New Beer Weekend #128

They only made this one once (the wood conditioned version). Their Sklepník v Oceli is a regular of theirs though (same beer without the wood). It too is excellent in my opinion.

I presume that since receiving their giant oak barrels from the coopers at Urquel, this will change soon.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cj8QzwBLKRd/?igshid=ZDhmZGIxNmQ=

 

Yeah, czech it out!!

But since those barrels are pitch lined it won't really be a wood thing.



Is that wooden batter a Blue Jay!?!

Cheers!

 

I'll admit I'm not always a fan of cherry beers (I find they can often slip into medicinal territory), but this is one of the best.

4.48/5 rDev +3.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

2019 vintage. Poured from a 12oz bottle into a snifter. Serving temp ~60F.

Clear rosewood body with amaranth highlights and an active collar of misty rose/beige foam. Fine bands of lacing recedes down thin waves of shimmering legs. Decent retention for the style and ABV.

Rich, potent malt aroma accompanied by a lower layer of barrel notes and a lower layer of cherry which blends seamlessly into the stewed fruit and esters at the bottom of perception. Pipe tobacco, treacle, toffee, bread pudding, etc. Just short of amazing.

Rich dark cherry flavor right at the front of the palate. As soon as you get a note of cherry pit, this is joined by dried apricot, leather, baker's chocolate, and notes of fine sherry/port from the oxidation. Mild bitterness melds with the flavors from alcohol. Long, smooth, yet dense/chewy medium finish. Superb.

Medium-low carbonation, faintly oily/slick mouth-feel - gentle tannins and even heat.

An immensely enjoyable sipper worthy of contemplation.

 

Welcome to New Beer Weekend @NorsemanOne , glad you could join us!

I have four new to me beers planned for the weekend, two from Chicago and two from Southern California. I also just booked a week trip to Los Angeles commencing in less than two weeks.

This beer was released for the first time this Fall, and is the only beer this weekend that is not bourbon barrel aged. I’m looking forward to a return visit to their Propagator location in Venice before my red eye home.

Firestone Walker Mocha Dolce



Can Notes: Single can purchased at store temperature from Beer on the Wall on 11/23/22 for $2.25 w/ tax, refrigerated until this afternoon. 12 oz canned 9/22/22 @ 15:13 PM, 6.0% ABV. Coffee, vanilla & cocoa nib nitro stout. Brewed by Firestone Walker Brewing Company, Paso Robles, CA.

Appearance: Nitro can, brown fully active carbonation settles into a very dark impenetrable brown/black base, luxuriously creamy tan head which settles nicely above and provides generous lacing throughout. 4.5

Aroma: Smells like Swiss Miss mix with marshmallows. A strong milk chocolate cocoa lead, light vanilla backing, cannot find the coffee. 3.5

Taste: Found the coffee, but it is hiding behind the cocoa nibs. Not getting the vanilla here, but am picking up a milk / sugar sweetness complementing the cocoa. As this warms a bit the coffee peaks his head out, and I'm liking this a bit more than my first sips several minutes, but still too heavy on the cocoa and milk sugar. 3.25

Mouthfeel: Nitro pour facilitates light and easy drinking below the 6% ABV. Watery thin body, sweetness reigns borderline cloying, milk sugar lingers. 3.5

Overall: Good beer, not really suited to my tastes as it is very sweet and would have preferred a more balanced take with the coffee on equal terms to the cocoa sweetness. Perhaps the coffee faded over these three months. 3.25

OK, but hoping the next three days brings better results.

 

Root + Branch The Crystal Spirit DIPA. I've had just a couple of R+B beers, one very good, one close to transcendent, so expectations are high. Appearance is murkier than the photo looks, approaching turbid, with an impressive head that leaves behind complex lacing. Initial smell is pungent grapefruit with a slightly burnt dankness; if that sounds negative, I don't mean for it to be, it's subtle to the point of not-there, but creates a heightened anticipation of complexity. And then, the taste: wow. It's been a really long time since I've tasted something so complex and gulpable at the same time. Bright grapefruit, mango, and vanilla hit the tongue initially, riding atop cannabis and black pepper.

The grapefruit shifts to orange as it warms, reminding me somewhat of early iterations of Mastermind, but with more depth. Per @Roguer's earlier comments about the mouthfeel of the Equilibrium/Weldwerks collab, this somehow manages both heft and drinkability, leaving a sticky dankness on the roof of the mouth while sliding back across the tongue. It really is a struggle not to basically chug this beer, a sensation I often experience with Tree House DIPAs. Funny I would drink one of the best of 2022's beers on the year's second-to-last day. Sublime would be a thoroughly appropriate adjective here.

I have another couple of R+B beers in the fridge, courtesy of @The_Kriek_Freak (thanks, Ian!), and I'm not sure I can wait to drink them. Cheers!

