New Beer Weekend #175

Have a great holiday weekend NBW. Been a while for reviews for me. Me and Julia only drink when we go out anymore, basically . Don't worry @FBarber and @Ozzylizard , I will get off my ass someday lol. I brought a bunch to Ohio for family visits and they are still in my car Me and Julia had an amazing week before driving to Ohio. We saw neil degrasse tyson live last week and it was amazing. Listened to the Stephen King memoir and now into the Alfred Hitchcock bio during the dice up. The king book is quite eye opening about alcoholism during his early marriage years . I am on track for 200 books this year. I bought some data science reference text books after jumping into interest in python and pandas certification. I am going to use my current contractor and unsavory boss career roadblocks to make a thesis for a masters and using my current physical test data to validate our system (which are currently garbage ). Me and Julia are seeing her parents on Sunday. Life is the dream and I will become an even bigger asset to the company. Julia is getting enough crap with interviews wanting 5 years of super specialized experience and a masters degree to even be considered . The job market is garbage lately. I can't believe silicon valley software engineers do 6 interviews for a damn job. I'll be writing my own code to automate my workflow for the stupidly tedious crap I have to do in Creo.

A great Thanksgiving at galaxy restaurant in Wadsworth.


Rhinegeist now and ten ipa. Fantastic stuff. Aromas and flavors of big red grapefruit, tangerine, peach, pineapple, passionfruit, papaya, mango, melon, berries, citrus peel/rind, wood, peppercorn, pine, wheat, spicy rye, cracker, bread dough, herbal, floral, grass. Medium pine rind woody bitter finish. Medium carb and body. Fairly crisp clean finishing. Balanced bready grainy malt and sticky resinous hop mouthfeel. Long resinous drying finish with minimal hop astringency. Lupomax Amarillo, Incognito Citra, Lupomax Mosaic, Lupomax Citra, Citra Spectrum hops listed. Super vibrant and dank hop complexity with a very crisp dry west coast style finish. Always love citra/mosaic. Amazing hop showcase. 4.25/5


Cheers

 

Second and final new to me Deep Woods selection, as I've enjoyed the October and November releases in previous iterations. I've also enjoyed previous Revolution cuvees, but this is my first go draft or can of this one. The exact blend is listed in the BA beer link provided below. Milk Stout Dark Mode accounts for the extent of the lactose disclosed.

Revolution Cuvee De Grace 2023



Can Notes: Picked up a four pack as part of the current year Revolution Deep Wood Season Ticket. 12 oz canned 7/7/2023 at 1:16:04 PM, 15.9% ABV, refrigerated at pickup and upon returning home until today. Contains lactose, limited to the Dark Mode component. Cuvee Ale aged in Bourbon Barrels. Meticulous one-time barrel blend.

Appearance: Single pour into a hand held Revolution snifter. Creamy light tan head recedes to leave nothing beyond a faint ring around the rim, pitch black base with small carbonation reaching the surface noting this beer is alive. 4.0

Aroma: Nice medley starts with a smooth assertive bourbon, fruits of plums, figs, cranberry, toffee and a strong sturdy oak. Mild in strength, but these features pulled with focused determination yielding much pleasure. 4.5

Taste: First sip 10 minutes after opening yields alcohol warmth, short of burning but a sensation I typically do not get from DW offerings. Taste largely follows the aroma, smooth bourbon, plums, raisins, figs and a dry oak barrel yielding a bountiful well blended BA offering. The two Scotch Ale components are the hardest for me to gather, the Deth's Tar the boldest and a nice Boss Ryeway presence. Never tried personally blending these two, I leave that expertise to Marty and Jim. This a very enjoyable. 4.25

Mouthfeel: Faint carbonation with fainter prickliness. Full creamy body to the point of maple like stickiness, drinks lighter than the significant ABV, at least at first. The alcohol warmth bordering on burn sustained. Bourbon, raisin sticky finish, very nice. 4.75

Overall: Comes out a little different than expected based on prior iterations, but a very enjoyable blend hits all the high notes. The decadent mouthfeel and aroma are the biggest takeaways, this is a sticky wonderful concoction and I'm glad I have a few left. 4.5

Have lighter ABV offerings for the final two weekend days, including my Saturday selection before my annual Thanksgiving meetup with friends.

Cheers!

