New Beer Weekend #146

Thanks to Jack for kicking NBW off this weekend.

I'm having a classic east coast IPA, Cigar City Jai Alai:

Appearance: Clear yellow-gold, big head.

Smell: Citrusy, pine, citrus rind.

Taste: On the sweet side to start, grapefruit sweetened with a few spoonfuls of table sugar. Citrusy sweetness continues through the body, the finish dries up a little with some orange and a little bitterness.

Overall: Finally got a 6 pack that wasn't old, so I can do a review. On the sweet side for a traditional IPA but less sweet than most of the new hazy/cloudy IPAs. I kind of like my old-school IPAs with a little sweetness, so no problems here. A good drinker, but falls off when it is old.

 

Thanks @JackHorzempa for getting us off to a great start!
A cool 65 degree morning, so we took the dogs on a long walk. Now that we're back, I'm going to drink my second ever beer from SingleCut. This is Eric More Cowgirl!, a chocolate milk stout.
This beer is a very dark brown with a small tan head that goes away quickly.
Not much aroma. Roasted malt and chocolate.
Not much taste either. Chocolate, a little vanilla.
Thin mouthfeel.

 

Returned here to pick up more Cali Cool to go. This brewery continues to move up my Chicago rankings.

Hop Butcher For The World SouthWorks



Brewery Notes: $7 plus tax 16 oz draft into slender nonic glass. 5.0% ABV, Zwickel style lager.

Maximum crushability on this unfiltered lager, inspired by the now- shuttered steel plant in south chicago where genuine hard work once earned that shift beer the blue collar way.

Appearance: Bronze golden clear base, light carbonation, very bright white head leaves quickly leaving a creamy full cover over the base. 4.25

Aroma: Strong enjoyable caramel malt leads, bready, drawing me in. 4.0

Taste: Caramel malt fully takes charge, significant sweetness. Bread, light salt. Nice hops presence holds everything together well. 4.25

Mouthfeel: Crisp, balanced, lightly dry. Super easy drinking, medium to full body, fizzy carbonation throughout. 4.5

Overall: So happy Hop Butcher opened this taproom because they really do well with styles that don’t necessarily hit distribution. This is a very enjoyable lager, full flavored, balanced, not too sweet. Well done. 4.25

Not sure if I’ll be out and bout with a new one tomorrow for New Beer Sunday #950, or back from home. Cheers!

 

4.24/5 rDev -8.8%
4.5 / 4.25 / 4.25 / 4 / 4.25

My score was lower but as it warms it's opened up a lil bit more. Pours nicely leaves lace. I still expected more on the nose, taste follows nose and has a super dry chewy astringency that's kinda off putting for me. Kinda unbalanced compared to some that contend with TH ime.

My palate is just being picky. Not bad at all by any means just expected more from this one. But still some tasty juice here and appreciate being able to taste it finally. Thank you! @WunderLlama

 

New Glarus Brewing Pilsner. I usually do not get excited about Pilsners, but I am excited for this one. The look is golden yellow, clear, with bubbles ascending to a light white foam top. The smell is floral, with scents of corn, white toast, lemon, and butter. The taste is grassy, herbal, and lightly bitter. Flavors of wheat, lemon, pepper, sunflower, and white toast come through. The mouthfeel is crisp, clean, light, and easy-drinking. The carbonation is medium. Overall, this is an excellent beer. One of the best Pilsners I have experienced.

 

Another first time brew for me.



Big Deal Brewing "Original" Golden Ale

Nicely transparent mid bronze color with a foamy 3F off white head that collapses in a minute or so. Some lacing. 4 = outstanding

Nose offers up a bit of buttery corn for some reason along with just a hint of malty grain. Nose is rather weak. 3.5 = good

Taste is caramel toasted malt, some dusty yeast, and a good dose of simple bitter hops that almost convey a wood barrel note. The hops are not piney or citrus, more like a whiff of thymol. Overall taste is a bit tangy but not in a citrus way, almost a woody alcohol way but this is low abv. 3.75 = very good

Mouthfeel is really nice with medium smooth and slick body with a good amount of effervescence in each sip. A crisp and dry finish due to the hops. A touch of cloying thickness at the back of the throat but not to concerning. 4 = outstanding

I like this beer. It seems a lot dryer and woody bitter than other golden ales I have tried but it fits when you want a dry refreshing beer on the less thin and less sweet side Overall 3.73 = good

 

Crazy Stallion - City Brewing Co.