 

My next beer is Spiral Bloom, a Farmhouse Ale from Strange Roots Experimental Ales. I received this from @Pinz412 a couple years ago. Not sure what happened to Justin...he was active in our BIFs and NBS then more or less dropped off the face of the earth. Hope all is well in his world.

Anyway, onto the beer.

3.58/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
This beer absolutely exploded out of the bottle, which was unfortunate given that I didn't open it in the kitchen (where I normally open beer), but rather my office. With the mess now cleaned up, a very, very gentle pour still resulted in loads and loads of fizzy white head. Once it subsided, it actually revealed a beer that's a very attractive shade of glowing orange.

Aroma is heavy on the barnyard funk, with floral notes reflective of the hibiscus and rose buds used in its creation (per the bottle).

Taste is also heavily funky and floral, with the horse blanket, earthy funk leading the way. While I love some good funk, this is a little more wet dirty blanket-ish than I prefer. Light and lively and easy going down.

Overall, good, but not great beer that I'd be happy to revisit again, but that falls short of what I've become accustomed to from Fox Farm, Keeping Together, Hill Farmstead etc.

 

Welcome aboard - this is a great thread to chat, share, and learn.

 

Another new one to me, and to BA apparently. BB date 10/22, so its older.

Level Crossing - Down the Road - WCIPA

Poured clear gold with a fair white head

Strong mango/tropical fruit nose

Bitter, piney, and mildly one dimensional

Lighter body with mild carbo

Not bad, just not sure I'd buy another one.

 

Sierra Nevada Barrel-Aged Narwhal

Glad to participate in my favorite Beer Advocate thread, I think I only missed a couple weekends this year due to travel.

Appearance: Black, big brown head.

Smell: Roasty, mild, musty?

Taste: Chocolate to start, then some booziness, black licorice note, kind of a charred wood note. Some vanilla/wood barrel flavor. Finishes on a somewhat bitter dark chocolate note.

Overall: Wanted some barrel-aged beer, saw a 4 pack of this to try. After buying, found out the date was 8/26/2021, but it doesn't taste old or oxidized. The barrel is pretty well integrated here, and the base beer with its chocolate and licorice notes comes through. Pretty good but there are other mass distributed barrel aged beers I prefer.

 

Another fine beer from @Roy_Hobbs and BIF 16. HF Arthur, farmhouse ale, pours a cloudy orange, with tiny bubbles of carbonation, effervescent fizzy, light funk to the aroma, great balance of tartness and lemony citrus playing well together. Crisp feel, medium bodied. Excellent beer Ross

 

Not only do I agree with your assessment, I think it's pretty hard (for me) to see this kind of non-flavored BA stout as anywhere near say, BCBS or even Ralphius. Not a terrible beer by any means, but there are so many other options that it can only be disappointing.

 

i’d say you’re spot on brother. i’ve been digging that beer so much. tons of maple, especially when smelled straight from the bottle. nice drying cinnamon and sweet vanilla on the flavor finish. breakfast in a glass. cheers!

 

Cross posted from the NA Beer thread:

I had the Clausthaler Dry Hopped today. It's a very decent NA beer. For being an import, it's relatively fresh (see insert of back label in photo), and it was bottled on July 22nd. It's a bit darker than what I was expecting but color isn't that important. The beer has some raw wort flavor that seems to be consistently found in NA beers, but the taste of the Cascade hops kind of makes it acceptable. I think this is the first NA beer that I've had with a recognizable hops aroma and taste; all others are non-specific bitterness to me. Relative to other NA beers, I think this one is worthy of a 4.25 rating.

 

Hey everyone,
Glad to join in early on another edition of NBW.

T R V E Behind the Eye IPA. Clear, yet unfiltered.
7% - Canned 12.7.22
Grist: Troubador "Trvth" malts
Hops: Hallertau Blanc, Mosaic, Huell Melon & Grungeist

(had to enter the beer into the BA library)
3.98/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

L - Crystal golden untfiltered haze (but NOT a hazy). Classic TRVE Champagne bubbles for minutes, good head retention, decent lacing remains around glass.

S - The weak point of this beer, maybe the Mosaic isn't allowed to shine given the Hallertau Blanc, Huell Melon, and Grungeist additions, but it does impart a strange Pilsner-meets-IPA-in-an-alley kind of aroma, that carries over to the

T - Taste is a muted mix of blueberries, dough, malt, crackers - really interesting - and very smooth in its impression.

F - Great mouthfeel, smoother and less bitter for those enjoy that, perfect carbonation. Just a subtler IPA from TRVE.

O - Glad I got this, canned about 3 weeks ago (12.7.22) and drinking nicely - it's a different IPA for TRVE, and almost carries off a Pilsner/IPA combo in its overall impression. If you see, give it a try AND a review.