New Beer Weekend #169

Good day BAs! Off to another cool (45F/7C) and wet day, after it rained most of yesterday. We spent most of last week pickling peppers and canning applesauce which has netted us a surplus of fruit flies, some of which like to hang out with me when I have a beer or three. We also got a new furnace/AC installed Thursday, just in time for winter. This week, car inspection, Dr's appointment, and Mrs Lizard goes off to a four-day quilting retreat.

Today's New Breakfast Beer:




Lustra – from Dancing Gnome Brewery. 16 oz can. In reefer at Franklin Beer, Franklin, PA. Acquired 11/10/23, $ 4.00 (Including tax), $ 0.250/fl oz. Reviewed 15/10/23 (Review 3166). Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Bottom of can stamped “09212023”. Stored at 34 degrees at home. Served at 42.9 degrees F in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. The final temperature was 49.1 degrees F.
Appearance – 4.
First pour – Pale Straw (SRM 2), murky.
Body – Pale Straw (SRM 2), murky and opaque. Under direct light, same. When rear-lite, same.
Head: Average (Maximum 3.9 cm, aggressive center pour), white, rocky. Rapidly reduces, leaving a 6 to 13 mm frothy crown and a thin, complete cap.
Lacing – Good. Multiple bands of tiny to small bubbles, connected by short columns and having stumpy stalactites.
Aroma – 4.5 – An excellent combination of citrus, showcasing tangerine and pink grapefruit. No malt, lots of hops, no yeast. No ethanol (5.8 % ABV according to the label).
Flavor – 4.25 – Following the nose and citrus fruity. No malt, distinct hops, no yeast. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl. Ends with weak gastric warming.
Palate – 4.25 – Medium; approaching creamy; lively carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 4.25 Fruit fly approved. Easy drinking, but the nose is better than the flavor.
Rating 4.3, rDev +4.1%

 

Added this beauty to our database. I honestly dig it (the Kolsch and the database) This brewery has mucho good products. I'll get this again if/when I see it:
Fernson Wedge Kolsch w Lime 4.3% ABV
4.09/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
16 oz can from a 4pk canned 8/21/23 drink by 17 April '24 into a Kolsch glass.
L: Pours dull yellow yeast gold with a fizzy, fast receding head, steady light turbid carbonation bubbles, random light skeletal lacing.
S: A hint of lime, yeast, lightly bready, clean.
T: Light lime, pastry dough, gentle fruits, more white bread notes, white grapes, lime zest, yeast. Lime returns with a long, gentle linger. It is lightly tart. Not much aftertaste.
F: Very gently brisk with a medium-light bodied mouth feel and a fast finish that is quite drying.
O: Extremely refreshing, great taste & feel. Imagine a light Saison. Poetically fruity, dry and very easy drinking. Beer is not masked by lime. It is excellent in its style.

Cheers BAs!

 

Hey, all,
I've been weirdly derelict in posting to this thread for a bit. On weekends I've been embarking on various purges of unnecessary things. First clothes, now books, and pretty soon I'm going to start pruning the extremely large CD collection. While doing all this, I would try to work in a new beer on the weekend, only to then run out of time to actually get around to posting it!
Anyway, it's high time I contribute something to NBW again. I'll start with a beer I hit yesterday while rooting on the Dawgs vs the Ducks:


https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/31389/672445/?ba=woemad#lists
This beer really clicked with me. For starters, it was gorgeous in the glass. It was also one of the better combinations of old school West Coast style and the more modern juicy style that I've had in a bit.

I'm currently finishing up breakfast, and will probably go for a short walk before the Seahawks game starts. I've got at least one more new beer on deck for consumption during said game.

 

Surly Seventeen American Strong Dark (strong red ale and a wee heavy, aged in Tattersall Bitter Orange Liqueur barrels and 10-Year Henry McKenna Bourbon barrels), 11% ABV. Pours coal brown with a 2+ finger light-brown head that left great lacing. Aroma is orange, roast malt, bourbon, and a hint of moleasses. Taste follows, slightly sweet, equally bitter. Decent mouthfeel, overall excellent.

