New Beer Weekend #91

Yes! That’s the beer I was thinking of (amongst others).

I agree, it’s delicious, but it’s not “beer” in the sense that I’m familiar with the term/description, especially the look and mouthfeel. After I drank that specific “beer,” I was looking for a treadmill to jump on and pound out a quick 5K.

Luckily, I caught a little footage of that run.

 

Good afternoon NBW
Church was attended, lunch served and the oldest is on his way back to Purdue. Time for an appropriate beer...

Boskeun
12oz undated can poured into a teku glass at 55° Fahrenheit 9% ABV. The beer pours opaque golden amber with off white head. The head recedes to a thin ring and island of tiny bubbles. The aroma is mild with general sweetness up front, followed by caramel, banana, and clove. The taste is semisweet pale malt with notes of honey, clove and earthy moderate bitterness. The mouthfeel is medium plus bodied with average plus carbonation. The finish is an enigma, being almost completely dry despite the sweetness of the beer. Perfect combination of carbonation, ABV and dryness for drinkability. Alcohol is mostly hidden, except for the warming effect on the throat and belly. Overall, excellent BSPA.

Apparently this was bulk shipped to the US and canned by B. United. Very nice Belgian beer at any rate. Cheers all!

 

Sly Fox Slugger Unfiltered Pilsner - four 16 oz cans with the old Phillies colors from SF who does Lagers really well for $9.99? Yes, please! Pours a light yellow, fairly hazy, generous head. Smell is the usual Pilsner, taste is about the same but with a slightly softer mouthfeel but yet still a bit hoppy; still fairly balanced, though, especially as it warms. The lacing is hanging around big time and this is a wonderful beer that I will probably be drinking often while it is in season (Apr-Sept), as this would be a great hot weather beer. 5.2% ABV. Budmo!

https://www.slyfoxbeer.com/beer/slugger-pils

 

Howdy all! Time for a few new beers... trying to do this a bit on the sly while visiting with family, so apologies for the quick reviews. Promise that the next one will be extremely (and coincidentally) relevant, but this one is just something I had in the fridge that happens to be decent! Things I Imagined is a 6.5% ABV IPA brewed with vanilla, lactose, and pineapple.

Pours a cloudy pale yellow color with some generous head formation and spectacular lacing. Nice surface coverage and good foam stability, so overall I think this one has a pretty great pour.

Nose is slightly tropical and a bit dusty. It's overall kind of boring smelling without much vibrance that you'd expect from the addition of a tropical fruit. My issues with "milkshake IPAs" like this are always a bit more apparent in the scent, I feel. They tend to be kind of anonymous overall with some vitamin-like elements that I'm never really down with.

A hint of bitterness on the tongue mixed with some mango and pineapple flavors. Surprisingly, I like the balance of bitter hops with the light sweetness of tropical fruit here. It works marginally better than I thought it would. I think I do enjoy this one more than I initially figured I would... I have a bias against milkshake IPAs simply because I've had more bad iterations of the substyle than good ones (by quite a large margin), but this isn't bad at all.

 

Greetings fellow NBSers! A sunny morning is giving way to a partly cloudy noontime here in the Fourth Corner. Worked a small show at the theatre a couple nights ago, Bob Mould (of Husker Du and Sugar fame) playing a solo electric show. Enjoyable show:

First up today is Conshohocken Puddlers Row, via @Roy_Hobbs and NBS BIF #15: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/34280/126672/

 

Starting today with a slushy beer from 903. This beer surprised me. I hate Almond extract flavoring in any baking item. It tastes fake and chemically abhorrent. This has plenty of Almond cookie flavoring, allowing the blueberries to shine. The beer is chocked full of blueberries. The beer is thick like fruit soup but not cloying sweet. The tarty blueberries give the Berliner a bit of depth. Overall a great start to Easter Sunday. Cheers My BA friends!

4.27
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

 

I am glad you enjoyed that beer. I love the Rusty Nail.

 

Happy NBS!

If you're Christian, Happy Resurrection Day!

Late winter/early spring (is there a difference in Minnesota? I don't think so...)

Chilly today (high in the 30's).

This weekend for me is a "highly regarded beers I somehow never had" weekend.

Today's is #198 on the Beers of Fame list.

Brewery Ommegang Three Philosophers
ABV: 9.7%
IBU: 19

This beer is entered in the BA database as a quad. But, is it, really? According to the brewer, it is a blend of an Ommegang Belgian-style quad and 2% of Liefmans cherry kriek from Belgium. So, is it still a quad? Yeah, by majority vote, I suppose so …

Surprisingly (to me), the head is short and very short-lived, despite as vigorous a pour as I could manage in the small 250ml chalice. While it lasts (look quickly), the head is a light tan color and bubbly. It quickly shrinks into sparse islands (and, then, also fairly quickly, disappears altogether), leaving a tea-like appearance. Dark reddish-brown from the front becomes a hazy bright ruby with a backlight. Active carbonation (also short-lived, though) rises to cause the islands to swirl around a bit. The color is great looking. Unfortunately, that is all that is great about the look.