 

Some encouraging news at least

 

Not a thrilling beer but also not boring. Straight ahead and pleasant. Cheers! BAs
Perennial Reverse Faults English Style Pale Ale 5% ABV

3.87/5 rDev +0.5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
16 oz can into a nonic pint glass.
L: SRM 4 Pours a perfect caramel color with a slight orange hue, a thin eggshell white head that recedes to nothing, low carbonation, no lacing.
S: Slightly sweet malts, very gently floral, background honey, fairly clean and not very expressive.
T: Gently sweet malts, a hint of citrus zest, a touch of honey, hints of wheat. Lightly fruity overall, a wee bit sharp with some tanginess and is mildly bitter in the center and finish.
F: Subtly brisk, smooth beginning then becomes dry and slightly chalky but not extreme. Has a medium-length finish.
O: A really easy drinking and refreshing Pale Ale that is generally fruity and is mildly drying. A doable beer by all means. It is very good in its style.

 

Good afternoon NBW
Surly randomly dropped in Southern Indiana this month, so I picked a few things up. My first recorded review of a Surly beer.

Coffee Bender
16oz canned 09/15/23 poured into a tulip pint glass at fridge temp 5.5% ABV. The beer pours bright medium brown with chestnut highlights and light brown colored head. The head recedes to a thin cap of tight bubbles and leaves sticky lacing. The aroma is moderate in strength featuring dark roast coffee beans, baking cocoa, and hints of sweet toasted malt. The taste is bittersweet roasted/toasted malt with complementary coffee. Minimal finishing bitterness. The mouthfeel is thin bodied with average carbonation and a mostly dry finish. Overall, excellent brown ale.

As I post this, Mrs Jkblr just sat down across from me, sat her Schlafly pumpkin beer beside her glass, snapped a picture and erupted into laughter. Hopefully she is not creating an undercover beeradvocate.com profile or I'm in big trouble...
Cheers all!

 

Enjoying a Deep Orbit - Duel of the Fates from Other Half. Thanks @Mikexw for the opportunity to try.

Nose is very nice with notes of roasted malts, cacao, vanilla, and leather.
Taste is awesome as the large roasted malt base is melded nicely with the vanilla and cacao. Each sip is warming as the wet bourbon barrels lend a strong touch of oak and leather with the finish being long and bourbon forward.
Mouthfeel is medium to large bodied and velvety smooth.
Overall a delicious BBA stout. This takes me back to when i first started imbibing on BCBS as the warming element is so similar to what i experienced back in the day. Overall rated 4.47. Thanks Mike!

 

Une Annee - Le Grand Monde 2022-5

750ml bottle served in a little snifter.

Pours perfectly clear light yellow with just a slight brassy tinge, basically no head, but with a lot of visible carbonation. Smell is sweet-tart candy, a little lemon, some peach or nectarine.

Taste is quite tart, not exactly lemony but a little bit in that direction, maybe a hint of chardonnay butteriness. Mayyybe there's a little bit of wood in it.

Mouthfeel is very light. Overall...it's pretty good, but sort of lacking in character.

 

Goose Island Bananas Foster BCBS BBA Imperial Stout, 13.9% ABV. Pours thick and black with a one-finger brown head that left no lacing but did leave an oily sheen. Aroma is bourbon, cassia/cinnamon, and bananas. Taste is chocolate, cassia/cinnamon, burnt sugar, and bananas, moderately sweet, slightly bitter, with banana most prominent in the aftertaste. Decent mouthfeel, overall outstanding. Let this one warm.

4.42/5 rDev +2.1%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

I optimistically bought four of these, and while I don't regret that, it's not as wondrous as I had hoped, so I'm on the fence about whether to get more. Oh hell, I probably will. Also at play is recalling past variants where the primary flavor faded quickly, such as 2018 Vanilla and Midnight Orange which dropped off by Summer 2019. If the banana faded, would this end up tasting like Central Waters Cassian Sunset?

 

Happy Black Friday, New Beer Swiggers and commentators. This day always marks my transition from autumnal to holiday season beers. Unchartered Depths is a Belgian Dark Ale brewed by Untied Brewing Company in New Providence, New Jersey. And it's very good!

Reviewed one week after can release. It pours an attractive iced tea-cola color with a half finger, creamy cap of khaki foam and sheen of lacing. A big, fragrant nose with abundant Belgian spicing, particularly cinnamon and cardamon. The taste is rich and complex with a heavy malt base that is more than balanced by cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cardamon. The base is earthy with notes of burnt peat and just a hint of chocolate, particularly as it warms. Also emerging with a rise in temperature is a touch of tang from the orange zest. It has great depth of flavor. The mouth feel is thick and creamy with moderate carbonation, and the 7.1% ABV gives it good substance without overpowering. Overall, Uncharted Depths is a great local rendition of a Belgian Dark Ale. It's an ideal ale for the Christmas season.

