New Beer Weekend #126

Hey everyone, tough week for me. I had some kind of virus but Covid and Flu tests were negative. Bottom line, I didn't feel like drinking beer, but my taste and smell were fine.
Finally it's Saturday, I feel like drinking but unfortunately I had to meet someone at my office so my wife offered to do a Fox Farm run. Here is the first of the new ones out of the haul.

3.96/5 rDev -4.1%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Poured from a 16oz can stamped “CANNED ON 11/30/22" to a Nonic at fridge temp.
The body is dark, almost opaque brown/black with some reddish brown on the edges when held to the light. The head is a beautiful puffy tan about ¾”/18mm high.
The aroma is of composting leaves, tobacco with a bright note I cannot identify.
The taste is a malt lover’s delight, but hops are not completely hiding. The hops make a cameo appearance mid-taste, then they are gone to a dry, chalky finish.
Mouthfeel is light, but the carbonation is unique. The bubbles are plentiful in the mouth but seem smaller than normal if you can imagine that.
I like almost any dark beer that is dry. This one is super dry so it's fine by me.

 

Hello NBW. Here I have one of the few "American light" lagers craft-brewed that I've actually enjoyed. I've tried a few, but this stands out, it feels German.

Snappy Lite - 12 percent. This is the house beer over at 12percent, well this an original snappy. I grabbed a 12 pack for about 12 bucks, pretty great value, must be said.



Pours a slightly hazy, leading clear amber with a soft, pillowy head. Nose is peppery and malty, really rounded. Taste is smooth and easy but full and rounded, the 4% abv here plays much more like 5% or so. Really well crafted in that regard. There's a big peppery hop bite at the end, and lovely clean bready malt body all throughout. Hell of a beer, as good as snappy, if not better for my palate, just a steady, well-crafted lager. Regardless of style classification. Absolutely crushes my expectation, it's exceptional particularly given the pricepoint. This would be my vote for best value lager, genuinely competes with jack's abby for me (in this given moment).

 

Poured into a 20 oz tulip glass canned on 12/08/22. Pours a hazy orange with a finger sticky white head that leaves loads of thin streaks of lace, with excellent retention. 4.5

Aroma is peach, mango, guava, tangerine, and apricot. 4.75

Taste follows peach, mango, guava, tangerine, and apricot. 4.75

Mouthfeel is rather big, soft gentle creamy carbonation, not sticky or dry, and at 8.3% extremely easy going down, but huge flavor. 4.75

Overall this one is pretty amazing. I would highly recommend. They rarely let me down. Thanks @JackHorzempa for getting us started today. 4.75

 

Thanks @JackHorzempa for the opening

Tiberius wild ale by Barrique brewing and blending

4.44/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5



Brewer notes: mixed culture sour featuring one of our heaviest peach blends ever. We called upon three of our favorite peach casks for this one. Featuring jones orchard Tennessee grown white peaches, Indian blood peaches, and second use Indian blood peaches. Tiberius delivers the most peach forward nose of any beer we’ve ever released. Enormous, rounded peach flavors drench the palate, followed by a pleasantly oaky, dry finish. Peach wild ale blended in collaboration with Horus Aged Ales from Oceanside, CA. Utilizing fresh Tennessee grown white peaches and Indian peaches

Corked and caged 500ml bottle , elegant paper tag describes the contents, poured into a teku , hazy golden orange liquid capped by a creamy one finger white foam cap , very good retention , settles to a pencil thick layer , spotty lacings

Aroma is sweet tart peaches

Taste is sweet tart peaches, peach flavored sour patch kids, tart peach gummies, more tart than sweet

Clean , tart, crisp , fizzy, the tartness nicely lingers

Good beer

 

4.3/5 rDev +2.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4.25

No obvious date - poured from a 12oz bottle into a snifter.

Clear seal brown liquid with fulvous highlights and a small beige cap receding to a lasting collar and surface slick. Fine sandy lacing, thin sticky legs.

Lovely aroma - potent roasty malt base with the coffee and hazelnuts blending perfectly.

