New Beer Weekend #105

Hello New Beer Weekend!!!

Been slacking in posting the past few weekends. Sorry about that.

I'll start off by posting something that came into work a few days ago.


Slow Your Row - Moose Lake Brewing - Berliner Weisse - 5% ABV

Light and easy drinking is the name of the game with this beer. There's a hint of cherry in the flavor, as advertised on the can. I also get some lemon flavor on the back, which is not advertised, but works well with this beer. This is good for a hot summer day, even though it hasn't been a very hot day today.


Review:

3.78/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
This beer pours almost white - very light semi clear golden pour. The head is quite thick - 3 finger, and white. When I hold this beer up to light, I see carbonation bubbles rising in the glass. The retention isn't too long lasting, but there's a hint of lacing on the glass.
The nose has a wild, funky, grassy, earthy aroma. There's a hint of a fruity aroma, cherry? Yes, cherry.
Taste - I do get some tart cherry in the flavor up front. There's a slight earthy, grassy flavor here. I get a hint of lemon hitting on the back side. The flavors are fairly light, and not too strong, but seem right for the style.
The body is crisp, light, and bubbly, as expected.
This is a very easy drinking beer, and delicious for a hot summer day.


I'll see if I can get one more in sometime this weekend. Cheers!!

 

Yay! I'm so glad you enjoyed it, Ross. I'm still working through beers you sent me from like two years ago (has it been so long? lol). Great to see this pop up on NBW. I think we might open some lambic today, and I'll try to take a moment to jot down some notes here...

 

Poured not quite transparent amber color with a 2” manilla colored head that leaves regular lacing. Unfiltered? Maybe.
The aroma was far more fruit than expected, but mango or guava presented themselves over the piney standard for the WC IPA.
The taste followed, but the fruit doesn’t dominate like in the aroma. Nicely balanced fruit (guava, mango, cantaloupe) and dank piney dryness have a party in your mouth. Really good. Not sure if it’s a good representation of the WCIPA as I haven’t had a good one in a while, but it is really tasty for what it is.
The feel was good, maybe excellent, nice carbonation kept things light and it’s very easy to crush.
Good beer, need to compare it to a good WCIPA.

 

Glad it tickled your fancy! Or something like that.
Cheers!

 

Howdy NBWers,
It's been a hot second since I contributed and I have no one to blame but myself.

Nevertheless, back with a BANG... and cheers.

Outer Range Brewing's Gravity Games Triple IPA.
ABV? 11%
Hops: Citra, Citra Cryo, Wai-ti
Canned 7/07/22
Acquired at the source in Frisco, CO

Look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

L - another giant murk-bomb from ORB; retains some very light head, decent lacing down the glass. Not its strongest point. But it's haze, so...
S - more interesting as pineapple upside down cake meets cat-pee and weedy resins, as the Citra and Citra Cryo tag-team to reduce the tropical notes on the Wai-iti hops. Pretty interesting. Bit of a lemon whiff.
T - Dense pineapple cake repeated, less weedy on the palate, but the tropical balance just FLUSHES the palate, pretty intense. Not too sweet either, for a TIPA.
F - Good mouth balance, density, and darn dangerous on the palate. You might not sense the ABV until it's too late and you're explaining how the cat ended up in the dryer. Drink no more than 2.
O - A darn fine TIPA from Outer Range - it's a monster, open, drink with rubber gloves on.

 

We have friends in for the weekend, and this was brought in by my beer nerd sensai.





3.59/5 rDev -4.8%
look: 3.25 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
Pours a very hazy straw color with a foamy white head. This doesn’t look so much like a kolsch as it does a Hefeweizen. The nose has citrus notes and some estery notes as well.

The taste is led by bright citrus, with the same estery notes following, and the mouthfeel is medium. This drinks almost like a Hefeweizen masquerading as a kolsch, or vice versa. Nothing wrong with that, and it’s refreshing, but I wouldn’t revisit it.