4.17/5 rDev +0.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Good, but not good enough to compel me to run out and get more.

 

Good afternoon NBW
I've been trying to figure out when is the ideal time to uncork a beer you know you overpaid for, but still is cued for review. Today's the day for this one.


16.9oz bottle (2022) poured into a teku glass at 55F after nearly a year in the 55F beer fridge. Drink By 26 JUL 27 GI 15:14 17.0% ALC / VOL noted on label. The beer pours dense, very dark brown with meager light brown head. The head recedes to a pencil thin ring and nothing else. The aroma is moderate in strength featuring sweet malt, bourbon and oak. The taste is boozey, sweet bourbony, malt with significant ethanol. There's some hints of fig, leather and oak, but the sweetness, lack of carbonation and ethanol make it hard to find flavor. Negligible bitterness. The mouthfeel is full bodied, syrupy, with minimal carbonation and the finish is saved from cloyingness only by the ethanol burn. Overall, good, but not even worth half MSRP.

My curiosity is gradually getting settled. I have a few more big ticket beers stored away, but I'm seeing an inverse relationship between my ability to afford them and my willingness to pay. I can easily afford a $45 bottle of beer, but I'll probably never buy another. I'd rather buy a $45 bottle of Scotch or bourbon, or a case of Guinness FES.

Cheers all!

 

Xxx

 

It's a bit quiet in here this afternoon. Must be football season.

I've been saving my review of today's beer for a special occasion, and today is the day. After 2.5 years of slow and steady drinking since I joined BA, I've reached my 100th review. While I normally wouldn't purchase this beer because I have some local porter options (Mayflower, Smuttynose) that I like and are easily available, I made a trip to Total Wine last month seeking out something else and rescued a pack of this from the bottom shelf. Bottled end of April this year.

Anchor Porter
5.6% American porter



Pours a dark brown with ruby edges when held to the light. Two and a half fingers of tan/brown head form readily and linger.

Aromas of dark chocolate, cocoa, dark roast coffee, with some molasses-like sweetness and dark fruit as well.

The taste is superb, with not-quite-dark chocolate, cocoa, and brownie at the fore of the sip. Bitter characteristics quickly come through, though, keeping things from getting too sweet. Roast grain, roast coffee, and char turn those initial flavors into dark chocolate and fudge brownie. Then as it warms things change up again with a lighter sweetness becoming present bringing along caramel, toffee, milk chocolate, and dark fruit. It finishes dry with dark chocolate lingering on the palate through the aftertaste.

The carb comes out easily on the pour to form a robust head, leaving a low carb beer in its wake. It works well here, contributing to a smooth and medium-light body.

Overall, this is a great porter that checks all of the boxes for me. Porter is my favorite style and this has been a memorable one, potentially the best mass-market Porter I've had.

 

Picked up this beer last night, probably never to be made again: Fresh Hop Frenz: Russian River, a collaboration brew from Bale Breaker. Very nice. Preliminary review below. Cheers!

4.39/5 rDev +2.8%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

16oz can (packaged 9/21/2023) into a tulip. Pours a clear honey golden color with a 1-finger clean white head.

Aroma is dank and resinous with distinct grapefruit rind and pine notes. You can spell the whole-cone hops on this one.

Taste is a blend of pale biscuity malt and that same resinous, alpha acid-laden quality of the aroma. Hop flavors envelop the palate with bitter citrus and even a spicy quality. Unapologetically West Coast.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied, satisfying. Finishes clean, super drinkable.

Overall an outstanding fresh hop beer that belongs in the same discussion with some of my favorites of the season.

