New Beer Weekend #124

I intended to review Sir Isaac's Stout last Sunday but I was "beer'd out" from the holiday weekend. I rated this stout highly but I wouldn't buy more of it. I think Goose Island did a good job of simulating the taste of a Fig Newton but it's simply too sweet for my taste. Also, I don't think it's worth $25 for 17 ounces of beer.

Poured at 57°. It's an oily, ink-black. The medium-mocha colored head fizzled away very quickly. On the nose there is roasted malt, freshly-brewed coffee, brown sugar, figs, toffee, and lite but noticeable bourbon. It's quite sweet and does a good job at simulating Fig Newtons. The fig taste is bold. The wheat is more subtle at first but it becomes more evident as the Stout breathes and it provides the cookie notes. In fact, over time the flavors really open - there is honey, coffee, and a hint of cocoa and brown sugar. There is also a bitter char at the finish that I like. The bourbon is delicate and adds sweetness. While it's a bit sweet for my taste I give it a high taste rating for achieving the Fig Newton flavor. The mouth feel is thick and syrupy with low/moderate carbonation, and the 13.9% ABV is inescapable.

4.34/5 rDev -1.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

Have a great week, everyone, Cheers, NBW!

 

Gmen played to a tie!!
WTH...looks like no playoffs this year.
Still cant complain because we are on the right track.
Hailing from the seaside city of Newport RI, Radiant Pig Really Cold TIPA.
Rusty Orange on the pour w beige head. Head rapidly dissappears leaving one ring with some spotty lacing.
Smells very tropical - pineapple, mango, passionfruit and ripe peach.
Sweet tropicals, solid caramel malt base, some piney bitterness on finish.
They claim fermented at lower temps. So does that make this the new rage a Cold TIPA? I do notice the body is not as thick or heavy as most triples. Does actually have a bit of crispness to it. Hoppy as hell but does taste a bit "cleaner" than most big IPAs.
My only complaint is its just a bit too sweet- expected with the very unnoticeable 11%.
Overall pretty decent Triple. Best Beer Ive had from Radiant Pig. Good bang for the buck as well.
Cheers! Enjoy your Sunday

 

Received from @Victory_Sabre1973 in NBW BIF #16.
Finally getting to posting this, a very tasty watermelon sour that tastes, well, like jolly rancher more than beer.

At the time that was just fine. Finished moving a bunch of lumber and wanted a thirst quenching beer, and this does so in spades.
Poured the color you see above and the manilla colored head made a very brief appearance and went away.
The aroma was watermelon.
The taste was watermelon. I’m not generally a fan of non beer tasting beers but it really hits the spot when you are really thirsty.
The feel was good, I can’t complain at all as I pretty much slammed the mug.
Good beer, thanks James!

 

Glad you’re enjoying some brews. I teed up a couple to join in, but was feeling a bit under the weather and tested positive for Covid. Had it two years ago and with zero underlying conditions, I’ll bet I’ll be back next NBW! Cheers all

 

Godspeed - Sklepník V. Oceli, a Bohemian/Czech pilsner @Coronaeus sent me as a box filler because he felt (unnecessarily) compelled to replace a goody that broke in the first LIF box he sent me during NBS BIF #15.

355ml can served in my wife's tiny Kunisawa dimpled stein, of which I am quite envious. Packaged 22/JUNE/2022.

Pours clear light amber with a medium sized head that settles into a nice thick dusting and a healthy ring. Smell is grassy and sweet bready/grainy notes.

Taste is dominated by strong bitter grassy notes, a fairly strong floral undertone, with a really nice bready backbone.

Mouthfeel is medium, maybe a little slick. Overall, this is a really nice beer.

 

If you ever visit your brother in law, let me know Rob. I got the first round. Cheers!

 

Greetings, fellow NBWers,

Around 10 degrees this a.m., and currently 23 (14 with the wind chill). We got around 8 inches of snow in the middle of the week, and now we're back into another deep freeze. Such a pattern seems our lot this year, ever since the start of November. I'm kinda over it.

