New Beer Weekend #164

Atlas Silent Neighbor Stout, 6.7% ABV. Pours black with a four-finger light-brown head that left great lacing. Nose is roast malt and licorice. Taste is mostly roast malt, faintly sweet, moderately bitter. Excellent mouthfeel, overall excellent. Nicely done complex-flavor stout unencumbered by add-junks.

4.24/5 rDev +7.9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Thanks to @not2quick for another great beer, allowing me to add another (future) state, DC.

 

I have not used Phantasm Powder in my homebrewing (yet?) but I read about it recently in the Advanced Brewing column of the July-August 2023 issue of BYO magazine; the article is entitled “Tropical Thirst – Biotransformation in the brewery”. A one sentence extract from that article:

“Other synergetic solutions available are the pure forms of the enzyme to boost activity during fermentation, as well as additives such as Phantasm (leftover Sauvignon Blanc grape skins), that are being tested to increase the precursors available.”

The overall ‘goal’ here is to select ingredients (in addition to additives) to unlock bound thiols to create more flavors (e.g., tropical flavors as per the articles title). Within the article they list a number of yeast strains that have the IRC7 gene which provides the feature to unlock bound thiols; the bound thiols are provided by hops and malts.

The new beer from Stone appears to be an ‘experiment’ to create differing/unique flavors to this hoppy beer.

Since the IPA style is the number one selling beer style it would seem that breweries will feel the need to try new things such as new hop varieties (e.g., Peacharine), new hop products (e.g., INCOGNITO hop extract added during the whirpool), additives (e.g., the aforementioned Phantasm), etc.

I remember that just a few years ago the new ‘thing’ was adding hops multiple times during the dry hopping stage (e.g., DDH – Double Dry Hop, TDH – Triple Dry Hop).

It will be interesting to see whether other breweries will ‘jump on’ the Phantasm band wagon?

Cheers!

P.S. Just yesterday I homebrewed a Citra/Mosaic IPA. I suppose I am behind the times in using ‘old’ hop varieties and not adding ‘extra stuff’ to the beer. Oh well!?!

 

Only a couple new brews for me today, a great stout from The Bruery:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/16866/665728/?ba=bluejacket74#lists



And a tasty collab from Other Half and J. Wakefield:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/33510/670153/?ba=bluejacket74#lists



Should have a couple more new brews for tomorrow too, cheers!

 

Good afternoon NBW
A new to me Märzen from a new to me Indiana brewery.

Burn 'Em Brewing Oh Scheisse!

16oz canned 8/31/2023 poured into a mug at fridge temp 5% ABV per the brewery website. Can states all German malt, hops and yeast used. The beer pours opaque dark amber with copper highlights and khaki colored head. The head recedes to a thin ring and single layer of bubbles. Partial lacing. The aroma is mild with toasted malt and a hint of toasted nuts. The taste is semisweet, nutty, toasted malt with hints of dark toffee and earthy, lightly floral hop notes. Mild bitterness, but not sweet. The mouthfeel is thin to medium bodied with average carbonation and a mostly dry finish. Cleanly lagered. Overall, excellent Märzen.

I'm not sad I have three more of these in the fridge. I will be sad if there's none left tomorrow, but no promises. Cheers all!

 

Love the name of the beer!

 

Ozark Beer Co. Squirrelbrau Premium American Lager, 5.0% ABV; 3.6 overall. Brewed to celebrate the American Squirrel Cook-off held this year in Springdale, AR

Pours an effervescent gold with 2 fingers of eggshell colored head. Pretty good lacing & head retention

S: Sweet grainyness & breadyness

T: Follows the nose, grassy notes & a kiss of lime up front, More grassyness, grainy sweetness & a kiss of citrus as this beer warms up. Finishes slightly dry with cornyness & a little dryness

MF: Medium body, fairly lively carbonation, skews a little sweet

Drinkable take on the style, suitable for tailgating or BBQs

 

