New Beer Weekend #121

Where did you find that cool thermometer?

 

I absolutely LOVE Bodhizafa, and I’m muling Johnny Utah to Aruba to try for the first time, along with one of my stellar reviews that will no doubt be +rDev.

 

Aruba has a brewery named Balashi. It would be entirely appropriate if they changed the name of the brewery to Balousy. They brew a “Caribbean lager” that is ….. mundane, to be kind. But it looks like they have a couple of fruited pale ales that I might try if I see them in the wild.

But one of the restaurants we’re dining at has Westvleteren XII (at least they did the last two times we visited the island), so I have THAT going for me - along with the beers you sent me, which all made the trip.

 

Good morning BAs! My “I’ll ease into Saturday morning with a new to me beer” is Fremont’s 11th Anniversary Stout (2020), a blend of stout aged in Heaven Hill barrels, stout aged in Heaven Hill barrels with Montorency and Dark Tart Cherries, and stout aged in Ex-bourbon vanilla extract barrels…sounds good, let’s go:



Poured at 55°. Dark tan mousse-like head with rocks turns creamy; ok cap retention; heavy ring; some sudsy lace; black body with ruby edges; heavy legs on swirl. Bourbon, oak, dark fruit nose with boozy exhale. Tart dark cherries up front!; bourbon, chocolate; oak and vanilla as beer warms; chocolate bourbon ball candy finish. Smooth lux feel, but not adjuncty; medium plus body; slight alcohol bite on tip of tongue; moderate minus carbonation; some warmth in mouth from 12.2% abv. Overall delicious!; great balance of cherry tartness, chocolate base and bourbon barrel flavors; I like cherries and the blend here of semi sweet chocolate, tart cherries and bourbon hits all the high points for me; like drinking a bourbon ball cherry cordial candy.

4.5 | 4.75 | 4.75 | 4.5 | 4.75
Score: 4.71 rDev +6.3%

An amazing beer. Wish I had had the opportunity to buy more than one bottle. It puts a smile on my face. Cheers y’all!

 

Okay, have to weigh in here.
I flew down here for a funeral so didn’t prioritize beer, but once we had some hours to spend I finally found a place that had more than 3 craft beers.
Since I put that much effort into getting my beer, I refused to use styrofoam from the hotel- I went to a nearby thrift store and found a snifter for a buck. I’ll re-donate it when I leave, but it means I can drink in style. So to speak.
Cheers, I know sometimes “needs must” so take this for what it is worth.

 

I always found styrofoam foamed the beer (especially pale ales) aggressively. I had to rule it out for post-softball game shares. Did you have that issue as well?

 

A bit, but I didn’t pour that much in the cup - I drank most of it from the can and pretended John Kimmich was nodding approvingly over my shoulder.

 

Curious to know if @kemoarps can get that in Seattle or if he had to pick that up somewhere else. I've long been amazed that a brewery specializing in such beers can thrive in Goldendale.

 

Morning, fellow NBWers,

It's a mostly cloudy 27° outside. The snow that fell on Monday is still mostly here. Most nights since then have seen temperatures down in the teens, so that whatever marginal melting occurs as the daytime highs get slightly above freezing becomes ice at night. Makes walking around downtown Spokanistan a bit more exciting.

Yesterday, I had two new beers. The first was a raspberry berlinerweiss I had received from @BBThunderbolt in a Seattle Mariners - themed LIF a few months ago, back when regular season MLB baseball was a thing. From Fringe Brewing, in collaboration with North Fork Brewery, this is Project Stardust:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/55706/628473/?ba=woemad#lists
If you dig raspberries, as I do, you will like this beer. If you don't, and prefer your Berlinerweisses to be more naked, this is not your beers, as it's all about sweet tart raspberries in all their glory.

Later on, I had my first from Fox Farm, courtesy of @Roguer and his maniacal destruction of my porch during the course of this current NBS BIF. I'll be posting pictures of the carnage he has wrought a little later. But for now, let's talk about The Cottage:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/45832/399457/?ba=woemad#lists
Really nice Helles Lager, mellow enough to enjoy while cleaning my kitchen and doing the dishes yesterday while still being a flavorful beer. I've come to really enjoy quality European style lagers in recent years and this is an excellent one. I deeply regret the weather isn't conducive to hanging out with this one outdoors.

Going to be sharing a couple or three Tree House beers with a hopheaded friend of mine later on today, and I've got a couple mystery beers to hit from @Roguer as well. See y'all later.

 

Finally having digested enough of an enormous diner breakfast I had a few hours ago (breakfast out is the best!) I'm ready for my first beer of the day. I figured I'd start with a blind beer courtesy of @foundersasap

Coming out of the can this has some reddish hues that very much looked like a barleywine to me. Slightest of red tinge in the glass, but otherwise dark, dark brown. 3/4 inch of tan colored head. Overall a good looking beer.