 

Sixpoint Anti-Resin - I am very familiar with their more traditional IPAs like Resin, Puff, Bengali. I tried Smoothie for the first time last night and enjoyed it and need to explore the NEIPA style a little more and outside of beers with just the Hazy moniker, as they can run the gamut IBU-wise vs the no to low bitterness beers, which for me is an intriguing concept.

Pours a hazy yellow with a solid head. Smell is fruity and damn near hop candy as the can says. Taste is really interesting and a nice bright fruit mix with just a touch of a hop bite at the end, which is interesting because of the 0 IBUs. The 9.1% is well hidden and the beer isn't cloyingly sweet to me like regular DIPAs can be.

I am really digging this and would take this over Resin anytime and this is more agreeable and interesting for my palate. Budmo!

 

Won’t have much time to participate tomorrow so I’m opening one to split between today and tomorrow. A beer from @ovaltine sent to me in BIF 15. Here we go…

Transient - Buckley Select #4
**stout aged in chocolate bourbon barrels with vanilla, maple, coffee and cacao nibs



Pours thick oily black, fizzy almost instantly dissapearing light brown head. No head, no lacing.

Nose is rich liquid chocolate, some noticeable char and a little bit of alcohol burn. Hints of some vanilla like sweetness.

Taste really leans into the chocolate, syrup like, and the liquor taste definitely is there. Little vanilla creamy flavor with some roasty bitter coffee.

Big body beer, low and appropriate carbonation, low roast bitterness, creamy on the tongue with little bit of sweetness; the alcohol is not as present as the nose would suggest, quite gentle on the warming sensation.

This one is like a bourbon infused liquid chocolate truffle with some vanilla bean. That’s what it tastes like to me at least. For being so chocolate forward it is balanced and not overwhelming.

Thanks for sharing Mike, quite tasty.

 

I stayed local today and visited a taproom i haven't been to in a few years.
Wind Mind in Minneapolis. Plastic only no cash they say, my question to them was: Are you afraid of crime? No reply really, so I said that's the way it is from now on since they let crime get outta control. I usually prefer to pay with cash and keep my plastic at zero balance.

Back to beer: had few full pours and bought 3 crowlers for home.
And I'm a drinking a can now:
Conspirator, amber double bock
Look: nice transparent amber body, good tall head that leaves some lacing.
Smell: fruit/herbal ester. bread,
Taste: follows the nose with some sweet caramel. Has a odd pear/white grape type flavor also. Micro hint of honey mixed in. Smooth beer.
Feel: is ok not thin or thick. Has a little carbonation in after the pours settles down.
It's OK, I will give it a 3.83/5

This is a odd beer. open-fermented they say. I would drink again well maybe, glad I tried it.
https://untappd.com/b/wild-mind-ales-conspirator/4816545

 

Coming to you from Windham, ME for the next two weeks on vacation. The third week I have no idea where we are headed, but after a somewhat annoying battle with traffic in unexpected places and an infuriating stop at WalMart, we are settled in for the night. Looks like the water level is about a foot down from last year...but it's still right outside the door. The property owner lives next door and greeted us, told us her renters have been robbing her blind and she's right. A lot of stuff missing - face cloths, towels, toilet paper, some kitchen basics. So a little WTF is wrong with people sad moment.

Ok...enough of that. What's in the glass?



My glass broke on the way...so this works. It holds liquid, right?

Definitive Brewing Contee - a beer brewed in the Kolsch style. Let's get to it and see how this stacks up after three very good examples last week.

The pour is crystal clear with an initially ginormous foamy white head that falls very quickly with a bit of cling to the glass. Ends up as a ring with some snaky remnants floating on top.

The smell is laid back as I am coming to expect, but the first welcome whiff is fruity esters, grape and a bit wine-like. That is supported by some doughy malt like bread being baked. There's only a suggestion of hops - a very fleeting smell of spice and a faint hay-like smell. Not a strong smell in total, but inviting enough.