Nice aroma, strong at first (I picked it up as soon as I cracked the can) but becomes pretty weak once the head is gone. I had to swizzle it to get a good whiff. Dark fruit, sweet candy, cherries. (Since I could tease an nice aroma with a swizzle, I didn't penalize the "smell" rating due to the limitation of the head - that was taken care of in the "look" rating.)

The flavor is very nice. Dark fruit, of course, sweet sugary candy, cherries-slightly tart. Spicy - coriander, perhaps some clove. No bittering. The middle exposes a malty foundation lending some needed gravitas to the beer. The interplay of the flavors never actually blends, but they do play off of each other very nicely. This is an excellent-tasting sipping beer, with lots going on in the flavor to keep me interested. The alcohol comes through into the flavor at the ~⅓-point of the beer and lingers through the remaining time. The finish is - oddly - a blend of sweet and dry. The candy bringing the sweet, and the cherries bringing the tart-dry.

The body is thinner than I expected for such a strong beer, and the feel is flat despite the initially active carbonation (which, as I mentioned above, seems to have disappeared along with the head). The feel ends up being a bit annoying (that is, for a flavor that is so great, there is a feel is so meh).

Overall, this beer might have among the widest variation among my rating of the individual elements (3.25 to 4.5), but the ones that count the most are the highest, so overall, it ends up at a weighted rating of 4.19. But, somehow, a bit of a disappointing 4.19.

L: 3.25 | S: 4.25 | T: 4.5 | F: 3.25 | O: 4.25 | Rating: 4.19

 

Lol. This explains the presence of a good 150-200 of the beers I have attached in the cellar…..

 

Zombie Jesus Day seems as good a time as any to keep digging out of the beerhole @Roy_Hobbs has buried me in. Next up is something we don't see often these days, a packaged Black & Tan. Berkshire Shabadoo, a blend of 33% Drayman's Porter and 66% Hoosac Tunnel Amber. It's a nicely enjoyable brew, and worth your time if you see it: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/33/2369/

 

Got a great tax return after finally doing my taxes yesterday so I went out and splurged a bit. I'd only had one prior experience with The Referend and it was solid, so I figured I'd pony up the (rather insane) $30 for this bottle. I chose this one semi-randomly from the shelf, but realized soon afterwards that it would be pretty relevant to today, considering it's Easter and the beer name, Agnus Dei, is Latin for Lamb of God. The label features a painting of... what looks to be thylacines (extinct striped marsupials) eating lambs. The side of the bottle features a poem by Austrian writer Georg Trakl:

"In old cellars the wine matures into gold, clarity.
Apples smell sweet. Joy shines not too far away.
Children gladly hear fairy tales through the long evening;
Also gold, truth often come out in gentle insanity."

Interesting. Anyway, this is a "Berliner Messe pale wheat ale" with Vidal Blanc grape juice, aged in Pineau des Charents puncheons. Vidal blanc is, apparently, typically used (especially in N. America) to produce ice wine, and Pineau des Charents is a dessert wine blend of Cognac and grape juice, so this is definitely wine-inspired in many ways.

Pour is not too impressive... quickly-building head of fizzy white foam that disappears immediately, leaving behind absolutely no suds. Carbonation is extremely visible despite the cloudiness of the body. No lacing or legs whatsoever. Unimpressive looking brew, but it's spontaneously fermented and barrel-aged, and there's grape juice involved so I guess it's forgivable.

Nose is bright and cider-like with some of that rustic, Brett-driven hay and funk popping up. Some heady tropical notes of mango and golden raisins, light tannins, and a bit of brown sugar coming out as it warms. The cognac notes are definitely popping out after a while too.

Flavor profile is predominantly rustic/barnyard with strong white grape aspects in the front... juicy and tart with mango and guava in the finish. Light white pepper and a hint of cognac-type heat despite the low ABV of the beer itself. Getting almost a savory, rye-like spice and some palate-wrecking tartness as this sits open. I don't think this is the most drinkable or well-balanced spontaneously-fermented ale out there, and it definitely doesn't command the huge price tag whatsoever, but the pop of the cork and the presentation of the bottle are second-to-none in my opinion. Style over substance, maybe, yeah... but I also don't regret buying it.

Cheers to you all, and Happy Easter (whatever that means to you).

 

Over the in laws for an early dinner, my brother (in law, but brother) had a six pack of this in the fridge. Wasn’t planning to drink while here but hey…This brewery has surprised me 3 times in a row so I was happy to try this free beer.

Slack Tide - Schoolie



Pours a very murky orangey brown, it’s light than the pic makes it look. Big quick forming head slowly settles to a see through layer of white, lots of splotchy lace.

Nose is a fruit salad medley, tropical fruits. Not much else other than that, maybe just the subtlelest if grassiness as well.

Taste is same as nose, with a little more of a traditional hop bite but it is still minimal.

Soft mouthfeel and light body, a minor hop bite on the finish.

This beer didn’t impress as much as their others but I think it’s just the style. This is a simple one dimensional fruity easy drinking pale ale, just not my style but I could see your average drinking loving this beer.

