New Beer Weekend #193

First class brewery right there. They do a number of styles very well.

 

Olde Mecklenburg Brewing - The Alt Father - 15th Anniversary Altbier (Dopplesticke). Enjoyed at the brewery during their 15th anniversary celebration



4.49/5 rDev +2.7%

look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

On tap at the brewery, served in a mug

The beer pours a deep brown/dark copper color with about two fingers worth of foamy off white head that disappears quickly, leaving behind virtually no lacing

The aroma is sweet and malty with notes of caramel, dark fruit, brown sugar, and a slight booziness. No real hoppyness to speak of.

The flavor, similar to the aroma, is sweet and malty with a complex mix of caramel, brown sugar, dates, molasses, and maybe a bit of brown bread. Not as much booziness as the aroma would suggest. Medium bodied and moderately carbonated with a creamy mouthfeel

Overall I really enjoyed this beer! A big complex beer that leans into Barleywine/Old Ale territory. Olde Meck really shines when they are true to their roots, making traditional German beers

 

44 cL can, great graphic, ‘Limited Edition’. Packed February, 2024, 6 weeks to the lip. Served up fridge cold into a proper pint glass, in Toulouse, France.
Spongy brown foam tops the glass, as the expressive aroma of roasted hazelnuts and cocoa demand my attention right away. Deep brown brew lurks below.
Taste coats the palate all at once; melted Ferrero Rocher candy with a handful of Citra hops to maintain order. Smooth. Long roll of flavor. Mmm.,, Reeses PB cup burp and a whisper of bitterness on the finish. Sweetness on point.
Mouthfeel is delightfully creamy and there’s chugging carbonation.
Overall, the quality of ingredients - and a master blend recipe - make Lady Winter a delicious treat. (Oh, please! - make an Imperial version.,.)

 

I really like this beer. Light, tasty American WC Pilsner. Tried 2 pints. One here and another from a pokal glass. More lacing from the pokal and that's pretty much the only difference. Cheers!

Lupulin/Kros Strain Tunnel Buddies WC Style Pilsner 5.7% ABV 33 IBU
4.24/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
16 oz cans canned 3/15/24 into a nonic and also a pokal.
L: SRM 3.5 Pours slightly straw light yellow with steady carbo bubbles, a thin white head that recedes to a thin skin, no lacing in the nonic glass, light lacing with light banding in the pokal glass.
S: Fruity, herbal, floral, a hint of white grape, bready malts, has a subtle dank note.
T: Fruity, a hop bite, fruit sweetness (citrus, stone fruit), pale malts, lemon zest, a hint of grapefruit, a slight black pepper hop note, yeast. Bitterness is zesty. Has a zesty yeasty aftertaste.
F: Lightly crisp light bodied mouthfeel with a fairly short and drying finish.
O: Super easy to drink and refreshing. Surprisingly light-bodied. I personally enjoy its pale malt taste against the bready & fruity tastes. Borders on being an IPL but it's crispness and bready halo make it a Pils. The WC aspects here IMHO are citrus zest and a fairly dry finish. It is outstanding in its style.

 

Wallenpaupack Brewing Hawley Hefeweizen
5.1%



Poured from a pint can, the beer is a cloudy yellow. Big fluffy head with excellent lacing.

Aroma is clove and bubble gum.

Taste follows nose as the clove-banana flavor carries the flavor. The wheat flavor is light but present. Mid tasting a mild but welcome hop flavor appears

Mouthfeel is good with strong carbonation.

An enjoyable Hefeweizen that breaks no new ground, but that is fine with me.

 

Paid day off on this day, as we are closed only 4 days a year on all the food holidays.
New Year's Day isn't a food holiday,
but who the fuck wants to work after working NYE at a liquor store?!?

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1199/671247/



Bottled on:
12.27.23

Moderate to vigorous pour yields a one inch plus light tan head over a back body with sticky lacing.
Head is down to a ring in 5-10 minutes.

Nose of dark chocolate, coffee, and a hint of spice.
After warming, there is a bit of dark fruit aromas in there as well.

Taste, at first, of mostly chocolate with coffee and a rather spicy finish.

Mouthfeel is as expected, rather full with near perfect carbonation for the style.

