New Beer Weekend #106

MicCzech Czech Pilsner by 67° Brewing of scenic Franklin Massachusetts.

3.58/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
A 16-oz pour at the brewery. Orange straw body with a soapy white head, average retention and blotches of lacing.

Bready malt and herbal hops greet the nose, cracker and toasted grain in the rear.

Neutral taste with average bitterness, as in the smell bready malt leads the way, cracker malt flavor is not as pronounced as expected. The finish is quick and semi-dry but by no means crisp. The aftertaste is a brief hop bite.

Medium-light bodied with ample carbonation. Not very well attenuated for a Lager, it drinks like a Blonde Ale.
Smooth and balanced, alcohol is well hidden.

 

Good day BAs! Back for a second stab at a new beer for this weekend's stab at New Beer Sunday! Starting off to be a beautiful day in the neighborhood - sunny and hopefully humid as well. While checking the garden yesterday (Engaging in a knife fight with the zucchini), I found some of the peppers had managed to fruit while hiding in the foliage - sneaky little devils! And the bitter melons are launching a lebensraum march against the zucchini and the tomatoes but I'm sure I can appease them.
Today's New Breakfast beer:



Eclipse 2020 Rye Cuvee from Fifty Fifty Brewing. Purchased at Shangy’s, Emmaus, PA, 18/09/21, for $ 22.78 (Including tax)/500 mL (16.9 oz) bottle, $ 1.35/oz. On room temperature shelf at store, stored at 37 degrees at home. Reviewed 31/07/22. Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Bottle appears undated except for the “2020” on the front label. Served at 50.0 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King Snifter. Final temperature 57.3 degrees.
Appearance – 4.
First pour – Amber Brown (SRM 18), clear.
Body – Brown (SRM 20), opaque. When rear-lite, same.
Head – Average (Maximum 3.5 cm, aggressive center pour), dark wheat, creamy, average retention, receding to a three mm high density crown fed by effervescence and a thin, rocky cap.
Lacing – Fair. Broken band of near-microscopic bubbles which leaves behind a few curious figures.
Aroma – 4 – Moderately sweet malt and a bit of rye whiskey. No hops, no yeast.
Flavor – 4.5 – Follows the nose – malty with some rye spiciness, no hops, no yeast. No ethanol (11.9 % ABV as marked on label) aroma or taste. Mild gastric warming which approaches discomfort asymptotically. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl.
Palate – 3.5 – Medium, creamy, soft carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 4 Smooth – a lot smoother than much of the rye whiskey I drink! A particularly good nose and taste from a very average looking impy stout – worth the price!
Rating 4.15, rDev -0.7%

Another non-gradable point I liked about this brew was the little (2.5 cm square) code patch for temp, glass style, ABV, and ?.

 

Welcome one and all to New Beer Sunday #910! As promised, here is my second Summer of 2017 Jester King offering, though this one is a Saison.

Jester King Biere de Miel



Bottle Notes: Purchased as part of haul 1 of 2 of a clearance sale by brewer/craft bar Local Option (May 10, 2020). Cellared upon purchase, pulled and refrigerated from 12/23/21 until opening this morning.

25.4 ounce bottle, 6.2% ABV. Farmhouse Ale brewed with honey and bottled by Jester King in Austin Texas. Batch #5 - August 2017.

Ingredients: Unfiltered Hill Country Well Water, Texas Malted Barley and Wheat from Blacklands Malt, Raw Texas Honey, Hops, Mixed Culture of Brewers Yeast, Native Yeast and Native Bacteria. Suitable for Vegetarians,

Brewer Notes: Our Biere de Miel is a dry, well-attenuated, unspiced farmhouse ale brewed and fermented with raw Texas wildfiower honey. Naturally occurring yeast and bacterial impart a sense of place to this unfiltered unpasteurized 100% bottle conditioned beer.

Let me slip cryptic under this evening doorway
And bathe in a thousand flowers
I'll fly like Quixote, inheriting the wind
On the back of a buzzing bee
Soaring sweet above hill-tops
And into territory of drier furtherance

Appearance: Multiple pours into a large tulip glass. Nice clear golden yellow straw base, mild carbonation after the initial pour burst, incredibly thick rich and creamy bright white head lingers for a few minutes before leaving a light dusting above the base and a firmer ring above it. 4.5

Aroma: Neigh says the horse. Nice funky somewhat damp burlap blanket bursts through immediately upon pouring. Tart lemon and citrus. Hits all the high notes. 4.75

