New Beer Weekend #215

My son and I are enjoying a Firestone Walker, Paryebola. 15.2% !!! great beer.

 

First up from my lesser known Vermont breweries is one from a place I’ve really enjoyed. They do some cool stuff and this one is new to me. We have a huge lemon balm plant out back so I was excited to see this and give it a try.

Kramer & Kin - Lemon Balm Pilsner (4.1%)



Pours brilliant clear straw; ever so slight chill haze; white head, nothing to write home about.

Nose is bright; cracker like malt, it’s has an herbal character that has hints of zest, light floral notes.

Taste is pale malt forward, more bread like and sweet than the nose lead me to believe; delicate herbal notes that finish a little more grass like; leans into helles territory.

Body is light, a touch of malt sweetness; this mostly dries out but not entirely, lightest bit of bitterness; there is a small tingling sensation on the finish that comes off as hoppy but a tad different; I’m guessing it’s from the lemon balm, or power of suggestion.

This is a really refreshing beer to drink actually, nothing about it screams lemon balm though. I wouldn’t even guess it had anything in it if not for the name.

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Hoping to be back tomorrow with a hoppy beer I’m really excited about trying. Cheers everyone.

 

Good evening, kids. Having trouble with my ancient cell phone, so I'm trying this from my even more ancient tablet. We spent the morning getting the grandsons soap box derby car ready. Put on new lighter wheels and did a better job weight balancing the car. Its tough with his skinny butt,,,he AND the car barely hit 110 pounds and the weight limit is 175 pounds. We stuffed in 50 pounds of rear end weight and he will at least make it all the way down the hill with some decent speed this year.

So...back to the Darreldd Souls Soeakeasy with Zombie:



This is a rum barreled aged gose with pineapple, orange, grenadine, lime, and falernum.

Had to look up falernum and it is apparently a spiced syrup using rums and whatever else they feel like spicing it with.

It pours looking like mango juice but not thick - just the color. No head to speak of but it collected a ring of bubbles at the edge. Looking at a picture of the namesake cocktail, the color is similar but much darker in the beer.

It smells citrus, tropical, rum-like and a tad bit sweet. This is promising a refreshing experience so let's see...

Is pretty tasty, actually. I get quite a bit of orange backed by pineapple. Then the rum comes to play and its nicely balanced against the fruity bits. Lime - its playing nicely in the background and emerges with some booze flavors after the swallow. There's some spices in there presumably from the voodoo syrup concoction. Hard to nail down but I definitely get a little cinnamon and there's some syrupy sweet to go along with the rum. There a little almond flavor and a bit of earthy ginger along for the ride.The base gose comes out eventually but it is barely present, a little biscuity malt and eventually some salt and mineral tang.

The feel is not as light as I expected but it still manages to be refreshing. A little stickiness on the lips keeps it from being light.

Overall, this a very good entry in the Speakeasy series of cocktail-inspired brews. Oddly, I found it more enjoyable and interesting the more I drank.The flavors work together well. The orange and pineapple play off each other, the rum just kicks it up, and I'm not entirely sure what the falernum is adding but there a syrup taste and some mystery spices. Thinking this comes in just under the 4.0 line.

 

Have a great nbw. Me and Julia came out to garage tavern for some drinks. The live band is playing and there is a Mexican food truck outside. I got a perni-haze from wicked weed. I've been reading the jeff guinn Manson book this weekend. Still working on my dfss green belt to find better work.

Amazing hazy. Aromas and flavors of big red grapefruit, tangerine, peach, pineapple, passionfruit, mango, honeydew melon, berry, citrus peel, peppercorn, pine, cracker, bread, herbal, floral, grass. Medium pine rind bitter finish. Nicely soft and not too aggressive. Lingering resin dryness and minimal hop astringency. Great citra and Simcoe vibrancy. Balanced juicy and dank nose. 4.33/5


Cheers

 

Destihl Brewery/Hansen Bros Beer Co. Pink Moonlight Hazy IPA with Peach, 7.0% ABV; 3.37 overall

Pours a hazed gold with a finger of cream-colored head. Below average head retention & lacing

S: Some bready notes, hints of peach once warm, easily the best aspect of this beer

T: Grassy hops, a little peach, lime, dryness, dryness & a little green melon up front. Pomelo notes, grassyness, dryness as this beer warms, some peach note and sort of a watery porridge/Congi thing going on. Finishes with some peach sweetness, grassy notes & a little pomelo & a little dryness

MF: Medium body, slight carbonation, okay balance, body thins out as this warms up

This just misses the mark, not interesting or that drinkable

 

Nachos from the food truck and an Olde hickory ruby lager.