Overall, really enjoying this as I've been waiting awhile to crack this bad boy while enjoying with Easter morning breakfast! This could be a bit much for people with an aversion to heat, but I'm diggin' it!!

Cheers!!!

 

Busting out a big beer for the Arsenal / Man City game. This is a 2014 bottle of Sucaba, courtesy of @2beerdogs

2014 vintage courtesy of @2beerdogs.

Color on the pour is a light amber that settles into a darker shade once in the glass. Excellent clarity and legs. Minimal short-lived off-white head. Good looking beer.

Aroma is fantastic with an excellent balance of caramel, toffee and fruit with a faint marmalade background. It's very rich, bursts from the glass, and smells amazing.

Plenty of sweet malts on the tongue. Toffee & molasses with fig and other fruits. Almost zero bitterness. Very tasty. Smooth as velvet with plenty of alcohol warming.

Overall, excellent beer.

 

Happy Easter and New Beer Sunday #997! Back with another focused local offering from HB, this one honouring Tom Skilling who offered his lengthy weather forecasts on WGN since 1978.

Hop Butcher For The World Tom Freaking Skilling



Can Notes: Purchased 2/22/24 refrigerated from Hop Butcher for $16.53 for the four pack, kept refrigerated until now. 16 oz canned 2/19/24, 6.5% ABV. Amarillo, Nelson Sauvin & Citra-Hopped India Pale Ale. Brewed and canned by Hop Butcher For The World in Chicago & Bedford Park, Illinois.

Tasting Notes: Juicy Apricot, Candied Orange, Tropical Grape

Appearance: Poured about 2/3 of the can initially into a shaker pint glass. Base is orange juice from the machine at one of the many free breakfast buffet hotels. Nice rich bright white bubbly settles into a creamy soapy cover which lasts a very long time and is about a 1/2 inch thick several minutes post pour. 4.5

Aroma: Pine, white wine, citrus, pineapple, a freshly squeezed natural juice medley. Spells sweet though getting bitterness lingering in there. 4.5

Taste: Very nice first sips which turned to gulps. Pine, the nelson grapes really nice here, bitter grapefruit, citrus loud and clear, pineapple less prominent than the aroma. Taste also a freshly squeezed fruit medley. 4.25

Mouthfeel: Drinks light and easy, under the ABV at least half way in. Light to medium body, bitter sweet balance nice with sweet winning out by a length and a half. Very gentle carb, lightly dry, sweet fluctuates on the finish, and beer gets sweeter for me at the half way mark. 4.0

Overall: This is solid, typical Hop Butcher For The World NEIPA profile, the best brewer for my tastes in the region. Nice tribute beer for a WGN and Chicago institution. 4.25

Lots of great beers, trades and gift beers traded this weekend. Looking forward to what the rest of the pre Orthodox Easter weekend has to offer.

 

Bought some yesterday, anxious to try it, always outstanding

 

Church Street Brewing out of Itasca, Illinois is a welcoming/ collaborative brewery that is known for some solid lagers. They have brewed a steinbier in the classic style, boiling the wort on superheated rocks. They encourage experimentation and have made their facilities available to many up and coming brewers. Several breweries have started brewing on their brew house.
They frequently collaborate with other breweries as well, including with Energy City Brewing on this Baltic Porter, N9NTH Circle. Then the aged it in Four Roses bourbon barrels for a year and released it this last February.



And my thoughts:
22oz undated bottle poured into a short glass shows a dark mahogany brown body. A 1/8" head of cream colored foam briefly caps the body before dissipating to a thin, wispy cover. Agitation produces sheets of lacing that leaves random spots behind.

Aroma is all malt led by cocoa highlighted by bourbon notes: molasses, vanilla, oak, ash, and subtle spice notes.

Flavors match. An overarching bitter roasted cocoa bean flavor soaks in bourbon without being drowned out. Great balance and eminently drinkable.

Mouthfeel is creamy, yet carbonation still asserts itself with a slight reminder of bite to prevent it from descending into dessert.

A dangerously easy drinking 10%er.

 

A warm but breezy day.
Daughter and grandsons coming over for dinner. I need to figure out what to have, and while I do, I'll drink this great beer.
The beer is black with a large tan head that reduces quickly. Some lace.
Aroma of smoky malt, some chocolate.
Chocolate taste, smoke. Late hop bitterness.
Medium-bodied.
Great beer!

