New Beer Weekend #114

King Al - Equilibrium / Toppling Goliath



Iv took a break from NEIPAs lately and this is a real treat for me. I'm glad I was able to try it.
I'm not good with review notes so I'll make it quick. This will get 4.5 or higher across the board from me. Pretty much a perfect beer imo.

 

I had a very similar take on this beer, but you worded it better than I did.

 

Poured into a 16 oz Snulip glass not sure when it was canned. Pours a very attractive hazy yellow with a solid finger white head that leaves a few streaks of lace with solid retention. 4.25

Aroma cinnamon sugar, apple, vanilla, and coffee cake 4.5

Taste follows cinnamon sugar, apple, vanilla, coffee cake. 4.5

Mouthfeel is a little bigger than average, soft gentle carbonation, not sticky or dry, and at 6% it drinks that way and is very easy going down. 4.5.

Overall this is pretty darn impressive. I am kind of blown away how they made it taste just like the name. I would recommend for sure. 4.5

 

My beer today is a beer that has a 6-page thread (and counting) devoted to it on the big board and its role in replacing a seasonal fall beer that came in numerous iterations over the past few years that I enjoyed immensely - and I love this iconic brewery (to the tune of 127 beers reviewed/rated), but I viewed this change with some consternation.

Let’s see where some juicy hoppiness takes us.





3.75/5 rDev -1.6%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
This beer pours a nicely hazy orange-ish color with a substantial, dense oatmeal colored head that is a lacing magnet. Beautiful beer. The nose is pineapple, tangerine, and lots of berry aromas.

Those aromas directly are transcribed to the taste, with the berry flavors most enjoyable for me because that’s not a flavor profile typically seen in the hazy space.

The mouthfeel is medium and actually a bit on the dry side, which I appreciate. This is an enjoyable hazy in a literal jungle of hazy offerings. I enjoy it (and will enjoy it through the balance of the 6er), but this old beer nerd would’ve preferred to take a ride with an Oktoberfest collab here in the fall of 2022.

 

Ross, tackling some big guns for 2 weekends in a row. You be careful.

 

Hey what's going on.

Touches of rauch like flavor in this one, nice surprise.



Poured from the can into a Libbey style pilsner glass.

Big bellowing head creation upon pouring. Slightly out of control with an off white to khaki in the middle color, with at first fine bubbles and then larger thick ones. Luckily the head settles fairly quickly for top ups on a real nice classic chestnut bronzed amber body color. Fine carbonation is noticeable, and very plentiful no surprise. Great to have an aggressive head on a marzen/festbier but this is just a little out of control.

What's that on the nose? Is that smoked malt and touches of rauch like goodness why what a surprise. Light wonderful mix of smoked aromas and sweet caramel, with a clean presence. Touches a bit of crisp toffee also, but I love this mix of light sweet smoke that goes with it, which while not too style comes off wonderfuly.

Palate is a mixed bag, but with a good result. Highly carbonated mouthfeel gives some gaseous flavors but also pushes some old classic styles. Rauch like smoke and a good mix of toffee and crispy caramel flavors in the mid palate. Clean finishing, but also light bodied and even black peppery. More smoke and airy touches of honey like sweetness with smoke and bbq campfire qualities.

What a nice touch to have a smoke like fest in this style, but the gas like mouthfeel and carbonation takes some, but luckily not all of the fun away. Dial this in and it's a real winner, and I am not complaining that much. If you're not a fan of smoked malt you may want to steer clear of this one though.

look: 3.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4 | 4.02\5

Cheers!

 

I've been eyeing up the Black Tuesday all day, but still debating whether I want to try and solo it. Very tempted, but I'm also several beers and multiple drinking hours into the day. Go for it?

 

Another long Saturday, drove down and back to Ames for the Iowa State-Baylor game. Unfortunately the Bears won with some questionable penalties called by the refs.

Crying in my beer with a Firestone Walker Oaktoberfest

Appearance: Clear gold, good head.

Smell: sweet, honeyed bread.

Taste: Mild sweetness, bready, not too heavy and a little fizzy, finishes bready and sweet.

Overall: A nice festbier, nice bready sweetness throughout without being heavy or cloying. Didn't detect much from the wood.

