New Beer Weekend #90

I am glad to see you enjoying this so much. I would love to hear your thoughts on how this compares to the Jackie O's 'Convex Refraction'. I'll withhold my own take until you voice yours, if you can recall. But very curious your take.

 

Yuengling Flight - I've become an avid calorie and carb counter and unfortunately for all of us beer is a big offender. Also, I've been swinging back into enjoying beers that taste like beer and adding some of my favorite classic styles back into rotation. So naturally let's test out this beer, which has already become a best seller for Yeungling. 95 calories, 2.6g carbs, 4.2% ABV.

Pours a clear yellow with a nice head that quickly disappears. Smell is the usual Yuengling with some of their yeast in there along with adjuncts. Taste is good for what it is but full disclosure: Helles is one of my favorite styles (to give some context) and I can really enjoy corny/ricey adjunct Lagers and find them to be pretty refreshing when I'm in the mood. I'm also a fan of some Hard Seltzers so a lighter body doesn't matter much to me and has some benefits.

For what this is I enjoy this quite a bit. Throw in a lime and some sea salt and you have a nice summer BBQ beer. Budmo!

 

Wolfsburg Helles from Reuben's. I bought it for myself (and some others)!

16oz can served in a footed pilsner glass. Dated 03/03/22. Bought it at the brewery last week.

Pours clear light golden with a large (3+ inch) head that settles slowly and sexily. Moderate amount of active carbonation. Smell is grain tea, light honeysuckle, some cut grass.

Taste is grain and honey with a little bit of a soapiness and a fair amount of grassy bitterness.

Mouthfeel is medium. Overall, this is a pretty nice beer -- but I'd like that soapiness to go away, the body to be a bit lighter and dryer, and bit more of a grassy punch.

 

Try it from the can. For real. It made a difference to me.

 

Stonecloud/American Solera Collab; Going Viral ( PT 2) Cold IPA, 7.0% ABV. 4.15 overall

Pours an effervescent & hazed gold with 3 fingers of pearl colored head. Nice lacing & better than average head retention

S: Papaya, green melon & tangerine

T: Follows the nose, also picking up some grapefruit & dryness up front. A little guava sweetness as this warms, along with tangerine, more dryness & papaya too. Finishes with tangerine, guava & a little dryness

MF: Medium body, restrained carbonation, lovely balance

Very easy drinker, nice flavors

Strata, Centennial Cryo & Whole Leaf Idaho#7 hops

 

Tonight is a new to me beer

Suarez Brewing – Palatine pils

5.2% ABV (per BA; none listed on can)

The beer is listed as “Pilsner – German” on BA.

The beer was removed from a 45ish degree temp fridge after having been refrigerated for approximately… 3 Days. Beer poured into a dimpled HB stein.

First Impression: A real beautiful pour. Mostly clear, but a bit opaque. Nice head that doesn’t immediately fade into nothingness. 4.4

Appearance: Mostly clear, but a bit opaque. What appears as a beautiful golden straw color quickly changes to a more obvious clear-yellow with a hint of white as though someone dripped a drop of cream in. Nice white, thick head. 4.5

Smell: I’m never good at describing smell for styles like this. I get lemon, sour, perhaps a real small amount of hay with perhaps a touch of bubblegum esters (something I know I report in many styles that others never seem to). If I search hard, I get a bit of that fresh-risen bakery ‘put your head in the bread bowl’ yeast. The only reason I am not giving this a higher score for smell is because it isn’t very fragrant, not because it is malodorous. 4.35

Taste: Does delicious count? I’m never good at describing what I taste in lagers. It’s bright, crisp, with lager yeast and a bit of lemon. It tastes very similar to how the nose smells. Something to note: No hops! Yay, just as the german style should be. If I want to be real picky, I suppose it could stand to be a slight amount more carbonated, although perhaps that should go under mouthfeel. 4.85

Mouthfeel: It’s the perfect viscosity. Very comparable to a perfectly well done marzen. 4.85

Overall: I love this beer. I’ve never had this beer. Hell, I haven’t even had many pilsners. Until recently, I didn’t even know there was a hoppy vs. not hoppy variety. This was news to me. Since then, I am ISO good german pils! I’d drink this 50% of the time in the summer if I had access. Fantastic. 4.85

BA Review Score: 4.71

My review can be found here:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/41980/239395/?ba=Beer_Economicus#lists

Cross-posted with WBAYDN

 

I can't believe you have reviewed over 2.6k beers and you haven't had focal banger. That was one of my first 100 beers since joining BA, likely, and I am not even an IPA guy. WTF! 'Bout god damn time!

 

He's Spoiled with all that Chi Town & regional goodness

 

So very true. It's ridiculous what Chicago has access to.

 

Poured into a 13 oz Teku glass canned on 3/25/22. Pours a hazy yellow orange with a solid finger plus sticky white head that leaves a bunch of this lines of lace with excellent retention. 4.5

Aroma is cantaloupe, mandarin, papaya, apricot, grapefruit, and a hint of alcohol. 4.25

Taste follows mandarin, papaya, cantaloupe, apricot, grapefruit, and a little tickle of alcohol in bold finish. 4.5

Mouthfeel is above average, not sticky or dry, soft gentle carbonation, and at 10.5% it goes down very easy. 4.5

Overall this stuff is pretty darn impressive. I always enjoy Definitive Brewing Company. I highly recommend. 4.25

 

Greetings all, tonight’s pint is Trillium DDH Trailside IPA - courtesy of @WunderLlama via NBS BIF #15.



