New Beer Weekend #115

I enjoy the Black IPA (Hoppy Porter ) style and saw that a few places in our area have it now, if I come across a single I will give it a go.

 

Flying Dog Double Dog 18.



Amber with a 1" cream colored head, lasts. Moderate lacing.
Has a floral aroma with toffee, caramel, orange, a slight dankness.
Taste is caramel, orange zest, toffee, resin.
Full body, light carbonation. Semisweet finish.
Wow! packs a punch at 18% ABV.

 

I did a walk by of the classic cars, and even though I'm not a big car guy, they were fun to see.
Also, if you were trying to buy the Berserk Barleywine at the brewery, and they were out, that's my fault. They only had 3 bottles left of it.

Now, on to my first new beer of the day, well, sort of beer...


Paulaner Weizen-Radler - NA beer.

Yeah, this is so delicious. Very refreshing lemon flavor. There's a lot awful tasting NA beers, but this isn't one of them.

Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/124/185168/

3.68/5 rDev +9.9%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75
Hazy, murky lemon color pour. The head is 1 finger, white, and fairly long lasting. Some lacing on the glass.
Aroma is a faint lemon.
Flavor is lemon. There's a bit of malt that also shines here.
Body is light, crisp feeling, and quite refreshing.
Delicious is the best word to describe this beer overall.


I'm sure I'll be back for another in a bit, and it might continue the trend of this one.

 

Good morning NBS/nbw and thanks @SawDog505 for hosting this week.
Todays offering is from OEC in Connecticut.
This Ode Bruin/Flanders red is slightly tart, and in large part delightful.
I have had other offerings from OEC that were enamel removing, and way to acidic. This one is a gem!
Wind is blowing on this grey day here in WMass, and the first of many days were the leaves meander earthward. Tis the season.
Cheers

Antioch

Flanders Red Ale | 4.32% ABV
OEC Brewing (Ordinem Ecentrici Coctores) in Oxford, Connecticut

Reviewed by SABERG from Massachusetts

4.19/5 rDev -1.9% | Average: 4.27
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
Poured from a 500 ml bottle. Blend date of 7/21/21. Blend #5
A - Dark ruby color, steady fine carbonation runs up the glass interior. A steady ring of off white resides throughout the experience.
S - Dark Cherry, plum, cider vinegar, earthy wood, reminds of Malaga, or similar fortified wine. The aromatics are just beautiful.
T - All that fruit in the nose, with more earthy wood threads. There is also more dark fruit here, plum, fig, raisin.
M - Medium in body, rides the sweet/tart line perfectly. The tension between tart or sharp vs, the wine barrel softening is like the two flat sides of your tongue, staring at each other at the prom, waiting to dance.
O - A very good offering, more Oud Bruin than Flanders IMO, the woody, wine aspect, with that lightly tart clean up is just wonderful.

 

Today will likely be just like yesterday. New beer, work, and lots of sports. Already watched Man City thrash Man United, now watching Vikings / Saints, then will go back to soccer at 11:30, then Eagles / Jags (go Birds!) at 1:00, plus Phillies / Nats if they can squeeze it in (go Phils!) and maybe some F1 if I can squeeze it in.

First up for today is a beer I received courtesy of @Haze. Dripped, an imperial stout brewed with maple syrup and with coffee added from Sapwood Cellars.

Pour is dark, reddish brown that settles into a very deep brown once in the glass. Medium amount of tan head with decent retention. Eventually receded to a thin cap & ring. I'm curious to see how the mouthfeel is on this beer, as it looked thin (which is not a description I often use for appearance)

Aroma is straight coffee with maple syrup. Based on the brewers notes on the can, this beer was made with less roast, so I won't ding it for the lack of the typical aromas I'd expect to detect. I will say, it smells quite good.

The taste very much follows the nose. I've never had a cup of coffee in my life so I'm far from an expert, but this is very coffee forward. I was a bit worried that the 25 gallons of maple syrup used in the making of this beer would overwhelm, but I find that it adds a nice complementary sweetness to the coffee notes. Very little in the way of traditional stout flavors, but again, that appears to have largely been the brewer's intent.

Feel is not as thin as I thought it would be, it's more medium bodied than anything. Alcohol is extremely well hidden. If tasting blind, I would have guessed this was in the 6-7% range, not 12.4%.

Overall, a very tasty breakfast beer.

