New Beer Weekend #141

Good afternoon NBW
I don't get a lot of opportunities to pick up top 250 beers, so when this showed up at my local shop, I bought it, condition unknown...

Avery Tweak
12oz bottled Oct 27, 2017 Batch 4 poured into a tulip glass at fridge temp 16% ABV per label. Purchased at room temperature recently at a local shop with unknown storage between then and now. The beer pours opaque black with just a hint of brown if held to the light. The head is medium brown in color and hardy for over five years old. It finally settles to a thin ring and island. The aroma is mild with sweet malt, coffee and bourbon. The taste is semisweet with the coffee and roasted malt faded into the sweet vanilla of the bourbon barrels. There's a hint of actual bourbon, but it's more like bourbon ball candy (if you're familiar). Minimal bitterness. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with just less that average carbonation and a semi dry finish. 16% ABV is very well hidden in the aroma and flavor, only revealed by gentle warming of the tongue and belly over time. Overall, excellent. I would jump at the chance to try a fresher bottle.

Cheers all!

 

Focal Banger. An American IPA from The Alchemist This is another renowned beer from a renowned brewery. A local retailer was lucky enough to get a few cases of Heady Topper and Focal Banger 2 weeks ago and I was a good enough customer to be offered some. In any case this is one of the best IPAs I’ve ever had. Just like Heady Focal Banger lives up to it’s hype.

 

Good Sunday afternoon, New Beer Samplers and commentators. I'm always interested in collaborations. Sometimes they work; sometimes not so much. When two of my favorite breweries, Magnify and D96 get together it usually works out well so I wanted to try Vertical Integration, a TIPA workup of Hostile Takeover, a previous collab. It's supposed to be a zero IBU version. I would think that means it's not supposed to be bitter but this one certainly is. It opens with the snake fruit sweetness you'd expect from D96 but finishes with the spicy hop burn that Magnify is known for. In fact, it could be a bit green (less than a week old) so I may revisit the rating in a week or so. Nonetheless, this is very good!

It pours a murky, muddy-orange color with two full fingers of frothy, milk-white cap and thick, clinging lacing. A huge, robust, fruity nose with ripe melon, lemon, lime, vanilla, and soft floral hops. Wow, you can taste the D96 snake fruit influence right from the first sip. It has a robust, ripe tropical fruit sweetness: honeydew, pineapple, tangerine, and stone fruit. The influence of the Citra, Cashmere, and Nectaron hops is strong. But it's quickly balanced by tart, bitter lemon and grapefruit. There are also strong earthy pine notes from the Strata. As it warms a bit I notice the dry, white wine grape influence of the Nelson hops. At the finish there is a sharp, peppery finish from the Galaxy dry hopping. The mouth feel is luxuriously thick and creamy with moderate carbonation. And the 10% ABV is well-hidden as is characteristic of Magnify's TIPAs. Overall, this ale initially tastes like D96 and finishes like Magnify. It's very good now and I suspect will improve as it ages in the can.

4.34/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

 

As always, a great and highly entertaining review. I look forward to reading 'em each week!

 

That is one excellent beer glass!

 

What's on tap for Sunday out of the rest kitchen dinner?
Honestly I rarely know until I walk out the door to the market with a quick stop at my craft store of course.
Well what hit me today was Braciole.
So in the middle of that I'm into.my second new beer. Yup I put the coin down for an OH beer - never cheap but almost always good.
Vapor Ringz DDH Imperial Oat Cream IPA. Damn couldn't get it on one line...
Pouring a pale orange juice with a white creamy head with nice retention and plenty of lacing.
Lots of orange, lemon/lime, grapefruit, peach, pineapple and grassiness on the nose.
Taste follows with candied peach, orange juice, tropical smoothee, sugared grapefruit.
Medium/full body, creamy, low carb, fairly sweet ending with a decent bitterness. Great feel. No alcohol detected. Finishes with a slight hop burn.
Pretty freakin good. Would I spend another $22? Eh would have to be a really good week.
Cheers!

 

A very happy 10th anniversary to you both!