Equilibrium Coastline Chromatics DIPA, 8.0% ABV; 4.19 overall


Pours hazy gold with 2 fingers of whipped up pearl colored head. sheets of lacing & pretty good head retention

S: Tropical & citrus fruits, kind of muted though, slight cattyness that builds as this beer warms up

T: Tangerine, grapefruit, limes & a little green melon, plus powdery dryness up front. Hints of peach mix in with green melon, powdery dryness, & pomelo as this beer warms up, Finishes a little dry with guava, oranges, green melon & lime

MF: Medium body, subtle carbonation

Probably the best beer I've had from these guys. I would pull the trigger on this one again

 

Back in April I started a thread featuring a video by Nate Lanier (Tree House) discussing a x6 side-by-side tasting of 6 beers fermented with differing yeast strains:

1. House Ale yeast strain

2. Thiolized yeast strain (Nate said “Whoa!” when sniffing this beer)

3. English Ale yeast (Nate stated it was similar to the House beer)

4. Thiolized yeast strain

5. English Ale yeast strain (Nate stated this was his favorite)

6. Kveik (he thinks)

My guess (and it is just a guess) is that yeast 5 is the Lalbrew Verdant Ale yeast strain.

Cheers!



https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...-different-yeast-strains.672261/#post-7744031

 

One and done today at the lake, there was a time (when we lived in Minnesota) that I almost always had Great Lakes beers in my beer fridge. I’m a HUGE fan of Edmund Fitzgerald, which is the best “production” porter in the US, IMHO, and there was a time when Chillwave, a Mosaic-hopped WCDIPA, was maybe my favorite hop bomb. I literally bathed in that beer.

Now, I only drink their stuff when I grab Edmund Fitzgerald at the Blue Lantern with Mrs O for dinner. I need to correct that, because based on this beer, Great Lakes is still a world class brewery, again IMHO.





4.42/5 rDev +9.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5
Pours a beautiful unfiltered golden color with a fluffy off white head that provides a decent amount of lacing. Gorgeous beer. The nose features bright tangerine notes, a significant amount of lemon, some peach and mango, and a little bit of pine.

The taste is really balanced, with the tangerine, lemon, and mango most prominent, a nice amount of peach mid-palate, and a smidge of pine and sweet oats for a nice little bitterness and malt flavor at the back of the palate.

The mouthfeel is full and on the dryer side, adding to the immense drinkability of this 9% ABV beer. This is so well executed, especially given the ABV and the complete absence of any alcohol. What a fantastic beer this is.

 

Happy to finally be able to contribute instead of just read about all the delicious beers had already this weekend. Today has just been one of those whirlwind days where all I needed was peace and quiet for the mind and now, it is finally here. Time to join my favorite people and relax.

A fresh hop kind of weekend...

Being in Seattle during fresh hop season was so great a few years ago, I envy you all in the PNW even more ever since that trip. Well luckily my friend @snaotheus has sent me a few every year since that trip. This one comes from Oregon via Washington...I was sent a fresh hop american pale ale as well as an english one, I'm honestly not sure which one I'm more looking forward to but for some reason I just went with the american one first.

Away Days Brewing Co - Fresh Hop Deadline Day (APA 4.9%)



Pours light light straw color, see through with some opacity, bubbly white head, retention mostly in the form of a thicker and lasting ring, no lacing worth mentioning.

Nose, in the words of a storage wars great: yuuuuuuupp! (anyone?), there it is, that bright bright instantly recognizable fresh hop presence, zesty evergreen and citrus lead the way, light malt presence very light ripened fruit as it warms, the brightness of the initial nose is beautiful.

Yuuuuup! fresh hop glory in taste as well, hop resin and earthy lead the way, followed by some light pine and lime like citrus zest; there is a light malty presence as well that makes this a more well balanced beer.