This probably won't be winning any awards for aroma or flavor, but as a Malt Liquor or simply as a somewhat higher ABV American Lager it is pretty good. There is no ABV listed on the can but BA lists it at 5.9% ABV. It has a light herbal hop flavor which is pleasant and although the beer tastes watered down it still delivers a decent hop character with what also tastes a bit like walnuts. The highlight of this beer is the drinkability because it is very light, easy to drink, and the alcohol never shows up in the aroma, flavor, or mouthfeel.

There is a suggested retail price printed right on the can which says "$1.50" and that seems like a fair price for this easy drinking 24oz can. Throw a couple of these into a cooler with some hot dogs and you have a few cheap camping meals. Also the can art is really cool.

 

Back at the land of a thousand beers are we?

 

New Holland Brewing Dragon's Milk Triple Mash. 2023. I have experienced previous editions of this beer, but I consider this vintage to be its own entity. The look is outer space black, with light brown foamy bubbles that immediately disappear. The smell is marshmallow, chocolate, vanilla, graham cracker, and light bourbon. Beautiful. The taste is delectable. Very rich and powerful. Quite smooth. Flavors of bourbon, vanilla, chocolate, almond, and toffee explode and blend together like a fireworks display. Incredible. The mouthfeel is thick, luscious, decadent, silky, and smooth. Really impressive. Overall, this beer is in a different league than the rest of the Dragon's Milk series. This is one of the best BA stouts available.

 

G'day all! I reckon that this is the first time that I have posted in this thread.

An Imperial Oatmeal Stout aged in Bourbon barrels, filled October 1st 2021.

Wow! New (strong) beer of the year for me? Yes.

I got this from City Brew Tours and when I read the canning date, I was a little perturbed until I read that it was the barrel aged version.

Regarding Jack's entry, I had 2 bottles of the original Terrapin Wake-n-Bake many years ago. I drank the first one almost immediately and it was a fine Oatmeal Stout. The second bottle, I forgot all aboot for over 3 years and, well, here's my review of it:

Jan 9, 2011:

Terrapin Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Stout...2007. I can't believe I let this one slip by for so long.

There's certainly nothing wrong with the sound...a nice big pop when I removed the cap, and the look...Blackest of blacks and a decent though short lived head of tan foam.

The smell has with a big Port like aroma with a ton of caramel malt and chocolate. No coffee left at all but I reckoned that would be the case.

Big milk chocolate, caramel, Port flavours with mucho dark fruits. Holy hell. This is superb! Not what the brewer intended, for sure, but at this stage in the game, it drinks very much like a beautifully aged Old Ale or English Barleywine Ale.

Still close to full bodied and there's mostly lightish carbonation until the swallow when I get some very spritzy notes on my throat.

This is the surprise of this century so far for me. I would never have guessed that a most excellent coffee Stout would evolve into something even better. I wish I had a case of them so I could share!

Prost!

 

Whenever I can! But now I'm at Standard.

Standard - I'm Not Mad, bourbon barrel aged stout with Broadcast coffee

 

Good afternoon NBW
I'm normally a fan of Modelo products, but this was pretty bad...


24oz can stamped BB SEP 2023 poured into a shaker pint glass at fridge temp 4% ABV. The beer pours very bright light golden amber with nearly white head. The head is short lived and leaves only an incomplete ring of lonely micro bubbles around the world. The aroma is very faint with only a hint of pale malt. The taste is similarly light with pale malt, green apple and mild diacetyl. Negligible bitterness. Mouthfeel is thin bodied with high carbonation and a mostly dry finish. Should have been lagered longer. There's quite a bit of taste for a light lager, but they're all the wrong ones. Think ultra light malt liquor... Overall, not good.

