New Beer Weekend #86

Good Morning one and all, and welcome to New Beer Sunday #890! Sorry for those impacted by the clocks, hope they pass a permanent switch to DLST (or just stay on standard after a final change in the Fall).

The third of three Firestone Walker cellar beers, this one is two years younger. I can't recall another Imperial Stout aged in Wine Barrels among beers I've tasted, so I have been looking forward to this one the most, and thus saved it for NBS.

Firestone Walker Napa Parabola (2019)



Bottle Notes: 12 oz bottled 4/27/19 @ 7:14 AM. 11.3% ABV. Napa Parabola: Imperial Stout Aged in Wine Barrels. OG 30.6 Plato, FG 11.2 Plato, IBU 61, British Ale House Yeast, 3,000 Cases Produced, 143.0 SRM (Napa Midnight) Color. Always keep refrigerated. Store at 40 F, Serve at 55 F. Properly cellared upon purchase until refrigerating on 11/17/21 until this morning.

Appearance: Brown to dark brown while pouring, dark brown to black in the glass, creamy tan head settles relatively quickly leaving a creamy ring above the base and fine tiny bubble lacing which work their way down in delicate slow motion, as I'm drinking. Burst of carbonation while pouring, subsides visibly shortly thereafter. 4.5

Aroma: A bold pleasant Merlot emerged while opening, it has mellowed a bit about 10 minutes after warming up to a more blended experience. The Merlot is still there, but on equal terms with a nice roast malt base, raisins and dates. Appreciating the varied flavors, also getting Fritos which I don't recall from a beer in the past. 4.25

Taste: Let it set about 20 minutes before finally diving in. It took a few sips to get my bearings. Sweet but not to, the Merlot and grapes lead but blend well over the roast malt, sort of like strawberries over chocolate fudge in a Neapolitan sundae. Light and airy, appreciate versus the bourbon barrel I am very familiar. Still getting the Fritos aroma, though it's not impacting what I am tasting. I'd compare this favorably to a barley wine, sweetness contained, light and easy, no heavy malt to contend with. This is a great experience. 4.75

Mouthfeel: Light to medium body, extremely faint/barely there carbonation. Edges sweet, but well contained. Very easy drinking, close to half way through and dodging the alcohol like Neo dodging bullets. Light refreshing drinking, clean finish. 4.75

Overall: Was pleasantly surprised even with the high expectations coming in. Simply a wonderful beer, everything comes together well, light and airy, love the flavor profile. Will definitely have these on the radar down the road, well worth the $ and wait. 4.75

Hope your beer is as enjoyable as this one. Looking forward to reading your reviews as the day unfolds.

 

Good day BAs! For the NBS portion of NBW, a highly poundable pale ale:



Day of the Dead from Tupps Brewery. 12 oz can from Spec’s, DeZavala, San Antonio, TX, from 11/09/21. $ 2.74 (including tax) ($ 0.228/oz). Stored at room temperature in store and at 40 degrees after purchase. Reviewed 13/03/22. Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Undated can. Served at 44.4 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. Final temperature 54.6 degrees.
Appearance – 3.5
First pour – Pale Straw (SRM 2), slight haze.
Body – Straw (SRM 3), opaque. When rear-lite, translucent and hazy.
Head – Large (Maximum 4.3 cm, aggressive center pour), white, high density with average retention, diminishing to a one to 1.3 cm undulating crown and rocky cap.
Lacing – Good. Approaching torn curtains, with many medium bubbles and long, spindly stalactites.
Aroma – 4 – Bright citrus, mostly lemon with a hint of orange, no malt, no yeast.
Flavor – 4 – Much less citrusy than the nose implies, more floral/fruity. A hint of malt, no yeast. No ethanol (5.5% ABV, as marked on container) taste or aroma; however, there is no gastric warming. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl.
Palate – 3.5 – Medium, approaching creamy, soft but lively carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 3.5 (After deducting 0.25 point for undated personal container) For being at least six months old, this has held up well, with the citrusy hops still coming through. The 20 IBUs are still evident, and it tastes/smells like the pale ale as which it is billed.