Taste: Consistent with the aroma, a tart lemon citrus leads. The honey successfully hiding on the nose backs with a creamy sweet presence. very nice. Funk and a nice balance ties everything together nicely, like a special A Team in France episode wrapped up in a fancy bow. 4.75

Mouthfeel: Light body, with a persistent light carbonation and a creamy honey presence adding depth. Very light and easy drinking, nearly 1/3 of the way in with barely a trace of alcohol noted. Tart, lightly dry, sweet overall but not too sweet, clean and refreshing, the tart lingers wonderfully. 4.75

Overall: This saison is one of my favorites upon memory and by score. Thinking the honey, which I love, pushed this to a higher level for me. Held up very well over five years, bursts with flavor, the honey plays well with the other flavors and textures. Simply outstanding, definitely a must by if I ever come across in the future. Thank you Jester King!!! 5.0

Only disappointment now is I didn't try earlier so I could have bought the rest of it. Don't see many recent reviews, but do see the beer on their website so hopefully this becomes available again.

Hope everyone has as wonderful a beer day as I am having. Cheers!

Audio Accompaniment: A July 2022 Beer Temple Podcast on the History of Saison I'm about midway through and thoroughly enjoying.

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-b...ake-history-of-saison-w-roel-mulder-205134013

 

What a great tread. I felt like I was there with you, feeding off of your enthusiasm.

 

I've only tried two beers from Maplewood in the year or two they have distributed here. The highly priced trend chaser beers don't interest me, but I've tried two lagers from them that I've enjoyed. I've learned that some breweries can make a quality lager, even when they are widely know for something else. Old Nation and Bearded Iris come to mind as well.

 

My second new to me beer for the weekend. Ironically, this is a grocery store beer around here and I've been looking past it for my entire craft career and the five years of active reviewing here on BA

Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale

12oz bottle poured into an oversized snifter at just above fridge temp 8.2% ABV. Looking carefully below the neck ring is the laser etched date code 2022-06-02. The beer pours bright, light copper in color with light khaki colored head. The head recedes to a thin ring and single layer of tiny bubbles. Lacing is limited to a few tiny, scattered circles. The aroma is mild with vanilla, light oak and sweet malt. The taste is semisweet caramel malt with earthy & oaky notes. Very light vanilla and bourbon on the finish. Minimal plus bitterness. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with just less that average carbonation and a semi dry finish. Overall, good.

That's all for me this weekend. Cheers all!

 

Fassler Hall is nice. If you come back through on your way back stop by Camp Taco. It's great and a block from it's parent brewery - Lost Forty, which is also good.

 

Sounds like a shitty place to work.

https://www.pastemagazine.com/drink...ands-jean-broillet-company-culture-ratmagnet/

 

Busy planning dinner. The grandsons are coming over for dinner, and the younger one eats pretty much just rice and grilled cheese. I'm thinking maybe I can get a quesadilla into him.
While I ponder this question, I'm drinking another new beer from New Belgium, Summer Bliss.

A hazy yellow color. Small white head that disappears quickly.
Aroma of citrus fruit.
I taste orange, lime, and a bit of mango.
Refreshing. A good summer drink.

 

That’s an understatement.

 

Firstly, I should caveat that I personally have not consumed any Notch beers but from my readings (on BA and other) they have a reputation for brewing in a 'traditional' manner.

I am a bit surprised to read that this beer (a Helles) was not crystal clear and that you detailed it as being "surpringly hoppy" which needless to say is surprising to me as well. A 'traditional' Helles should be crystal clear and more importantly a malt-forward beer with any hop flavor (if any at all) being subtle.

I have read in BA posts that Notch conducts contract brewing. Does it list which brewery produced the Salem Lager you drank?

Cheers!

 

I was quite surprised too...it was more hop forward than malt forward for sure. No info on can about contract brewing either. I really enjoyed the beer but my rating was lower than normal because that did not taste like a helles. I would venture to say drinking that side by side with a true helles salem lager's hoppiness would pop even more. I'll even add because of that reputation after I reviewed I checked the few other reviews on here and each one seemed to mention hops in some way be it; bitter, floral, earthy, etc.

As I type this I am drinking the other Notch a bought, a kolsch, even cloudier and when held to light quite a bit of fine particulate floating around too. Review incoming later...

I know I tend to be harsher on breweries that get so much hype/talk but I would say there are several local helles and kolsch that are better made and preferred by my palate.

