New Beer Weekend #212

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/49615/353595/

Poured a 355ml can into a pilsner glass. A two finger off white head on a hazy dark amber. Good head retention. The head diminishes to a layer. Some patchy lacing.

Slightly smokey malts in the nose.

The taste follows the nose. The smoke diminishes towards the end of the glass. A very slight hop finish.

Moderate body and good carbonation.

Very smooth and well melded. A lightly smoked lager beer.

look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

 

Happy Saturday! Our son and his girlfriend are visiting from Albuquerque, and like any good son he arrived with beer. Today I am drinking Scotch Ale from Nexus Brewing. It is their flagship beer.
A pretty beer. Clear cherry amber color with a small beige head.
Aroma of sweet malt, some nuttiness.
Taste of caramel, brown sugar. Late earthy hops.
Medium-bodied.

 

I'm back from a work trip to Singapore and re-adjusted to the time zone so it's time to get back into beer! Probably nothing new for me today, but I have a couple that I tried on the trip. Looking forward to catching up on the past weeks' NBW threads.

First off, could a mod please merge these two place records? I messed up the search and added a duplicate:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/68526/
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/63513/

I only had two beers while there as alcohol was incredibly expensive and I was focused on food anyway. Both were from Lion Brewery Co., which was co-founded by Singaporeans and British ex-pats.

The first pint I had was an English bitter on cask. I'll post the second after lunch once I've compiled my notes.

Bearskin Bitter
4.5% English Bitter



Pours an orangish amber with a persistent, thin off-white head.

Tons of grain aroma that's followed by strong earthy/woody/vegetal hops. There's an underlying hint of sweetness that's not as bright as caramel or toffee, but not as dark as molasses, somewhere in between.

The taste is good. Some toffee, slight roasted grain, and the hop profile from the nose. It finishes with a lingering slight bitterness combined with some honey.

Had this on cask and the carb was excellent--really subtle and smooth. Very slightly thin feeling though.

Overall, this is a good bitter, but it won't give any UK brewers a run for their money. Being on cask helped, but it just needed a bit more for me, especially with it being in the ABV range of a best or special bitter.

 

Singapore!!! So many of you world travelers out there, I love seeing beers like this from other parts of the world. I think I would've been with you and went all in on food too. Bet it feels good to be back home after a long trip so far away.

 

Greetings beer lovers! I was absent last weekend due to a crazy storm that created a microburst that flattened hundreds and hundreds of mature oaks in our neighborhood. Our house was spared, but many of our friends in our neighborhood were not. Anyway, this weekend we're back up in NH enjoying time by the lake. Sunny, 83 degrees, low humidity and a nice breeze. Life is good!

My first new beer this weekend is Farmer Wave from Hill Farmstead. I think I had this years and years ago (probably back in 2017 when I bought this bottle), but I've definitely never reviewed it.


3.98/5 rDev -7.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Bottled March 28, 2017

Very nice looking beer. Bright straw color with loads of visible carbonation that help feed a persistent 1/8 inch cap.

Aroma is on par with the appearance. -Plenty of yeast, and notes of banana give this a hefe vibe.

Taste is a dialed down version of the aroma, with more pure farmhouse ale coming through and any hefeweizen notes faded deep into the background. The lime is definitely there, but takes a second or two to show up after you sip.

Overall, this is very light and refreshing. Perfect beer for a sunny day at the lake.

 

It is good to be back but I sure miss the top-notch public transit and having healthy, good food available everywhere for cheap.

 

Second (and final) beer from my trip was also in the firmly good but not great tier. Overall, don't go to Singapore for the beer--focus on the hawkers! If this was a food site then we'd be in business: yu mian, ban mian, mee rebus, mock chicken rice, penang prawn noodle, Pakistani biryani, rendang, dal makhani, bhindi masala...

Lion Brewery Gie It Malty
6.4% Scotch ale



Pours a dark amber with a two-finger white head.

Basically nothing for aroma. Maybe a hint of toffee. As it warms, there's still nothing on the nose.

The taste is more subtle than expected. There's caramel and toffee, and a lingering undefined sweetness. As it warms a pleasant burnt caramel comes out that provides some more depth of flavor. Finishes with slight bitterness that keeps it from being cloying. As it warms it just continues to get better--would have been good on cask.

Good feel, smooth and full.

Overall, this started as a poor example of a scotch ale. Turns out it was simply poured too cold. As it warmed it came alive and was quite pleasant. It isn't great, but it's really solid.

 

Went to a local brewery's IPA Fest today. Enjoyed multiple beers IPAs, the best style in beer. Here is Huzzah!, West Sixth's English IPA.

 

This one will be enjoyed while I float in a tube on the lake.

Merkel Morello from Suarez Family Brewery.


3.87/5 rDev -9.6%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
Bottled May, 2020

Very, very red color....much more than the other varieties of cherry beers I've had from Suarez. 3/4 of an inch of pink head. Aroma is natural cherry and a bit of oak. Nice looking and smelling beer.

