New Beer Weekend #231

I came in to start this off only to see two others, well heck; three is the magic number!!!

Well friends, we’ve made it through another work week; you know what that means, it’s the weekend!!! One of the best parts of the weekend the best thread on BA, New Beer Weekend, this right here is the 231st iteration.

If you just stumbled upon this thread, please consider joining us by drinking a new to you beer and just tell us what you think about it: Did you like it? Why or why not? Give us a full review, a short review, anything…the only catch is you have to tell us something about what you’re enjoying, or maybe not enjoying, but hopefully the former. Pictures not required but are encouraged.

Hopefully everyone is in a a festive mood this weekend, or at least happy about an extra day or two off next week. My beer is a festive one that I haven’t tried yet. I do love well balanced Christmas spiced beers so I wanted to give this one a try, I’ve never seen it in NJ till this year, that I can remember at least.

And away, we, go…

Schlafly - Christmas Ale (Winter Warmer 8%)



Pours a dark chestnut brown with some reddish hue; good light brown head, clumpy and creamy looking froth persists; give it a good swirl and you get some decent lacing.

Nose is just a nice pleasant mix of winter spices and some sweetness; brown sugar like; it’s hard to pin down specific spices in this one so I’m just gonna go with baked dark colored holiday treats with some underlying red fruit notes.

Taste is definitely malt forward; again I get brown sugar and then a smorgasbord of spice; light astringent spice quality on the finish, which I’m guessing may be the juniper berry which I believe is in here; overall it carries a little bit of a rum like and botanicals vibe.

Body is quite hefty in the malt department; lightly warming with some nasal ABV hints; still goes down easy for its heft, really smooth and creamy carbonation with nice light bitterness on the finish.

This is definitely a Christmas beer; I enjoyed trying it but its honestly a little to big on malt and a touch to hefty for me personally. Still as a winter warmer, or Christmas beer, I thin it serves its purpose well.

———————————

Hope to see you all at least one more time on this fun filled weekend. Have a great night everyone !

 

A Cossack beer!?!

Firstly, I would like to wish everybody a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and overall Happy Holidays!

Today’s new beer is from Brasserie de la Senne and it is branded as Taras Boulba. Who is Taras Boulba you might ask? Well, I had to do a web search to learn:

"Taras Boulba" refers to the title character from a novella written by Nikolai Gogol, depicting a fierce Cossack warrior who, in the story, tragically kills his own son for betraying their people by falling in love with a Polish woman; essentially, it signifies a story of extreme loyalty and harsh justice within the Cossack culture.”

Well, this sounds like a novella with quite a bit of a dark message. Not my ‘cup of tea’.

But from the Shelton Brothers website:

“Taras Boulba is the perfect session beer — loaded with complex yeast flavors, hopped to perfection, and as drinkable as any beer you’ve ever tried. At 4.5% alcohol, it’s built for drinkability — we suggest buying it by the case.”

Well now, that is a ‘story’ I can get enthused about!

Served in my Tripel Karmeliet Tulip glass:

Appearance:

A hazy straw yellow with a white head.

Aroma:

Wow! An enticing combination of hop aromas (e.g., citrus, floral) and yeast produced aromas (e.g., fruity, spicy).

Taste:

The flavor follows the nose with the aforementioned citrus/floral and fruity/spicy. There is a moderate bitterness.

Mouthfeel:

A sharp carbonation with a light - medium bodied. A dry finish.

Overall:

This beer is very good- excellent! I very much enjoyed the combination of enticing aromas/flavors. When I finished it, I very much wanted a second.

Cheers!

@rotsaruch @KOP_Beer_OUtlet @RobH

 

It's probably unrealistic to hope for 12 starts of Christmas NBW, but three is a pretty solid number (and maybe a record). Cheers, all!

 

Thanks to all who got us off & running for the weekend

Surly Mosh Pit Juicy Pale Ale, 5.5% ABV; 3.3 overall


BBD of 11/23/24, would've been nice to have some information on the outside packaging


Pours an effervescent gold with a thumb of beige head, average-ish head retention & lacing

S: Grassyness & wet cereal, faint citrus once warm, not much there, some tropical fruit once warmed up

T: Follows the nose, a little tangerine, some leafy hops as well up front. More citrus & grassyness once this beer warms up. A little dryness in the finish, leafy hops & a little citrus

MF: Light/medium body with slight carbonation, okay balance. Body gets a little thin once warm

Disappointing, age probably isn't helping. Nothing good to say about this effort

 

Happy Friday NBW. I have been reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer this morning before having an afternoon nap. Amazingly good book, you'll not see my ass climbing that kind of mountains, just the kinds with bike trails and less than 10,000 feet lol. A lot of great info about how easy it is to dye with low oxygen, and not know you are dying.

