't understand the timing choices of their business plan. I would've thought the contract brewing would be a quicker start up and would provide cash-flow to help fund the brewery startup. This makes me less than optimistic about their future. But, what do I know about brewery operations - nothing, that's what.

I'm assuming their Ely operation will be local-only distribution.

But, in the mode of enjoying it while I can …

HammerHeart Master's Table
ABV: 5.5%
IBU: NA

This is a self-described "Belgian-style Table Beer (Ale). A sessionalbe ale inspired by Belgian-style Farmhouse table beers...fit for the Master's Table with citrus and floral aroma...the master's bouguet." (from the label). The previous reviews indicate this beer is not a smoked beer (except, perhaps some faint "second-hand" smoke).

Orange-red color, murky, with carbonation bubbles visible with a backlight. 1/2 inch off-white head, thick and creamy, with excellent retention. Strings of lacing as I tip to drink.

Orange-citrus leads the aroma, with a slight hint of campfire smoke. The smokiness becomes a bit stronger with repeated whiffs, but never really above "slight".

The flavor is an interesting mix of citrus (orange), spiciness, floral and campfire. The smokiness is hardly dominant, but definitely there, more of a smoke-inspired beer rather than a smoked beer. As I stated above (and based only on the other reviews, not my own tasting), it is more of a "second-hand" smoke. Apart from the smoke (which has already taken up more words that it really deserves), this is a pleasant, refreshing ale. The spice (presumably from the Belgian influence) and the citrus (presumably from the hops) blend well together. The finish is dry with an ever-so-small tartness.

The body is moderate and the feel smooth with an edge.

While not my favorite from them, it is a beer I am enjoying.

L: 4.25 | S: 3.75 | T: 3.75 | F: 3.75 | O: 3.75 | Rating: 3.78

 

Does this mean no more hammerheart for a little bit @MNAle? I look forward to reading your info on them and their beers each week. All seemingly different and unique from any other brewery.

 

Next up is another beer I received from @snaotheus in the NBS BIF #14: Goth Beach Party, a Schwarzbier from Bosk Brew Works in Washington. I don't drink a lot of this style but I nonetheless enjoy it. This one is roasty with lots of burnt coffee, charred nuts, and bakers chocolate. It has a lot more flavor than I anticipated. The mouth feel is just fine and it's readily drinkable at 5.5% ABV. I would pair very nicely with a burger or deli sandwich, and is great for casual drinking. I suspect it's very good on draught.

3.99/5 rDev +3.1%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Thanks again, Ryan. This is great!

 

Hey Advocates! Another groovy low cal brew here and I likey. Packaged Dec. 4, '21. Lightly sharp, tart & bitter. Yes! Cheers!!
Cigar City Jai Low IPA 4%ABV 35IBU 120calories
3.94/5 rDev +3.4%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
by LesDewitt4beer from Minnesota
12oz can pkg dated 12/04/21 into a 16oz pint glass.
L: Pours a light yeast hazed apricot amber with a 2" semi-creamy head with decent retention. Low carbonation. Light sticky lacing.
S: Citrusy, light perfume, light peach & tangerine and a hint of sweet bread.
T: Tart & moderately bitter, full flavored & zesty. Grapefruit & tangerine zest, subtle bread notes, gently toasted caramelized malts, moderately sharp pine & citrus zest bitterness lingers.
F: Med-soft light bodied semi-juicy & bright mouthfeel with a fast & drying finish. Minimal carbo adds to it's softness.
O: A well designed zesty, soft and easy drinking low cal/lower ABV American IPA. An extremely good session beer that is excellent in it's style.

 

Time to roll!



Poured from the can into a Libbey style pilsner glass.

Nearly mirror like finish of dark brass color. Just the faintest and quietest of looking amounts of carbonation, with barely a whisper and the occasional slow rising bubble. Big wonderfully even bright white head of three fingers, settles slowly to a tall crowned bubbled collar with some pill leftover lacing. Real nice looking lager.

Sticky malt sensation on the nose, and a bit of pasty like yeast flavor hinted. The aroma has a bit of sweetness but lacks some of the bready and hinted clean and crisp character one could expect. Maybe even hints a little buttery sensing too.

Palate seems to indicate no big surprises. Very light bodied, but somewhat expected for such a low abv. Still there is a modicum of decent flavor here. Light packages of soft pils like dough malt, but not much crisp or hinting herbal flavor. Finishes sticky and slightly pasty, but hinted sweetness is much more dialed down nicely than hinted from the aroma. Clean but also fleeting, on the palate for the aftertaste also.