4.34/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

I'm confident I'll drink a couple packs of this gem between now and the end of the year. Cheers, NBW!

 

Nursed a food hangover all day doing the last of the leaves and then taking the mower/vacuum/leaf box off the tractor.
Settling down with a new-to-me Other Half, courtesy of @TCgenny.
This is Big Peacharine Vibes made with a single unique New Zealand hop (Peacharine). The ABV is 6.5%. The results are impressive.

4.51/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
Poured from a 16-oz can stamped 11/03/23 to a Tulip at fridge temp.
The body is yellow near the top of the glass, fading to orange deeper in. The head is maybe 1/4-inch of white, small bubbles. This fades to a permanent ring in about 2-minutes and lacing is medium.
The aroma is tangerine and musty with some alcohol volatiles.
The taste is amazing. It really tastes like peaches were added. There are also notes of lemon rind but peach rules. Despite the sweetness of this beer, things get pretty dry after the swallow.
Carbonation is moderate and mouthfeel is creamy but not overly so.
Excellent use of these unique hops.

 

Real Ale - Real Heavy

12oz bottle served in a tulip. Bottled on Jan 05 2023. Got it in a trade with @MrSandman101.

Pours murky brown, clearish at the edges, with a small, very fine head, and a small amount of head. Smell is very oaky, some dates, some nuts and sticky toffee pudding.

Taste is boozy, bitter wood, nearly-burnt molasses, quite sweet. Boozy.

Mouthfeel is thick and chewy, though not sticky. Overall, nice scotch ale.

 

Good evening NBW
Took a gamble on a single of this just to see how it held up.

Fat Head's Hop Honcho

12oz can from April purchased today at room temperature poured into a Spiegelau IPA glass at fridge temp 9% ABV 90 IBU. Living dangerously. The beer pours hazy amber in color with light khaki head. The head recedes to a thin cap and leaves rings of lacing. The aroma is mild with caramel malt and faded pine & grapefruit. The taste is bittersweet caramel malt with more fading hops and firm bitterness. Mouthfeel is medium bodied with average carbonation and a semi dry finish. Overall, good, but past it's prime.

Cheers all!

 

Went to Ralphius day at Free Will today and came home with bunch, grabbed one at random to try first. Three year Whiskey/Hoodoo chicory liquer. I almost didn't buy this one and it might be my favorite Ralphius yet. It's as chocolatey but not as sweet and more boozy than regular Ralphius. Charred brown sugar, light licorice, over-roasted espresso, earthy licorice, deeply toasted walnuts, and stronger oak all compliment the base beer wonderfully while blunting its sweetness a bit. The heat at the end is strong for Ralphius but it has a unique flavor that I'm really enjoying. The body is moderately think and very silky with very gentle carbonation. This is magnificent.

 

Thanksgiving = Goose Island BCBS beers!

Well, for most folks the Goose Island BCBS beers are a Black Friday event but my local craft beer bar Capone’s (Norristown, PA) has a special event for the Wednesday before Thanksgiving with some draft BCBS beers; the menu:

2014 GOOSE BOURBON COUNTY

2019 GOOSE BOURBON COUNTY WHEAT WINE

2023 GOOSE BOURBON COUNTY STOUT

GOOSE BOURBON COUNTY BACK YARD

GOOSE ISLAND BOURBON COUNTY BANANA FOSTER

I met my buddy Phil there and we drank three of the above beers in this order: 2023 BCBS, BCB Backyard Stout and BCB Bananas Foster Stout.

While we were enjoying the beers, Bill from Goose Island (Chicago) stopped by to chat with us and give us some koozies. Bill was very forthcoming in discussing the Goose Island beers and whazzup at the brewery.

I will provide some impressions of these three beers in my order of preference:

BCB Backyard Stout

This variant was brewed using a variety of berries (mulberry, boysenberry and marionberry) which was evident in the flavor profile providing a subtle sweetness aspect to the beer which I really enjoyed. I very much appreciated that the berry flavors were not too dominant and permitted the other malty flavors to be noticeable as well/

BCB Bananas Foster Stout

This variant was not as subtle in the flavor profile as compared to Backyard but I am a fan of the desert Bananas Foster dessert so I enjoyed this beer. If you are not a fan of banana this is not a beer for you.

2023 BCBS

I thought this year’s version is very good. Lots of bourbon related flavors (e.g., vanilla) but also some roasty/chocolate flavors from dark malts. I suspect that I would enjoy this beer with a bit more aging.

Below is a photo of two of the snifters we ordered of these beers.

Cheers!

@KOP_Beer_OUtlet @rotsaruch @RobH