 

Ozark Beer Co. Meryl Haggard Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Milk Stout with Calabarian Chili & Oynx (coffee ) Costa Rican Las Lajas Beans, 13.2% ABV; 4.44 overall

Pours a thick mahogany/ebony with no real head. Zero head retention & lacing, very viscous

S: Coffee & dark chocolate, some barrel presence, tails off a little once warm, but not much

T: Dark chocolate, chili heat & coffee, plus dryness up front. Chille heat stays on point as this warms up, but not overbearing, dark chocolate, a little coffee & barrel warmth & bite are also mixing in well. Finishes with Chille heat, dark chocolate & warming booze with a little coffee, dryness & caramel

MF: Very chewy, low carbonation, very warming. Perfect mouthfeel for the style oily, warming & thick

We can debate the co$t of this beer & whether any beer is worth that much. A sipper that is pretty chille heat forward, but really seems to work

 

Relic - Oktoberfest (looks like a märzen)



Relic is a local CT brewery, out of Plainville. They’ve a nice small taproom with food and also a big selection of whiskeys for tastings. It’s cool cos you can get small pours or a pour back with your pint.

Deep amber colored. Soft delicate head

Nose is sweet malt sugar, hoppy bitterness. Bready. Caramel, brown sugar.

Taste follows. Clean initially then sharp with a moderate bitterness. A good bit of caramalt and sweet fruit flavor but quite true to a märzen/wiesn blend.

Finish is short but appropriate. Very tasty. Drinks like it was brewed yesterday.

4.17/5 rDev +8%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

 

Happy NBW everyone! Had a few new good brews today, started off with 3 Floyd's Zombie Ice:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/26/616588/?ba=bluejacket74#lists



Then had a good local brew with Endeavor's Night Man:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/50500/648486/?ba=bluejacket74#lists



And then finished my new beers with Branch & Bone's Our Day Will Come:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/52516/648487/?ba=bluejacket74#lists



Cheers until next weekend!

 

Made a visit to Equal Parts Brewing this afternoon. On the east downtown part of Houston. I don't get over to this part of town often, but always really enjoy this brewery.

First up:

Sueño Pale Ale. This is a surprising 3.5% ABV. This uses thiols and is heavily dry hopped with Centennial in that regard.



Pours a clear yellow color. A two finger white head forms with good retention and plenty of lace left behind.
Aroma has plenty of citrus and lemon that just punches you in the face. Almost dank and perfume like. Simple, by very aromatic.
Taste wise, like the nose, citrus, lemon, floral like hops are the show. Dank, earthy, and intense. Plenty of bitterness, but that never becomes overbearing and instead gives a nice dry finish.
A light body for sure. Though effervescent, spritzy and finishes wonderfully dry. I can easily drink a lot of this, which is the intention of coarse.

Very low ABV of coarse, but the hop character is really well done. That is really all there is, along with a great crisp bite and dryness. All of which I like. Some of the lower ABV "sesion IPA's", or whatever you want to call them, can seem a little one noted and I lose interest quickly. There was just enough nuance here, that I didn't get that feeling. It might not be for everybody, cause of "session IPA"s" or whatever hangups people have on low abv offerings, but something I enjoyed and would easily get again.

Overall score 4.08, an A-
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/44383/648597/?ba=champ103#lists


Next up:

Eurolager Pale Lager, 4.5% ABV



Once a bit of chilled haze leaves, this pours a brilliantly clear yellow. A two finger white head with good retention and lace is left behind.
This has a simple and clean lager aroma. Sourdough malts, simple spicy and grassy hops. That is about it, but very much enticing.
Taste wise, the malt character ranges from light cereal grains, to sourdough and baked bread. Subtle spicy and grassy hops, with just enough bitterness to round this out.
A light to medium body. Beautiful carbonation, that is both crisp and ultra smooth at the same time. Finishes wonderfully dry as well. Which all leads to a a really drinkable lager.

This could easily fit into some kind of a Pilsner category, which also points to some redundancy in some styles. Regardless, its a very good pale lager. Equal Parts continues to make some of the better lagers around town, and this is up there with some of their best.

Overall score is 4.19, easy A- and probably a little better than that honestly.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/44383/622560/?ba=champ103#lists

 

A classic South Carolina APA that I overlooked

Coast Brewing Dead Arm
A self-admitted APA. 6 % ABV
Pilsner, Vienna,Carapils malts; Wheat, Oats, and "choice hops".
Clean, fruity, nicely bitter.
The Coast beers are fresh and widely available in the stores here. I usually pick up Boy King or Black Beerd and ignore Dead Arm. Mistake. This is one fine APA.
4.09/5 rDev -0.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

 

NBS #2. Another collaboration but I'm resetting my palate with a completely different style. This Altbier (no fancy name) is brewed by Edmund's Oast in collaboration with New Realm Brewing Company. My albeit limited experience with Edmund's Oast is that they brew very good beer with their own unique spin. This Altbier is lighter in color but spicier and more bitter than I'm accustomed to. And I like it a lot!