Very drinkable but almost disappears too quickly in flavor, and has a hard time maintaining a profile. Doesn't quite hit solid flavors of other lighter styles like say milds, but certainly holds it's own. Probably the most sessionable American lager I have had, just lacks a little bit but not terribly.

look: 4.25 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75 | Final Score: 3.75

Cheers!

 

Few new DIPAs on order for this evening, folks. Took tomorrow off to spend another day with my girlfriend and take her cat to the vet for a follow-up on an ear infection he's had. Poor thing.

Okay, first up is Every Night by Finback. This is an 8% DIPA dry-hopped with Meridian, Mosaic, and Simcoe hops. Looks like this was canned 1/13/22; can't read the bottom of the can but their social media seems to have posted about it then so let's go with that.



Pours pretty typical Finback with a huge hazy body topped with a few fingers of lazy head that develops quickly and settles down just as hastily. The lace is pretty decent, and moderately-tiered, but legs are probably the best element of the pour. Still not spectacular, but it'll do overall.

Nose is pretty fantastic. Meridian is working well with the Mosaic to bring out a surprising bright berry note on top of intense dankness, some blackberry, and tangerine springing out as it warms up a bit. There's a bit of earthy spruce and pine with dynamism brought by citrus and light tropical elements poking in here and there. Definitely cool smelling, and I'm hoping that the unique berry notes come out on the palate as well.

Tons of dank goodness right off the bat, with flavors of pine, orange peel, and mango balancing out some slight notes of cranberry and blackberry from the hop combo. It's a bit maltier than I thought, and the ethanol heat picks up a bit more as well, but not too bad overall. Pretty good stuff. I don't think it matches the complexity of the nose on the tongue, though it's drinking decently-well. Finback tends to deliver the goods when you enjoy the hop combos they use, and here and there they do impress me with stuff I didn't think I'd like as well. This feels pretty much in line with their usual batting average, so I'm confident saying it's worth a drink.

 

I have one more new-to-me HammerHeart in my 'fridge. I'll open it for a future NBW.

Beyond that, sadly, that is correct.

They are the embodiment of the romantic notion of craft brewing. Brew what you like and hone your craft.

Nordic smoked beer styles... talk about a narrow niche! Even their new business plan is counter-trend and focusing on what they enjoy ... namely a small brewery that allows them to brew what they want in small batches, distribute it to local accounts, and not have to run a bar (there'll be no taproom).

If I understand their announcements correctly, the Ely brewery will carry a different brand whereas the contract brewing will continue the HammerHeart brand.

 

Good evening NBS. Finally getting to a new beer after 22" of snow and a three hour cleanup. Was quite beautiful I must admit.
Ive had Juice Machine but never its triple JJJ and eee cousin.
JJJuiceee Machine Treehouse Brewing.
Pours a turbid dark orange with a beige 2 finger head with great retention and alot of sticky lacing.
Aroma is tangerine, pineapple, passionfruit, mango.
Taste follows with citrus and tropical fruit salad. Resinous, balanced by a pithy, piney bitter finish.
Feel is medium full, mild carbonation throughout, plush velvety mouthfeel, insanely drinkable for 8.6% and that TH yeast.
If you drank these everyday you would probably get bored. But I tend to go every month and a half to two months.
Almost always have a new array of beers. They know NEIPAs thats for sure. Really want to get to their farm in Connecticut some day. Delicious beer.
Football is outrageous again today!
Cheers!

 

That's TBA Milkshake Kvass.

With carrots and portabello mushrooms.

I have my standards.

 

I’m holding out for the snickerdoodle variant of that triple barrel aged milkshake Kvass with carrots and portobello mushrooms …

 

If you post that in the H&H thread, you’ll get it - that thread is like a magic wand.

 

There are times in a beer nerd’s beer life when his or her beer fridge gets away from them.

This is one of those times.

One of the cool things about the NBW BIF events is the requirement that at least one beer be a mystery beer, i.e., a beer whose label is hidden so you don’t know the name, style, or anything else - you literally drink it blind, then try to guess the style (and maybe the name and brewery) based on the look, aroma, and taste. It’s a hoot.

So my sender in NBW BIF #14, @BBThunderbolt, sent me roughly a metric ton of beer, including 3 or 4 mystery beers. The two I’m going to review this evening were pushed behind beers into an area in my beer fridge where no “new to me beers” are ever meant to go. I found them this morning whilst rifling through the beer fridge for today’s NBW.

Proving once again that I’m an idiot. These came to me toward the end of October, so hopefully they’re still in the prime of their beer lives. As always, I’ll do these live.

First up, this pint can wrapped in John Belushi. I already like it and I haven’t even opened it.