Taste is cherry forward, as expected, but without becoming too sweet or artificial. It's like cherries added to a very good base beer. Light and refreshing.

Overall, good beer. I'm about to take it out and float in the lake while I drink it, so life is good!

 

I'm glad you were spared, sucks it seems many around you were not. We had a similar short lived burst last week luckily from what I saw all the trees that came down did not hit, or damage any property.

Damn you, but hey, today may be the first day I enjoy a beer on the deck in almost two weeks. Humidity and horrible temps, and weather are supposed to be gone for most of the week here

 

Browar Monsters - Witch DIPA

 

Surprisingly resinous offering from Pizza Port - tasting blind I'd suspect this was from the PNW rather than SoCal - a nice change of pace - cheers!

3.98/5 rDev +3.4%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

Packaged on July 17, 2024 - enjoyed on August 10, 2024. Poured from a pint can into my Dogfish Head shaped pint glass.

Lightly hazy saffron/gold body with a fist of ivory up top. Rocky tendrils of lace; good retention.

Gentle hop aroma, earthy, citrus-kissed, with hints of papaya. Light malt sweetness.

Wonderful synergy between the light sweetness of the malt and the earthy/spicy Chinook flavors. Citrus comes forward ranging from tangerine to a hint of lime. Finishes medium-dry with hints of forest floor, loam, orange zest, Negi, and a vague tropical presence. Moderate bitterness throughout.

Medium bodied, not quite sticky/oily, restrained alcohol, good carbonation.

Another seasonal/rotating Swami's variant with Idaho 7, Citra, Chinook, and Simcoe 702. More earthy/balanced and less bright than many of their similar beers. Enjoyable WCIPA, though I imagine this won't be to everyone's tastes.

 

Our Summer lasts until October, so no hurry to drink my Tree House Summer

Lighter body than the Tree House dreadnoughts, great aroma, flavor, carbonation and bitterness.
4.58/5 rDev +3.9%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

 

Had a couple really good Imperial Stouts to start my stouturday, first was Masthead's Sky & Soil:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/48055/706561/?ba=bluejacket74#lists



And apparently today is National S'mores Day and luckily I had a bottle of Tripping Animals S'mores Meeting ready to drink:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/55035/558445/?ba=bluejacket74#lists



I have one more new brew today to post next, cheers!

 

And figured I'd finish up with a new to me local brew, Heart State's Gourd-Geous Pumpkin Vanilla Porter. It is August after all so it's Pumpkin beer season

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/60239/711978/?ba=bluejacket74#lists





I plan on having at least one more new brew tomorrow sometime. Happy NBW everyone!

 

We are up in Liberty, ME for a week of peace and quiet. Data connection is a tad spotty so we will have to see what happens.

First stop was a mixed bag - Earth Eagle. We haven't been in years and the have a new place in NH so we gave it a try.



From left to right.

Cassowary Gary - more or less a pale ale with ginger and lemongrass. We both thought it was OK. Not a gotta have by any stretch.

Smokestack Lightning - rauchbier and my pick of the litter although the missus didn't enjoy it at all. Nicely smoky, not overpowering.

Wildling - best described as a Gruit, I think. It has foraged herbs in it - mugwort, catnip, and a couple other things. It was interesting - very much like a beer herbal tea. Good? Maybe not.

Snare Trap - Belgian tripel. Nothing Belgian about it and it had a vinyl off taste. No Bueno.

Bartender gave is a freebie of their chocolate raspberry stout. No raspberry or chocolate we could find.

The food was pretty good. I had a spicy pulled pork bowl and the missus had a caprese sandwich. Both were tasty.

Ya win some, ya lose some. Wasn't worth the time spent, honestly. Be back later, I hope, with a full pour. If not, I'll stack 'em up and report next weekend!

 

Good afternoon, fellow NBWers,

It's a sunny 89° outside, with a potential for thunderstorms later on.

Today I'm hitting a sour IPA from For The Love Of God Brewing, located in Spokane's Audubon neighborhood. It's part of a series of sour ipas all made with the same name that are brewed with vanilla beans and, with each batch, varying types and levels of fruits. The ABV on this particular can is 5.4%, but it can range anywhere from 5 to 6%. I placed this review under the entry somebody made for batch number four, although they never actually reviewed or rated it, for the sake of expediency.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/57448/643111/?ba=woemad#lists
It doesn't say which batch this was on the can, and there's no info regarding the fruits used. Perhaps I'll head up there soon and inquire, although I rarely encounter anyone from the production side behind the bar that would know when I do visit. Anyway, the sour aspect, something which probably frighten us some people off, is rather minor. Basically, it was a pleasant fruit adjuncted IPA with a level of vanilla beans added that speak of great restraint that had a sour tartness on the back end and at the finish that was refreshing without being puckering. All things considered, it reminded me of a true Orange Julius, with the sugary part dialed back. Not something I'd want two session, but quite nice. Next time I visit, I will definitely try one and see where the series has gone to from here.