New Beer Weekend #100

Hello from London, NBS and W Faithful. Haven’t found a huge variety of offerings here. But did enjoy this from Oakham Ales. https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1680/69732/?ba=2beerdogs#lists Session IPA (seems like they relabeled this, and appropriately so). It has been listed on the site as an APA. It definitely drinks like a good session IPA.
Pretty solid.

 

Happy Juneteenth and for the dads out there happy Father’s Day! Starting today with Human Robot Niebo Polish-Style Pilsner.
4.24/5 rDev +2.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
by larryi86 from Delaware

16 oz can poured into a mug

A- A fairly hazy golden straw with a two finger white head.

S- Biscuits, floral, touch of citrus, slightly earthy.

T- Floral, biscuits, some sweet malts, touch of citrus, earthy.

M- Smooth, crisp, medium body.

O- Another well done Pils from Human Robot, wonderful floral quality without being overwhelming

Cheers!

 

Sounds tasty! I’m excited to review a can later today

 

Thanks @SawDog505 for the kickoff. And Happy Father’s Day to all dads out there and to those of you who are blessed with a great dad, grandad or fatherly figure in your life.

 

A beer I’ve been really looking forward to. A Czech Pilsner from my favorite brewery. Enjoying this one while cooking dinner.

Tonewood - Focal Point (3.8% czech pils)



Pours a beautiful clear gold, this is there clearest to date, white head, settles to a nice uniform thin opaque film.

Bright hoppy nose; slightly floral with some light pepper like spice; touch of malt.

The taste is nice and hoppy as well; I would say the floral note disappears giving this a nice pepper like spice; with some grassiness. The malt again just present enough.

Light body but in no way watery; which is very impressive at 3.8%. Very pleasant and smooth carbonation; almost creamy. Best part a nice nice hoppy bite on the finish that lingers around. Moderately dry and very clean finish.

Their best pale lager to date, it definitely leans hoppy but it’s all Saaz so I’m fine with it. I will 100% purchase a lot of this beer again shortly.

@M-Fox24 @RobHB

 

Third from the Jack's Abby radler pack is Lil' Lemon
JA is one of my favorite breweries and there are very few of their products that I don't care for, sadly this is one of those.



The color is a pale lemony yellow with a tick of straw and a fluffy white head that dissolves into a ring.

Remember these “old fashioned” lemon drops?

That's what the faint aroma smells like

Remember these lemon drops?

Dissolve a bunch of these into an above average AAL

With Lil' Lemon you know there's a good beer in there somewhere, but it is hidden behind an artificial smell and taste. Not the worst I've had, but I expected a lot more from JA

3.53/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

BONUS review
A quick note on the JA Pineapple/Guava/Passion Fruit radler. I had one on Friday, but my son drank the other two Saturday so this is going by memory.

The PGP is the color of a faded out plum with a lilac tinted head and a generic “tropical fruit” aroma.

This beer is full of sweet tropical fruit. Not much pineapple, but the guava and passion fruit is definitely present.
I didn't care for it, but that was due purely to personal taste.

This is offered in a 16oz 4 pack, if you enjoy the taste of guava & passion fruit give it a try, you'll likely be pleased.

 

That glass makes me wax nostalgic. I really did like Andeker and seeing a remnant of it now is very nice indeed!

 

Up next is another Off Color beer from @FBarber, Miscellanea Vol. 2. According to the bottle, the secret ingredients are "An ever evolving collection of wild yeasts, barrel lees and mixed cultures from ourselves and our dearest friends added to a single foedre and left to mingle."

Pours a burnt orange. Fairly vibrant, with a negligible amount of thin, short-lived white head. Aroma has a healthy amount of yeasty barnyard funk, with some nice underlying notes from the foedre. Taste is an explosion of wild funk....much more than the nose. It's not overwhelming, but it's complex...so much so that I don't think I can even pick out individual notes. There's just a good blend of different yeast strains that work together to create an interesting, tart, lively, refreshing beer. Digging this one quite a bit.

This is why I love wild ales. I feel like IPAs are ubiquitous and often generic. The high school student wearing what everybody else wears to try to fit and be cool. Wild ales are the quirky geeks, wearing what they want to wear and not giving a crap what others think about them. I'll take quirky 100 times out of 100. Unapologetically different.

 

I reviewed a collaboration beer involving Toppling Goliath Brewing yesterday. It was not a success. Let's see how how a Toppling Goliath Brewing collaboration with Other Half Brewing goes. Uncooked chicken yellow color with apricot and honey colors mixed in. A nice light white foamy topping. The smell is wonderful! Citrus fruits, white grape, fresh-baked bread, honey, and kiwifruit. The taste has an immediate familiarity of both of these breweries, yet it is quite unique, due to this interesting combination of hops. The flavor is fruity, yet bitter. Mango and white grape jump to the forefront. There is a bready, malty flavor with the finish. The mouthfeel is very familiar for these breweries, but the bitterness makes it feel thicker than other more juicy beers that are similar in style. It is soupy, full, with higher carbonation. Overall, this beer is decent, but like with the Toppling Goliath Brewing collaboration beer yesterday, they are just throwing hops together randomly to create something, but it ends up not very special. I suppose there would not be much point in two legendary NEIPA breweries getting together to recreate their signature citrusy single-hop beers, but that would be my preference.