 

Have a good Saturday. I had a great busy work week and got a lot done with some new projects. I applied for a full time promotion in the middle of the week. Took a nap after work yesterday and woke up to find out Duke energy said there was a power outage because someone hit a pole and caused touching lines. My gaming PC wouldn't post BIOS when I woke up at 1230AM, and it took 3 hours to diagnose that my Creative X-Fi titanium Fatal1ty sound card was dead from the power surge. The drivers caused a BSOD and after removing them in safe mode, it caused windows to kill itself trying to find a driver for it. On board audio is good enough for now. I was going to build a new gaming PC soon, with all AMD CPU/GPU what with how Nvidia is being greedy fucks with 40 series chips.

Got Vino's Pizza tonight because I haven't eaten in 48 hours. Had a free large pizza on Slice so got chicken alfredo, pepperoni/sausage/bacon/mushroom/banana pepper, and pizza fries. Salty chicken tenders not shown, but they were outstanding.


450 North Slushy XL Dragon's Breath. Got this in Cali at a store @RaulMondesi told me to go. Amazing smoothie sour. Turbid fruit smoothie color with minimal head retention. Huge aromas of straight up fruit juice. Flavors of huge sour/tart/tangy dragon fruit, passion fruit, guava, papaya, peach, pear, kiwi, lemon, lime, green apple, white wine, wheat, dough, hay, straw, grass, pepper, and lacto funk. Moderate fruity/lactic tart/sourness and fruit tang on the finish. Medium-high carb and medium body. Fairly crisp/clean finishing on acids/tang. Balanced creamy/grainy malt, lactic acid, and fruit tang on the mouthfeel. Lingering acid/tangy drying after the finish, no pucker/astringency. Amazing balance of juicy/jammy fruits and lacto complexity. Not as sweet as I expected, just a spot on Berliner weisse with a ton of fruit in it. Loved it. 4.32


Cheers

 

Saw @SawDog505 review above and i knew what beer I would be reaching for in my beer fridge




4.53/5 rDev +4.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5

Collaboration beer between Toppling Goliath and Equilibrium. First saw this when I received an email from Half Time. Looked really interesting to me as I like both brewers. My highest rated beer was a collaboration between Toppling Goliath and Tree House. I would think that this brew would be a similarly great collaboration. Was pleased to learn that it was available at my nearby Empire liquors. I walk into “the good beer section” of the cooler and I cannot find it. The beer guy walks in and points in me in the direction of the last 4 pack. King Al is mine!

Brewers Notes: King AL uses a mashed-up grain bill from MC² and Toppling Goliath’s King Sue before introducing Equilibrium’s absolute biggest dry-hop to date with an all Citra Incognito, Citra LUPOMAX, Citra Cryo and Citra T-90 hop bill. Pouring a milky opaque yellow with aromas of mango sorbet and orange creamsicle, we get chewy saturated flavors of tropical smoothie, fresh squeezed navel orange juice, dank grass, fruit salad in syrup and lime gummies with a thick and custard like creamsicle finish and a huge blast of EQjuice rainbow melon flavors. King AL is dangerously soft and smooth and may have you questioning the laws of physics, space, time or just how we got a melted orange creamsicle fruit bomb into the can.

Chilled can poured into a spiegelau ipa glass . Pale hazy honey colored liquid topped by a creamy white one finger foam cap , reduces to a thick layer and leaves some spotty lacings.

Aroma is orange citrus, faint whiff of mango

Taste is juicy orange citrus, cantaloupe, papaya, apricot, fruit salad, hint of lime

Mouthfeel is smooth, even, flavorful , low sudsing, hop taste, no bite

Good beer , recommended

 

Tonight's beer is from Forest & Main. It is a saison made with malted spelt, hopped with Cascade, Hersbrucker, and Hallertau, fermented with their 2021 foraged yeast culture. They go on with a list of what they think it tastes like and it's a tad bit weird so let's skip it and get to it... Only Two Mantras.



Pours crystal clear at first but picks up a slight haze with the dregs. Bubble bath magnitude head, maintained for a long while, falls to a nice cap, decent cling.

The smell is very subtle, a little o' this and a little o' that. Slight spiciness, slight lemon, yeasty, some extremely mild funk, bready.

