New Beer Weekend #80

The reveal …..





The Belgian portion of the equation threw me, but that was the fruity flavor I picked up from what I’m assuming is Belgian yeast. I did NOT expect that in a lager. Outstanding stuff, and huge thanks to @BBThunderbolt for sending it my way.

 

Recent arrival from Zero Gravity Craft brewery.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/9784/587909/



16.9 ounce bottle.
Bottled Sept. 2021.

Gentle to moderate pour yields a one inch light tan head over a near black body with lacing.
Sheets of lacing after each sip.

Nose of caramel, vanilla, roasted malt, and slight booze.

Taste mirrors nose rather closely with a bit of chocolate fudge flavors coming forward.

Mouthfeel is nice and full for a Bourbon Barrel Aged Baltic Porter.

Overall, this is a more than decent stab at the style with the whiskey well represented during every sip. I really like it and would recommend!
Cheers!!!

 

Closing out Sunday night with one more beer. Just got the boys down, had an impromptu last minute snow play of the weekend with the oldest. It was pretty special, watching kids be 100% present in what they’re doing is pretty amazing. We made snow bowls and drizzled them with maple syrup quite a tasty and special dessert time.

and now said last beer…splitting with Mrs Phisher and again courtesy of @snaotheus, your beers are spreading join and happiness all over this thread.

Fremont - Lush



Pours a pretty clear light straw color with a very white head, settles to a ring of tiny bubbles and one big peninsula of tiny bubbles from said ring. Looks quite appealing to me.

Very strong aroma, could smell it when I was pouring. Refreshing is the first thought that came to mind; orange zest, something a little dank, and some fruity aromas. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess mosaic is in here cause I get the slightest hint of that onion smell, I almost always get from it.

Taste is very bright and again refreshing like the nose. I would say again I pick up on the citrus zesty note the most, followed by some rind bite. The fruit and mosaic (?) notes are less present in the taste, at least at its current temperature. A little subtle light malty sweetness shows as it warms.

Goes down very nice, medium body, bright feel to it and again refreshing. I can't seem to get away from using that term for this IPA. Finishes dry with a really nice paired bitterness.

When @snaotheus and I had beers together in September I told him how much I enjoyed my fresh pour of bale breaker top cutter at their brewery. His response was something like "that beer and fresh lush are all I'd need." Well I hadn't had lush until now but I can see why. It is a great beer, and one I'd be happy to drink regularly if I lived out your way. Cheers Ryan!

I hope you all have a great week, can't wait to drink together again next weekend. Until then I look forward to seeing what else everyone is opening tonight. Cheers all!

 

Definitive has come forward with a Barrel Culture collab for this beer, The Way Forward... a DDH DIPA clocking in at 8.5% ABV. Canned on 1/14/22, so it's about two weeks old.

Hazy pour with a solid showing of bone-white head that lingers for a couple minutes before sinking to a quarter-finger ring. Excellent, consistent lace here. Liking the surface coverage on this one, too. Seems like it'll be a solid beer.

So, this is Citra/Simcoe/Cashmere which is a great combo on paper. Nose is melon and tangerine with some tangy pine-like elements popping out. Doesn't feel like it's really pushing any specific boundaries or anything, but I'll take it. The citrus zest is prominent here, for sure, so that's a boon, but nothing stands out to any real extent.

Tasty stuff, though. It's a moderately-bitter double NEIPA with flavors of tangelo, tangerine, and honeydew melon, backed up by a little bit of soft oat malt. Nothing here really goes outside of what I expect for the style, and it's a little weirdly-demure for my tastes, especially given the hops, but I enjoy it for what it is. A bit of honey and more melon. Soft stone fruit and some herbal components. Feel is good here. Not bad, but not amazing. If you follow my reviews, I'm getting pretty critical of this style of beer, so this review is sorta to-be-expected.

One more in a bit...

 

That is one beautiful pour, and what a beautiful beer it was.

Well he did like my post so there is some evidence to suggest such.

 

Very HHHazyyy by TreeHouse Brewing

4.53/5 rDev -2.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5





Very Hhhazyyy - a highly rated beer Treehouse beer that I can now remove from my “wants” list and tick it off. BA Score is 100, average is 4.63 and ranked #62 for NEIPA’s a style i tend to prefer.