I've got several more to try out over the weekend. No where to go but up really...

 

After a week of cold and drizzly, today's bright and sunny mid-70 weather actually feels hot. We too advantage of it and made our annual trek to purchase our garden plants. Good conversation with the "tomato lady" and we have our pile of odd varieties plus some different hot peppers for me to play with.

Stopped at Tilted Barn brewery in Exeter, RI on the way back. What a great spot! Plenty of open space and inside and out the place is spotless. They had a wood-fired pizza truck on site and people selling savory or sweet waffles. We opted for the waffles and they were a decent snack - bacon, some kind of creamy cheese, basil, fig relish.

We tried two beers. The missus had one of the Sunrise Over Sea series - this was a raspberry mango variant. Not sure what BA calls these beers, but they are essentially a fruity gose. We have enjoyed at least one, this one not so much. No raspberry but more than ample mango. Pretty one dimensional, pretty unremarkable.

I had their take on a dark Czech lager - I think it is called Is This Still Lawnboy, a riff on their Lawnboy regular offering. It was in the OK to good range - smoky, malty, nicely hopped.

To us, this is a destination brewery. You go there, maybe bring a blanket and picnic basket, hang out a while and chill. They were very busy but not crowded and we saw a lot of what we assume is local traffic just picking up cans to go.

Lotta yappin'...be back after dinner with more beerin' and less talkin'. Last one from the BA Stout box...hopefully worth the wait!

 

Good Saturday afternoon, New Beer Weekenders. It's the first really nice Spring Saturday and I've made the most of it with lots of yard work and washing both cars. Time for a new beer on the deck: The Pipeline, a 10% TIPA collaboration between Twin Elephant and Kane Brewing. It's named for a well-known punk rock club venue in Newark that was active in the '80's and '90's. Twin Elephant's beers are largely musical-themed. One thing I especially like about TE is that it provides lots of information on the can. The Pipeline is hopped with Citra, Motueka, and Pacific Sunrise and the grist bill is Two Row Pilsner and Wheat Dextrose.

This ale was released this week and I think it's a bit green but nonetheless really good. It pours a dense, turbid, pastel yellow color with more than a finger cap of fluffy, bright white foam and thick, soapy lacing. It's a very attractive pour. A fragrant, fruity nose featuring lemon, lime, pineapple, ripe melon, and floral hops. Wow, this is good! It opens with sweetness from the grist, as well as the soft tropical fruit notes from the Motueka and Pacific Sunrise hops. But the latter is also used as a bittering hop and provides dank, resinous, earthy pine sap. It finishes with biting bitterness and a hint of hop burn that balances the initial sweetness. The mouthfeel is luxuriously thick and creamy with appropriate carbonation, and it doesn't drink like 10% ABV. Overall, the Pipeline is a big, bold, flavorful, and enjoyable TIPA from two breweries known for quality IPAs.

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

As said above, I think it's still a little green and will improve as it settles.

See you all tomorrow with a couple more newbies. Cheers!

 

Oude Northwest - Phantastic Foudre

16oz can served in a pair of WABL sample glasses. SWPHT046 is printed on the bottom of the can, but I have no idea what it means.

Pours a clear, pale yellow with very little head and very light carbonation. Smell is mildly tart, mildly grapey, and a bit less mildly oaky. Oak + grape come across in a bit of a buttery chardonnay fashion.

Taste is mostly the same notes in a different balance. Oak and acidity come across pretty strongly, grape comes across pretty clearly right after that. Some bitterness that I think I would attribute to either the oak or grape skin. Butteriness is there, but much more muted.

Mouthfeel is medium to light, plenty of effervescence, a little bit of a mouth-coating texture to it. Overall, it's a good beer and I like it, but I'm not wowed.