New Beer Weekend #160

Thanks for kicking us off @SawDog505

I'm looking forward to a day with plenty of soccer and hopefully a few beers. Amazing shootout in the Australia / France game this morning (longest shootout in Women's World Cup History). Happy to see the Matilda's advance (@AzfromOz let us know how the country is reacting to the win). Right now it's England Columbia, and my favorite Premier League team (Arsenal) is about to start their season. All in all this is a good start to my day.

Anyway, onto the beer!

This is Imperial Stout Trooper from New England Brewing Co.

Canned December 14, 2017 with the bottom of the can stamped "Vulcans 4 Life"

Ok...let's see how this ~6 year old beer has held up. Appearance wise, the answer is, quite well. Stouts almost all look the same to me, but that's not a bad thing. Deepest brown / black, but what I was pleasantly surprised with was the thick, beige head that showed good retention before settling into a permanent ring and cap.

Aroma is a nice blend of roast and sweetness. Cocoa, roasted malts and vanilla-like aromas. Nice smelling beer.

Taste is where the age of the beer is showing up. I think time has likely stripped away what I imagine were a more congruous set of ingredients. What's left is a little bit like bitter cocoa mixed into a thin base beer.

Overall, this is not particularly enjoyable. I will have to try it fresh. Certainly can't blame the brewer for the fact that this languished in my cellar for way too long.

 

Two heads are better than one?

I typically wait until about Labor Day weekend to purchase Oktoberfest beers but…

Until somewhat recently for me an Oktoberfest beer meant an amber colored malt forward lager. While I am not personally a big fan of Sam Adams Oktoberfest I suspect that for many American beer drinkers this might be the eponymous Oktoberfest beer.

But the beers served at the Oktoberfest celebration in Munich for the last few decades is actually a pale colored beer which is similar in characteristics to a higher ABV Helles beer (e.g., a Helles Exportbier).



In summary: “…when it comes to the overall Oktoberfest beer style there are now two types:

• Amber Oktoberfest (or Märzen)
• Pale Oktoberfest (or sometimes called Festbier)”

https://www.morebeer.com/articles/Oktoberfest_Beer

Which brings us to today’s new beer which is the collaboratively brewed Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest beer which is branded as a Festbier:

“Seasonal

Oktoberfest

Collaboration Festbier

This collab is 20 years in the making, back when our brewmasters were classmates in Berlin. Today, Kehrwieder is turning German craft beer on its head — just like we did stateside — and our mutual passion is fused in this Festbier that’s bright like polished copper, rich with biscuity malt, and balanced by a punchy blend of German and American hops.

Only available July–Sept

STYLE: Festbier

ABV: 6%

IBU: 30

Malts: Briess, Two-row Pale

Hops: Cascade, Tettnang, Tradition

Yeast: Lager”

https://sierranevada.com/brews/oktoberfest/

Served in my Sly Fox Bock Fest mug:

Appearance:

Deep Golden colored with a BIG white head (with coarse bubbles).

Aroma:

A rich biscuity/bready aspect dominates the aroma but there is some hoppy aromas of herbal/floral in the background.

Taste:

The flavor follows the nose with mostly a rich biscuitybready malt flavor but also some subtle herbal/floral hop flavors. There is a moderate bitterness.

Mouthfeel:

Medium bodied with a medium carbonation level. There is a dry finish.

Overall:

I enjoyed drinking this beer. It is a malt forward beer with hop flavors of herbal/floral playing second fiddle.

I prefer to drink Amber Oktoberfest beers in the fall (i.e., September/October) when there is some cool crispness in the air. It seems to me that Pale Oktoberfest (Festbier) beers are more accommodating to the hot weather of August for my personal palate.

Cheers!

@KOP_Beer_OUtlet @rotsaruch @RobH @SierraTerence

 

Next up is another cellar pull. Peachy Bones from Firestone Walker. It's a "Wild saison farmhouse ale fermented with white peaches"

Bottled 7/20/2018

Appearance is a translucent yellow / orange. Reasonably bright when held up to the light. Despite an aggressive pour, not much in the way of head. Some floaties, but that's my fault for pouring the last half ounce.

Aroma is relatively subdued until you get up close, at which point you get a strong whiff of tart, funky beer with faint peaches.

Taste has loads of musty funk. Way less tart than I expected based on the nose. Plenty of oak comes through on the finish. Peaches have mostly faded. Age has presumably robbed this of some of its carbonation.

Overall still tasty, but past its prime.

 

Thank you @SawDog505 for kicking off the weekend. I will celebrate two more beers provided by Dave aka @beergoot , with I believe a new style for me. Kentucky Common is recognized on Untappd, tagged on Rate Beer but listed as a Cream Ale here. I will follow-up tomorrow with my first rated beer from New Mexico.

Verboten Brewing & Barrel Project Angry Banjo



Can Notes: No canning date, 16 oz, 5.8% ABV. 2022 World Beer Cup Bronze Award - Historical Beer. Kentucky Common Ale. Brewed and canned by Verboten Brewing, Loveland, Colorado. Obtained mid May via trade with BA Dave @beergoot , refrigerated until this morning.

