New Beer Weekend #85

Prefer them more in PO Boys, but any way is good

 

Congratulations!

 

I thought I was done for the weekend, but then read of Armand Debelder's passing (thanks @Snowcrash000 for the heads up on that) and knew I needed to open up a bottle of 3F. I raise my glass to Armand; , to @tasterschoice62's mom, and (on the happier side of the equation), to you @kemoarps.

3 Fonteinen - Oude Kriek
Bottled October 4, 2018.


4.03/5 rDev -6.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Pours a beautiful ruby red with excellent clarity. Almost no head to speak of, but a good looking beer nonetheless. Aroma is heavy on the cherries (which makes sense). There's a sweetness to it that is mostly pleasant, but there's just enough cough syrup to the aroma for me to knock it down a notch or two.

Taste thankfully follows the good elements of the nose, but not the cough syrup part. While it's cherry-forward, the fruit notes are complemented very well by some lightly tart, earthy funk that really balances this out. Light in the mouth, clean drinking and somewhat low carbonation.

Overall, quite tasty. Rest in peace Armand Debelder.

 

This is The 50 Million Dollar Man, a DIPA from Three Floyds.

I am very happy.





4.42/5 rDev +9.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5
by ovaltine from Indiana

Pours a gorgeous golden color with a bit of suspended hop haze and a creamy white head that provides significant lacing. The nose is bright, juicy citrus, some melon, and a nice malt sweetness.

The taste is led by the aforementioned juicy citrus, with clementines and grapefruit flavors proving a nice bitterness that is balanced by the melon and oat sweetness from the substantial malt base.

The mouthfeel is full and drying, fitting this old school DIPA slightly influenced by new school flavors. I don’t like beer comparisons in general, but this is an updated Dreadnaught, IMHO. I absolutely LOVE Dreadnaught, so this is my sweet spot (pun intended).

 

Get Comfortable by Creature Comforts in collaboration with Bell’s


Thanks to trading with Advocate @BrewsOverHoes, I have sampled Tropicalia from Creature Comforts and rated it highly. Bells is very familiar with me and I love several of their beers. Bring two great breweries together and you get a great beer! Well, not so much.

Good looking beer that pours an attractive clear yellow with a nice aroma of pine and some citrus, Good start.

However I felt the beer was lacking in flavor. The carbonation was strong and produced a harsh taste, almost astringent, as there was bitterness without an interesting hoppiness. I’m not sure what the goal was for this one, but I’m an IPA fan who likes bitter beer, and I came away unimpressed. I have a couple more pints and will report if there is a change of heart. This beer was my second “cold IPA” and I’m no rush to try a third.

 

BA Black Biscuit
Holy cats, (No, I'm not Egyptian, not that there is anything wrong with that)
This is really good!
Got a crowler of this last time I was at Founders for lunch with the intention of sharing it with a friend. Alas, timing did not work.
Pours pitch black and a mocha colored head grows quickly to fill the glass and dissipated very slowly.
The aroma spoke of figs and molasses and biscuits, amazing.
The taste followed, but holy cow, why isn’t this bottled for sale? The depth of the flavor is outstanding.
The feel is reminiscent of a BBA stout, viscous and somewhat slick. It fits.
My only regret is that I am drinking this crowler alone, Founder’s, please bottle this!

 

TY. Much appreciated

 

Yes absolutely!,

 

Thanks all y'all for the well wishes, and my condolences to those with less happy news on tap.

I'm digging back into another one before taking the dogs out. My next foray should offer some hops as I'll be digging into Reubens' 10th Anniversary: Supreme Triumvirate. It looks like it's officially in collaboration with Brouwers and Bottleworks (I'm always a little curious what contribution a bottle shop or restaurant really offer... do they have input on the brewing process itself, or is mostly more just cross-promotion/funding?)



Pours pretty much clear with a classic rich golden colour that is capped by a multi-finger pillowy white head. Very good retention, and it looks like the lacing is going to be impressive as well.

Nose is quite inviting with some citrus and tropical fruits and a bit of resin and nectar.

Flavour offers more of the resin and honey/nectar sweetness. The melon carries a little bit, and then beach fruits in a thick layer. Finish is saturated with little sweet pockets like flavour crystals bursting on your tongue. There's a straw maltiness laying a foudnation under it all.

Rich to the end with the hops crashing in waves and saturating the taste buds. I need to slow down a little bit. This one earns its imperial designation.

I dig it. It's a return to a certain time kind of right between the big stunt-level hopping that overtook the west coast especially, and the sweet hazy craze that has come to prominence since.

CHeers~!

 

And I’m back with that west coast IPA, @Roguer this one is truly remarkable.

Von Ebert - Volatile Substance



Pours clearer than it looks, a darker shade of pale; pretty much clear. Cohesive white head that leaves some good sticking lacing all the way down to the finish.

Pungent beer, strong super piney and dank with a subtle fruity note.

Tastes is again a nice combination of dank and pine; slight vegetal note, my damn mosaic alarm is going off…I’ll find out soon…(mosaic indeed) Has a nice soft malt touch to it.

Very pleasant to drink; clean, very crisp and dry, clean drinking, beautiful bitterness; it high bitter but it’s like a quick sting that doesn’t linger. It adds to this beers drinkability which is dangerous at 6.9%

This is a truly remarkable IPA, I would gladly drink this again.

If I’m not back later I wish you all a good week ahead, and hope we’re all back next weekend doing this same thing we do every weekend. Cheers friends.

