New Beer Weekend #246

Social Project Brewing's Savoy Truffle Bourbon Barel Aged Imperial Stout, 12.0% ABV; 4.14 overall

2024 Bottle pours an effervescent Chesnut/Mahogany with one finger of mocha colored head. Some head retention & lacing, plenty viscous

S: Bourbon, chocolate & vanilla, nose holds up well

T: Follows the nose, some leafy hops, toasted coconut, & almond up front. Plenty of barrel, both Oaky dryness & Sour mash, Bakers Chocolate, black cherry, figs, coconut & vanilla as the beer warms up, a little bit of dried plum & leafy hop as well. Finishes with some boozey dark fruit, a little barrel & a touch of dark chocolate & coconut

MF: Fairly chewy, restrained carbonation, slight grittyness from coconuts? Warming

This is good, but liked it better on tap, carbonation helped push the flavor along & helped with the mouthfeel

 

At my age, lots of things make me drool, some in an unintentional manner.

Sounds like a phenomenal beer, Jon, and right in my beer nerd sweet spot.

 

Always like checking in from time to time especially when I drink a beer like that one. Hope all is well.

 

When I make a trip to Philly this year (and I will), we will hang out and be beer nerds.

And it will be EPIC.

 

Shoot me a message when you do. I’ll get ya to Tonewood.

 

A recent thread prompted me to see if I could find any ESBs and wonder of wonders, Transient recently released one.

The pour is a copper color with a light tan head which left no lacing.
The taste is fuller than I expected from the ABV, caramel, bready malts, a touch of fruits and some diacetyl. Moderate bitterness I as assuming is from hops. Well balanced with that nice edge that sets an ESB apart from a pale ale.
The feel is light and crisp, very easy drinking. I could drink a few of these in an evening with no problem.
OA, a good ESB that is sessionable and with any luck, regularly available.
Back in a while with a new stout- cheers!

 

Thanks! I expected coffee but it was noticeably shy. Still was our favorite of the evening. Hopefully next time I’m in Colorado I’ll find it again.
Cheers!

 

Busy weekend here. I had a couple new ones yesterday but didn’t have the energy to compose my meagre thoughts.

I saved this one for today as I wanted to spend a little more time on it. This is Spring Thaw Maple Cream Ale from Town Brewery of Whitby, Ontario ( known as ‘Shitby’ by my wife as a teenager back when her soccer team played Whitby regularly!).

This is a collaboration between Town, a quite good brewery, and the Lake Ontario Conservation group who run the Purple Woods Conservation area, a wooded park north of the city. The Purple Woods is where I take my kids ‘sugaring off’ every spring. They have a modern syrup operation as well as an historic set-up showing how syrup was produced a couple hundred years ago. The kids always enjoy going.

The brewery used the maple syrup they produce there to make this beer.



Pours a clean straw gold with an ample head that dissipates fairly slowly

The nose is of primarily light toasted grain, grass and herbal notes and just the slightest hint of maple.

Taste follows quite closely. The maple is a suggestion, not lending any unwanted sweetness to the beer, but a pleasant background in the aftertaste.

Medium body, quite drinkable and enjoyable.

The beer description indicates a light touch with the maple. It certainly was, and I think the beer was better for it.

Cheers!

 

Sounds like a cool place and a neat beer too. Always nice seeing you pop in; sadly I’ve been a little less present lately too. Been shooting for at least one contribution each weekend, that’s always my goal at least.

 

Finally...like The Rock...I'm back to NBW! Might as well jump back on with a semi-big somewhat seasonally inappropriate beer (although it's supposed to be in the mid-20s mid week).

Good day with the little guy today. Long time outside - a little drizzly but it was fantastic in the woods. One new owl pellet and it was very fresh. Deer sign everywhere. Then he and Nana made whoopee pies for tonight's dessert, ate like a horse (excellent baked haddock), read for 45 minutes and more or less conked out.



Berkshire Brewing Snow Day - 9% Imperial white chocolate peanut butter stout brought home by my son. Why? Less than zero clue.

Pours a very dark brown, nearly black. Fleeting cap of beige foam falling to a scant ring and a few strands of fine bubbles.

Smells strongly of peanut butter backed by the white chocolate. Fairly strong coffee smell and roasted malts. Quite charred leaning into being smokey. A bit of vanilla suggesting at least a bit of sweetness.

The taste...hmmm...pretty much a straight AIS initially. Coffee, charred malts, coffee, fand aint smokiness lead the way but then the peanut butter and white chocolate come out in the aftertaste. The char, while assertive, is nowhere near unpleasant - definitely not in the licked an ashtray territory. Totally reverse of the expectation set by the aroma. In the flavor, this is an AIS augmented by a kiss of peanut butter and white chocolate rather than a mess of a beer dominated by the additions. There's a little sweetness that attempts to calm the char and coffee but it kinda fails. Not in a bad way.

The feel seems thin to me for the style and it's a little more than modestly carbonated which I think makes it feel thinner. The peanut butter hangs well after the swallow - kinda wish it would go away but a fresh sip squelches it until next sip. Slightly astringent but not overly dry.

Overall it's decent - presents primarily as an AIS accented by peanut butter and white chocolate. Thinking this will roll around the 3.8 mark. True to style with supporting rather than dominating flavor additions. Mouthfeel ticks it down for me.

 

Cross post with the Barleywine/Stout BIF #2 hints and hauls thread

2023 Sam Adams Utopias (shared by @Bishop )



4.52/5 rDev +1.1%

look: 4.25 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

2023 Utopias, Received from @Bishop as an incredible act of BeerAdvocacy during the Barleywine/Stout BIF #2.

Poured from a small 2ish oz bottle into a Bier Brewing tasting glass.

