New Beer Weekend #161

This inspiried me to order some as well
Cheers

 

Second "new" beer of the day...

Toppling Goliath Naughty 90

22oz bottled 11/12/18 (nearly 5 years ago) poured into a nonic pint glass at fridge temp. No ABV or style indicated on label, but according to BA, it's an 8% English IPA. The beer pours opaque medium amber with tight, sticky khaki colored head. The head recedes to a thin cap. Excellent retention and lacing. The aroma is mild with toasted bread, rich malt and oak. The taste is semisweet toasted malt, slight tobacco, slight cardboard with oak and black tea-like hops on the finish. Moderate bitterness. The mouthfeel is creamy, medium bodied with average carbonation and a mostly dry finish. Overall, really good. I'm pleasantly surprised by a bomber I purchased at room temp yesterday.

Not sure if I have another review in me for this weekend. I may settle in for a few favorites. Cheers all!

 

Good Sunday afternoon, New Beer Swiggers and commentators. It's another beautiful August Sunday afternoon in North Jersey. Perfect for reviewing a couple of new beers. Since Tired Hands began its limited can distro here I've been hoping for cans of Punge, which is my favorite TH beer. Yesterday, I scored a pack of a variant - Pineapple Punge with pineapple, Nelson Sauvin, and Motueka. Wow, is it ever good! Great balance of tart citrus and pineapple sweetness and a killer mouth feel. Here's the full review:

Canned on 7/27/2023 so 3 weeks old when reviewed. It pours a muddy orange color with an almost two finger cap of thick, fluffy, eggshell-colored head and copious, soapy lacing. It's an inviting look. It smells of lemon, grapefruit, white wine, and freshly-cut pineapple. The latter scent emerges more as the ale warms in the glass. A great balance between tart grapefruit rind and lemon and lime peel on the one hand, and pineapple sweetness on the other. The Nelson hop influence is subtle but I can detect its presence. It's surprisingly bitter - particularly at the finish. The malts clearly trail the citrus but the overall balance is superb. Its mouth feel is just as I anticipated - creamy but very drinkable for 8.3% ABV.

I'd love to try the original again but I would drink this variant any place, any time.

4.44/5 rDev +0.5%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5.

I'll be back shortly with what appears to be a crowd favorite. Cheers, NBW!

 

Paulaner - Oktoberfest (2023)



My favorite when weihenstephan cans are elusive. Look how beautiful it pours.

Nose is sharp and punchy. Crisp and clean. Malt sugar and herbal hops.

Taste is soft and sweet. Very clean upfront with some bready, malty, mild flavors. Opens up through the middle. Noble hops. Very well balanced. Not sweet at all. An excellent interplay of grassy herbal hops and soft, sweet, biscuity malt.

Lovely as always. Epitomizes the style. Oh, I have it: this beer is September (I love October as well but it’s parental - meaning I couldn’t possibly choose between the two)

 

Omg the dog park pizza app was slamming. The pizza skins with loaded mash potatoes is only available for brunch which were also amazing. We are going to wasserhund VA Beach sometime for sure. Or coming back when I go to the shipyard lol. Pizza is the best food.


Wasserhund who's coming with me oak aged kellerbier. Wow world class. Aromas and flavors of cracker, bread dough, biscuit, wood, peppercorn, pine, toasted oak, herbal, floral, grass; light vanilla, coconut, toffee, yeast earth. Lt med pine, herbal, woody, grassy bitter finish. Medium plus carb and light med body. Crisp clean refreshing finish. No astringency. Perfectly clean lager flavors with minimal fruity notes. Minimal warming 5%. One of the best Kellerbier I've had. Perfectly clean balanced lager with great integration of oak complexities that linger after the finish. 4.5


Cheers

 

Afternoon NBS!
An absolutely stellar day here in Rhody.
I haven't had anything from this brewery I haven't liked. Everytime I'm in NY I try to grab some. On my bucket list to visit.
Drowned Lands Silent Stars IPA
All Citra.
Pours a pale gold with quite a nice white head that has good staying power. Lots of lacing clings to the glass as well.
Aroma is big orange/tangerine, very ripe pineapple, peach.
Taste -Lots of ripe citrus, peach, melon, some passionfruit. Sweet fruits meld into a very pleasant bitterness. Well balanced and easy drinking. Soft in feel, a bit of hop oil dries out on the lingering finish. Excellent brew. Tastes like a DIPA but clocks in at 6.8%
Try Drowned Lands if you can.
Cheers!