 

Well this is embarrassing. I accidentally hit post before I typed up my review.
4.14/5 rDev -0.5%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
Poured from a 16-oz can purchased cold at the brewery yesterday and kept cold. The container is stamped CANNED ON 10/11/23 to a pils glass at fridge temp.
Textbook Pilsner look- Clear, light gold body with continuously rising bubbles visible and a large puffy ultra white head. The head fades in 4-5 minutes but laces with the glass fully on tilt with full film of super tiny bubbles.
The smell is spicy and peppery with a sweet herb background.
Taste is similar with the sweetness in the front and herbal/spice on the finish.
The mouthfeel is fairly oily, but not in an overpowering way.
A great example of the style.

 

I think I came to that conclusion about a year ago; I only make exceptions when I have the opportunity to pick up something on my recipient’s wants list in the NBW BIF (or possibly the stout/barleywine BIF that I am fortunate enough to be a part in)
Cheers all!
And regardless what you pay for beer, as long as it’s worth it to you, it’s all good.

 

Atrial Rubicite Blend 13 by Jester King


4.58/5 rDev -0.2%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Long sought after whale that I found at my local liquor purveyor …heck, I could have walked to this store( nah, I’m lazy). This is Blend 13. Ranked #2 on BA in the wild Ale style and#65 overall ….call me Ishmael …let this whale hunt begin

The style according to BA is sometimes Belgian influenced, American Wild Ales are beers that are introduced to "wild" yeast or bacteria, such as Brettanomyces (Brettanomyces Bruxellensis, Brettanomyces Lambicus or Brettanomyces Anomalus), Pediococcus, or Lactobacillus. This introduction may occur from oak barrels that have been previously inoculated, pitching into the beer, or gained from various "sour mash" techniques. Regardless of the method, these yeast and/or bacteria leave a mark that should be noticeable to strong, and often contribute a sour and/or funky, wild note. Mixed-fermentation examples will display a range of aromatics, rather than a single dominant character.

Brewers notes : Atrial Rubicite is made from well water, barley, wheat, hops, farmhouse yeast, native yeast from the Texas hill country, souring bacteria and raspberries. It’s 5.8% alcohol by volume, has a finishing gravity of 1.005 and is 3.36 pH. It is unfiltered, unpasteurized and 100% bottle conditioned. Atrial Rubicite is our first beer to be packaged exclusively in 500 ml bottles.

Chilled bottle poured into a rinsed and dried Schilling teku glass. Deep ruby colored liquid crowned by a one finger pink froth. Settles to a pencil thick layer

The aroma? Waves of raspberry jam, raspberry tart , raspberries …it smells amazing …tidal waves of raspberry on the pour . Sniffing the glass also produces some funk with a whiff of oak

Taste is tart raspberry , oak , funky . The tartness dominates the flavor however the residual taste is raspberries. I roll my tongue over my teeth and gums and it’s like I had a carton of raspberries , wonderful

Mouthfeel is prickly tartness

Great beer, recommended, get your harpoon out and nail this whale if you can find it…there are whales in Plymouth Bay

 

2nd Fox Farm review today,.
I had this straight from the can yesterday in a pinch. Today I drank it from a glass. Totally different experience with this beer.

3.9/5 rDev -5.6%
look: 4 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
Poured from a 16-oz can purchased cold at the brewery yesterday, stamped CANNED ON 10/11/23 to a tulip at fridge temp.
The body is surprisingly pitch black in the glass. An off-white head sits above, fades quickly but laces with a nice scattered pattern.
The aroma is really mild, but there are hints of malt and earth.
Sips are impressive, mild malt sweetness in the front, dry chalky finish. There are hints of dried fruit in between, prunes, raisins but that is subtle. Really impressive for something labeled Brown Ale.
The mouthfeel is almost stout-like but thinner of course. The chalky finish (which I like) kind of changes everything at the end.
I’m not a fan of sweet stouts/porters/brown ales, I really enjoyed the dryness of this beer.