 

Welcome to New Beer Sunday #919! Part two of my new to me California Oktoberfest beers is also from one of my favorite breweries.

Firestone Walker Oaktoberfest



Bottle Notes: Purchased at store temperature at Beer on the Wall Park Ridge, refrigerated upon arriving home until this review. 12 oz bottled 7/22/22 @ 12:54, 5.2% ABV. Oak Aged Lager brewed by Firestone Walker Brewing Company, Paso Robles, California.

Appearance: Multiple pours into a small mug, crystal clear golden tan base, mild carbonation, rich generous creamy head lingers for a while, leaves a solid cover several minutes later. Looks excellent. 4.5

Aroma: Smells straight up like a Budweiser. with mild hops edging out anything else. I like Budweiser, and this is pleasant despite being unexpected, but your mileage may vary. 3.25

Taste: Taste similar to the aroma but more expansive. Hops leads, reminds me of a pilsner in that aspect, sweetness, somewhat caramel balances it out and gets stronger as this warms. Balanced overall, flavors subtle, not bold. 3.25

Mouthfeel: Dry with light bitterness and sustained prickly carbonation. Drinks easier than the ABV, easy finish. 3.5

Overall: Judging this as a lager, which is on the label, versus the marzen category slotted for this beer on Beer Advocate and Rate Beer. This is more of a standard lager aged in oak. I really couldn't pick up the oak taste or nose. Smelled like a Budweiser, tasted like a decent lager. I do enjoy this beer, not dying to revisit, but I would enjoy again if handed one by someone. Wouldn't draw a parallel to a standard marzen beyond the appearance and a light caramel taste. 3.25

I have two Midwest and one German Oktoberfest in the refrigerator for the next two October weekends.

 

I am elated to see this rebroadcast starting off this week. Thanks, Maynard. And the testimonials from @Beersnake1 @ovaltine and @Victory_Sabre1973 really do speak to the divine chaos of fermented fun we have in our NBS BIFs. I encourage anybody who participates in NBW (that has a trading and/or BIF history) to consider joining our crazy train. And if you have any questions, please ask. We are a pretty chill, inclusive group.

 

I bought my four-pack at Kunda. Maybe Wegmans has singles of this beer?

Cheers!

 

Cool and cloudy this morning, so we took the dogs on a long walk. Of course I was thirsty when we returned, so I opened up another one of the Oktoberfest beers sent to me by the generous @Manta200. Thanks, Hans!

The beer is a clear amber color with no head.
Aroma of bread and sweet malt, some hops.
Taste of toasted bread, a touch of caramel, with some floral hops coming in late.
Very smooth, very drinkable.

 

Back again, and I'm drinking something I picked up on my way home yesterday.


S'more of What? - Trap Rock Brewing - St. Croix Falls, WI - American Stout - 8% ABV

I was excited to see this on tap yesterday, but didn't think drinking an 8% stout was a good idea because I was the driver, so I picked up 2 crawlers to bring home. I was hoping to maybe send one off in the NBS BIF, so I thought I'd better try it before I did (when the time comes).

So, how is it?
Totally beautiful pour. The head just clings to the side of the glass as it dissipates. The aroma is vanilla and graham cracker, that's pleasing. The taste starts out great with the vanilla, cocoa and graham cracker all there. Then things take a turn to a very ugly place.

I like a bit of bitterness on the back to mellow out the sweetness up front. The bittgerness in this beer does way more than that - it erases it completely. It goes to a new world of bitterness, that can be pleasing in some styles, but not in a stout.

It's a total shame, because this beer seemed promising at first. Now what am I going to do with the other crawler? I really don't want to throw it out. I may give it to a friend and see what he thinks. Maybe I'm crazy? I don't know.

Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/54894/623415/


2.68/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 2 | feel: 2 | overall: 2.25
This beer pours a beautiful very dark brown color. The head is 2 finger, and tan. The retention is good, and the head clings to the side of the glass as it dissipates.
A beautiful hint of vanilla on the nose along with a graham cracker note kicking in.
Up front I get vanilla, chocolate, and graham cracker. This is the good part. The backside is where things go bad. I do like a slight bitterness on the back to soften out the sweetness up front. This beer is SUPER bitter on the back. This really distracts from the front side.
The bitterness sticks in my throat, and while bitterness can be pleasing in some beers, the feeling really hurts this beer's feel.
If the bitterness were dialed back, I think this would be an amazing beer. It started out so strong, but failed to deliver.