We went to Jersey Mike's twice this week. I got enough shore points for a giant now. Big Kahuna + lettuce/pickle/Mayo is my GOAT. I had chicken today.


From @Ozzylizard a while back. BB June 2025. Very nice gose. Nose is an authentic bomb popsicle of cherry, blue raspberry, and lime syrup, a bit medicinal, mild funk. Taste of tart lime, blue raspberry, cherry, lemon, wheat, grain, herbal, pepper, and light lacto funk. Light herbal bitterness, lacto tartness, and fruit tang on the finish. Medium-high carb, and medium body, balanced grain malt, acid, and sticky hops in mouthfeel. Slight pucker/tang lingering drying after the finish. Very drinkable. Bit of lingering warmth of 6%. 3.9/5


Cheers

 

Mother's Marshmallow Winter Grind, 6.0% ABV; 3.99 overall

Pours an effervescent chestnut with 2 fingers of mocha colored head. Decent head retention & lacing

S: Coffee a plenty, some vanilla & cocoa

T: Follows the nose, some dryness, a little Baker's Chocolate up front. Coffee, marshmallow & cocoa as this beer warms up. Finishes a little dry with cocoa, coffee & marshmallow

MF: Medium body, restrained carbonation

Not a bad variant, I find the base beer to be too coffee heavy, this is more to my liking, drinks easy enough

 

Visiting my family in central Illinois. Champaign to be exact. Savoy is just a little strip of highway just south, and a brewery there is Triptych. When they first opened, way back in 2013, I wasn't particularly impressed. As such, I haven't really tried a lot of their newer offerings. I remember last year when I came back to visit, my Sister got me some of their new lagers and I was taken back at how much they seemed to improve from what I remembered. So coming back this week, I made a long awaited revisit...

First up is Czech 12, a Pale Lager at 5% ABV. On the slow pour thingy (yeah I know what its called, I'm just being lazy ha).



Pours a brilliantly clear golden yellow color. A dense two finger white head forms with excellent retention and rings of lace left behind. This is a looker.
Aroma is grassy and floral hops are up front, with some pale biscuit malts for balance. Simple but very nice.
Taste wise, like the nose, the grassy and floral hops are up front. Which gives way to baked bread, toasted malts, grains and a light honey like sweetness. Lingering bitterness is nice and dries everything out.
A light to medium body with crisp and effervescent carbonation. Wonderfully clean and finishes dry. Yeah, this is an easy one to drink and come back to.

Well done all around. A nice simple, clean, dry lager that has a lot of character at the same time. Rivaling Riggs now, with some very nice lagers. Always a good thing.

Riggs is a German style brewery in Urbana, one half of the Champaign/Urbana twin cities. They are some of the best American made German lagers around IMO. Of course slightly different styles, but the quality is really similar.

Anyway, overall score is 4.09, A-
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30967/696704/?ba=champ103#lists

Next up...

Some Sort of Something (Or Another), English Bitter, 4.6% ABV and on cask.



Pours a clear amber orange color. A dense white head forms, that recedes kind of quickly for a cask. Nice lace left behind.
A simple aroma of baked bread, biscuits, and nutty. A touch earthy hops. That is it, simple and enjoyable.
Taste wise, that toasted baked bread and nuttiness takes over up front. There is a small amount of buttery flavors, which a small amount of diacetyl is OK for me in an English style. Again an earthy hoppy character in the finish.
A lighter body than expected from a cask. It doesn't have the creamy coating that I want. Still well carbonated and easy to drink. I can come back to this with ease.

Its certainly a good example of an English Bitter, if not my favorite. A good try, and glad they tried a cask version of this. Even if not my personal favorite, nice to have when available on cask.

Overall score is 3.88, B+
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30967/727069/?ba=champ103#lists

 

One more Triptych for tonight...

Smoked, 4.9% ABV, Rauchbier/Smoked Pale Lager.

Brewed with Weyermann Beech smoked malt from Bamberg, Germany.




Pours a brilliantly clear copper/orange color. A dense white head forms with excellent retention and plenty of lace left behind.
Aroma...Oh, that smoke is up front and center. Meaty with pale biscuit like malts. I would like to have a bit more nuance with the malts, but that smoke is so good, it doesn't matter.
Taste wise, again that smokey meaty flavor is up front. Some pale malts, baked bread and even a bit of spicy character comes through. The smoke boarders on astringent for me, but doesn't exactly get there. It lingers on for a long finish as well.
A medium to fuller body. Especially for the ABV. At first crisp carbonation. Which becomes ultra soft and smooth as this breaths. I can come back to this a lot, really well done for the style.