Pop the top on the can, nice fruity hop aromas on the first whiff of the beer. An aggressive pour yields a mostly clear golden body with a substantial, foamy head.



Taking a big whiff from the glass, there’s a definite fruity hop aroma, and there’s just as definitely a vegetal aroma as well. My first thought is this could be a chile beer of the IPA variety.

The taste has nice fruity hop flavors, and there’s definitely a vegetal flavor that has a smidge of heat. Jalapeño maybe? That’s what I’m thinking.

This is really flavorful and easy to drink, and I’m feeling a bit of heat as this settles at the back of the palate. The mouthfeel is medium and drying. I’m guessing this is a WCIPA with peppers added, in the 7% ABV range. I think it is delicious and would put it squarely in 4.25 range for my rating. Really good stuff, IMHO

The reveal shall be made in a couple of minutes so we can determine if I’m an even bigger idiot than I thought (if that’s possible)!

 

And the reveal …..



Cowiche Canyon from Fremont, a fresh hop APA that weighs in at 6% ABV and has no reference whatsoever to chiles or peppers or jalapeños - like, none.

But I STILL feel that warming at the back of my palate, just a little. As I said, I’m an idiot.

Thanks for sending this my way, Terry. If I had tried it when I should have (canned 10/5/21), I’m sure it would’ve been amazeballs (Citra and Simcoe should NOT sit for nearly 4 months).

 

For Sunday I thought I would pull out a DIPA from the box that @snaotheus sent me, completely out of the blue.

Dear God; from E9 brewery.
Background is the opening in the plastic wall that leads to the once and future kitchen.
Poured orange, more so than the photo implies and though I poured it slowly the head took up almost half the glass at first and the lacing resisted a water rinse.
The aroma was sweet, not NEIPA fruity like but orange juice like. With a piney edge.
The taste rather follows, orange, not juice but creamy like, almost orange-cicle or an orange Julius followed immediately by the piney dankness and bitterness. Took a few sips to separate the flavors, rather cool.
The feel was very NEIPA, creamy and cool and carried the flavors softly.
OA, it’s like it wanted to be both east and west coast and it kinda pulls it off, I really liked it.
Thanks Ryan!

 

It is super gratifying to see people drinking the beers I sent them. Even if they're ahead of me.

It's my turn to try Kolsch from Chuckanut!

12oz can served in a footed pilsner glass. Bought it a couple weeks ago at the brewery. Don't see a date on it.

Pours crystal clear, light yellow, with a big fluffy head and a ton of carbonation. Head lasts for some time. Smell is lightly grainy, bready, yeasty. Hint of honeysuckle.

Taste is clean, light, continues in the bready direction. Moderate grassy finish. Very clean.

Mouthfeel is super light and clean. Overall, very nice beer.

Cheers, friends!

 

Greetings, fellow NBWers,
Around 30° outside, quite overcast and gray, but the predicted rain and snow hasn't happened yet.

Friday was my birthday. I kept it fairly low key. Grabbed a couple of beers with a few friends and kept things on foot on the western end of Spokane's downtown. Although I didn't get particularly hammered, I did manage to go off and leave my phone at an establishment that didn't re-open until the following afternoon, so what hangover I did have was combined with anxiety. I'd initially had planned an expedition to Precious Things Fermentation Project, but was just not up to it by then.

Anyway, today, my first new beer of the day is bittersweet, not in flavor, but in circumstance.
I'm having a Snowfire Stout at Hidden Mother Brewery, which is closing in six days.

Nice, standard (i.e. not Imperial or barrel aged) stout with a nice, roasty maltiness appropriate for the style and, at 5.1%, eminently drinkable stuff.

Probably my only new beer here, and possibly my only new beer of the weekend. For nostalgia, I'll probably have one more Pine Tree Saison while I'm on the premises. No idea why HM is closing, but they will be missed.

 

#2, also from @BBThunderbolt, this is a 12 ounces also featuring Belushi. I’m intrigued!



Pop the top, nice grassy aromas and some bread immediately hit the nose. An aggressive pour reveals a GORGEOUS crystal clear beer (like the clearest beer I’ve ever seen) with a fluffy white head.



The nose from the glass has that nice noble hop aroma, with some bready malt, and there’s a fruity note I can’t place for the life of me.

The taste is all about noble hops as represented by a subtly spicy, grassy flavor and a nice bready malt flavor - and that fruity flavor. Combined with the crisp mouthfeel and a taste that isn’t heavy with alcohol, I’m guessing this is a lager, but I will admit the fruit is throwing me - a LOT. Given all that, I’d place this in the 4.35 range - gorgeous beer, tons of flavor, easy to pound.

The reveal in a couple of minutes!