The taste is doughy, biscuity malt anchoring the estery goodness. That spice note that all but escapes detection in the aroma comes on in spades after a few sips - it doesn't accumulate so much as it just suddenly makes itself known. There's a decent bitter hit at the very end of the taste. I'm getting a noticeable mineral tang on the end that is fairly pronounced to my taste buds. Not quite unpleasant, just noticeable.

Its light bodied and a bit undercarbonated for the style, I think. It needs a bit of liveliness.

Overall, my instincts are saying it is pretty good and ticks most of the right boxes, but it seems less clean to me than others in the style. It's not bad by any stretch, but the little microscopic bit of style police in me comes out with this style. If you are gonna do one you better damn well nail it and to me this misses by a little bit. It's drinking actually a bit similar to a pilsner. Feeling 3.7 or so on this one.

 

Pipeworks Excellent Expedition Cryo-Hopped Hazy IPA, 7.5% ABV; 3.79 overall

Pours a very hazed gold with 2 fingers of pillowy eggshell colored head. Average head retention &lacing

S: Citrus, tropical fruit, melons

T: Follows the, nose; dryness, a little kiwi fruit up front. Dryness, lime and passionfruit dominate as this war, a little tangerine as well. Finishes dry with sone tang notes, a little green melon & lime

MF: Medium body, subtle carbonation, pretty good balance

Started out great, but the dryness & lack of any sweetness dissuaded of any thoughts thinking this is a must buy. Drinkable, but had much higher hopes

 

Happy Saturday. Me and Julia had a big ass hike in bent creek. She was slow but I made sure I didn't lose sight for two long. We needed some energy gel or something near the end. We went up Ingles fields gap to the lookout clearing. Too much brush lol. But it was on a mountain ridge according to mtbproject. The real mvp why we didn't get lost.





We are at Westville pub and all sevens brewing. I got the all sevens ipa. Great ipa. Aromas and flavors of red grapefruit, tangerine, peach, pineapple, apricot, mango, melon, citrus peel/rind, wood, peppercorn, pine, caramel, toast, biscuit, herbal, floral, grass. Good sized pine/rind bitter. Medium carb/ body. Balanced creamy/bready malt and sticky/resin/rindy hop mouthfeel. Long resinous drying finish. Minimal astringency. Minimal warming 7.6%. Tastes like a standard Midwest ipa akin to two hearted. Feels like mostly centennial, maybe some Amarillo. Dank and earthy hops with a good sized malt backbone. No complaints. 4


Cheers

 

Barrel aged Café Boris

9.4% stout from Hoppin’ Frog

Pint can with a best by November 2024 stamp.

The body pours bible black. Wee tan head only at edge, and no lacing throughout.

The nose is the whisky barrel.

Body follows nose and perhaps is even more whiskey in flavor. Also present are strong coffee and chocolate notes.

Strangely, the strong whiskey flavor doesn't translate into a boozy heat like a fresh KBS. I say strangely as the brewery is no stranger to high ABV beers. Yet they showed some restraint here.

Mouthfeel is good. Carbonation is low, but it feels right.

I'll have to pick up a few cans at the brewery to get a better grip on this one. Recommended, if you can find it, only for whiskey and coffee fans.

 

Dope hand cut fries and fried pickles at Westville pub


All sevens hefeweizen. Very nice. Aromas and flavors of lemon, pear, red apple, banana, bubblegum, clove, peppercorn, wheat, cracker, herbal, floral, grass, yeast earth. Light to medium herbal/grassy bitterness, yeast spice, and wheat/yeast tang/tartness on the finish. Medium high carb, light body, fairly crisp/clean finish. Balanced grainy malt, sticky hop mouthfeel. Lingering bitter dryness, no astringency. Refreshing, minimal warming 5.5%. Pretty standard stuff, if a bit thin for the abv. Good yeast complexity and hop balance. 3.9


Cheers