 

Looking forward to seeing what you think Larry

You guys done the school year yet. We got our last day Tuesday, off tomorrow.

 

The other new venue we visited yesterday was Foreign Objects' tasting room in Monroe, New York. Foreign Objects continues to be a gypsy brewer. I was told yesterday that a lot of its beer is brewed at Bolero Snort's facility in the New Jersey Meadowlands. I've been impressed with FO's hoppy ales which are sold locally. The tasting room is not what I expected. I thought it would be in some trendy, renovated building in downtown Monroe. But it's located south of town in a rather rural, out-of-the-way area, and it has a real roadhouse feel.


The place was pretty quiet considering the quality of the beer.

Foreign Objects brews a series of Imperial Stouts called Transgression Culture. Today, I'm reviewing the variant with chocolate, cinnamon, and macaroon. While it sounds adjunct-laden and gimmicky, it's very well crafted and delicious!

It pours an oily, inky black color with a full finger of frothy, light mocha-colored head and thick lacing. The smell offers dark chocolate, cinnamon, freshly-brewed coffee, and nutty macaroon. It's absolutely decadent. The chocolate is rich but only mildly sweet. Rather, the sweetness comes from the oats, lactose, and coconut. The coffee is acidic and the cinnamon and coconut is noticeable but delicate. The macaroon is primarily at the finish and it's the perfect compliment to the other flavors. Beneath the foregoing is a nice base of earthy char. The flavors blend very well. The mouth feel is thick and creamy with lite/moderate carbonation, and it sure doesn't drink like 11.5% ABV. I like this a lot and now wish I had bought more than 2 cans. I'll have to get back there soon. Hopefully, there will still be some left.

4.43/5 rDev -0.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Have a great week, everyone!

 

Just finished on Friday, felt like we just limped across the finish line, glad this school is over!

 

Ooh, the big 100 for NBW! Very cool. Though I still think of it primarily as "NBS," it's good to see that the tradition has survived into the triple digits in its newest incarnation. To celebrate both that and all the fathers and father-figures out there, I have two new IPAs to share today.



Up first is Automata by Spyglass Brewing Co. It is an 8.2% NE-style DIPA with Columbus, Citra, and Amarillo hops. I expected not to see a canned-on date for this considering they've never had them previously in my experience, so I was surprised to see that it does, in fact, state that this was canned 5/24/22, making it just about four weeks old.

The pour is very nice (and the can was extremely full), with a vibrant and saturated orange-yellow hazy body topped off with a lingering cap of eggshell-white suds that leaves behind some impressive lace patterns as it slowly sinks to a half-finger rocky ring. Many macro bubbles present on the surface, which is fully covered even after ten minutes in glass. Great!

Nose is superb too, with a bright and boisterous upfront assault of aggressive pine-y, grapefruit-forward, floral/dank-laden hoppiness that just screams West Coast IPA. There is a slight undercurrent of smooth oats and wheat-like maltiness in here, too, which does speak to the "NE" IPA style, but the hops utilized are definitely more old-school and punchy, and it shows in how blunt and powerful the dry-hop expression is. Looking forward to this!

Yep, as expected, this kicks ass. It's definitely a "best of both worlds" type IPA for me... has the smoothness and drinkability of a modern NEIPA with the characterful hop profile of a WC IPA. Flavors of tropical mango, dank cannabis, pomelo, and tangerine are prominent while the slight doughy sweetness of the oat-heavy grain bill helps temper all of the intense hop elements. Feel is silky and well-rendered; not too heavy on carbonation but also not too passive... the intensity of the hops is matched well by the body, and there is just a slight kiss of ethanol presence to give it some heft and let you know you're drinking a double IPA. Very high recommendation. One of my favs from Spyglass as of late.

Back again soon...

 

I feel like I scraped my knees towards the finish line, this one needed to end more than ever. Congrats, I'll be joining you across that line soon.

 

Descriptor of the week, well done

 

Day 2, let’s keep it simple. Transient is my local and my favorite brewery. Let’s see how this hazy fared.



4.35/5 rDev +6.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
by ovaltine from Indiana

Pours a hazy mango color with a creamy off-white head that sticks around as a cap on the beer and laces the glass nicely. Beautiful hazy if you like the style, which I do.

The nose is rife with mango, passion fruit, fruit punch, and pineapple aromas that combine really well to suggest a tropical fruit punch cooler. The taste confirms that, with the mango most prominent and absolutely delicious, combining with the fruit punch and passion flavors to provide a beer that is a tropical flavor treat.

The mouthfeel is medium and a bit creamy per the style. Gimme more of this.

Ranger is playing the “you’re my human Dad, give me food” card, but I am resisting his earnest efforts to secure more treats. Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there.