 

Good morning BAs! My new to me breakfast beer was brewed and canned in Kona, HI - Kona Brewing Co.’s “Kua Bay IPA”:



Canned 6/9/22. Poured deep gold with excellent clarity; one finger of off-white foam; soapy lace, heavy ring. Tangerine and a little pine in the nose. Bitter citrus up front - lemon zest; tangerine; pine; firm malt foundation; some earthy hops in the finish. Medium light body; crisp feel; moderate minus carbonation; no warmth from 7.3%; no astringency. Fairly bright citrus overall with a pleasant bitter linger; a well balanced WC IPA style; I’ll gladly drink more.

4.75 | 4.0 | 4.25 | 4.5 | 4.25
Score: 4.25 rDev +15.2%

Cheers and have a great Sunday y’all!

 

If my memory serves me correctly (BIG caveat) I recall reading that Chris Lohring described the yeast strain he selected as being "dusty". I do not specifically know which yeast strain he uses but my preferred Kolsch yeast strain is Wyeast 2565 since I really enjoy the subtle ester(s) this strain provides which taste like a PNW Sauvignon Blanc wine for my palate. Wyeast 2565 is indeed a "dusty" yeast strain and in my brewery it takes several weeks of lagering to get that yeast to settle out. Some homebrewers choose to utilize gelatin as a fining to quickly get this yeast strain to settle out; I prefer to not add extra 'stuff' to my beers.

I look forward to reading what you have to say about the Notch Kolsch beer, particularly about its flavor profile.

Prost!

 

Just got back from a visit to my mom's with the boys; she lives out in farmland so I always pick up roadside eggs and honor wagon produce; it is so cheap and so good; today it was a whole bunch of red potatoes for 2$, last week it was 4$ giant watermelons.

Anyway here is my last Notch purchased...

Notch - Kolsch



Here is the little floaties, hard to see, I did my best with the phone to capture...



Pours a nice gold color, cloudy, when held to light to check for clarity you can see very fine stationary particulate/ not much retention, no lacing on an initial white head. Chill haze cleared up slightlyThe particulate is still present as I'm almost finished the glass now.

Nose is honey english muffin, wine like white grape, and saltine.

The taste of this one definitely leans into the white grape territory for me, with some cracker and a little bit of noble hop earthiness.

This beer has a nice light body to it, a subtle sweet twang to it, moderate crispy carbonation, and a very low but noticeably green grass like bitterness.

A tasty kolsch but again given the reputation of this brewery I sort of expected to be wowed a little more. Is it very well made? yes, other than its appearance it is pretty spot on.

I'm not trying to be contrarian in reviewing both of the Notch beers but they are pretty standard beers IMO. The appearance on both of these is a let down for me especially, I thought a brewery with such a reputation would also have beers that looked traditional.

Would I drink again, 100% yes, would I go out of my way for these beers from Notch, probably not, just too many good ones near and close to home.

 

Hello Advocates! Great to have a new brew here with ya. This offering is crisp zesty and dry and it's wee bit of char is lovely. It's quite nice and is local. Cheers!
Blackstack Required Reading Black Lager 5% ABV
3.91/5 rDev +3.2%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
16oz can into a 16oz tall lager glass.
L: Pours rusty dark brown w/dark honey edges, thin light khaki head, low carbonation, no lacing. Looks like cola.
S: Caramelized malts, a hint of honey, lightly floral. Rather clean.
T: Lightly sweet toasted grains, significant citrus zest, raisins, light char, wildflowers, bitter dark chocolate. Bitterness is gently metallic.
F: Bright & snappy med-light bodied mouthfeel that has a medium long drying finish. It approaches tawny and is cola-like.
O: A very crisp & fresh tasting dark lager with stern bitterness, light sweetness and a fairly dry finish. It is lip smacking good, pleasant and easy drinking and is excellent in it's style.

 

Included a pick of the sediment, I would definitely describe it as dusty. I am also happy to say that this beer falls much more in line with style than the helles, other than its cloudy appearance it is exactly as expected.

 

Yeah, we are spoiled in having so many great choices for locally brewed 'traditional' beers.

Since I live in PA I am able to order Notch beers for delivery. I have a couple of times checked out their website and sorta thought about ordering some but two thoughts have stopped me:

• Do I really want to pay for delivery?
• Will those beer really be so much better from the locally brewed lagers (and other 'traditional' beer styles) I can buy at my local Retail Beer Distributor, supermarkets and direct craft brewery sales?

I greatly appreciate your two posts today since you have answered the second question above for me.

Cheers!

P.S. I have no doubt that Notch brews tasty beers and if I am ever in Salem (or Brighton) and I have some free time I will visit the brewery for onsite beer consumption.

 

Had this recently, enjoyed it also.