Rich roast malt and French roast coffee on the palate - tobacco, burnt sugar, faint licorice and molasses. Mild bitterness, with faint citrus (chocolate orange)/pinenotes. Medium-dry nutty finish with a touch of ceylon and spice.

Medium bodied, fairly prominent alcohol, though not fusel. Slightly fizzy, though not over-carbonated.

Very good imperial stout with the additional flavors adding interest and balance.

 

Yuengling Golden Pilsner. Why not?! It's alright but I truly enjoy the trad Lager. Cheers!
3.36/5 rDev -5.4%
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5
12oz bottle into a tall Pilsner glass.
L: Pours clear yellow gold w a 1/4" white head that goes to good edge foam, VG carbo with large bubbles, no lacing.
S: Light malts, gently floral w subtle spice, very light fruit, a hint of bread, vinous green veggie, peach, cereal grains.
T: Lightly sweet then a hoppy bite, caramel malts, vinous green veggie, very light fruits, a hint of corn, grainy aftertaste.
F: Crisp w broad paleness, a med-light body and a rather drying finish w a light linger. Lightly gritty in the finish.
O: An EZ drinking beer that is very drying, which I personally enjoy. It is gently rich in the middle but remains light on its feet. I can't lie, it tastes a little bit 'cheap" for lack of a better term yet it is good in its style.

 

Hi Jack.

That's right, regular snappy and this "lite" version, though I understand them to be completely unique beers.

Funnily enough, there's very little info, though I remembered reading the Marlowe folk/s had made it and I read the following from them:

"Brewing a simple, cheap, yet expressive lager has always been of interest to me so when Alex asked if I wanted to make a “lite” version of my Snappy recipe, I knew immediately what I wanted to do. Step mashed with one easily attainable pilsner malt, lager yeast, and the hop duo of mittelfruh and cascade to blend the old world with the new, all in a low abv, easy drinking package."

So I guess it is all malt, mittelfruh here plays a lot like any noble hop - saaz or tettnang included - though that might be accentuated by cascade , ever the swiss army knife.

 

We're finally getting into the spirit, we put up a tree last night, and today I utilized the spicy maple syrup that @WunderLlama sent during the BIF, and the video that @jonphisher posted a couple of weeks ago, and made us some maple nuts. It was SUPER easy, and dangerously enjoyable. A part of me wishes I did not have this knowledge now within me.
But then my tongue and my stomach override that part.
The sporadic snow has abated, and I already took the baby for a walk, so I think it's time for beer.



I'm not really a 'gamer' in the sense that I think this brewery uses the term. There was a time in my life where I played a lot of video games, but I was never really that deep into the multiplayer/online scene. I have also played a tonne of board games (I seriously need to winnow down my collection, by like half), which I suppose some could describe as being a gamer, but again that's not how the terminology is used here. Now a days, it's mostly playing CIV VI with my wife, who never played video games but has learned to appreciate trying to take over the world.
Anyway, that's a whole lot of fluff to say: I appreciate the spirit behind this brewery, and the name of the beer (even if it took me way too long to realize that the rest of the keyboard on the label spells out: "anniversary lager").



Gamecraft - WASD
@2beerdogs sent this my way as part of his ninja strike during the BIF.
Pours a lovely crisp clear pale golden. I held the glass up in front of the can, and could still read the little blurb on the label. Wet bubbles build and dissipate quickly, leaving nothing behind.

Nose is quite pronounced. I posted thoughts on 'thiol-boosting' a couple of weeks back (same week as Jon's nuts, actually) in relation to another beer that Derek sent, and they call that process out here as well. I think it is more impactful here than in that other beer. As soon as I pop the can, I get a swell of sweet fruit/floral aroma, that fade to earthy grassy and straw malts. Maybe a hint of spice in the background.

Sadly, the flavour does not deliver the same richness as the thiol-boosted aroma. The dull earthy note leads at this point, with the sweet fruits being mostly limited to a thin vein through the middle of strata-hop flavours. They're enjoyable elements in their own right, but they don't come together as smoothely as the aroma, or as I would like.
Ultimately, this sweet vein culminates on the finish with an alcohol-like impression (the flavour, no burn or bite or anything like that).