It drinks well. There's a yeasty flavor, some mild funkiness to it presumably from the foraged yeast. Light bready malt, light lemon. Then things get fun with....other things. Herbal spice, clove maybe a touch of anise, peppery builds on the finish. Juicy fruit gum. A white wine must note, the citrus becomes more like lemongrass, there's a decent floral note. A green herbaceous taste washes through. Lots going on yet it feels simple, like it should be just the way it is, dare I say homey...yeah, I dare.

Light, crisp, soft. Dry and spicy on the finish. Hefty but brief bitterness in the midtaste.

Overall, it's a nice saison. The bitter kick seems a bit out of place to me - not a deal breaker just not expected. It's kind of on the calm side of the style except for the yeasty funkiness. If there's only two mantras, this one is a yum. Feeling 3.8 or so for this one.

 

I hope I am not too late to say, "NO!"

 

Wow, I'm enjoying the hell out of this one.
Double Cup by Common Roots
Deep, almost black liquid capped by a dense mocha colored head.
Wow, the nose starts off with a firm, lush, deep espresso with creamy bitter chocolate.
Flavor goes even further. This is profoundly lovely. The riches are lush and deep, but never cloying. The roast is round, complex, and rolls around with the bitter notes that seem to blossom from the chocolate at times, while at other times it comes from the coffee. So well constructed.
Chewy enough, mildly creamy, and the finish reins in the sweet with a mild bitterness. No ABV heat.
Overall, sublime.
4.45/5 rDev +7.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

 

Good Sunday morning BAs! My new to me breakfast beer today is Hoppin’ Frogs’ Barrel Aged DORIS The Destroyer, their bourbon whiskey barrel aged imperial oatmeal stout:



No canning date. Best by date is 12/29/23. Poured black with ruby edges at 56°; dark tan fizzy head, poor cap retention leaves an island of micro dots and a thin ring at best; small spots of lace on agitation; medium legs sheet the glass. Oaky whiskey and sweet dark fruit nose; bitter roast malt; somewhat boozy exhale; some vanilla as it warms. Entry is whiskey and bitter roast malt followed by chocolate malt, dark chocolate, oaky vanilla, dark cherries, and licorice; bitter roast finish. Slick, silky feel; medium body, moderate minus carbonation; slight warmth from 10.5% abv; dry wooden tongue coating. Overall, more bitterness than I want even in an RIS; long bitter roast linger (not as bitter as DORIS base); the BBAging adds layers of flavor to this otherwise very bitter stout.

4.0 | 4.25 | 4.25 | 4.0 | 4.0
Score: 4.21 rDev - 2.8%

Not a beer I would buy again; too bitter for style, with some complexity, but not what appeals to me. Cheers and have a great weekend y’all!

 

Good day BAs! Off to a New Beer Sunday, thanks to @Victory_Sabre1973! 8 minutes to Noir Alley so a quick entry:



Plush from Frost Beer Works. Purchased at Franklin Beer, Franklin, PA, 21/09/22. $ 5.00 (Including tax)/16 oz can ($ 0.31/oz). In reefer at store, stored at 40 degrees at home. Reviewed 25/09/22. Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
On bottom of can “INFIELD SHIFT 05/05/22”. Served at 48.3 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King Snifter. Final temperature 59.1 degrees.
Appearance – 4.
First pour – Pale Straw (SRM 2), hazy.
Body – Straw (SRM 3), opaque. Under direct light, same. When rear-lite, same.
Head – Average (3.2 cm, aggressive center pour), white, high density, diminishing to a six to ten mm undulating crown and complete cap.
Lacing – Good! Wide band of tiny to near-microscopic bubbles which quickly devolves to torn curtain lacing.
Aroma – 3 – A bit of a tropical fruity aroma but no specific fruits. No hops, no malt, no yeast, no ethanol.
Flavor – 3 – Follows nose. No malt, no yeast, no hops. No ethanol (8 % ABV as marked on label) aroma or taste. Weak gastric warming occurs. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl.
Palate – 4 – Full, creamy, lively carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 3.5 “Made with water, malt, hops and yeast”. No “add junks”. This is allegedly hopped with Simcoe. In my experience Simcoe adds a pineapple flavor and survives a long time. No pineapple here. Decent. Fruit fly approved.
Rating 3.26, rDev -22.9%

 

Why stop now?