This might be my favorite American made Smoked/Rauchbier. I haven't had a chance to try Riggs version yet, as the timing is never right when I come up and visit. Though this is excellent, glad that two breweries are tackling this style.

Overall score is 4.15, easy A-
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30967/555767/?ba=champ103#lists

I have a Dark Czech Lager that I got to go. I'll try to review that sometime this weekend, if family fun time allows for some beer review breaks

 

Awesome fruit/chili beer. Minimal lacing, solid head retention. Aromas of big tangerine/mandarin orange juice, light spice and grain. Taste is big tangerine/mandarin orange juice, lemon, peppercorn, light chili pepper, cracker, grain, herbal, floral, grass. Light fruit tartness, herbal bitterness, and chili spiciness on the finish. Medium-high carb, light body, and crisp/clean/refreshing finish. Balanced grainy malt and sticky hop mouthfeel. Lingering increasing heat of chili pepper after the finish through the can. Amazing summer beer, very drinkable with a nice kick of heat. I will keep a lookout for more of these variants, I have had a few different fruits. 4.1/5


Cheers

 

Wow, it’s like a hat trick start this weekend! That requires a special beer and I have one I’ve been wanting to try since I saw it.
Ink is relatively new to the area and it quickly became one of my annuals. But we never see the barrel aged beers from them up here, so when I saw this in Tennessee, I couldn’t buy it quickly enough.

I look for the BA version of the imperial stouts that I think are good, and often (but far from always) they are indeed a step up. This is one of those that is better.
Poured coffee color into my glass, “stout black” when finished with virtually no head at all.
The taste leads with the malt base of Ink, but leaves off the hops presence and any char that is in the base stout. To my surprise and happiness, this isn’t a sweet, gooey beer- it’s missing the hard edge of the original, but it isn’t needed here. Chocolate and vanilla and leather are all present, coffee (mild breakfast blend) and dark fruit come into focus later. This is a treat, sad it’s retired.
The feel is lightly viscous, maybe too light, I drank this inside 30 minutes.
OA, glad I picked this one up, wish there was another there so I could have shared it with my SAN group.
Good beer.
Now I feel like I have to drink 2 more beers to keep up with the starting lineup!

 

Social Project Brewing's Wolf Like Me Triple Hazy w/Nectaron. Nelson, Motueka Hops, 9.6% ABV; 4.29 overall

Pours a very hazed gold/honey color with one finger of beige head. Great lacing & good head retention

S: Catty, some citrus, onions. Citrus picks up as it warms up, peaches also, easily the best aspect of this beer, some cattyness too

T: Pineapple, nectarine, oranges, a trace of vanilla dryness & weed notes up front. More pineapple, some lime, a little white grape & peach once this beer gets warmer. Finishes with pineapple, weed, lime & tangerine

MF: Medium body, light carbonation, a little acidic, good balance. Carbonation, becomes a little creamier once warm

Just got better as it warmed, not a slamming beer, but fairly drinkable despite the ABV

 

Traditions gebrau imperial porter
..almost solid black appearance with a lasting thick tan head.
...light carbonation with an above average body with a Slight creamy feel which all added up to a nice feel
...aroma is malt,mildly roasted malt, molasses, roasted grains, a little earthy and boozy without being too heavy on the alcohol
...taste is almost identical to aroma,mild sweetness, complex and higher abv is well hidden.
...overall so far it is by far the best out of the costco box, wish I could find it on its own
...accidentally added teddy destroying a toy so complimentary pup pic

 

Traditions gebrau dark lager
...has a very dark appearance with a thin but lasting head
.. just below average carbonation with a medium body.
...aroma is roasted malt,toasted grains, cereal, dark fruit, plum paste.
...taste is earthy,almost dry,toasted grain,burnt cereal,mild sweetness.
...overall an excellent dark lager

 

Brasserie Hespebay (France) ‘Monster Pineau’ BA Rye Wine

33 cl bottle, screaming yellow waxed top, poured into a stemmed snifter, slightly chilled. The brewery calls this a ‘lightning beer’.
On the look, a burst of dancing beige foam tops unfiltered amber brew.
Nose is cognac, then a sour grape note wafts in.
Taste is red winy up front, rye reinforces the middle tones. This beer has been aged for a few months in a ‘Pineau des Charentes’ wine barrel, and the oak is quite present. There’s a musky, almost barnyard element involved, as well as a pleasant nuttiness. Dry and boozy (10%) finish that’s a bit sweet, yet balanced and warm.
Mouth is light leaning toward medium, high carbonation.
Overall, we reveal a little madeleine hiding drunkenly within an old wine barrel.,

3.93/5 in the BA DB

 

Is love to be at that place with you @champ103, looks like a perfect brewery; book in hand as always