New Beer Weekend #103

Fremont Brew 6000 Barrel Aged Barleywine, 11.9% ABV. If you can get through the damn plasticized concrete "wax" without cutting a finger off, it pours dark brown with a one-finger beige head that left no lacing. Nose is brown sugar, toffee, and bourbon. Taste follows, plus slight belt-not-shoe leather, quite sweet, faintly bitter. Decently carbonated mouthfeel, overall world-class.

4.55/5 rDev +3.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.75

I'm not usually a barleywine fan, but this is incredible. It sure would be nice not to have to use a knife to break into a beer you paid good money for. For the money, couldn't they embed a pull-wire to cut through it, or use real wax?

 

Good afternoon NBS.
Im off today and this day is 10/10. The sky is blue, not a cloud and the air is warm and dry. Will be breaking out the guitar after I sample this beauty courtesy of the generous @JayORear
Beachwood Greenshift DIPA 10%
Ooh wee.
Pours a beautiful crystal clear gold with a bright white head that has good retention for a beer of this abv. Rings of lacing as well.
Aroma is fruity peach, dark berries, lemon-lime and some grapfruit with a good dose of floral hops.
Taste follows with citrus dominating followed by mild stonefruit and tropicals. Classic WC pine and grapefruit on the bitter finish.
Not at all sweet for 10% and drying on the finish. Bitter, tasty, snappy hops.
Ive been gifted quite a few Beachwood beers and they have never let me down, I love this style. This beer is no exception. Hop bomb in the WC style. So damn good. Thank You Jay!

 

Another new to me island beer this morning - Lanikai Brewing Company’s “Cheehoo IPA”:



Deep gold pour with huge rocky/frothy white head; ok clarity; excellent cap retention, heavy lacing and heavy ring. Lemon peel and an earthy skunky fruity nose I’ve not encountered. Dull off-putting/tasting lychee fruit; no bitterness; semi sweet malt base. Medium light body, moderate minus carbonation. Overall, this beer has a tropical fruit aftertaste and linger that I really don’t like with an awful tasting fruit finish; I eat fresh lychee almost every day that I pick off the trees, and this beer is…a bad flavor I’ve previously not experienced…despite recommendations from bottle shop owner, glad I only bought one can (BB Date 10/20/22).

4.75 | 3.5 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 3.0
Score: 3.33 rDev - 8.5%


Cheers and Aloha y’all!

 

Good Sunday afternoon, New Beer Samplers and commentators. It's another lovely early summer afternoon - perfect for a new beer review on the deck.

Yesterday, my wife and I had an ideal outing. She loves to hike along the canals which line both sides of the Delaware River to look for birds. So we walked along the Delaware Canal just south of Easton, PA (about 45 minutes from home). After that we paid a visit to Two Rivers Brewing Company in downtown Easton. I had a very nice DIPA hopped with New Zealand varieties (Dutchtown 26) and a superb American Imperial Stout (Esoterik). We enjoy Middle Eastern cuisine and Mrs. Mac found a local Lebanese restaurant and (I kid you not) bottle shop located within walking distance. The food was outstanding and we'll be finishing it tonight.


Lots of shwarma, falafel, salad, and fresh pita.

I was impressed enough with the beer at Two Rivers to purchase a crowler of its Baltic Porter, called "Bangor State." I had taster at the brewery. Like the Stout, it's the real deal. It pours a very dark cola with a thin, ecru-colored head and lacing. It smells of roasted malt, earthy char, leather, tobacco, raisin, and perhaps a whiff of fig. It packs a lot of flavor, including burnt malt, charred nuts, bitter coffee grounds, peat, and cigar ash balanced by the sweeter notes of raisin, fig, and black cherry. As it warms there is also a subtle taste of cocoa. It finishes with a big dose of hoppy bitterness and earthy char. The various flavors blend very well and provide lots of depth. The mouth feel is richer and creamier than many other Baltics I've tried. The carbonation is rather mild but that may be because it's poured from a crowler. The small sample I tried at the brewery seemed to be appropriately carbonated. The 8.4% ABV gives it a nice kick.

It doesn't appear that Two Rivers cans its beer. They operate a separate tasting room in Hellertown, PA (near Bethlehem) and I may check it out. I wish I could buy cans to take home. I'm really impressed with this bistro/brewery and will definitely visit again. It would be an easy pub crawl with Separatist Brewing, which is only a few blocks east on Northampton Street. Or, it could be combined with Weyerbacher or one or more of the other excellent Lehigh Valley breweries. Personally, I'm partial to McCall Collective Brewing and Yergey Brewing.