Angry Banjo was inspired by the once-popular indigenous style from Kentucky. This beer is made with American two row malts and rye. The addition of chocolate and caramel malts give color and flavor to this clean, refreshing dark cream ale.

Appearance: Primary pour into a shaker pint, dark brown bronze near black, bubbly tan head lasts a few minutes before leaving a razor thin cover over the base, lacing slides down slowly leaving no trace. 3.75

Aroma: Malt and caramel leads, rye and dark chocolate follows. Sweet at first, leans sweet thereafter. 3.75

Taste: Less diverse than the aroma leads at first, a sweet caramel and toffee front and center. As it warms rye emerges which pleases me because that is my jam. Light nutmeg, cinnamon later in, but rye caramel are the two predominate flavors throughout. 4.0

Mouthfeel: Mild carbonation, rye and hops balance out the malt sweetness, drinks light and easy, medium body, rye malt nutmeg finish. 4.25

Overall: Glad I gave this style my first try today, smelled and tasted very sweet at first, but let this baby warm up and allow the rye to emerge. I'm not familiar with this style, but it reminded me of a Christmas style Winter beer. Wonder if the sweetness mellowed over time, would like a fresher pour to compare and contrast down the road. Bottom line, this is an enjoyable beer, and I appreciate Dave bringing this for me to try! 4.0

Looking forward to my first New Mexico beer tomorrow!

Cheers!

 

Ok, so I’m finally getting to try a longtime curiosity, a beer that I recall as being fairly well received by this beer community. My local shop got a drop of Live Oak beers while I was on vacation, but they happened to have some of their HefeWeizen on tap this weekend, so some lunch and a try…


Granted, the pour is to the top, but I’m pretty sure the beer itself too easily allowed for this. Drinking it down a tad and swirling things around barely revived the razor thin ring of bubbles.

The nose is of moderate strength, but has a banana bubblegum quality that is nice. A little bit of the banana comes through in the taste, but there’s also a lemon-spritzed grain flavor that is more prominent.

At this point, our food came and I focused on it a bit more than the beer. This allowed it to warm a bit and adjusted my palate with new sensations. One or the other of these was beneficial to the beer, from this amateur reviewer’s point of view.

The head and aroma didn’t change much, but the banana and bubblegum upped their gane a bit to pretty much eliminate the lemon note I was getting. The beer went from a bit tangy to almost a little bit sweet.

What I ended with was a much better Hefe than what I started with. It was still a little bit watery on the feel, but at least I didn’t end up thinking a number of you were crazy.

Cheers!

 

Interesting that rye was part of the grain bill. I suppose an aspect of “inspired”.

Historically a Kentucky Common was mostly barley malt but some adjunct (e.g., corn) as well for the base grains but some others ingredients for coloring.

Below is some information from the book: Arnold Spencer Wahl & Max Henius, American Handy-Book of the Brewing, Malting, and Auxiliary Trades (Chicago, IL, Wahl & Henius, 1902), pg. 818.



Cheers!

 

I was sorry to read these parts. I have had Live Oak Hefeweizen many times while visiting family and friends in Texas over the past decade+. I have only had this beer on draft and every time it poured with a large head with excellent head retention. It would seem that the keg you drank had some sort of carbonation issue.

A well carbonated Live Oak Hefeweizen is not a watery beer.

Cheers!

 

Up next, yet another older beer. This is Leaves of Grass, from Hill Farmstead (bottled December 30, 2016)

3.59/5 rDev -15.5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5
Pours a bright off-yellow with minimal white head. Aroma is oak, what seem like McIntosh apples, and funk. Good smelling beer.

Taste is somewhat unremarkable at first blush, but gets more interesting on the finish. Less oak than on the nose, but the musty funkiness really comes through. Definitely could use a little more carbonation (age has presumably taken a toll).

Overall, nice apple funkiness, and easy drinking. Solid, but at this age, unspectacular.

 

Is today 'drink down the cellar' day? The equivalent of spring cleaning?

Cheers!

 

Just a couple new brews for me today:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1432/577966/?ba=bluejacket74#lists



https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/3474/637761/?ba=bluejacket74#lists



I liked both, but I liked the Jackie O's one more. Should have another new brew or 2 for tomorrow too. Cheers everyone!

 

I was in the store checking out beer to go when I saw this post. They had all the Live Oak I recall seeing in their email, so I grabbed a sixer of the Hefe to give it a second chance (also got the Pilz). I'll send you a bill for $10 if the cans don't perform better than my lunch beer

 

Was the Grodziskie available for sale?

Cheers!

P.S. If you send me a bill my 'response' will be: the check is in the mail.

 

It was not. Their two Pilsners (pre-and presumably post war), Hefe, and an Amber were the options in front of me.

No one takes responsibility for the consequences of their actions any more

 

Welcome to the 21st Century!

Cheers!