New Beer Weekend #143

FH's makes a lot of IPAs that taste pretty similar to me but they try to spin them as being much different products. Kudos to them because it seems to be working and they make quality stuff but I take their marketing with a grain of salt anymore.

These days I am with you here and they are a one and done.

 

Well, it's like the old saying/joke: "How do you know when a marketing person is lying to you?"

Cheers!

 

When their lips are moving?

 

Good afternoon NBW
I picked up a few things in Kentucky this week after work one night. This is one of them. Had to add it to the database, which I thought was odd.

Interstate Tailgate
Collaboration between Great Lakes and Fifty West
16oz can stamped 01/11/23 poured into a nonic pint glass at fridge temp 5% ABV. The beer pours bright light amber with off white head. The head recedes to thin ring and island. The aroma is very light with pale malt. The taste is semisweet pale malt with just a hint of bitterness. Clean, with no diacetyl. Mouthfeel is thin bodied with average carbonation and a mostly dry finish. Overall, good.

Cheers all!

 

Obscure Snoozy BBA Imperial Stout, 11.2% ABV. Pours thick and black with a slight tan head that left no lacing. Aroma is chocolate, caramel/toffee, and bourbon. Taste is roast malt, bourbon, toffee, slight chocolate, slightly sweet, slightly bitter, bourbon burn on the close. Decent mouthfeel with light carbonation, overall excellent. A better name would have been 'Boozy'. This was a collab with a local Hy-Vee liquor store that provided the bourbon barrel. It was aged 19 months. Solid BBA Imperial Stout on the Boozy side, which I'm good with.

4.24/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

 

Ok, way back in the day, before back back around when I joined this site, a Dogfish Head-affiliated brewpub was one of those places I enjoyed going to enjoy "craft beer." I was a fan of their core IPAs, but I really enjoyed the rotating higher alcohol beers they offered (Burton Baton, S'ahtea, Palo Santo, Bitches Brew).

Sadly, they don't make these beers too often any more (though we do see 120 Minute and WWS a little more). One of their beers I recall reading about as I got more into craft beer, mainly in thoughts about "beers we'd like to seen brewed again" was an IPA called Squall. DFH released a version of this beer about 6-7 years ago and I liked it pretty well.

Then I saw they were releasing a beer called "Citrus Squall" and without any details I wondered if there was any relation. My gut said probably not, and as I read more about it that was confirmed... this is not "the "citrus-forward IPA has a hoppy aroma with floral notes of pine and grapefruit" as Squall IPA is described by DFH. Citrus Squall is "a double golden ale and a paloma cocktail brewed with grapefruit juice, blue agave nectar, lime peels and a touch of sea salt."

So with a mere touch point of grapefruit in both descriptions, I'll take this Paloma-inspired beer on its own terms.


At first blush, the head looked pretty good and it seemed it might stick around, but the bubbles erode fairly quickly to a weak ring. The body is a medium-hazed amber color, a bit more pale golden than the picture shows. The nose is heavy on grapefruit (pithy skin and juice), an herbal component akin to spruce or juniper and even a hint of lime. I must say, even though I can see the individual components of the cocktail, this is giving me the impression of a floral, bitter, fruity IPA.

On the taste, the floral component is a bit heavy for my likes, and when paired with the grapefruit flavors, it comes across as a "grapefruit flower." The spruce-like note also seems a tad perfumed, but does join the grapefruit pith and lime skin to provide some decent bitterness. I'm actually enjoying the strange interplay of the ingredients despite the less desirable impression a teeth brushing after a glass of morning citrus juice.

As a Paloma, well... there is no acidic note and the presumed juniper replacement is way too strong, relatively. As a beer, it comes off as an interestingly flavored medium bitterness, dry older-school IPA to my palate.

I have to parse the GF's opinions sometimes, and the way she said she liked it was in a way that was considerably different than the way she used the same words for the St Bernardus 75 before. She's not a fan of spruce, so if she's getting the same as I did, it would explain a lower level of enjoyment. She said she liked DFH's regular IPAs more, and I can't argue too much against that, but it strangely has me awaiting the re-release of Pennsylvania Tuxedo later this year.

 

Or in this case, when they are writing shit down.

Cheers!

 

Only a couple new brews for me today, first a local barrel aged stout from Wolf's Ridge:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/33530/650678/?ba=bluejacket74#lists




And then another barrel aged stout from Cincy's Listermann Brewing:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/3474/620715/?ba=bluejacket74#lists




Should have a couple more new brews tomorrow. Cheers everyone!