I will try to choke the rest of this down, but there's no way in heck that I'll end my NBW on such a bad note. I'll be back.

 

Untitled Art/Mikerphone Barrel Aged Hazelnut Imperial Stout (Imp. Stout aged in bourbon barrels for 12 months with hazelnut, cocoa nibs, and lactose). Canned 8/8/21.

Pours pitch black with a finger of dark mocha head that dissipates quickly. 4.0

Aroma is big hazelnut, dark chocolate, cocoa powder, toffee, vanilla, lactose sweetness, some roasted malt, slight oak and bourbon. The barrel character is light, with the hazelnut and chocolate being the star of the show. 4.0

Taste follows the aroma well. Huge Nutella vibes. Big authentic hazelnut, fudge, dark chocolate, caramel, lactose sweetness, slight peanut brittle, roasted malt, toffee, slight charred oak tannin, slight bourbon. There's some slight semblance of balance from the roasted malt and oak barrel, but I wish this had a bit more of that barrel character to counteract the heavy sweetness. 4.0

Low full body. Thick, silky, sticky. Medium carbonation. 4.25

Untitled Art's pastry stouts are always true to the style with plenty of the adjuncts and sweetness, so it's no surprise that this beer fits that bill. I just wish this had more barrel character to balance it out more. If that was the case, this would be some upper tier stuff. As it is now, it's solid. 4.0
Overall: 4.03

 

I haven't seen any and according to Lawson's site Wegmans didn't get any. Capones had a few singles but they sold quickly (at least the last time I was there).

 

Morning, NBWers,

67°, sunny and clear this am as I oscillate between Seahawks vs Lions (going well) and EWU vs Florida (going about as expected). I've got a beverage in my hand and it's...tea.

I got 'rona'd.

Went to bed Wednesday night feeling fine, got up to work a double at 4:30am Thursday morning and had Barry White's voice. 7 hours into work I had no voice at all, so I went home. I honestly can't remember having to do that before.

So I'm isolating until Tuesday, drinking a lot of fluids and generally chilling indoors, while what is probably the last decent weekend, weather-wise goes on outside the window and a FH beer from Fremont stares at me every time I open the fridge, so I'm enjoying y'all's beers vicariously.

I'm really getting tired of tea.

 

@woemad I hope you feel better soon and can move off of tea and to something tastier soon!

My second beer of the day also comes courtesy of @Haze and is another beer from Sapwood Cellars in Columbia, MD.

Hazelnut Sappuccino, a "barleywine style ale with roasted hazelnuts, vanilla beans, and coffee added"

Canned 3/3/22. Pour out of the can is a clear reddish brown and very similar to root beer before settling into a much darker brown. Half a finger of somewhat short-lived khaki colored head.

Aroma is fairly muted. Little bit of hazelnut and some faint coffee. Mild alcohol.

On the tongue this has some nice hazelnut and caramel notes combining with notes from the base beer. Coffee is very, very faint, and the vanilla even fainter. Somewhat light bodied, with the 10% alcohol well hidden.

Overall, a good beer for a cool fall day of sitting on the couch watching football (Go Birds!)

 

Bock to the Future, a 6.3% “Munich-style strong lager brewed with light & dark Munich malt” brewed at Trap Rock Brewery Restaurant in Berkeley Heights NJ. Poured from a growler the beer is dark amber with a thin white head. Strong malty aroma and the taste is the same. The mouth feel is full the finish is of dry. Overall a hearty and very enjoyable brew.

 

Today I have Turbo Love Juice, an 8.5% NEIPA from Labyrinth Brewing Co. I visited their facility pre-covid and was impressed. Nice to see them canning.
Creepy fingernails on the can though.

3.87/5 rDev +1.6%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
Poured from a 16oz can stamped CANNED ON 8/16/22 to a Nonic at fridge temp.
The body is an opaque deep gold. A three finger off-white head floats above, but fades in just a few minutes, however lacing is impressive till the end.
The aroma is melon and citrus rind.
The taste is similar, cantaloupe and orange peel, not overly sweet but there is a mild hop burn on the finish. Alcohol is notable in the nostrils, but not intrusive.
The mouthfeel is on the light side of creamy and carbonation is appropriate.
Nice beer, but would be excellent without the hop bite finish. Maybe a freshness problem?

 

Does the Boathouse (Conshy) sell singles?

Cheers!

 

Brewers must be Judas Priest fans.