The beer pours an amber/brown color with no head and no lacing to speak of.

The aroma is Boozy with caramel and brown sugar notes. as the beer warms you can detect notes of dark fruits, but the dominant aroma is similar to a nice bourbon.

The flavor is similar to the nose... boozy with maple syrup and caramel notes. Caramel and burnt sugar notes, as the beer warms I get raisin and cherry notes. The beer is completely still and finishes dry

Overall, this beer definitely leans more into the spirit category than beer. Dry and boozy with complex flavors, this would definitely be worth the price of admission if it were more readily availible.

 

Have a good NBS. It is our 1st wedding anniversary and my mom came out for the weekend. She helped with a bit of cleaning in the kitchen and found out Boat was using an old coat that was laying under the table as a litter box So it smells a lot better in the house now, and we tossed the coat in the trash. It's a little more organized, but I told my mom we would do the rest. She had to do laundry in our house since the hotel laundromat was busy. We have a basic Amana dryer and it always takes at least 2 cycles to get dry, but we are used to it.

We got a bunch of stuff at costco, did not see what beers cases they had, but Julia got a bottle of white wine from the alcohol section. Here is a pic from when we to the steakhouse yesterday.



Rusty Rail Sky’s Out Thighs Out from @Ozzylizard . Great sour. Amazing head retention and lacing for the style. Aromas of sour lemon, cherry, dragon fruit, berry, pear, kiwi, green apple, white wine, hay, straw, grass, wheat, cracker, and lacto/Brett funk. Taste follows with tart lemon, cherry, dragon fruit, berry, pear, kiwi, green apple, white wine, citrus peel, hay, straw, grass, wheat, cracker, peppercorn, pine, and lacto/Brett funk. Light-medium fruit/lactic tartness, pine/herbal/grassy bitterness, and Brett spiciness on the finish. Medium-plus carbonation, light-medium body, and fairly crisp/clean/refreshing finish. Balanced grainy malt, lactic acid, and sticky hop mouthfeel. Lingering resin dryness with no pucker/astringency. Very drinkable for a sour, plenty of Brett complexity from being around 3 years old. Wasn't as sour as the nose led me to believe, but very well made for the style. 4.03


Cheers

 

.

Thanks. It is. The name Purple Woods is because apparently at dawn during certain times of the year, the overall look of the forest is a muddy, shimmering purple. I have t seen it myself, but it’s a lovely spot for a long walk in the woods that isn’t too far from the city.

Cheers!

 

Happy Anniversary to you love birds again!

 

Back with my nightcap-

Poured dark, darker than the normal “stout black” that was capped with a dense light brown head. Not much in the way of lacing though.
The taste is very good; follows the description to a T. The normal coffee and cacao with toast and leather malts accompanied by caramel. Lots of caramel. They say toffee, but I suspect it presents the same, or I just suck at distinguishing between the two in a stout.
The feel is pleasantly viscous, a very enjoyable sipping beer.
OA, excellent dessert stout. Sweet, but only a little. Very tasty.

 

I want to see a forest like that. Sounds amazing.

 

Central Waters ~ Brewer's Reserve ~ Single Barrel Imperial Stout

Here we have yet another Central Waters gem sent to me by none other than the generous @GreenBayBA. Between him and @Bishop they have definitely been spreading the WI love around BA!

At first sip this one seems like a very straightforward BA Impy Stout. There is some sweet vanilla with coconut and chocolate coated marshmallow taking over as the main theme. Think Mounds candy bar here. Seemingly less complex at first yes but as the ale carries on closer to room temp I get more of the Barrel spice and charry oak coming through. There is now a chocolate Tootsie roll candy vibe I am getting. The mouthfeel is a lush and creamy delight with the alcohol being incredibly well masked. Overall it is extremely well balanced and I really can find zero faults. Would absolutely drink again!

 

Greetings, fellow NBWers,
Been a busy weekend. Yesterday I attended a wake for my friend, Lori, who passed away last December, at Whistle Punk Brewing, a place where she often drank with her friends (although she had to drink wine, as beer, a few years ago, had become something that didn't agree with her stomach). There was a pretty good crowd of family and friends gathered, and it was a nice send-off. Afterwards, a few of us adjourned to Iron Goat Brewing for food and a couple more beverages. While there, I tried a new, oaked English mild ale called Frogmorton:

(friends Pete & Crystal placed in background for scale purposes)
...which is a style I've not seen them brew before (I believe owner Greg has given up the reins, brewing-wise, and has turned over the making of the beers to someone else, who seems more focused on the more traditional English and German styles than the bretty sours that Greg has championed in recent years). It was a good example of the style without being particularly noteworthy, though the style is, admittedly, not a flashy one in the first place.

Today, after dinner, I drank a Berlinerweiss from Oklahoma's Roughtail Brewing that is modeled on pink lemonade, and brewed with strawberries and lemons:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/31393/626018/?ba=woemad#lists
It was less sour than I expected for something modeled on lemonade. The strawberries were definitely drowning out the lemons, so it was actually rather sweet, but not to the point of being a deal breaker. Still, it was sufficiently sweet to make me suspect it wouldn't be something I'd want to session.

I suspect that will be my last new beer of the weekend. I might open up what's become one of my favorite local collabs, a Lumberpunk from Whistle Punk and Lumberbeard, which is a delicious Italian pils, but that's definitely not new to me.