Heavily carbonated, and that note alluded to above gets a bit cloying by the time I'm done with the glass, kind ofoverriding the floral/grassy element that I would prefer to take the forefront.

Thank you Derek for sending this along, and I hope that things are coming back together down there!!

 

Amazing!!! And you pretty much summed it perfectly…too easy to make and way too delicious. Batch #2 is on the horizon as I’m almost out. The guy mentioned smoking them too, now I just have to get to my brothers and smoke the next batch.

I’m glad I shared that video now

 

Yes. All that, plus the LA fans would be wearing sweaters. Tasteful sweaters.

 

Greetings all from the great northwest where we are watching a dismal performance by WAZZU in the LA Bowl.

Fortunately we have this 9.5% ABV Black Caldron Stout from Grand Teton to take the sting out of the game.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/413/28556/

Until next time

 

Jack, I can attest that the bottle is the way to go here. This year's 750 is all I hoped it would be. Last year's can left a bad taste in my mouth, so to speak. I think you commented on the bottle-aging aspect, not sure how/if that applies or translates to cans.
And yes, the Abt12 is a somehow unheraled offering, especially for something available year- long (and a good price @ Wegmans).

 

Cross posted from the Holiday Beer thread, this is world class, IMHO.





4.6/5 rDev +8.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
Pours a rich mahogany brown with ruby hues on the edges and an oatmeal colored head that sizzles in the glass and lingers as you enjoy the beer. Gorgeous quad.

The nose is rife with fig and plum aromas, and there’s some caramel and spicy nutmeg as well, but no sign of the chocolate referenced on the bottle.

That is corrected on the taste, though, especially as the beer warms, with a subtle chocolate flavor lingering at the back of the palate after the plum and fig flavors up front, and the caramel and nutmeg mid palate. Wow, is there a lot going on here.

The mouthfeel is slightly creamy, yet also a bit spritzy, attributable to the yeast referenced on the bottle. What this means on my amateur palate is a 10% ABV beer that never gets heavy, which is appreciated in a 750ML format.

The skill demonstrated in brewing this beer is a treasure, IMHO. This is a magnificent quad, one that I will seek again.

 

Fine beer, courtesy of @Roy_Hobbs, Tree House Old Growth Kentucky Common, a new style for me, nice amber pour, frothy head, slight malty aroma, some carmel sweet malts, cola, some hops on the back, very different style, not great, not bad

 

Good evening, NBW. Things have slowed down to slightly here. Grandson and I got out for a long walk in our woods today...it's not like we can go far, but we can make loops. The gnomes have apparently gotten into the Christmas spirit. In the hyper-excitable words of a 6 year old "Nana...we found like 14 ornaments in the trees. The gnomes are back. They have stuff everywhere". Fourteen is his count for lots, but it's more like 30. (I figure the gnomes must be about six foot three...)


This beer is delightful:



Proclamation Dark All Day - a smoked Czech-inspired dark lager. It isn't in our database, but I guess i will add it as the base Czech dark lager and mention the smoke.

Pours coffee dark brown, and I can convince myself of some reddish tints. Compact tan head that falls to a cap of tiny bubbles, not much cling.

The smell is of moderate smoke, dark chocolate, coffee, very light grain.

The taste follows exactly - dark chocolate, coffee, light grain, and subtle smokiness. A bit of bitterness on the back end. A very slight impression of sweetness. After a few sips there is a very, very faint (possibly imaginary) hint of peppery spice. It's got something of a nutty character - almost like Nutella.

This is light on the tongue, fairly dry, the bitterness lingers but does not build.

Well...not much of an analysis, is it? To me this is a great tasting beer, and part of that great tastiness is the absolute, straightforward simplicity. It is well-crafted with a judicious application of smoke and a pleasure to drink. Heavily influenced by liking, this lands at 4.0 - 4.25 or so. It's a seasonal, so if you are in Proclamation's distribution area in RI or SEMass, I'd say grab one.