Today, I started off with a beer so new that it hasn't yet been put on tap at it's source and needed to be added to the BA database: Backcut, from Whistle Punk:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/44280/631713/?ba=woemad#lists
Here's their own description:
"Whistle Punk Backcut is the first in a series of special releases. This beer is a blend of 24 month bourbon barrel aged Wee Heavy and a Russian Imperial Stout. We then conditioned the beer on toasted coconut until we felt it was ready. We're getting notes of vanilla, Marshmellow, and coconut cream. Sip slow and enjoy."

I classified it as a Wee Heavy because that's what it tastes like.

Basically, this is a massive bourbon barrel bomb. Very sweet, very boozy. I'm thinking about getting another can and sitting on it for a couple years, to see if it mellows. Right now the barrels are pretty uncompromising.

 

Time for another new beer

Zipper Ripper: Honey Combover Triple IPA - Hoof Hearted Brewing



Poured from the can into a Spiegelau IPA glass. Canned August 16th 2022. Pushing it a bit here.

Creamy looking orange to yellow body color, with a opaque but not turbid or sludgy appearances. Some nice real slow rising fine carbonation, hitting a classic three finger white head, not so bright, not off color, but good staying power and some big bubbles and lace.

Aroma is interesting. Even with some pushing freshness limits, there's a good amount of aromatics coming off here. Barleywine like sensing hop actions of citrus and treacle dark sugar sensing sweetness to surprisingly. Definitely that touch of honey blossom as well which seems very fresh sensing as well. Big honey front on this, playing almost in braggot like territory. This is very nice.

This is quite surprising on the palate. Chewy sensing body, but has that excellent lip smack coating of honey and orange flavor real nicely. Mid palate is soft bodied and rich, somewhere between IPA and more American style barleywine. Mid palate rich of soft honeyed orange and fruit, almost like a sweet jam that gets spread on the tongue. Honey sweetness that is neither cloying, overly sweet, or super thick either, just dialed in like perfection.

Not quite IPA, not quite Braggot, not quite Barleywine, but all of it just lip-smacking good.

look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25 | Final 4.24

Cheers!

 

Dovetail Vienna-Style Lager from @ovaltine ( BIF 16 ), 5.1% ABV; 3.62 overall

Pours a very opaque amber with one finger of beige head. Zero head retention & lacing

S; Bready, grainy, a little cakey once warm, some toastyness

T: Follows the nose, pretty dry, woody hops, some malty sweetness as well. More woody hops, dryness, a touch of toastyness & a hint of lemony hops once this beer warms. Finishes dry & toasty with woody hop bitterness with grainy sweetness & just a touch of soapy hops

MF: Medium body, slight carbonation. skews a little too hoppy & bitter to me at first then kind of mellows out

Drinks alright, 4 months old; usually this style holds up well over time, this one doesn't live up to brewery's reputation

 

Kolsch by Notch

4.27/5 rDev +0.9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25


Beer advocate beer #2200

Ranked #6 for the style on BA

Brewers notes:
Crisp, delicate light and refreshing are perfect for warm summer days. In addition to their thirst quenching ability, they also are a fun beer to enjoy with food, including traditional German sausages and kraut. Light in color and malt character. This style’s fermentation process yields a light, vinous character which is accompanied by a slightly dry, crisp finish. Ale yeast is used for fermentation, though lager yeast is sometimes used in the bottle or final cold-conditioning process.

Kolsch beer stems from Cologne (Koln), Germany. Technically, for beer to be called a Kolsch, it has to come from the city of Cologne. This beer style pairs best with bratwurst, nutty cheeses, and even lighter desserts like apricot cake.I paired mine with an Omaha steak filet

Can poured into a bearded iris stange clear yellow liquid, numerous carbonation streams, billowy, fluffy three finger white meringue caps the beer, very good retention

Aroma is grassy, malts

Taste is malty, crackery , slight sweetness

Low sudsing, clean , crisp

Good beer

 

I do “Beers of December” every year where I go through my “cellar” and drink stuff I’ve waited to have all year. And for the first weekend, I had two new to me beers. Last night was another example of how great The Bruery’s anniversary beers are.