Rating 3.82, rDev -2.3%

 

Good Morning NBS/nbw Thanks @Roguer for hosting and @ChicagoJ for keeping the NBS clock ticking.
Well its a New England March weekend for sure, 50 friday, 23 yesterday and today. 60 possible tommorow. Sap is boiling and pancakes are flying at the sugarhouses.
Todays offering is from Harvey and Sons. The body and aromatics are solid, with excellent malt expression. Lovely solid, beer. For me it is a real looker as well.
The color and the meandering slow mo carbonation are a treat to watch.
Cheers all

Elizabethan Ale

Barleywine - English | 7.5% ABV
Harvey's Brewery in Lewes, England

4.02/5 rDev +1.3% | Average: 3.97
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
by SABERG from Massachusetts

Poured from an undated 9.3 oz bottle into the test glass.
A - Absolutely beautiful beer, red cedar/cinammon color, with excellent clarity, The gentle carbonation moves methodically topside. A thin ring assembles on the perimeter during the experience.
S - A bit of fig, toffee, apricot marmalade. There is a faded hop element. As the bottle is undated par for the course. There is a fruity ester element from the yeast.
T - Fruit cake, in a good way, caramel, raisin, some light brown sugar. A bit of apricot again. Some blonde tobacco, and eral grey tea. A good malty thread is omnipresent.
M - Slick on the palate, medium in weight, sweet start stays the duration. Finish is less sweet. Linger is candied apricot.
O - Listed as barleywine, i do get that for sure. Very smooth, nice malty expression. The candied apricot is lovely. A full bodied offering for the 7.5% ABV listing. I like this offering quite a bit

 

Poured into a 10 tulip glass canned this week. Pours a dark brown with a few finger sticky light brown head, that settles rather quick leaving little if any lace. 3.75

Aroma is Oreo, vanilla, cocoa, toffee, and caramel. 4

Taste follows Oreo, cocoa, toffee, vanilla, and caramel. 4

Mouthfeel is almost average, not sticky or dry, under carbonated, and drinks much smaller than 8%. 3.25

Overall I thought they figured it out how to brew stouts and this was a huge set back for them. Nice nose and flavor, but a huge disappointment overall. 3.75

 

Good Morning BA! It has been a great weekend, ran a race yesterday, went a brewfest drank loads of beer and the saw a play. Now I am heading over to my friends brewery to brew a chocolate oatmeal breakfast stout. Then I will be back and review a few new beers. Be back later.

 

That sounds like a pretty awesome weekend so far. Favorite from the brewfest?

Sounds like you got a fun day ahead today as well.

 

Our son, who does not drink alcohol and professes to know nothing about beer, bought this because he thought I might like it. And I do. I hope this buying beer for me is the start of a trend.
The beer is Cat Skinner, an IPA brewed by Red River Brewing Company in Red River, NM. It has an ABV of 7.8% and was canned on February 28.

The beer is a dark amber color with a large white head and plenty of lace.
Sweet malt aroma, a little citrus.
Caramel and grapefruit taste.
A malt-forward IPA.
Nice beer.

 

This and the Tiramisu from last night are interesting in that, to me anyway, they point to a new direction for Bellwoods. The former head brewer stepped away to open his own place within the past year ( a farmhouse brewery, two hours from nowhere: https://www.stillfieldsbrewery.com/ - Looks great by the way). Since then, a couple hazy APA/IPAs have come out that I think are really good (Ratclops and Green Velvet which wasn’t available when I got this box together). Also, some heavy hitting pastry stouts (Beeramisu and Chunk, a fudgy collab with Weldwerks) that seem to hit the right notes. I’ve been excited to check their new releases for the first time in a couple years.

Glad you enjoyed!

 

Fun morning so far for the phish fam, we survived the time change. Then went to the mall to go to the Lego store for our oldest, he had a gift card from Christmas. Such a cool store and man that kid was in heaven, mrs phisher joked it looked like me in a beer store. Home now, I got chili simmering, I’m enjoying my favorite thing while he enjoys his favorite thing, legos.

I guess I should’ve had this during the holidays, maybe that puts me on the naughty list.

Victory - Naughty List (rum barrel winter warmer)



Very nice color to this beer deep rich gold with some copper color. Good heat at first quickly dissipated to a ring and minor cloud cover in the middle.