 

This Saturday I have Thank You 2023 from Maine Beer Company. And frankly, its a little disappointing despite my love of many of their beers. I got an Rdev of -10/8%. I'm wondering if I got a bad bottle.
Here are the deets from their website-
HOPS-Citra, Mosaic, HBC 586
MALT-Maris Otter, Vienna, Flaked Oats, Light Munich, Carahell, C-40


3.71/5 rDev -10.8%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
Poured from a ½ liter bottle stamped 14MAR2023 to a Nonic at fridge temp. Note that this bottle is at the ½ way point of the recommendation on the label (Drink within 90 days).
The body pours out light gold with a slight haze. A 4 finger, large-bubble white head sits above but not for long. A film of small-bubble/foam with a thicker ring settles in for the session.
On a re-pour to my 16oz glass you can hear the head bubbles popping if you put your ear to the glass (never noticed this before, but maybe it's there with many beers).
This beer smells mildly of citrus with a background of onion.
The taste is well balanced. There is some citrus and pineapple, but is well tempered with a malt middle. The finish is very dry.
The mouth feel is medium to light and carbonation seems on the light side of medium also.
Not the best beer from these guys, but I wouldn’t turn it down.

 

I miss aprihop every spring @cjgiant

 

Another new beer. This is the last of the DFH mixed 12 I bought for last weekend.

Citrus Squall
12oz can stamped SEP 2023 D 062 3 1831 11 poured into a shaker pint glass at fridge temp 8% ABV. The beer pours slightly hazy, dull amber with nearly white head. The head recedes to a pencil thin ring and a scattering of micro bubbles. The aroma is moderate in strength featuring big grapefruit and lime. The taste is tart & sweet citrus with light, wheat like malt and negligible bitterness. Tastes more like juice than beer. Mouthfeel is thin bodied with average carbonation and a mostly dry finish. Overall, ok.

Cheers all!

 

That was a beer I thought I didn’t like but on a retry I realized I was missing out a bit (I think they had a different low-ABV or gluten-free fruit beer I mixed it up with - maybe Festina Peche or something).

Memory being a ficke thing, I realize, but you bringing this up made me think Citrus Squall might be somewhat similar, though with grapefruit.

Also, I realized after posting my mind flipped in Greyhound for Paloma as the target cocktail after I got the spruce note. Switching out the key liquor is a hugely major difference, one that has me questioning my own mental sharpness

That said, I made a Greyhound to compare with Citrus Squall and posted in the cocktail thread.

Interesting you got negligible bitterness and I got quite a bit. All have different palates, but I will say the bitterness jumped out even more when I compared it to my grapefruit cocktail mentioned above.

 

Untitled Art Chocolate Cinnamon Churro Pastry Stout (Imperial Stout), 8% ABV. Pours black with a 2+ finger beige head that left no lacing. Aroma is as advertised, strong chocolate and cinnamon, plus peppers, chocolate, and batter. Taste follows, quite sweet, faintly bitter. Decent mouthfeel, overall outstanding. A true pastry stout.

4.46/5 rDev +7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

 

A new one from my neighboring state of California. A very nice, and hoppy, WCIPA. 7.1 % ABV, 70 IBU with Mosaic, Warrior, Columbia, and Amarillo hops for an excellent aroma when poured.

 

Kind of related I suppose and try Victory's Motel Paloma, I was pleasantly surprised recently.

 

On a beer run, stopped for a few at Revolution including this newly reformatted Spirit of Revolt.

Revolution Spirit of Revolt



Taproom Notes: $7 plus tax 16 oz draft. 6.66% ABV, Rye IPA.

Appearance: Clear golden base, light carbonation, bright white head creamy, leaves generous lacing. 4.0

Aroma: Mild tropical notes, tangerine, citrus. 3.5

Taste: Consistent with the aroma, though the Cyro mosiac and the artificial taste I get from cyro dominates. Halfway through and no rye. Getting a little caramel malt backing. 3.25

Mouthfeel: Light fizzy carbonation sustained, medium body, bitterness holds the sweet flavors in check, perhaps too effectively despite my typical preference. Bitterness lingers. 3.75

Overall: This beer is good, just doesn’t work for me with the cyro which dominates the proceedings. Would recommend to those who like it, but for me a one and done. 3.5