Tonight, I was shocked at how strong the flavors on a 2016 barrel aged beer were. I may open the 2020 bottle I have later as a comparison. I’ll try to save new ones for the weekend the rest of the month so I can post here again. Cheers!

 

Sounds like a very good beer and it’s funny I have the exact opposite reaction to that can. So simple and neat, love the font and the colors too, that gold ring around the top is a nice touch.

Are there other cans very different than this one?

 

Greetings all from the great northwest where we are having a Winter day. Snow with temps in the low twenties.

A good day for this Tipsy Toboggan Winter warmer from Two Beers brewing.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/17005/261319/

A decent seasonal brew with dark fruit and sugar flavors.

Until next time

 

I have another couple of Chicago beers this evening. The first is a style that I absolutely adore, and need to find more of in my beer nerd travels.





4.25/5 rDev +11.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
Pours a gorgeous copper color with a light tan head that provides ample lacing. Beautiful beer. The nose features spicy noble hop aromas, with grassy, earthy notes, and a nice caramalt aroma. This beer is the picture in the beer nerd dictionary beside “Vienna lager.”

The noble hop flavors are forward on the taste and delicious, with that spicy flavor accentuated by the earthy flavor and the caramalt for balance. This is exceptionally well done.

The mouthfeel is very crisp and medium, spot on for the style. I could drink gallons of this beer.

 

Well @foundersasap I thought I was done for the day, but knowing now that you are sick, I'll raise one more glass to you in hopes that your symptoms stay mild.

This is Chimes Mist, a Berliner Weisse Sour Ale from Mothfire courtesy of @foundersasap

Pours a semi-translucent watermelon color with light pink, short-lived head. The aroma has the cherry & lime that the can describes, but it doesn't work for me. That's not based on any technical analysis, just a simple observation that I don't think it smells very good.

Things improve with the taste. If I were tasting this blind I might actually guess it was a Key Lime styled beer, as I can clearly taste the lime, which through the power of association seems to result in me thinking I'm also getting graham cracker. There's a nice musty horse blanket underneath that I enjoy, although I recognize as I type this sentence that to the average person that probably sounds disgusting. There's not much pucker to this one. I find it very easy drinking.

Thanks, Jeff...feel better soon!

 

It is a good beer in my opinion, and I'm glad that we have a beer standard in Sweden that allows a macro brewery to throw out a beer like this without much fanfare. Funny you should say that. Goes to show how different people's preferences are. I've long felt that American macro breweries have long had the best branding and most attractive labels and packaging, even as I prefer the taste of a Swedish macro lager over a modern American AAL. Here's an overview of the can designs of the best selling brands from Åbro bryggeri:

 

#2, I picked this beer up yesterday when I went to a Chicago-area Binny’s to pick up my BCBS allotment and found this Willett Easter Egg sitting on the shelf. I’m pretty sure I squealed.

I first had BCBS around 2009 or 2010 at the recommendation of my local beer store buyer in Mankato, who told me, “You’ve gotta try this.” It was long enough ago that the format was 12 oz bottles for the OG (the store had no variants that I recall).

My beer nerd palate was still developing at that point (I liked hops), and I approached this with some trepidation because I do NOT do bourbon (a bad experience in HS). When I popped the top and poured that beer into the only snifter I had, I’m pretty sure I passed out.

And an hour and a half later, I finished it. The other three bottles fell over the next couple of months.

Now, I love all things BA, so to say I’m excited to try this would be an understatement of mythical proportions.

Let’s do this.





4.6/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
Pours onyx black with a sudsy tan head that quickly dissipates with a sizzle. The very picture of a BA imperial stout. The features dark chocolate, char, toffee, and a more than ample barrel note featuring oak and a touch of vanilla.

The taste is an amalgamation of rich dark chocolate, char, toffee, oak, vanilla, and more than a bit of barrel heat - and stone fruit in the form of dark cherries. Stupendous flavor profile, IMHO.

The mouthfeel is rich and creamy, commensurate with a beer of this gravity. This beer is one of the beer nerd lifestyle’s guilty pleasures, again IMHO.

 

Hopefully it's quick and uneventful for you. I had it in late September for about a week and a half, and it was like a particularly gnarly and persistent head cold.