P: Pours milky pale yellow with a frothy, just off-white head that settles into a thin cap. Little to no lacing on this one.

S: Aroma is apricot, peach, grapefruit, lemongrass, green mango, grass.

T: Follows nose - lots of stone fruit and citrus, but in a dry, focused style rather than ripe and juicy. Pale malt if any, very little sweetness. Pronounced grassy hops with garlic/onion notes appearing on the lingering dry, bittering finish.

M: Medium bodied, lightly carbed.

O: Very tasty, but also very weedy and tight, I like that it’s ‘only’ 6.8, the impression is a couple points higher, nice change of pace. The few IPAs I’ve had from Trillium have all been well-made and enjoyable and this one does nothing to change that.

4.16/5 rDev -1.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Cheers!

 

Tonight is a new to me beer


Dancing Gnome – Barrel-Aged Dark Clouds Double Vanilla


11% ABV


The beer is listed as “Stout – American Imperial” on BA.

The beer was removed from a 45ish degree temp fridge after having been refrigerated for approximately… 5.5 months. Beer poured into a Side Project stemmed Durobor.


OK, so I came across this beer on black Friday 2021. The store I was at would not sell till 8 or 9am, despite opening 1-2 hours before that. Boy was I pissed, because they didn’t advertise that. Well, their attitude was also “we’re going to offer you a bunch of beers that we saved back just for this day!” I was pissed, but looked anyway and saw this one. It was $16.99, and rated >4.6 on untappd. So, I figured, I guess I’ll take a risk. I’ve been waiting to open it, partially because of that high mark. I just couldn’t imagine it would live up to the hype (I built up in my mind based on the rating). Let’s see if it does.


First Impression: Pours dark and thick (looking), especially for an 11% vanilla stout. Pretty head. Starting off right. 4.5

Appearance: Typical stout darkness. Nice pretty khaki head that mostly dissipates (quickly) with a slight ring around the edge. 4.35

Smell: This is where it starts taking a turn for the worst. Artificial vanilla upfront with tubbed-vanilla ice cream on the back end. Slight alcohol laces peaking their head. 3.95

Taste: This is worse than the taste, even if the score doesn’t reflect it in an obvious way. Big heavy dark chocolate (they call it brownie on the label, but it’s more just cacao. What follows is a lot of the tubbed-vanilla frosting described from the nose. Perhaps it is entirely real, not synthetic or the result of vanilla extract, but it comes off exceedingly ‘artificial. Not a lot of depth. 3.85

Mouthfeel: For an 11% stout, it’s pretty thick. Every bit as thick as Bourbon County (a good marker for how thick a beer is as an OG BA stout on the ‘chewy’ end of the spectrum for stouts that are NOT thicccc). It’s ‘fine’, but feels heavy for the intensity of the flavor. 4.0

Overall: I don’t hate this beer, but I certainly regret buying it. I almost sent it to a good trade partner, but thought better of it. Now I’m glad I didn’t – Would have felt like a fool/asshat. But really, what a fucking disappointment. It feels like a beer trying to be a pastry stout that, arguably, probably achieves what it is going for, but what ultimately comes off as artificial to me. Feels like another beer just being hyped by locals. It’s baffling how this beer ever reached a >4.6 average rating on untappd, or even a 4.4+ on BA. 3.85


BA Review Score: 3.92


My review can be found here:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/47223/510495/?ba=Beer_Economicus#lists

Cross posted with WBAYDN.

 

Drank an entire six pack of this stuff over the course of the afternoon and evening, and though unfortunately I did not write down a review or tasting notes of it at the time, I will tell you that it is a very on-point salt & lime lager--sour and juicy lime, saliva-inducing salinity, and super crisp pilsnery body with a crisp clean finish. It's extremely crushable which is why I drank the whole six pack so easily which I did not originally intend to do. If that style of beer appeals to you, I highly recommend it.

 

Boulevard Proper Pour Wine/Whiskey BA Imp Stout, 12.4% ABV; 4.43 overall

Pours like worn out motor oil with a pinky of caramel colored head. Some lacing & head retention

S: Plenty of fortified wine barrel, tons of dark fruit ( cherry & prunes )

T: Sweet chocolate, red grapes, oaky dryness & a touch of vanilla, plus a little dark cherry & raisin up front. So some port notes as this starts to warm, dark cherry, a touch of whisky barrel & the expected dryness to go with. Finishes with plenty of fortified wine presence, dark chocolate & dark cherry

MF: Chewy with noticeable, but barely any carbonation, warming

Another killer BA Imp Stout from these guys, a sipper, but rewarding

 

My apologies. But, you did say that I should send what I thought was a 'bad' beer to my target. And, you were faaaarrr more generous to that 'creation' than I was.