 

I’m good w/ CW in this space, and have been a fan boy for years…Fremont, Bottle Logic and 3 Sheeps are always on my radar also…Cheers!

 

Wow, Fred, that is awful! I hope you can stay indoors and not breathe the smoke

 

The brewery is like visiting a European spa. Somebody put a LOT of money into the place. It's well worth the visit because of the excellent beer and that it's only minutes from Tin Barn, DUBCO acres, Foreign Objects, and Rushing Duck. A great beer day if you have a designated driver. Cheers!

 

Odell Imperial Mountain Standard Hazy IPA, 9.0% ABV; 4.06 overall

Pours a hazed gold with a thumb of eggshell colored head. Noce lacing & decent head retention

S: Papayas, mangoes, peaches once warm

T: Follows the nose, some dryness, limes, white grapes & green melon up front. Nectarine & lime as this beer warmed up, more green melon & a little dryness. Finishes with tangerine, lime, guava & dryness

MF: Medium body, subdued carbonation, good balance

Just got better as it warmed up. Pretty drinkable for the ABV

 

Drekker Jolly Prrrt-ers Green Apple Slush Style Sour, 6.3% ABV. Pours opaque green with a one-finger light green head that left puree residue. Aroma is apple and pear. Taste follows, quite sweet, faintly tart. Decent mouthfeel, overall very good.

3.95/5 rDev +0.3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

I'm not a fan of apple beers, I'll take apple pie any day.

 

Wasserhund gyro pizza of the month. Wow perfectly balanced flavors


Wasserhund let's go party dragon fruit kolsch. Great stuff. Aromas and flavors of lightly tart pear, kiwi, berry, lemon, apple, cracker, bread, wood, peppercorn, pine, citrus rind, herbal, floral, grass. Medium pine, rind, herbal, grassy, peppery, bitter finish. Med high carb and light med body. Crisp clean refreshing finish. Lingering hop resins with min astringent. Not a ton of fruit but a spot on clean lagered kolsch with balanced noble hop character. 4/5


Cheers

 

New Image '22 9505 courtesy of @Prager62. Thanks a bunch man! A blended barrel aged barleywine finished on Amburana wood. Per the brewery:
Originally released to celebrate the opening of our second taproom, 9505 was blended from some of our oldest barleywine stock and then finished with Amburana wood for layers of additional nuance. We took this beer to the Festival of Barrel Aged Beers (FoBAB) in Chicago in 2022 where it took the silver medal for barrel-aged barleywine, an accolade that we've aspired to for a long time, and then promptly sold out of the remaining bottles.

Pours a dark brown, verging into black, color with a quarter finger of tan head that went away almost immediately. 4.0

Aroma is caramel, maple, raisin, cinnamon, some toffee, some apple, brown sugar, oak tannin, slight nutmeg, vanilla, fig, bourbon. The amburana wood takes what already smells like a great barrel aged barleywine and makes it quite interesting. 4.5

Taste echoes the aroma. Significant cinnamon, slight nutmeg, and graham cracker vibes from the amburana wood meld seamlessly into the barrel aged barleywine qualities, which bring maple, brown sugar, caramel, raisin, fig, slight prune, caramelized apples, vanillin, charred oak, woodiness, bourbon spirit. Reminiscent of many sweet dishes, such as bread pudding, apple pie, and cinnamon roll with caramelized apples. If cinnamon was just added to this and it had this level of quality, that would be one thing, but the fact this gets all of its character from the base beer and different wood makes this much more impressive. 4.75

High medium to low full body. Mild carbonation. Slick, sticky, oily. It's sweet as expected, but does dry out nicely on the finish thanks to the wood tannins and bourbon spirit. 4.5

This is a very impressive beer. The barrel aged barleywine in itself is high quality and enjoyable, but the amburana wood treatment adds a big layer of complexity to an already complex beer. I can see why this won silver for the barrel aged barleywine category at FOBAB. Fantastic stuff. 4.5
Aggregate Score: 4.57

 

Another Festbier. Here Von Trapp - Märzen (2023)



Sharp malt body upfront. Herbal and floral All throughout.

