New Beer Weekend #113

Howdy folks! Just enjoyed the hec outa this Warpigs Astral Queen DIPA. Must be divine on tap. Cheers!
4.04/5 rDev +6.3%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
12oz can from a variety pack into a nonic pint glass.
L: Pours a lightly yeast hazed med-burnished caramel color w/a 1/2" thickish light khaki head w/good retention, low carbo, minimal spotty lacing.
S: Sweet flowery hops, caramelized malt (both heavy), berries, very light breadiness, alcohol as the beer warms.
T: Sweet resinous hops, citrus zest, nectarine, orange candy, a hint of yeast, a long trailing fine thread bitter linger, fairly rich. Ardent hops & handsome caramelized malts. Very well balanced and clean tasting. A hint of alcohol as the beer warms.
F: Lightly firm, dignified & smooth, sits high on the tongue, med to med-full bodied, w/a long linger and a slightly drying clean finish.
O: A resinous and moderately pale DIPA but not saturated by hops. Very good tasting and feeling. Not overpowering in any way. Lightly candied and sweet, it is excellent in it's style.

 

Happy to try this much talked about beer. Lawson's Finest Liquids Big Hoppy. No pic, imgur is being a bitch.

3.82/5 rDev -4.3%
look: 4.75 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
Poured from a 16oz can stamped 08/20922 to a Nonic at fridge temp.
This pours black like a full stout. A really impressive tan head with hills sits on top and laces the whole session through.
The aroma is muted by the impressive head, but later on in the session there is caramel with fruity hops pushing through. Still subtle though.
The taste is all malt in the front. Chocolate, charcoal, Milard reaction. There is a hop finish (thank you). I dries things out and gives a little hint of fruit but frankly it's not enough to really call this a n IPA.
Mouthfeel is medium, with an illusion to stickiness, and carbonation is appropriate.
A little more hop hit at the finish would make this an amazing beer. As a lover of dry beers though, I like it.

 

A special beer for Day 2. If you enjoy hazies, Tree House is your jam, IMHO.





4.5/5 rDev -1.5%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
Pours a turbid orange color with an egg white colored head that is creamy and leaves thick lacing rings down the glass. Magnificent looking hazy, IMHO. The nose is rife with dank ripe oranges and mango, with some pineapple and melon as well.

The taste is focused on the ripe orange and mango flavors, with some melon and pineapple for kicks. There is zero discernible alcohol, quite impressive for an 8.8% ABV beer.

The mouthfeel features that trademark full, pillowy Tree House mouthfeel that keeps reeling you in for another sip. If you enjoy hazies (and I do), Tree House is your Holy Grail. World class stuff, IMHO.

 

Good evening all. Fresh swordfish is hard to come by here which is kinda amazing when you think about it, and the frozen or FAS stuff just doesn't compare to harpoon caught. It is usually pretty dear when you can find it, but it was on sale this week and we splurged. So grilled swordfish made the menu tonight - I get nervous cooking expensive stuff, especially when a few seconds over can result in an overcooked slab of protein but four and a half minutes a side over screaming hot flame ended up super tasty. The missus slathers the slabs with mayo and some salt and pepper - sounds nuts but damn do it taste good!

I hope this beer lives up to the hype from the store dude, and frankly if it holds its own against the one from last night, I'll be happy.



Jacks Abby Export Lager, a collaboration between two lager behemoths - Jack's Abby and Denver's Bierstadt. The can says this is a Munich Style Export Lager featuring a double decoction mash then fermented for 8 weeks in traditional horizontal tanks. Krausened with a special yeast. Let's get to it!

Pours a clear, rich golden color with a gorgeous fluffy white head that lasts, falling to a quarter inch cap with tenacious cling to the glass.

Sweet and toasty hits the nose first. It's a honey-like sweetness. The hops are floral and herbaceous with a slight grassiness and a very faint spiciness.

The taste opens slightly sweet with a bready malt flavor. Then there's a bunch of kids in this pool. The malt carries through, but there is a fairly strong hop note that leans more floral than the nose suggests. There's still some herbal grassiness, but not very pronounced. The sweetness starts to lean towards honey or maybe light brown sugar, and in the aftertaste it is almost a caramel flavor. There's just a hint of orange that I still don't notice in the smell, and the finish leaves a little peppery tingle behind that gets a little more pronounced on repeat sips. Everything rides on that malt backbone, though. It does have that flavor I am beginning to associate with decoction brewing but can't quite nail down - I suspect there's some browning reactions in that cooking process that bolster the toasted maltiness.

Light bodied, moderately carbonated, and the self-replenishing head lends it a slight foamy feel. Mildly bitter, fairly crisp, highly drinkable at 5.7%. Very nicely balanced on all the attributes.

Wow...not disappointed in this one at all. That's two winning lagers in a row here. Personally, I prefer last night's pilsner, but this is a wonderful brew in its own right. Going to land in the 4.2 range.

@beergoot - Lamp of the Week award, man!(Fondly remembering the old WBADYN glass award).

 

A energy zapping, action packed Sunday is slowly coming to an end; another crazy busy week will follow. My goal right now is to enjoy the peace and quiet of this Sunday night before a blur of a week begins.

