New Beer Weekend #139

Just became a big "WANT." Thanks for writing this one up and letting us know about this "not so wee" wee heavy.

 

Good. About as close as you get to Swish....but nit Swish.

 

As a Purdue fan, another OUCH! Come on, this is a rough weekend. As an IU fan (yes, I know that's frowned upon to have affinity for both), I am happy to see the Hoosiers continue. Over the years, I have had to wrestle with an appreciation for results vs. an awareness for how troubled Coach Knight is as a human being. I know there are some who only focus on his numbers and genius. And they are impressive. But, oh boy. He has some issues.

 

Another day of beer and college basketball. My new beer is Quake and Bake, an oatmeal stout from Ex Novo Brewing Company in Corrales, NM. It has an ABV of 5.7%.
The beer is a very dark brown, near black, color. No lace.
Aroma of coffee and chocolate, some sweet malt.
Mostly coffee taste. Some chocolate, a bit of caramel.
Medium-bodied.

 

Road trip!

 

Hello NBW.
Hope you are all enjoying your scrambled brackets this morning.
Big thanks to @Roy_Hobbs for this one, sent as a surprise a back in NBS BIF #15.

Ourison by Tired Hands

Canned 2/9/22
Straw to peachy gold in hue. Fluffy white head pumps its fist assertively 3 fingers high. Cloudy and active.
Nose is really enticing. A nuanced funk swims around a blend of lemon, grass, wet grain, coriander, and hints of perfumy lemon blossom.
Flavor follows the nose. Initial pop of lemon zest, light tartness, lemongrass, green apple, and different layers of grain. Really loving the grain notes. The funk is mild. For a style that I usually don't usually partake in with frequency, I could do multiples of this one.
Lively carbonation, light to medium in heft, with a nice drying finish.
Overall, I would hit this over and over.
4.09/5 rDev -2.9%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Sorry I was so late hitting this one Ross. But I shared it with a friend who REALLY loved it.

 

Blah, blah, blah, all I'm reading here is, "When we headin' to Germany to see what a 'legit' rotbier tastes like?"



Very nice, Frank. ISO that Goldfinger - it sounds magnificent.

 

You should've seen Pseudo when it was NOT a hazy and only available in bombers at the brewery.

The newer version is very good, but the OG was a little slice of Citra heaven that I preferred to ZD circa 2014.

That's right, I typed that.

 

Objectively, Coach Knight had a very positive net overall impact throughout his life, be it leading and mentoring the student-athletes he lead as head coach, the classes he lead outside of his coaching duties, and for his efforts of behalf of the universities and thousands of people and organizations while employed and beyond at West Point, Bloomington and Lubbock.

I believe I had this first while it was being contract brewed IIRC down in Tampa in 2017 or 2018, but forever reason didn’t rate the beer. The can stated brewed, not brewed and canned, but I don’t believe it is currently being contract brewed based on the “brewed in Decorah, Iowa.

 

I'll be letting Team NBW down this weekend. I have a MFHC - miserable expletive head cold - that's not Covid, fortunately, but I'd seriously doubt being able to enjoy, never mind review, a beer. So I'll be enjoying the posts, channel surfing Bruins, hoops, and Nascar...

 

Lost Cabin Lord Grizzly Scotch Ale, 8.2% ABV. Pours dark brown with a 1.5 finger light-brown head that left no lacing. Nose is malty caramel. Taste is malt and caramel, moderately sweet, slightly bitter. Decent mouthfeel, a bit dry, lightly carbonated. Overall excellent.

4.15/5 rDev +5.1%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

This would be another low-ABV (lower than most beers I buy) dark beer I should have on hand. I've had two of the BA variants and those were excellent too.

 

Tripple cross post alert WBAYDN and March Beer Madness

Schneider Weisse Aventinus Weizen-Doppelbock Tap 6
Overall 4.14/5

500mL bottle with the new nonsense date code.

On the pour 2 fingers of off white to tan head that became rocky and a bit foamy over a few minutes, until finally settling at a decent tan cap. Body is a dark amber to copper, with a bit of haze, but light still comes through.

Aroma carries sweet fig and toffee/caramel, but there is a slight savory oxidation thing going on. Alcohol isnoticeable, but not boozy.

Taste follows the sweet malty notes, but loses the off notes. I'm going to blame the aroma on bottle age, which for now is unfortunately uncontrollable. Traditional banana hefeweizen flavor comes through with a sweet caramelized flavor coming from the malts. Honestly very easy to drink and comes off as a Dunkelweizen to my untrained American palate. Still there is some light figgy fruit going on but this is mostly a very enjoyable dark, strong, traditional tasting hefeweizen. Nice balancing hop bitterness, but no hop aromas.