4.18/5 rDev +5.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

I hope everyone has a great week. Cheers, NBW!

 

You should never hesitate to open up. It's like old times!

 

It's a shame there's no date on the cans. It's really good when fresh. The problem is that even if you buy cans at the brewery (which is a little over an hour's drive for me), you don't know how old they are. Shame on Drowned Lands.

 

Wow, Michael, coming from you that is a huge endorsement. I'm a gonna look for it! Cheers!

 

Buy as much as you can! You won’t regret it.

 

Waiting on Mike....dying to pop a top on this 100 rated beer I never had before.

 

Greetings all from the great northwest where we are summer like, sunny and temps in the low 80s.

Today we have Porch Glow. And amber ale from No Li Brewing in Spokane.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/936/481557/

I'm not much on the style but it's a drinkable brew.

Until next time

 

Decided to go straight to the flavored insane stout second instead of saving it for last because it's the most likely to do damage to my sobriety. Only have to work two days this upcoming week, but better safe than sorry. Plus, I absolutely hate being hungover. Honestly so over it. I know, hot take right?

This is Omnipollo's Magnapoli, a "Nightcap Snack Apple Pie Strawberry Cup" Imperial Stout, with strawberries, lactose, and natural flavor added. It clocks in at 12% ABV.



Pretty unimpressive pour. Even the suds that are visible there in the photo took like an entire minute to build up, and they disappeared to nearly-nothing immediately. A miniscule ring of khaki bubbles congregates in my glass now, with (actually surprisingly decent) lace show but... yeah, this isn't really a looker.

I am, however, impressed by the nose! This smells surprisingly cohesive and delicious. I get an immediate chocolate-covered strawberry thing going on, combined with a hint of juicy red apple... kinda cider-like? Complete with mulling spice-like aspects, maybe like a "cider donut"? Hmm, intriguing. Anyway, there are some scents of doughy yeast, vanilla, and roasted malt with sweet chocolate and even some tart cherry. I think this might actually be damn good. I have a positive feeling about it, anyway... and that's important to me right now because drinking brutal stouts when it's hot out is just dumb.

Yeah, that all translates alright on the palate too; no real problems. I mean, it's a sipper for sure. The feel can best be described (if I'm being nice) as "still," as there is essentially no carbonation whatsoever other than a very, very faint prickle right when the beer hits the tongue, but the flavors are a little bit brighter and more vibrant than many stouts of this strength and disposition, so I'm not really against it. Let's see... first, it presents with an unmistakable flavor of strawberries; slightly-tart and juicy, with a powerful and "fun" flavor that cuts through the next wave which is that of the base stout. This feels very "yeasty" and chewy. Sure, there are some hints of roastiness, but mostly it's focused on the sweet aspects and balances them well with the finish which has some apple and spice. Pie crust is a pretty apt descriptor here, too, which makes sense considering its marketing. Huh, ya know... this is good stuff. I mean, Omnipollo's stupid overly-flavored imperial stouts are usually of high quality, but I guess it's just more surprising with this because I didn't think strawberry-apple would work well at the end of the day. And it does!

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Here is current progress on the Dom Tropen...



So it goes, haha.

 

I believe they sold out there, but there are three bottles left at Beer on the Wall in Park Ridge. You may also find other nice singles there to your liking.

https://wehavegreatbeer.square.site/product/de-la-senne-zenne-pils/8298

It's my go to place for single offerings for NBW/NBS and Style tastings, picked up four local Kolschs with this Pilsner last week.

Beer Temple still my primary for 4/6 packs, and imports.

 

I'm going to look for it!

 

Haven’t done two in this thread in a while, but it was a good weekend for new to me beers.

Very good. Wood barrel is strong with this one. Sweet, smoky, vanilla notes and hints of chocolate. Big, bold, boozy. Great with a cigar.
4.5 across the board.

 

Welcome (soon) to the ZD club. Less than 10 years ago, that beer was just about impossible to get, short of a trip to the brewery or a good trading partner in Indiana/Chicago (which I had whilst we lived in Minnesota).

I can vividly remember my first dance with the Dust. It’s a fun ride, IMHO, hopefully you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.

 

And we’ll read your thoughts next weekend