Canned on 11/16/2022. Poured into a Stange. It pours a pretty, ruby-iced tea color with more than a finger of fluffy, ecru-colored had and thick, clinging lacing. The color is a bit lighter than other Altbiers I've had. Its smell is best described as slightly spicy, herbal grains. The taste is spot-on: roasted malt with a touch of caramel, honey, and burnt nuts balanced by spicy Noble hops. It's full-flavored. I'd say it's at the high end of IBU for the style. It's lite and crisp with pleasant carbonation and the 5% ABV is perfect. Overall, this is a delightful example of a style that more brewers should produce. It has enough flavor to accompany a burger or cheese steak but it's also appropriate for casual drinking.

4.07/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

As an added bonus I get to use my Stange. Have a great week, everyone. Cheers, NBW!

 

Good evening NBS people! This is one of the beers I got in a trade with @NorsemanOne - and it is good.
Poured translucent orange honey in color with a beautiful nearly white dense head that stood 2” tall and slowly dissipated leaving decent lacing.
The aroma was probably good but Covid messed up my nose so I can’t tell.
The flavor is really well balanced between the hops and malts, making this more like an American Ale than an IPA. That said, what came to mind was Bell’s Two Hearted Ale which is similarly balanced and thus I would think that they used Centennial hops.
After it warmed up a bit the bitterness came out and it veered back firmly into IPA territory.
The feel is softer than I expected after seeing the head and active carbonation.
Nice IPA, thanks @NorsemanOne - good beer!

 

Elephino, from Red Rock

16oz can served in a big snifter. I don't see a date on it. Got it from @NorsemanOne in a trade.

Pours a clear bronze color with a small head, just a light dusting across the surface and a very even ring around the edge. Not much carbonation unless I agitate slightly, and then what I see is very fine and very slow. Smell is mild, flowery green.

Taste is a nice combination of sweet and bitter. Honeysuckle / floral sweetness, strong piney / grapefruit zesty bitterness.

Mouthfeel is moderately thick, slight prickliness from carbonation that apparently I cannot see. Overall, nice west coast DIPA.

 

Two from me in a row, you guys are gonna blow my ego up! Haha

 

Day 2, both of my beers on this gorgeous evening in Northern Indiana are tied to NBS BIFers. This first one is from my friend @woemad, who slayed my porch with multiple boxes of phenomenal beers.

Like this one.

And beer #2 is lurking in the background …..





4.35/5 rDev +6.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
Pours a beautiful golden color, just a smidge shy of perfectly clear, with a creamy white head that leaves a nice cap on the body of the beer as you indulge and provides significant lacing. The nose is a fantastic combination of bready malt, spicy floral hops, and a touch of caramalt. Wow.

The bread and spicy floral hops are the show here, with the bready flavor leadin and the spicy floral hops grabbing the wheel mid-palate, and that bit of caramalt at the finish for a smooth, crisp landing on the mouthfeel.

This is fantastic - I wish I had a keg of this to enjoy. Exceptionally well done.

 

Next up from @Whyteboar something I'm very much looking forward to since Uinta isn't doing their kölsch this year sob's!

Archival - Kränz Kölsch



No canning date I could see.

Poured at fridge temp in a nonic glass.

Pours shiny and bright straw color with a thinner than expected white head. Visible carbo rising in the opacity. 3.75

Aroma is sweet forward with some equally parts soft malt and gentle hops. 4

Slight hop bitterness at first, not unpleasantly though. Next comes the grainy and grassy sweetness holding hands with some again soft malts. Really a gentle beer that doesn't overwhelm but also isn't weak. Flavor is very good without needing to puch you in the face. 4.25

Playfully soft carbo that settles quickly for how much I saw in the body. Light and easily crushable. Gone in under 10 min from the pour. 4.25

Overall I really liked this kölsch style even if it didn't visually impress or stand out. The flavor, body and aroma all more than compensated for it. 4