Canned 1.12.22, opened 1.30.22, poured into a 2022 TreeHouse customer appreciation stemmed goblet given to me when i picked up my beer

Brewers Notes: It had to happen.

Our most beloved beers here at Tree House are soft, well-rounded, and ridiculously hop saturated while balanced by our trademark fluffy mouthfeel.

Very HHHazyyy is our most flavorful double IPA, and yet it remains effortless to drink. It tastes like overripe peach nectar, pulpy orange juice, and the most delicious fruit cocktail ever.

It is all we could ever hope for, and it tastes even better than we imagined that it could. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Hazy orange liquid, dark orange marmalade, no light passes three here. Capped by a one finger creamy white foam cap, Seattle’s to a thin layer with complete lacings that obscure the glass rim . Cloaking lacings coat the glass as more sips are taken

Fragrance leaps over the rim as it is poured into the glass, peach mango, orange citrus aromas

First sip in a month! Orange citrus, mango, peach, hint of pine , hint of white grape

Mouthfeel is smooth, light fizz, bit of booze but without the heat . ABV is 8.8% but well hidden , hop taste with the gentlest of hop nibbles

Enjoyable , memorable beer to break my beer fast and end my dry January .

 

Good evening NBW crew. Like everybody else, spent the day clearing snow. Regardless of what they call it or the fancy terms for the meteorological phenomena, it's pretty easy for me. That was a shit ton o' snow. My grandson had a blast building a drift up to sled on and my recently purchased tractor with loader was great to work with. When you are just moving things around to keep playing with the tractor, it's likely time to quit!

So a new beer here that I have zero expectations for of knowledge of other than the owner/head brewer was my wife's student in HS science...



Shaidzon Brewing Company Lucky Nigthz stout brew with Sweenor's chocolate (no clue, assume a local chocolatier) and mint...ummm...maybe shoulda read that more carefully before I bought it...

Pour looks awesome with that huge, long-lasting tan head. Said head falls to chunks and coats the glass.

The nose is not much to write home about. Very faint whiff of mint and chocolate and hardly any stout character. Not impressed. We are headed in a bad direction here...

If I had zero expectations going in, they have indeed been met. This is not a good brew. There is an inordinate level of charred bitter, bitter chocolate on top of that, and a weird sorta vaguely minty top note that is quite vegetal. It is harshly acrid, extremely astringent, and honestly a bit unpleasant. I don't think the base stout is good and as that would be the foundation for the other flavors, no way this works.

The feel is dry, fairly light bodied, and the bitter, burnt, acrid lingers along with the vegetal taste that emerges as the very minimal mint and chocolate flavor vanishes. Slight burning sensation on the tongue.

It's not in the database here and I don't think I will bother add it as the brewery has it (mercifully) in the "not active" pile, presumably retired. Reviews on the sister station are all over the place. I don't know how somebody who created a beer as great as Captains Daughter (as head brewer at Grey Sail) can come up with something like this even conceptually. If the base stout were better executed, it would maybe have a fighting chance. If I were to score it, I'm thinking 2.5 would be generous. Dissappointed, but some days you get the bear, sometimes it's t'other way 'round.

 

Happy New Beer Sunday 884!

First stop late afternoon Vegas, a return to CraftHaus (downtown). This one is listed as a new beer.

CraftHaus Hop Shredder



Brewer Notes: Big hop riffs shred from aggressive dry hopping with El Dorado, Cascade, Matueka and Mosaic Hops. $8, 16 oz draft pour into a tulip glass. Imperial IPA, 9% ABV, 85 IBU.

Appearance: Tan caramel crystal clear pour, fine egg white creamy head leaves generous lacing, mild carbonation throughout. 4.25

Aroma: Pine, grapefruit, mango. Mild strength, good. 3.5

Taste: Consistent with aroma, a bit fuller. Chalky mango, grapefruit, pine. Somewhat aggressive hopping, sweetness but not too. 3.5

Mouthfeel: Dry, a bit bitter, drinks easier than the listed abv or ibu. Somewhat dry aftertaste. 3.5

Overall: An ok Double WCIPA, nothing really stands out, ok inoffensive, but wouldn’t reach for this again. 3.25

Let’s see what else the Arts District delivers tonight.