I haven’t had this beer somewhere between 10-15 years. For me this beer was purchased in my early days of buying the craft that was available. There was a thread discussing “stone like IPAs” so that got me thinking “you should revisit this beer.” My recent revisit of Union Jack also had me itching for more classic OG made beers. I found a relatively fresh, fresher than the non refrigerated cans they had, tall boy kept cold so I went for it. Never reviewed, no recollection of the last time I had so here it is.

Stone - IPA



Pours a light orange hued straw color, clear, quick forming airy head. Head settles into canyons and mountains of fluffy white; big initial lacing.

Bitter citrus rind on the nose, hint of caramelized malt sweetness and white pine; aka sappy pine.

Taste has a very pleasant malt presence, again slightly caramelized; orange skin, pine, green grassy bite and mild earthy feel.

Medium body that is very easy to drink; malt gives it a nice fuller feel but it doesn’t inhibit its drinkability. There is a full mouthy bitterness that lingers quite some time and a very noticeable crisp feel and aftertaste;

Much like my revisit of Union Jack I’m very much enjoying this beer. It is funny how three letters, IPA, can conjure up both beers like this and the hazy ones that fill our current shelves. I’m incredibly happy that beers like this one still exist.

Cheers everyone, I hope you all manage to push through the work week so we can do this again next weekend. Be well.

—————

Since, knock on wood, we’ll be back at our house next week. Here is an old photo we found while here of mrs phisher and I back in kindergarten, who would’ve thought…

 

Dry hopped Kolsch style all by Von Trapp

3.81/5 rDev -4.3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75



Can picked up at the Von Trapp Brewery
Best by 1.24.23

Brewers Notes: A Collaboration By Von Trapp Brewing and Upper Pass

Dry-Hopped Kölsch Style Ale

The Stowe Style Collaboration is a marriage of new world and old world brewing. Upper Pass Brewing has brought their hop creativity to von Trapp Brewing’s Kölsch Style. With late addition hopping during the brew and a dry hop using the freshest 2020 hops. This hop forward ale is unfiltered with notes of clementine zest and tropical fruit. Please enjoy this summer classic while it lasts.

40 IBU

Poured into a stang, is a translucent soft golden straw colored liquid crowned by a fluffy , puffy white foam cap, sticky lacings

Aroma is a peppery lemon

Taste is grassy, lemony, peppery spice

Clean, crisp, semi dry finish

Good beer

Oktoberfest time at Von Trapp

 

Poured into a snifter at cellar temperature after the geyser stopped flowing. Very effervescent. Huge head took quite some time to dissipate.
Black liquid and light brown head, looks like a stout.
Smelled like a stout, what I could smell. My nose is damaged so some scents are lost on me.
The taste surprised me, I wasn’t expecting much but it had bakers cocoa and some dark fruit and what I imagined as mellow coffee. The depth of flavor in this was excellent considering the ABV of 5.8%
The feel, once the head settled down, was again, surprisingly viscous for the ABV. Very nice mouth feel.
OA, I was surprised in a pleasant way, definitely worth revisiting.
Cheers all!

 

It’s good to see you were outkicking your coverage in kindergarten, Jon. Well done.

Here’s me and Mrs O on the day we got engaged (12/24/89).

We were not in kindergarten.

 

Love is a beautiful thing and of course in close second…beer

Hope you and Mrs O have a lovely Sunday evening.

 

Welltown Brewery ( Tulsa ) Hop To The Future New England Milkshake IPA, 7.5% ABV; 3.93 overall

Okay short review because I must've clicked on the wrong tab or something
Pours an effervescent & hazed gold with 2 fingers of eggshell colored head.

S: Strawberry, vanilla, papaya & pineapple once warm

T: Follows the nose, some tangerine up front. Pineapple & passion fruit once warm, plus dryness & vanilla. Finishes dry with vanilla cream, pineapple, strawberry & lime

MF: Medium body, low carbonation, some acidity, great balance

Very drinkable Milkshake IPA from a new to me brewery

 

Single Hill's Moxee Milieu fresh hop IPA, "Wet CLS farms centennial, Van Horn cascade, Marc Desmarais Cascade; Fresh AF pellets of Van Horn cascade and CLS Zappa & Columbus."

16oz can served in a footed pilsner glass. Don't see a date on the can. Bought it two days ago at Hop & Hound.

Pours a slightly hazy light golden color with a huge head, maybe four fingers, that settles slowly, going through a very pretty "rocky peaks" phase. Smell is gorgeous, smells like a hop field, resin and citrus and flowers and vegetation.

Taste is pretty malt forward, actually, kind of sweet and grainy, honeysuckle, medium citrus pith presence.

Mouthfeel is soft and airy. Overall...this is a very good beer, with a world class aroma. I think it would be better classified as a pale ale, even though it says IPA on the label.

 

Great read, as always, Jack!

 

Aleschmidt Oktoberfest

12 oz can. Canned on 7/11/22
Pretty amber/gold in hue. Bountiful off-white head pushes 2 fingers with pretty solid retention.
Nose is instantly on the sweeter side. Fruit and caramel malt. Slowly a hint of breadiness comes in, but it's struggling to be noticed, chasing the spotlight but never getting a chance to shine.
Flavor is slightly closer to balanced. The caramel malts are not as dominant here, the bready note finally gets a moment, but just a moment. A mild herbal spice also takes its turn.
Mouthfeel has good carbonation, decent heft, and an almost balanced finish (a tad sweet still) with a tad of bitterness.
Overall, a decent offering but not outstanding.
3.46/5 rDev -10.8%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5