 

Counter Weight Cutline lager.

4.25/5 rDev +0.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
Poured from a 16-oz can stamped “CANNED ON 02/29/24. Poured to a Pils glass at fridge temp. The label simply says lager, but the website says Helles Lager. ABV is 4.4%.
A nice clear light gold body allows you to see continuous nucleation. An aggressive white head sits on top. Lacing is aggressive also, but not fully coating.
The nose brings a slightly spicy, slightly peppery sensation.
The taste is sweet in the front with an ultra dry finish. There is a subtle soapiness, but it is not off putting.
The body is light and the mouthfeel mildly oily. Carbonation cleans the pallet efficiently.
A nice clean lager with plenty of flavor.

 

Good Easter Sunday afternoon, New Beer Sippers and commentators. Yesterday, my wife and I visited Ross Brewing Co., in Port Monmouth (Belford), New Jersey for the first time. It's located in Monmouth County, along the shoreline of the approaches to New York harbor, a couple of miles west of Atlantic Highlands, where Carton Brewing is located. Ross is a fairly new brewery and is located in an active commercial fishing harbor. There is a great seafood coop next door. Ross advertises its "core" beers: an IPA, DIPA, Lager, Wit, and Porter. When we arrived, most of those beers were unavailable following a St. Patrick's Day blowout. But there were several interesting alternatives, incuding Brux Royale, a Belgian Chocolate Stout brewed with Brett yeast. I had a pour at the brewery, and was surprised by its sophistication so I bought a bottle to do a more thoughtful review. I wish I had bought about 6 bottles! This is a very fine chocolate stout and the use of Brettanomyces bruxellensis takes it to another level.

Poured at 60°. The color is nearly black with a large, fluffy, medium khaki-colored cap and copious, long-lasting lacing. For a high-gravity Stout it's a very attractive look. The smell is robust with lots of dark chocolate, freshly-brewed coffee, molasses, burnt nuts, woodsy char, tobacco, and a hint of Belgian funky yeast. The taste opens with a heavy dose of chocolate, along with strong, acidic coffee. It's roasty and quite bitter with lots of burnt, earthy char. But what sets it apart is the Brett yeast, which adds a funky, smoky,slightly sour taste that is difficult to describe adequately. It plays with the sweetness of the chocolate, the acidity of the coffee, and the pronounced charred bitterness. The overall taste is sophisticated and (at least to me) unique. This Stout is moderate in thickness with low carbonation, and the 11.7% ABV is very well-hidden.

I can understand that this may be an acquired taste for many Stout drinkers but I think it's stellar!

4.35/5 rDev +4.6%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Cheers, NBW!

 

Just a quick pop-in for me today. This one's from a delayed Christmas gift from the in-laws side--only took us a few extra months to make it happen. It's held up well for being canned on 8/22/23, but I am a bit disappointed that it has a squirrel on the can and no discernable nuttiness in the beer.

Foulmouthed Sir Squirrel
5.8% American Brown



Pours light brown with a minimal head that recedes quickly.

Not too much going on for aroma. Some bread dough and honey, and a bit of light or citrus fruit. Toffee comes through as it warms.

The taste is better with brown bread and honey at the fore, some toffee, slight caramel, peppery hops with some bitterness, and just a hint of citrus. Mild bitterness lingers pleasantly on a dry finish, leaving you ready for that next sip.

Mild carb and fairly light bodied. Really easy drinking.

Overall, this is a good brown ale that I'd love to try fresh(er). Even at 7+ months old, it's still quite nice.

 

Pretty excited for this and it did not disappoint.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/31540/557631/



750 ml. bottle.
Bottled 2/23.

Moderate to vigorous pour yields a one inch near fluffy white head over a light amber body with little lacing. Head is gone fairly quickly.

Nose of a bit of nice funk and a bit of citrus and a bit of oak.

Taste of grapefruit, oak, and funk in a cheesy way.
Nice sourness with grapefruit all the way through, while finishing crisply acidic.

Feel is right on for this style of wild ale

Overall, a very well done offering from de Garde and should not be passed over by you sourheads out there!

Cheers!!