Mouthfeel is light, highly drinkable and again the fresh hop presence makes itself known, very resiny feel coats the palate followed by a clean finish and a biting bitterness, light carbonation.

This beer is an absolute pleasure to drink; thanks for sending my way Ryan, now I save the English one for tomorrow.

-------------

This beer...in a nutshell…

 

Peak brewery fresh cut pilsner
...very cloudy pale orange/gold appearance with no head
...medium prickly carbonation with a just below average body
...aroma is mild cereal, grain,with a little white toast. Citrus peel and earthy hops is more dominant feature though in the aroma.
...taste cereal,malt, but then at first mildly bitter hops takes over. The aftertaste is similar to brushing your teeth after eating oranges,stinging with a lasting burn.
...overall its very good and ipa fans would definitely enjoy this i assume. For me the bitterness put on too big of a show for me to totally enjoy

 

Good evening, all. It was soap box derby morning with the grandson - first time and he did well. Kept the car straight, but with him weighing 42 pounds, the car with all the weight we could fit was still 45 pounds under the limit. Still finished 4th and we learned a lot. It was miserably humid, but he had a good time. Now we learn how to go fast!

We have the rare hafternoon to ourselves tomorrow, so we got some swordfish and wandered into the beer store...the gravitational pull exceeded the capability of our warp drive.

So a brand new to me style I know little about from a brewery I enjoy:



Fred's Roggenbier from OEC. It's not in the data mine here and I can find precious little info about it on the Google other than it's named after their Australian shelter, so I'm flying blind a bit here. Let's see what shakes.

Pours an ever so slightly cloudy mahogany color with a short khaki head. The head collapses to a nice ring and an island of very fine bubbles. Nice.

The smell.is pretty subdued. Mild toffee, bready malt mildly reminiscent of pumpernickel or rye bread, a vague spiciness. Delightful, but definitely laid back.

Malty goodness opens the taste - bready and doughy with the zip of rye. Very mild grainy tartness. Toffee and some caramel, ever so slightly sweet. A wee bit of fruity esters - mild banana as the flavors unravel. There's an almost smoky element at play here. The aromatics are a nice level of spicy clove with a tad bit of lemony citrus. Deftly hopped - mildly herbal and spicy. Nice balance of all these elements. Very appealing flavor package here.

The feel is silky smooth, moderately carbonated. The spice and lemon linger well into the aftertaste. The finish is dry.

Outstanding - it's well in the ballpark for the style description according to the BJCP. The flavors all work together, making this a highly pleasing beer to drink. Very glad I took the chance and bought the four pack since the shop did not have it in as a single. I'm thinking 4.2 - 4.3 range - this is a delicious beer.

 

Whoowee! New beer time!

Proper Brewing - Riled Up Red





Purchased from the brewery cooler for $2.75

Poured at fridge temp into a nonic glass

Pours clear candy apple red (against the light) nearing a crimson with a thin 1F tan head. Some spotty and inconsistent lacing and fading cap and ring. 4

Freshly popped can is a cascade hop bite which seems fairly fresh and pungent. 4

This is a pretty killer tasting red. What I'd consider incredibly well balanced malt, cracker and biscuit, dark lightly fermented stone fruit, earthy hops, and pleasant bitter bite. 4.5

Well carbonated and moderate filling body, light but definitely wouldn't call it thin. Feels robust and satisfying. 4

Overall while I know nothing of who it was named after, I can more than appreciate how well this beer tastes and was made. 4

 

Also from Proper Brewing - Shorty's



Purchased from the brewery cooler for $2.50

Poured at fridge temp into a pilsner glass

Pours clear and clean yellow gold with a very quickly fading head. 3.5

Cracker and slight corn grain aroma. Which I like personally but it's nothing special. 3.5

Light corn, malt and grain, slight warm sweetness. 3.5

Light and crushable body. 3.75

Overall it's a slightly better version of an AAL, but not enough so to be worth getting again over a regular aal. 3.5