Feel is smooth and easy drinking. This beer hides its ABV well once it's on your palate. Slight astringency, but this isn't a dry beer. At the same time this beer doesn't come off as huge and thick. The astringency balances the malt well leading to the easy drinking feel of this. Medium long finish, but it's subtle. Soft subtle, but present, carbonation.

Overall there are flaws, but this is one of my favorite general doppelbock style beers I've ever had, although, it is the only weizen-doppelbock I've tried. Nice traditional hefeweizen flavor merged with delicious caramel sweet malts, as well as a nice balancing bitterness. Smells a bit funny when it gets old though.

 

Widowmaker Keefmaster West Coast IPA (Columbus, Citra, Simcoe cryo). This is my first beer by Widowmaker. Heard these guys know their hops, so I've got high hopes for this one.

Pours a slightly cloudy honey orange color with a 1.5 finger off-white head that sticks around for a while. 4.0

Aroma is cannabis dank, orange marmalade, some honey, lemon, grapefruit peel, earthy pine, slight floral. 3.75

Taste is bright ruby red grapefruit flesh and peel, ripe tangerine, honeydew melon, floral notes, slight honey malt, some herbaceous dankness, earthy pine resin. Touch of malt sweetness up front gives way to a pretty dry and firm bitterness. 4.0

Medium body. Bright carbonation, but still has a softness to the feel. Oily. Other than some slight chalkiness, this finishes quite clean. 4.0

There's definitely better representations of the style out there, but this is still a rock solid west coast IPA. 4.0
Overall: 3.94

 

A Celtic land on St Patrick’s day weekend, but in Spain??? The more you know post…

I grew up for four years in the northwest corner of Spain called Galicia…if you were transported there you’d think you were in a Celtic region, and not Spain, heck even the traditional music there is bagpipes. Blocked off by mountains from the rest of Spain and crystal clear ocean and cliffs from the rest of the world, it is a truly unique and beautiful place; green as can be. I suggest anyone traveling to Spain visit this unique and strange place, the seafood alone is worth going for but the scenery makes it all the more magical. A quick google search yields beautiful images of this special place.

Galicia is home to Estrella Galicia (founded in 1906)…not to be confused with Estrella Damm from Barcelona. Estrella Galicia is still 100% family owned according to everything I could find, which I find very surprising, given its size. However; it fits the spirit of Galicia being its own independent world. Neat fact…They actually bought 32% of Carlow Brewing, the people who make O’haras Stout, which I have had and seen others post here in NBW.

Estrella Galicia was without a doubt the first alcoholic beer I drank around the age of 15…this is one of their premium beers, a helles bock.

My dad still goes back to where we lived from time to time for the same job that brought us there over 20 years ago now…he brought me back this single…

Estrella Galicia - 1906 Reserva Especial (Helles Bock 6.5%)



Pours a golden amber with a very dense clumpy white head, great retention; and above average retention; the clarity on this beer is stunning.

Nose is rich in malt with a very well balanced bit of tastiness to carry it along; has a subtle little bit of dark red fruit to it, almost cherry like in nature.

Taste is all about the malt again, it is very rich without being sweet or cloying; carries a perfect little bit of toasted quality to it. I pick up the same little bit of dark red fruit, in the form of a balanced aftertaste, just a hint of spicy hop quality. It carries just the slightest hint of macro lager taste as well, not strong skunkiness but it pokes its head out as it warms.

Medium body, with an amazingly creamy carbonation to it, low to medium bitterness, tongue drying sensation on the finish, abv is just slightly noticeable as it warms as well; but it is in a gentle warming sort of way, far from harsh or off putting.

This beer was really tasty and well made in my opinion. I think one would guess it is made by a bigger mass production brewery, which it is, but it has a lot of amazing qualities to it as well. Glad I got to try this beer, next trip maybe I’ll request another one of theirs.

That is it for me this weekend; have a great week and enjoy whatever beer may or may not be in your glass tonight. Cheers everyone

———————

My dad sent me this picture on his flight over, it is the little town where we lived called Ares…you can see the green and coastline I mentioned above…



Every festival, every event, this is what the streets of this town would sound like...and now far out of town this is what it looked like...



Next beer from Galicia, whenever that may be, I’ll share some other random stories.

 

Got my Urban Artifact Small Batch Society brews for this month so figured today was a good day to try them!

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/40297/646031/?ba=bluejacket74#lists



https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/40297/646034/?ba=bluejacket74#lists



https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/40297/646027/?ba=bluejacket74#lists



I liked them all but the Papaya, Coconut and Lime was my favorite of these. Happy NBW everyone!