Olde hickory ruby lager. Very good. Aromas of mild toffee, grain, And herbal hops. A bit of yeast. Taste of caramel, biscuit, nuts, wood, peppercorn, pine, herbal, grass. Medium pine herbal bitter finish. Crisp clean refreshing finish. Drying sticky hops. No astringency. Flavorful for 4%, a tad watery but easy drinking. 3.78


Cheers

 

The source marzen
. ..slightly clear dark amber appearance
...light carbonation with a slightly thin body yet it still has a decent feel.
...aroma is not very strong but theres some spice,malt,and oddly prune bread.
. Taste is definitely stronger than the aroma. Slightly sweet,malt, bread, and again something like banana/prune bread

 

Amazing birra tacos from the food truck were bomb as fuck. I usually don't like corn tortillas but these hit. Everyone raves about taco trucks and I've been converted.


Sycamore drippy. Awesome neipa as expected. Aromas and flavors of big red grapefruit, tangerine, peach, pineapple, mango, honeydew melon, passionfruit, berries, citrus rind, peppercorn, pine, wheat, bread, herbal, floral, grass. Medium pine rind bitter finish. Med carb and body. Balanced creamy bready malts and sticky resinous hop mouthfeel. Lingering resin dryness and minimal hop astringency. Impressive fruited neipa with mango. Feels like Simcoe and Citra hops. 4.1/5


Cheers

 

I’m finally able to join in on this excellent thread, nice start Jason - I should take notes in case I get to kick it off at some point in the future.
I actually had several new stouts last night for our monthly SAN, just didn’t get enough of most of them to review.
So I pulled from the cellar one I picked up from Total Wine last year for two reasons; it was new to me and for a bomber, amazingly priced.

Once I got through the wax (surely it’s amazing, it has wax on the top) the cap came off easily and the pour was stout black with almost no carbonation. Not unusual for a barrel aged stout.
The taste is, for lack of a better description, typical stout. Coffee, cacao, bitter from hops or maybe burnt malt. There is some bourbon but it is faint.
The feel is very lightly viscous, appropriate for the 10.5%
OA, not a bad BA stout, but it certainly didn’t blow my doors off.
Cheers all, back tomorrow for NBS.

 

Olde Mecklenburg captain Jack. Very good German pilsner. Aromas and flavors of cracker, bread dough, herbal, floral, grass, peppercorn, and light diacetyl. Medium pine, herbal, grassy bitter finish. Crisp clean refreshing finish. Spot on German style but was a bit strong on the diacetyl than I'd prefer. Most people probably wouldn't notice. 3.78/5


Cheers

 

Cheers to @Whyteboar for this NBW BIF#18 LIF brew

Stormcloud Brewing Co. The Night Swimmer Belgian Style Stout, 7.0% ABV; 3.98 overall

Pours a chestnut hued mahogany with a thumb of mocha colored head. Above average lacing & below average head retention

S: Vanilla cream, coffee dark fruit notes, nose persists

T: Roasty coffee, a little vanilla, just a kiss of phenol, cocoa & dryness up front, leafy hops as well. Chicory notes as this beer warms up, dry with cocoa, dark fruit/jammyness & just a little peppery hops, hints of iron. Finishes with some cocoa, leafy hops & a little chicory

MF: Medium body, smooth carbonation, thins out a bit once warm

The Belgian-Style on this is on the fringes, a sipper to be sure, but nice stout

 

Tarboro seed spitter. Very good gose. Weak nose of watermelon and lacto. Taste of big watermelon, fruit seeds, lemon, lime, green apple, white wine, sea salt, lacto funk, herbal, grass. Medium tart sour tangy fruit finish. Crisp clean refreshing saline lingering acidic finish. Minimal puckering. Zero warming 4.4%. Big authentic fruit flavor. Not overly lactic. 3.88


Cheers

 

Wow you have an excellent memory! Used to love to hit Hunger Mountain for supplies every time up that way, generous Heady allotments and fantastic selection of great stuff not just great beer.

And yeah, Conan yeast definitely is temperamental in a few ways, and an absolute beast when doing its thing. Funny how BA works into it, as I learned right here on the BA home brew forum how to harvest yeast from Heady and I made enough to share with the whole home brew club. Ended up to get a lot of observations of its temperament. To me when Conan is at its best it throws a kind of peach note which combines with hops added in specific ways to make a taste that stands alone. I used to ferment with Conan in a carboy and sometimes I'd lift the cover and shine a flashlight to watch the monster at work. Definitely not forgiving temp wise, and you can't get many gens from it to hold true to its nature, it gets a sort of Belgian thing going after four was a common experience in home brew club.

