New Beer Weekend #89

It's a beautiful spring day, with an expected high of 80. I might have to do some work outdoors.
Starting the day with a lighter beer, Helles from Bierstadt Lagerhaus in Denver. It is two months old and has an ABV of 4.9%.

The beer is a clear gold color with a white head that fades rapidly. A little bit of lace.
Aroma is grassy and floral.
Taste follows the nose. There is a late hop presence.
Light-bodied, crisp.
Very drinkable.

 

Sunday has arrived, rainy morning, a visit to moms with the boys and now rest time for kids means beer time for dad. This single caught my eye as I like zero gravity’s green state. Let’s see how this “Italian” Pilsner tastes.

Zero Gravity - Pisolino



Well it pours a pretty cloudy yellowish straw color, vigorous bubbles form as it pours but they quickly diminish to a very thin layer of dirty white.

The nose is very pleasant; floral, earthy and herbal come to mind first a little sweetness hides behind that, reminds me of a very subtle lemon bread.

Hmmm the taste is not as welcoming and almost has a stale bread flavor going on. The hops come through on the finish but not nearly what I’d think from the nose. ***this beer is 5 months old and was sitting on a warm shelf I should’ve checked first I guess.

Mouthfeel is light to medium, nicely carbed while still being smooth. A low grassy bitterness shows on the finish, a touch of sweet.

Overall kind of a let down, I should’ve check the date but I would’ve thought a well made lager would hold up; not this one. Oh well…I’ll be back with more later.

 

Mucho participation it seems this weekend. Exciting.
Be back in a bit after some chores. Just did my 2 sets of 50 pushups and 7 miles on the elliptical. Protein, water then beer. Cheers!

 

So, story time. One must be careful what they say on this site. One careless word complaining about lack of decent Czech Pilsners might get an extraordinarily generous BAer sending you some stuff from his local brewery. When that is Fox Farm, he’ll send several Quiet Life and a slew of other beers. The Quiet Life was very good, not Moonlight good but really good. The others so far have also been really nice.

Rating this as an American IPA and not NEIPA as that is how it is classified.
Poured slightly darker straw color with a nearly white 1 cm head which left sheets of lacing. The beer wasn’t hazy, but it was translucent, nearly opaque. An IPA (NEIPA excluded of course) is traditionally transparent. But this is now.
The aroma was faint for my damaged nose, but it did smell rather like a spring day. Odd, but very good.
The taste, I did get a little mango and apricot, but the hops took it to different territory for me and defied grouping with others. Malts and hops abound with the hops playing top dog with bitterness ending any semblance of sweetness and the malts balanced to keep it from too bitter.
The feel was very good, very quaffable indeed.
OA, thoroughly enjoyed this. Thanks Bill!

 

Jon, I am constantly amazed by how old some of the beers on our shelves are. I used to not even look, but when one is sending local stuff, you want it to be fresh as possible, and sometimes that is really tough to find!

 

Greetings fellow NBSers! A windy, partly sunny day here in the Fourth Corner, with a storm expecting to roll in over the next few days. We had Melissa Etheridge play at my work last night, and while I didn't get a show call, since the show started late, I was able to catch the last half of the show from the wings when I went back for load-out. She still rocks. Catch her if she comes through your neck of the woods.

My first beer of this Wrestlemania Sunday (which I will be going over to a friends to catch and eat meat and drink beer later, is from what I consider the best brewery in my town, Wander. Sadly, this is not their best work. A murkbomb with considerable alcohol heat, at only 6.7%, Level of Opacity:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/34416/595846/

 

Looking forward to it. Any food cooking today ?

You are right and the beer I had yesterday was a gamble too. Looked and no date but it turned out to be awesome, the slack tide beer I posted. You win some and you lose some I guess.

 

Im off to the market now. I have something in my head and if they have all the necessary ingredients the answer is yes!

 

Good to see so many of y'all here this weekend. Slightly nicer weather up in NE finally. This time last year I was halfway through my first semester back in school in about a decade and I was transitioning to a new job, which I have since left. Four months into my current job right now and I feel more comfortable and more engaged than I ever did at the last one. Classes are going really well, too, and I'm lucky to have a bit of downtime today to share with you folks. I should have two, maybe three new ones on the docket including this, my first: Finback's Crystalline, a DIPA brewed in collaboration with Unseen Creatures Brewing.



Crystalline was canned on 3/2/22 and features an illustrious blend of hops both old and new: Citra, Idaho 7, and Lotus. Lotus is a Neomexicanus varietal with orange/vanilla notes along with some herbal and grassy qualities. The other two don't really need much introduction, so let's get into this.

Very nice pour right off the bat... thick and dense, foamy head measuring a few fingers. Sinks down over a period of five-to-seven minutes, leaving behind consistent tiers of thin lacing as it slowly dissipates to a quarter-finger ring. Color and consistency seem "Finback-typical," but nothing wrong with that. Good saturation to the hue of the body, and there is a decent amount of obscurity to the surface, concealing the hazed depths even further...

Nose is a bit inoffensive, but it has some tangerine and light underripe mango elements that give it a bit of character. I'm picking up hints of stone fruit and pineapple, as well, plus perhaps some of Citra's dankness here and there. This seems to be wanting to lean heavily on the Lotus elements, as the grassiness starts coming across more over time, and there's some light orange creamsicle-ness as well once it starts opening up. Not overly loving it, but maybe it'll taste better?

Yeah, it actually does! First few sips have a tangy bitterness crossed with some punchy tropical fruit. Slight sweetness in the mid-palate with a parting note of hop-driven acidity. Wheaty and chewy feel (not surprising given the appearance) with some more flavors of guava and tangelo coming out eventually. This seems a bit like a slow burn of an IPA, honestly, which isn't usually what I expect from Finback, or what I think of them as being known for. I appreciate that about this one, and I like that it's not overly-aggressive for the ABV either, as that could help this beer become a good "standby" for poolside or barbecue consumption as weather steadily gets better, since it doesn't throw its weight around meaninglessly. With that having been said, there is a bit of hop burn in here as I approach the end of my can, so that may hamper drinkability a tad. Still, I'm warming up to this one a bit I think. Even though it's not exactly super aromatic or intense, it has some good qualities that deserve to be highlighted.

Back soon!

 

Sparkling IPA from Pfriem is next up. Listed here as a Brut IPA, I think it falls more into the West Coast parameters, but, shrug. It's a really nice brew. Not a surprise from these guys:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/29573/479622/

 

Brewing Projekt Dead End DIPA, 7.2% ABV. Pours hazy dark orange with a fist of white head that left lots of lacing. Nose is light citrus, tropical, and a bit of grass. Taste is citrus and pine, light sweetness, moderate bitterness. Dry mouthfeel with nominal carbonation, overall very good.

3.84/5 rDev -2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

 

I finally was in the mood to rate Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Black IPA.

I enjoyed the Black IPA heyday of the 2000's when they were available from most local breweries. That was before I joined BA, and I hadn't had Sublimely Self-Righteous in awhile.
I really like the IPA hop/dark malt combination. The piney hops dominated, but there is plenty of other flavor on board. This beer seems noticeably hoppier than the other Black IPA's I remember. Piercing pine aroma. Copious head that was renewed by the glass with nucleation points. Dry finish. I wouldn't argue with calling it crisp. Very enjoyable.

4.3/5 rDev +1.9%
look: 5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25