 

All right, I am back home from meeting up with @cheeseheadinMinneapolis at Lupulin brewing, and decided I was going to have one I picked up today.


Boris V.3 - Lupulin Brewing - Big Lake, MN - Wild Ale - 11.2% ABV

This beer really doesn't drink like an 11% beer at all. There's no burn, and it's very smooth overall. There's a lot of wild funk going on here. Some lemongrass, and green apple. I do not have much knowledge of yuzu, but I'm guessing those flavors are actually the yuzu. This is a very tasty beer, and I'm so glad I picked it up. Delicious, but, since it doesn't feel like 11%, could be dangerous.

Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/56945/674950/

4.34/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
From a bottle purchased at the brewery.

A good hiss and some smoke upon opening. The beer pours a murky golden color. There's a bit of carbonation rising in the glass. The head that forms is 1 finger overall. Frothy looking, but not too long lasting. When the head dissipates to a ring around the edge of the glass, there's no lacing on the glass.
Nose is very funky, and wild. I get a wild green apple aroma. Floral notes, and somewhat earthy.
Taste - The flavor starts off floral to me. I get hints of lemongrass, and a hint of green apple. The green apple isn't as strong as the aroma let on, but it's there. I get a good deal of a funky wild flavor that I can't put to words, but it's pleasing.
The body is tart feeling, and quite full. The beer is bubbly feeling. It's a strong beer, but it doesn't let on that it's 11% at all.
This is quite solid and delicious. As I said in the feel, it doesn't feel like an 11%, so it could be dangerous.


I had fun today in Big Lake meeting up with Todd, and I may be able to pop off one more beer today. Cheers all!

 

Social Project Brewing's Czech Mate ( Czech style ) Pilsner, 5.2% ABV; 4.34 overall

Pours a bright & effervescent gold with 2 fingers of ivory colored head. Great head retention & lacing

S: Herbal, soapy & grainy & grassy

T: Follows the nose, a little grainy bitterness & bready sweetness up front. Grassyness, sweet grainyness & a hint of lemon as this beer warms up. Grainy bitter-sweet finish a little grassyness & dryness & then a little bready sweetness

MF: Medium body, fairly firm carbonation, nice balance

Good take on the style, very drinkable

 

Last one today BAs. My wife brought this home Friday for me. It's not in the BA database. Lets dig in.

Poured from a 16-oz can purchased cold at a store, kept cold, stamped CANNED ON 09/28/23 to a Nonic at fridge temp.
Body is slightly hazy light-gold passing considerable light, but not see-through. A puffy white rocky mountain head sits above, quite impressive really. Lacing is actually 1/16” (1.5mm) thick, super impressive.
The aroma is dank and musty.
The taste is mostly citrus rind, particularly lime, but also mango and berries. A bitter finish highlights the rind effect.
The mouthfeel is in the middle for the style, not thin, not thick.
Wow, this beer is a sleeper in that I knew nothing about it going in but it is really like this beer.
4.75 overall.n Will buy again if I can find it.

 

Back for another round and another thanks to @cheeseheadinMinneapolis

Oktoberfest - Hinterland Brewing - Green Bay, WI - Vienna Lager - 6% ABV

I am surprised I haven't had this after all my trips across to Wisconsin. It's nothing crazy, but it easy drinking with a good flavor. I am thankful to have had the opportunity to try it. Thank you!

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/4426/61955/

3.62/5 rDev -3.5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
From a bottle.

I get a very clear pouring beer that's amber in color. I did an aggressive pour and there was just a 1 finger white head. The head retention is poor, and there's no lacing on the glass.
The nose isn't very strong. I do get some malty biscuit notes, but very faint.
The flavor is malty, as expected. Smooth biscuit flavor that has some caramel notes on the finish.
Lighter bodied, but still decent. Bubbly feeling.
Easy drinking and good overall.


I think this is going to be my last new beer for this NBW. Cheers all, and see you next weekend!