 

Greetings, fellow NBWers,

Didn't drink any beers yesterday, new or otherwise, but I drank a bit on Friday, and hit two breweries that were new to me: Hop Chaos (formerly Pints Alehouse) and Spokanite Brewing (almost brand new -opened about two weeks ago).

Went out this afternoon with the idea of having a late combination breakfast & lunch downtown before hitting the big downtown bookstore for a birthday present for niece #2. But the place I had in mind (a place that specializes in both sweet and savory waffle combinations) decided to close an hour early for reasons unexplained. The greeter/hostess/whatever was so unforthcoming I had to ask her all the questions. If I'd waited for her to say something to me I'd probably still be there waiting.
Anyways, the next few options I passed were either closed (one permanently, it seems), slammed, or had nothing I wanted.
So I'm at the local "hockey bar", Lord Stanley's, where I've ordered BBQ Poutine and am drinking the amber ale from Garland Brew Werks.

Not a bad amber. I'm not a fan of the style in general, but this is one that has a maltiness that is toasty rather than sugary sweet. I'd hit it again.

Probably cracking open something else around dinner time.

 

Have a great NBS. Not been drinking a lot lately. Maybe had 2 days I had beer last week. Been eating a lot of questionably bad foods, but all I can say I am getting WingStop and Little Caesars again for a good deal on a lot of food.

Just got done with 5 miles of hiking owls roost north of the city yesterday. Amazing well maintained trail! My life is the best of all time these past 6 months. We have watched a good 100 movies and I'm through 25 books. Even with Julia looking for a new job, everything is super comfortable financially. Best job I've ever had, probably never leaving NC again lol.



I did revisit my 2XIPA review from 2012, 10 years ago yesterday. Worthwhile to post. Pours a nice crystal clear golden orange color with a nice 2 finger dense white head with great retention that reduces to a thick cap that lingers. Some nice soapy lacing on the glass as well. Updated 6/18/2022 with a fresh can at Rody's Tavern. Aromas and flavors of big red grapefruit, tangerine, pineapple, peach, mango, melon, berries, citrus peel/rind, wood, peppercorn, pine, cracker, bread, herbal, floral, grass. Good amount of pine/rind bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation and medium bodied; with fairly crisp sticky/resinous, bready, and lightly creamy mouthfeel. Lingering resin drying with minimal hop astringency. Alcohol is nicely hidden with only a mild warming after the finish. Overall this is an awesome DIPA. Great dank and vibrant CTZ, Cascade, Citra, Simcoe, Centennial hops, with a clean west coast resinous finish. Very drinkable for the ABV. I should get it more often. 4.1


Rody's Tavern was reviewed on BA, I still have probably 100 more places to review including the 50 breweries I have visited so far. Last 20 month with Julia we have been going all over the country.


Amazing hot Buffalo wrap and fries. I was too full for the Philly but I took it home. It's in the fridge for tonight!


Lonerider sweet Josie brown ale. Great head retention and soapy lacing on the glass. Ruby brown color. This is an awesome brown. Aromas and flavors of big caramel, brown sugar, brown bread/crust, toast, biscuit, nuts, cocoa, coffee, light char, wood, herbal, grass, pepper, and yeast earthiness. Bit of diacetyl and yeast fruits in the nose as it warms. Light to medium herbal, spicy, roasted bitterness on the finish. Medium carb and body. Very creamy/bready malts, some sticky hops. Light resins and chalky roast, lingering drying, no acrid/astringent. Very clean and rich on malts. Nice level of Munich and roast complexity. Almost on the brown porter level of roast, but really spot on American style otherwise. I will buy some cans for sure. 4.1


Cheers

 

This one comes courtesy of @ovaltine in the current BIF #15, its been my goal to drink one of his barrel aged beers a week on Sunday night till they are gone. Keeping with the tradition...

Three Floyds - Cocomungo (bourbon barre aged stout with toasted coconut and maple syrup)



Pours a black to very dark brown around the edges, head is light brown; thin islands in the middle a nice thicker ring around the glass. Nice retention for a high abv barrel aged beer; swirling it around leaves little dots of brown on lacing spots.

The nose is predominantly bourbon; followed by some dark fruit like chocolate with some hints of coconut.

The taste is a very pleasant combination of bourbon and sweeter chocolate that finishes off with a little bit of coconut. Well balanced and almost like a mounds bar was flipped to be more chocolate than coconut.

Big body beer that avoids being to thick; it drinks quite smooth with a little bit of a creamy feel to it. The ABV is well hidden and only present in a slightly warming sensation in the throat; little roast/char like bitter note on the back on the tongue. Pleasant minor sweetness to it.

Out of my comfort zone for the second time today but again much like the other adjuncted stout this one is balanced and enjoyable. I'm thinking of it as my dessert to close out a great Father's Day, will sip this one into the night.


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It is another fall like night in the middle of June what a thing of beauty. Until the next one fellow beer lovers. See you all at the same time and place in 5 days...have a great week everyone.