Aroma has me immediately rethinking my barleywine lean. There's some sort of adjunct in this, and it's one I've had in beer before. Is it peanut butter? Whatever it is it dominates the nose. I have no idea what the ABV is on this, but I'm going to let it warm up for a little bit more (from fridge temp) and then see if I can get a better sense of what I'm smelling. Ok...15 minutes later I'm still guessing peanut butter.

Well, tasting this isn't helping me guess what it is at all. I'm definitely getting alcohol, and perhaps rye barrels, maybe even some faint cherry, but I have no idea what the base beer is, and the "peanut butter" I was getting on the nose doesn't show up on the tongue. The body brings me back to a barleywine, but the taste does not. Long story short....I have zero idea what this is.

The reveal.....


Jeff, this was a great choice for a blind beer. The nose is still confusing me, but I can taste a little bit of the pecan now that I know to look for it. Not getting the banana. At least I was right about the whiskey barrels, but not much else.

Thanks for sending this my way!

 

Ok, finished my morning outside with a cigar and some music. Came in to flip on the UVa game to find us down 14 points a minute in and Pitt's offense hadn't touched the ball yet. Thankfully the basketball team looked good last night *sigh*

Anyhow, was gonna save this to share with the GF, but I saw my store might've gotten more in, and she doesn't like coffee, anyhow:


Had a regular Framinghammer BBA on tap at said store last week and thoroughly enjoyed it, so hopefully BBA Coffee Framinghammer lives up to that and lifts my spirits a tad.

The pour is quite nice, with the tan bubbles maintaining a bit of structure after the pour. A quick sip reveals a thin sheet across the glass from my lips that is reclaimed as I return the vessel to upright.

That quick sip revealed a beer that is perhaps a bit too chilled, so I decide to focus on the nose, which I hope is affected too badly by the play of my football team. Opening notes are lightly roasted malts that give a bit of a bitter chocolate and some hints of licorice. Impressions of tart, dark fruit come through a tad more than any specifically from the barrel.

Back to a couple sips finds the coffee starting to come through, lightly sweetened and perhaps with a splash of whiskey. The nose is opening with the same increase in barrel influence. Back-end bitterness is starting to blossom, as well, with a drying effect on the feel.

As I take a pause to allow for more warmth, I get a text from a fellow Cavalier, "Pitt is on the verge of scoring more than Monmouth" - the team we beat in basketball last night.

I'm starting to get a more consistent and interesting evolution from the beer - lightly sweet opening to a dark roast coffee, followed by a bit of barrel tan that evokes thoughts of fruit, leading to a well-integrated whiskey presence, and finishing with high-cocoa dark chocolate bitterness.

Overall, a very nice beer that I'm feeling more confident the GF wouldn't like as much as I. I enjoyed the regular BA Framinghammer a tad more at the time I drank it, though many things go into that assessment, and it's not a wide gap between the two.

Cheers, all!

 

You can feel free to send me your GF's share of coffee beers. Like post-apocalypse flicks, if I come across one, I'm wired to want to try it, even in cases when I can tell before going in that it's probably going to be bad.

 

Did you go to Tokyo just for the beer fest, or is that something that happened to be going on when you were going to be there anyway? I mean, it's pretty damn cool either way, but traveling across the Pacific and the international date line just for a beer fest puts you in pretty hardcore beer geek company, I'd think.

 

Haha. She'll drink them often enough, but the ones she finds "too coffee-y" are the ones I tend to enjoy more. I think this one wouldn't be so off-putting, but I'm gonna stand by justifying my indiscretion, either way

 

Super weird to see this beer in Japan. I'm friends with the brewer and GM there and I've drank a ton of it. I'm glad to see it's traveling!

 

Trying my second one this weekend, again courtesy of my awesome BIF partner @BBThunderbolt. I’d have to look for sure but I think this is my first Weizenbock and it comes from none other than Structures; “Bär”.

Pours a beautiful bright orange with an almost glowing aura surrounding it in the light. A really decent white foamy head rises and falls to a thin white ring after a few sips. Nose is baked bread and honey with some floral and herbal qualities as well as lemon rind and a tinge of bitterness on the finish. Taste follows suit with a sweeter than expected biscuit flavor followed by some earthy herbal notes in addition to tart citrus and finishing with an almost fermented honey taste. Feel is smooth and rich but a nice carbonation bite finishes it in a refreshing manner.

overall, I feel like this is really one of the best beers I’ve had in a while. I really can’t believe it’s 7.2% because it drinks much smaller than that. I don’t know anything about this style but I feel as though it must be well done. I don’t typically go to 4.25 but I think this deserves it across the board. Cheers fellas and thanks Terry for an awesome beer.

*EDIT: Beer is brewed by Structures, not Wayfinder. But it has a great big Wayfinder logo on the back of the can. I cant say if it’s a collaboration or not but it certainly looks that way.

 

My new beer for today is Luminati, brewed by Esoteric Brewing in Cincinnati. It was gifted to me by @Manta200.
Slightly hazy gold color with no head.
Sweet malt aroma, some floral hops.
Taste of honey, late hops.
Crisp finish, easy to drink.
Sent to me by the very generous @Manta200.