Nose is a nice mix of all sorts of goodies; the it smells like a tripel with a lot more going on. Typical spices, but then some vanilla, oak, and caramelized sugar. It almost has a fruit skin smell to it to, almost apple like of grape like. This beer is very pleasant to sip and smell, I’m curious what else comes out as it warms.

The taste follows the nose very closely, and the caramelized sugar really comes out nicely on the finish. The spice still shows itself nicely with the oak in a very balanced fashion.

I’d probably say the body is medium on this one. However you can tell it’s a big beer, the alcohol shows itself very clearly but luckily it isn’t too hot or overwhelming. There is a fruit skin like bitterness that lingers in the aftertaste.

This is a really unique and interesting beer, the smell is amazing. I’m glad I bought a can to try. This may be my last beer of the day, I’ll finish the taster and revisit during the Leafs game and then finish the rest tonight. Or maybe I’ll sneak out and by another new beer…

 

Been waiting for the place down the street to have singles of this, they had four packs but didn't break them up yet.

Our favorite thing to do as a family as well and hoping that this is the last of the cold so we can get out more and more often.

 

I started off with a stout earlier ready to review it but it turns out I rated it back in 2014. I guess alcohol does affect memory.
So here is round 2, a simply named Porter from Back East Brewery.

4.03/5 rDev +3.1%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
by woodchipper from Connecticut

Poured from a 16oz can undated to a diagonally cut tumbler at 46F.
The body pours brown/red but sits opaque black in the glass. A tan half-inch puffy head sits on top but fades to one layer soon enough. However with any tilt of the glass a full film of bubbles clings to the side and breaks down to reasonable lacing.
The aroma is of burnt caramel and coffee, but it is not super aromatic.
Taste is dry with coffee and chocolate notes and a background or ash.
Mouthfeel is on the thin-side of medium.
Overall, a decent porter but not exceptional.

 

That don't look brown to ME!

 

Hey what's going on?!

I am taking in an easy afternoon, been fairly busy and dodging some of the odd random snow of a sudden.

That will all pass and be gone tomorrow here at least.

Till then here's a new beer I have had of late. Starting off small and simply.



Poured from the can into a tulip glass.

Pale red color mostly clear appearance for the body with a touch of orange like color that nearly flirts with bronze like red. Not much noticeable carbonation to a simple two finger off pink head that settles to a half decent crowned collar.

Aroma hits with mild lactobacillus like sourness and faint touches of reddish pitted fruit. Doesn't particularly come of cherry in aroma, more like a sense of faint watermelon or some kind of melon in a way. Has a bit of cough drop dryness as well.

Palate seems a bit dumbed down. Light and a bit of a watery body through a really neutral base it seems. Minimal sourness and even more so lack of sensing fruit to taste on the palate with maybe a faint hint of cherry. Finish has more of a sweetened malt base interestingly but makes for less of a sense that this is some type of sour beer let alone a fruity one.

Passable and drinkable, but doesn't really seem to deliver much.

look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.25 | 3.38 out of 5

Cheers

 

Pipeworks Full Drip Mango Ale, 6.0% ABV; 3.35 overall

Pours a bright and effervescent gold with 2 fingers of eggshell colored head. Zero head retention & lacing

S: Mango & citrus notes

T: Plenty of mango, pretty sweet, a little bit of orange & breadyness as well up front. Slight dryness, more sweet mango & a little bit of orange. Finishes slightly dry, with much sweet mango

MF: Medium body, fairly restrained carbonation

Very one dimensional, fairly easy to drink, but not very interesting

 

Hello NBS (NBW).
Starting off light today. While not quite going in the bock direction, I am hitting a schwarzbier via Mexico. Not great, but pretty good.

Scorpion Negro by Baja Brewing Co.

12 oz can. Best Before 08/05/22
Beautiful burnt umber hue. Initial, the mocha colored head foams up nicely, just shy of 2 fingers. then she slowly settles into a thin film. Scattered, spotty lacing.
Nose is understated. Charred brown bread and lightly sweet malt notes.
Flavor has a nice roast. Some grain comes through as well a gentle chocolate note. A mild drying bitterness closes out.
Mouthfeel is medium, light carbonation.
Overall, pretty good.
3.52/5 rDev -3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5