Clean, full bodied. Early is sticky and malty. Later malt sugar balances with very clean herbal bitterness. Plays quite sweet compared against paulaner but that is to style.

This beer is everyone I want from the very pedestrian Spaten märzen.

Tasty stuff. A 12er of this annually is apropos. I usually do 12 each of two of either Von trapp, Sierra Nevada and jacks Abby. All have been stellar even I SN’s isn’t quite a Festbier it sure is delicious! Cheers!

 

I feel like the last person on the planet to try this. And honestly I wish I hadn't. KBS is an iconic Stout and lately I feel like Founders is *#@king it up. I'm a fan of blueberry in beer when done right. IMHO this just isn't. I recently had, and loved, a blueberry version of Ludlam Island Brewing's Thunder Jacket Milk Stout. There, the blueberry was mellow and really complimented a very good base stout. Here, the blueberry overwhelms the chocolate, coffee, and bourbon - it's both too tart and too sweet (if that is possible). I wasn't a fan of the Cherry KBS that was released earlier this year but to me this is an abomination. I rated it 3.9 only because, other than the flavor, all of the other KBS qualities are present. What's next? Pumpkin KBS? Gingerbread KBS? Sorry for ranting.

3.9/5 rDev -6.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 3.9

 

My first from this brewery where I spent alot of my childhood: New Jersey Beer Co. Actually I didn't spend my childhood in the brewery, although some might think so
Tasting Colors DDH DIPA
Pours a beautiful hazy orange/gold
with a beige head hangs briefly, lots of world map lacing.
Initially when I popped the top I got a rush of lemon/lime soda.
Then the overripe peach, juicy pineapple, orange with various other tropical notes on the nose and taste!
The taste is supported by a perfect lightly toasted malt. It's gently carbonated which prevents it from getting too heavy in feel and that seems to last throughout.
Medium/full body. Nice drying bitterness on the finish cleaning it up.
Really nice IPA. Fruity and hoppy as hell but managing to stay away from cloying.
I saw a few others of theirs so I will be exploring.
Going back to Jersey and Rudis Pizza, Closter!

 

A little respite before tropical storm Hilary hits in earnest here in SoCal. Cheers!

4.51/5 rDev -0.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Received as a gift from a kind friend - poured from a crowler (filled on 7/31/23 - enjoyed on 8/20/23) into a snifter.

Clear seal brown liquid rests beneath a beige crust, receding to a thin ring and surface slick. Gentle lacing; slick thin sheen of tears.

Chocolate, fine tobacco, molasses, black licorice, cherry pits, black coffee, and brown sugar in the nose - stupendous.

Boozy, oaky, toasty, lightly charred, with perhaps even more flavor (following the nose) in the finish than on the palate. Wave after wave of malt and barrel complexity. Bittersweet and almost but never quite smokey/spicy. Mild bitterness throughout, earthy/woodsy medium-dry finish with hints of black tea and bourbon.

Slippery, almost oily mouth-feel, with some residual tannins.

Forgot how good the base beer can be, and the coffee adds another layer of roast/fruit/bitterness without distracting from the stout's character. Wonderful example of the style.

 

We had a good haul at prince books in Norfolk across from the battleship uss Wisconsin. I needed 11/22/63. Worth the retail prices. We usually do used books lol


Wassrehund pick of the litter. Might be the best American lager I've had. Aromas and flavors of big cracker, biscuit dough, herbal, floral, wood, grass, peppercorn, pine, light corn. Medium pine/herbal bitterness on the finish. Medium-high carbonation and light-med body. Crisp clean refreshing finish. Balanced grainy malt and sticky resinous hops. Lingering resin dryness and minimal astringency. Very flavorful for the 4.6%. Very minimal adjunct notes overall. Really more of a German pilsner. 4.5


Cheers