 

Cheers and good morning BA's. I first want to tell you that I never expected all the love I've been seeing in threads. Thank you all for being so wonderful. When I saw the people you remember thread, I felt heart warmed and no longer afraid of the internet. Someone mentioned my disappearance from all social media. I'll take just a moment to explain and then get on with the beer. I got hacked on Facebook and where I had books I like and such, the titles were changed to violent and pornographic themes. The rest of it you can imagine. I didn't want to lose all the writing and ideas so I made a video to say how spooked I was and then unfriended thousands of people. I was very shocked by the number and realized this was how they did it. I kept the page by but stopped posting and changed all my privacy. On YouTube, they started putting commercials on my videos and I didn't want that so I closed it. I left the internet. I don't know what made me sign back in here. It's almost as though I heard you from that thread.



Ok! Enough about me let's talk about this beer. When I tried the first collaboration from SN I loved it. I thought that they had put their mark on the style and said American love for hops isn't a bad thing. Over the years I have kept up with my tasting and note taking and have come to love traditional lager styles even more than I did before. SN's can design is terrific imo. It looks like they put a tuxedo on the Oktoberfest diamond pattern to tell you " we have guests .

Lets talk about the nose first. The nose is hop forward. I smell floral , grass and citrus. I mentioned in the Oktoberfest fest thread that the weihenstephaner was the palest and most hop forward so far. In fact I was surprised at the hop complexity it showed. However hoppy that beer seemed it was malt forward. This nose is hop forward. This one has a coarse but fat head of foam that is falling away slowly. It smells like lemon . It's sjust amber in color and between all the beers on my list it's darker than the weihenstephaner .

The head fell like that and is leaving soapy lace.



As I take the first sip I find myself happy to find the malt that I couldn't find too easily on the nose. It's good and breaddy and has the flavor of light toast. There is hop flavor . it comes across like an ipa. The lemon scent that is prominent on the nose doesn't crowd the mid palate but does remain to reside in the finish. The beer has a softer carbonation . A more open bubble , which let's you see the malt. The finish is malt first but hoppier and without any strong bitterness for how many hops are in it. There is a touch of slick hops mouthfeel. The body is relatively light as compared to the others but the malt is firm and this beer is not quite dry. It has a touch of complimentary sweetness like the style should. It finished untraditionally but deliciously. The bitterness does accumulate as you drink. The body of the beer is as light as a west coast ipa but it's firmer with more malt.

And before I close , let me say that I really like the idea of new beer weekend. It gives more people a chance to participate as you have more time. I can't tell you how great it is to see you all again over beer. Cheers!

 

Man oh man it's nice to read your reviews again and see you post in NBS/W.! Welcome back (just to pile on)!

 

Welcome back to @utopiajane this thread helped me discover the true camaraderie that exists here on beer advocate. When the "old days" of this thread pop up regarding my favorite place here on BA your name always seems to pop up so I'm happy to read your post this morning, I can see why so many missed your reviews.

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Looking forward to contributing one more on this holiday weekend later tonight, in the meantime I'll check my phone too often than I should just so I can see what you are all drinking today

 

Brasserie le Gue des Moines ‘’Serie Noir’ Brune.

Dark beer brewed and bottled in an old brickworks with artisanal know-how. 7.5% ABV.

33 cl bottle poured into a Guinness glass. Big spongey foam tops medium brown beer
It’s brewed with smoked Scottish malt, has aromas of peat, chocolate and coffee, and a tad of ash tray.,..
Taste has the smoke element developing as the brew warms, yet it doesn’t overpower the experience. There’s a dry sweetness holding it together. Well balanced.
Mouthfeel is medium, low carbonation allows the flavors to speak for themselves.
Overall, the touch of smoky malt in the mix elevates what would otherwise be a common brew.

 

13% beer at 8:00 in the morning? Why not. In fairness, I'll be surprised if I finish this before 11:00 at the earliest....as much as I enjoy a morning beer, I don't necessarily need a morning buzz.

This is Even More Bible Belt, an imperial stout aged on coffee, vanilla, chilies and cacao nibs. It's been sitting in my beer cellar for almost 7 years....might as well give it a try!

3.77/5 rDev -11.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75

Canned December 10, 2017

For the second day in a row, I'm pleasantly surprised by how a big stout appears (I normally find they all look the same). The body is deep brown / black as expected, but I didn't expect as robust of a head as I got, and it's very good looking with excellent retention and lacing.

I'm having trouble figuring out what I think of the aroma. There's plenty going on here. From a couple feet away I get really nice vanilla notes and some sweet malts. Up close the vanilla recedes a little bit and is replaced by a general metallic smell that isn't terrible, but also doesn't add to the experience. Some chocolate notes lurk behind that metal, but you have to look for them.

First take on the taste is plenty of roasted malts and coffee. After a few sips my tongue acclimated to that and started to pick up some chili notes, especially deep into the finish. I thought I might pick up some sweeter notes, but that's not the case. Feel is a bit thinner than expected.

Overall, this is an interesting beer. No way to know how it has aged over time, but the base stout seems to dominate with the coffee / vanilla / chilies and cacao nibs all lurking subtly in the background. Solid beer.