 

One more to finish the weekend Firestone Walker Cinnamon Dolce.
4.23/5 rDev +5.5%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

12 oz can poured into a pint glass.

A- Black with a one finger light tan head. Following the instructions it gives a wonderful cascading nitro pour.

S- Cinnamon, milk chocolate, some vanilla.

T- Milk chocolate, cinnamon, some vanilla.

M- Silky smooth, creamy, medium body.

O- Well done, easy to drink. This beer honestly tastes exactly how I thought it would from the description on the can.

Stay safe everyone, cheers!

 

Elk Valley Brewing Head Pains New England IPA, 6.8% ABV; 3.78 overall

Pours a very hazed straw color with 3 fingers of rocky beige colored head. Better than average head retention & lacing

S: Passion fruit, guava

T: Follows the nose, a little grapefruit, green melon & Blood Orange up front. Tangerine, lime, green melon& grassy bitterness as this warms. Finishes with passion fruit, oranges & a touch of lime & grassy bitterness

MF: Medium body, slight carbonation, pretty good balance

Seems like it's on the way to greatness & then picks up too much bitterness for my liking. Still pretty easy to drink though

 

Honestly I'm chalking it up to age because Gumballhead does have a great reputation.. There is no decipherable date code on the can and stores around here are notorious for selling way old beer.
My review & rating note that the can was undated and if I ever come across it on tap or fresh it'll get rerated.

 

Pep Talk, a pilsner from Bearded Iris, which I received in an unsanctioned package from the refulgent @WunderLlama, which may have been associated with NBS BIF #14.

16oz can served in a footed pilsner glass. There's a date on it, but it's really hard to read. It might be 06.08.21.

Pours clear yellow with a fairly large head that collapses to a clumpy sheet, moderate active carbonation. Smell is lightly grainy, lots of lemon zest, and definitely grassy.

Taste is leaning in on the lemon, brings out more graininess, kind of a biscuity flavor. Grassiness is there, but kind of softened.

Mouthfeel is light, but almost watery. Overall...this is pretty good, but maybe showing its age.

Thank you, Maynard!

 

Hate seeing breweries close.

 

A three way Vegas Collaboration for my second New Beer Sunday pour.

Juxta Nomad / Bad Beat / The Silver Stamp Kveikrowave



Brewer notes: This was released at the brewery per an online announcement on 9/21/21. This tapped here at The Silver Stamp within the past few days. 4.6% $6, 16 oz draft served in a shaker pint glass. Pseudo-lager, chamomile. One town over (Henderson, Nevada).

Appearance: Yellow golden pour, medium persistent carbonation throughout, bright white head leaves clumpy soapy lacing. 4.0

Aroma: Fruity apple, pear, mint tea leaves. Different, consistent with the brewer notes, digging it. 4.25

Taste: Lighter than the aroma, somewhat consistent. Tea, apple and pear, light noble hops, light salt. 3.5

Mouthfeel: Light body, fizzy pop like persistent carbonation throughout adds to the body depth. Very easy drinking, light dry finish. 3.25

Overall: Tastes as advertise, light chamomile “pseudo lager”. Glad I tried, would order again if in the mood. 3.5

 

Chuckanut's Single Hop Lager Adeena. Technically not the first time I've had it (I had it on tap at the brewery right before I bought a six pack of the cans), but it's the first time I've sat down to write about it and it's my first time drinking it from a can.

12oz can served in a stemless angular wineglass. No date on it, but I bought it at the brewery two weeks ago.

Pours clear dark yellow with a small head that collapses to a smooth skin, rising up the side of the glass unevenly to peaks of about a centimeter. Smell is a little bit of barley tea, a pretty substantial amount of citrus zest, some grassiness, kind of mild.

Taste is rich grain, strong yeast/bready notes, mild citrus zest and a strong earthy bitterness followed by a slight grassiness.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied but still dry. Overall, this is nice.

This is a very strange beer day for me. This 5% beer is the strongest beer I've drunk today.