 

Another new Canadian beer from @Coronaeus. This one's apparently also new to BA. But I can't get an image down to the requisite 20kb, so I can't add it to the listing. On to the beer...

16oz can served in a tulip. Canned on 26 JAN 2022.

Vigorous pour gives me a hazy dark amber liquid with about 3/4" of head that collapses into a thick layer with some pretty heavy lacing up the sides of the glass. Smell is moderately grainy / toasty, a little bit of toffee and nuts, mostly a nice grain tea aroma.

Taste is surprisingly soft. Leans more toward lightly toasted bread than grain tea, sweetness comes across through the nuttiness, not really getting a toffee any more but there's something else adding to the sweetness. Slowly start to get a bit of a nut-related bitterness out of it as well, which keeps building.

Mouthfeel is leaning a bit toward the thick side. Overall, it's a nice beer and I like it. Not 100% comfortable with the total ripoff of Fuller's label design.

 

Happy Sunday Folks.
And blessings upon the House of Barber, @FBarber
Dovetail Pilsener

Light gold, crystal clear, abundant white fluffy head. Slowly tapers off. Good retention. slight, clumpy lacing.
Bready and doughy pilsner malts, herbal spice note, wisps of lemon zest. maybe a hint of corn.
Flavor is spot on for style, more bitter than sweet, but the sweet is biscuit dough and a perfect foundation to let the herbal spice and citrus kiss to pop.
Mouthfeel is light and pillowy. Hmm, the water must be great. Great carbonation. Gently drying bitterness brings things to a final curtain.
Overall, this is why people get a renewed faith in this style.

4.2/5 rDev -0.9%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

 

Howdy there Advocates! I'm digging this local Lake Monster Como Claw Pilsner. It's lightly sweet but does what a pils is supposed to do. Here's my scoop. Cheers!!
3.96/5 rDev +11.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
by LesDewitt4beer from Minnesota
12oz can into a tall pilsner glass.
L: Pours a rich crystal clear gold w/a !" soft soapy white head that recedes to a skin & edge foam. Fair carbonation. Minimal lacing.
S: Bready, floral, honey, caramel malts, lightly grassy, gentle "spicy" hops.
T: Clean grassy hops, light bread, earthy grains, rich caramel, light lemon, a hint of honey. Slightly bitter with a medium length linger. Overall fairly full flavored for it's style.
F: Affably crisp & smooth med-light bodied mouth feel w/a moderately fast & clean finish.
O: A delicious tasting and quenching American Pilsner that is very well balanced, crisp & refreshing. It is very good in it's style.

 

Well, I learned not to pour unknown beers aggressively, so here is tonight's attempt with a much tamer DIPA...



Mortalis Callisto that they call a DIPA, which we call Imperial, so I entered it as NEIPA because it looks like one...which I suppose earns me a style police slap since we are supposed to use what thr brewery says, but the brewery says it is a DIPA... It is 8% ABV, brewed with Callista, Citra, and Cascade hops. So I guess I request an edit.

Pineapple juice color pour with a long-lasting, rocky foam head. Falls to a wide ring and hefty island.

The aroma is immediately enticing. Citrus, sweetness, peach/apricot type smell, a very mild berry-like note. Grapefruit teases with domination but never quite takes over. It's a pleasant aroma, but I think it is fairly typical of the style and it fades quickly.

The taste is interesting. There's a sweetness to this beer, plenty of orange and grapefruit, stone fruit more towards peach, and a vague berry-like flavor. Just a bit of a resin-like flavor and a tiny bit of bitterness. Slightly peppery in the aftertaste, and that does liven things up some. It isn't particularly layered - it is kinda everybody in the pool at once, but extremely well-blended and harmonious. As the taste fades, definitely a pepper note and more orange peel countering the sweetness.

The texture is creamy and smooth. It's definitely juice-like in terms of consistency. Slightly sweet residue, but I really like the tingle that I think is a peppery/orange flavor. The aftertaste...I sipped like 5 minutes ago and this beer is kinda reverse-engineeting itself on my tongue. The flavors that were all stacked are unraveling. Interesting phenomenon.

It's good stuff, but I don't think it is quite world class. I pretty much feel it is one of the herd of this style that lands in that 3.8 to 4.0 land. Better than average, certainly. Well constructed, smooth drinker, very interesting happenings in the aftertaste department.

 

Sweet Water Almond Milk Stout - I am a fan of Almond milk and I was wondering when someone was going to use it in a Stout and I guess I have my answer; if there are others I have not come across them yet. Pours from a can a dark black with a very generous head. Smell is roasty but also almost Lager-ish as well. Taste is decent, not much going on here and kind of thin but at 5.4% I wasn't expecting too much in this dept. For what it is a fairly easy drinker and just enough flavor to not be boring and the Almond Milk does add a nice creamy smoothness to it. Budmo!

FWIW this does have a BIEB date of 02/26/22 so now just outside of that, but it's held up well.

 

Good evening NBW
I found a new DIPA from Taxman Saturday, so I had to pick one up

Double DIPA Galaxy & Comet
12oz canned 02/17/22 poured into a Spiegelau IPA glass at fridge temp 9% ABV 70 IBU. The beer pours hefe-hazy in a pale amber color with off white head. The head recedes to a thin cap and leaves a complete web of lacing. The aroma is pale malt, light Belgian yeast and citrus. The taste is semisweet pale malt with tropical fruit and citrus right up front. Medium bitterness and just a hint of ethanol on the finish. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with average carbonation and a mostly dry finish. Overall, good.

Cheers all!