Back with a beast from @ovaltine later tonight…

 

Berkshire is very local to me, they do yoemans work for many local and regional programs.
That particular offering is one of the oldest in the BBC support beers.
Since its inception over 20 yrs now Shabadoo is nearing $1MM in supporting donations from profits on that beer to the Food Bank.
Cheers from a BBC fan and longtime customer.

 

@Roy_Hobbs sent a couple of their beers, and I've liked them. I was reading about their donations on the side of the can. Maybe after this NBS BIF winds down, we can work out a trade. They seem like the type of brewery I'd support regularly if they were a local for me.

 

Happy Easter, New Beer Samplers and commentators. It's been a most enjoyable day. Mrs. Mac was lead vocalist in choir anthem at Easter service today and we were able to Facetime both our son and daughter (who is in Jerusalem for 5.5 months writing her dissertation). It's her birthday today. I can't believe we have a 30 year old! Last week she and some friends visited Taybeh Brewing Co. in Ramallah on the West Bank. It was her first time there in several years and she was impressed by how the brewery's capacity has increased. I've had Taybeh beers before and they're pretty good.

We've been treated to a lot of good collaborations in our area recently. Today's review is Insane in the Brain, an Imperial New England IPA brewed by Magnify and Equilibrium. It was canned 5 days ago. This is an interesting ale. The smell is super fruity but the taste is decidedly earthy and bitter. Sometimes you can detect the work of both brewers in a collaboration but to me this doesn't taste like either a Magnify or Equilibrium IPA. Nonetheless, it's very good as would be expected from these brewers.

It pours a dense, muddy orange with two full fingers of frothy, bright white head and very thick, clinging lacing. What a nose! Ripe honeydew melon, pineapple, orange, lemon, and lime with bready malt and soft floral hops. The smell indicates the hand of Equilibrium. This is one time where the taste doesn't follow the smell. It's decidedly earthy, grassy, and quite bitter. To my taste the Simcoe hops dominate over the Galaxy, Cashmere, and Citra Cryo. The fruited flavor is largely bitter grapefruit rind and lemon peel. The sweeter fruit notes I smelled are far in the background of taste. As it warms in the glass I'm getting more malt sweetness and the taste is starting to remind me of brown bread smeared with tart marmalade. The mouth feel is great: thick and creamy with a pleasant level of carbonation, and it drinks rather lite for 8.8% ABV.

4.33/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

I hope everyone is enjoying his/her new beer this fine afternoon. Cheers, NBW and have a great week!

 

Here’s where I get pelted with marshmallow “Peeps” - His Dudeness:

Golden-orange in color, and topped with a dense off white head. Suspended in the liquid seem to be flavoring elements, which give it a somewhat cloudy appearance. The nose is rather clean, and not at all dominated by any off the ingredients in this one, much less by off-flavors, and that fact alone is noteworthy. Light vanilla and cocoa, but no coffee to speak of.

As in the nose, there are no singularly overpowering flavors on the palate, whether it be from lactose sugar, vanilla bean, cocoa or coffee; All of these different flavors contribute to the overall flavor, balanced expertly against each other. Still, there is a sweetness here which I can only describe as “Candy-like”, and which adds a heaviness to the drink (and yes I know it’s a stout) but this detracts from the overall drinkability, rather than improving it.

Again, stout-like it most certainly is (and although I have never taken to the white stout style, I appreciate the style more as a strong ale in the manner of an American style barleywine), and it’s certainly strong and warming, and leaving nothing to be desired in the area of a full-bodied ale.

As it warms the enhancing flavor contributors (vanilla, cocoa, coffee) continue to play off one another and add definite interest to the drink, while at the same time fending off the mighty thrust of the lactose sugar.

An ambitious and interesting brew, to be sure, but it’s simply nowhere near my wheelhouse these days.

As stouts go (white stout or traditional stout for that matter), this is perfectly in line with the Pastry Stouts of the moment, and I can’t help but wonder a little just how long that moment will last.

At the nexus of fast food and fine dining there lies the nefarious thing known as a “garbage pizza”, with pretty much every topping available to the pizza maker being added to a pie for an all-out assault on the culinary senses of the dining participant.

To be fair, I have never gone in for that sort of approach, and with His Dudeness I sense a very similar approach has been taken.

Maybe with the next iteration they’ll add cherry flavor and marshmallow extract?

2/11/22 canning date

 

Trois Pistoles by Unibroue

4.22/5 rDev -0.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25




Bottle poured into a nonic

Brewers Notes: Drawing on Quebec folklore, Unibroue chose the name Trois Pistoles to honour the city’s historic importance and pay homage to the legend of the Black Horse. Conjured up by a priest to help build a new church, this incarnation of the devil ran off when its bridle was removed. Because construction was still underway when the horse vanished, a stone remains missing from the church to this day.

Dark cola like liquid capped by a foamy taupe foam which recedes to a thin layer

Aroma is malts, dark fruits , raisins, figs

Taste is dark fruits, figs, raisins , malts

Mouthfeel is soft , fizzy

Good beer