New Beer Weekend #252

You should have dropped down (went south) to Garphish. or did what I did: I went to River Falls WI.

I Thought about going to Chip and Eau Claire. I had my eye trying out the Leinie's Ice like @Mdog did. Plus maybe go to 3rd and Vine. But I got off to a late start and stayed closer.
https://www.3rdandvine.com/menus
I do check out reviews here and on untappd sometimes before making my taproom travels/purchases.

 

Kicking back after the performances - both went well and as expected the crowds loved the program. Pretty well attended but far from the Christmas record. Long, tiring show.

So...finally got me a glass to work on:



Barreled Souls Dark Matter Lagavulin Scotch, aged 11 months and 12 days in the scotch barrels, 13.8% Imperial Stout, bottled 3/19/2024.

It looks black in the glass but it pours a dark cola color. About a half inch of khaki foam, excellent cling from a hefty residual ring.

The first noticeable smell is peaty, woody, scotch. Under that delightful aroma lies roasted grains, fruit, slight sweet smell. Very slightly smokey. Smooth if that can apply to this category.

Holy hell...this is smooth as can be but it is absolutely Scotch forward and it is excellent. Peaty, smokey, a little non-offensive alcohol bite, woody, very slightly sweet. The stout is a supporting actor here but it's an Oscar nominee. Very light char, fruit that reads dark cherry, a little molasses, some tobacco notes. Maybe a bit of coffee and a touch of vanilla. There's a brighter fruit note I can't quite place - seems like pear or apple. Almost a bit of acidity and a slight sweetness.

Feel is actually fairly light fir the style.The carbonation is slightly tingly - not overly carbonated, just a pleasant bubbly feel. Very dry finish. Great aromatics.

It's all about the Scotch on this one, but the stout is no joke either. Super smooth. While the Scotch is quite forward, I think it's balanced well with the stout base. As it warms it just mellows out - scary easy drinking is the result. Thinking in the 4.0 to 4.3 region on the scorecard.

 

A beer well deserved, congrats on another successful performance @LeRose

 

Yesterday I went to The Garage bikes and brews in River Falls, WI.
I had a pint of MOON RABBIT MAIBOCK @ 6.8% ABV. It was a good beer. It is as advertised.
It was fresh, clean and crisp. Easy drinking. It somewhat tasted like a slightly heavy duty craft pilsner. It had some noble type hop notes to it. Slightly malty and sweet at first but the hops came on and it turned bitter. I will give it a 4.08/5 overall.
https://untappd.com/b/the-garage-bikes-brews-moon-rabbit/4815658

I also had a pint of Bike Club IPA. It was a solid beer. It was slightly hazy and juicy. It had some nice hops to it. But I don't drink enough of the style to put a number on it.

 

Greetings, New Beer Weekenders! I am chewing over some answers for the questions posed by @Beersnake at the top of the thread, but for now I have a New Beer to dive into.

Every year around Memorial Day, Fort George Brewing of Astoria, OR releases their new 3-Way seasonal IPA. It's called "3-Way" because they collaborate with 2 new breweries each year. Most of the time there's one collaborator from Washington and one from Oregon, although there have also been collaborators from California and Alaska as well.

For 2025, the guest breweries are Sunriver Brewing of Bend, OR and Mirage Beer of Seattle, WA. My wife and I were in Astoria this past weekend for Fort George's Lupulin Ecstasy Festival, so we got to try the beer on tap at the source last Friday.



Fort George 3-Way IPA 2025 (with Sunriver and Mirage)
Note: This review is for the WCIPA 3-Way that is currently available. A hazy version will be released in a month or two.

The body is canary yellow and perfectly clear. Head retention is moderate, but the lacing is sticky and copious. The nose is citrus and white grapes with some frozen blackberries and pine. The flavor follows, heavy on the white grape character and grapefruit pith. The beer is laden with fruit flavor which makes it seem sweeter than it is. But when I try to focus on the sweetness, the beer comes across as dryer and tangy. Interesting. The middle veers into oregano/herbal notes that morph into weed. Finishes with good bitterness and pine. Medium-bodied and a little oily, with sprightly carbonation. An excellent addition to the 3-Way series, and certainly a contender for the top 5 of all the 3-Way versions since 2013.

 

Happy NBS all! Went out to find a couple new beers to me just for today. This is the first-

Ever since I had a “Junie” from Transient, I’ve been more willing to try beer with salted caramel in them.
This one poured viscous and its light brown, one finger head dissipated very quickly. The color is stout black, maybe even darker.
The taste is as advertised- I get the caramel first and the brownie second. The salt is extremely faint, more of a dry sensation which is a little curious to me.
As it warmed up the salt became more pronounced, not ideal. Unless you like that sort of thing.
The feel is not nearly as viscous as the taste makes me think it would be, just a little viscosity which is okay.
OA, a good dessert stout that won’t wreck your day. If you’re sensitive to salt though, you might give this a miss.
Back later with one of the higher octane ones I found.
Cheers!

 

Chinooker’d
6.5% American IPA




I have had this beer many times (and even own a shirt) but somehow never reviewed it. Time to rectify that oversight.

Poured from a pint can, the body is a clear gold. Large white head and good lacing throughout the tasting. Beautiful looking beer.

Taste and nose are lovely, citrus, and pine. Aroma has a small amount of sweet malt. The general taste is bitter Pine with grapefruit. The malty backbone is present but serves as a slight moderation of the bitterness. No sign of ABV.

Mouthfeel is good as is the carbonation.

Another delight from the masters at Lawson’s.

 

That sounded very disappointing.

 

I rarely do any kind of homework on a beer. The two main filters I use when choosing g a new beer are 1) do I like this brewery and 2) do I like this style?

Actually, now that I think about it there's a third filter which comes into play: how expensive is the beer?

If I know the brewery and like them, I'll try pretty much anything they make.

If I don't know the brewery, then I'll look for styles which don't generally get a lot of love. I'll try a rauchbier from pretty much any brewery, because I like the style and want to see more examples out there. Same goes for Dortmunder lagers and maibocks. I figure if a brewery even attempts to make one, I ought to give 'em a try.

Finally, I buy a lot fewer "expensive beers" these days. If I'm looking at anything north of $20, I'm going to look for BA reviews from people I know and trust, even for styles that I love and breweries I trust. Part of this is that I just don't have the kind of disposable income anymore that allows me to nab every beer that sounds good to me. And part of it is that there are plenty of affordable options around me, even for BA stouts and barleywines, for instance. When I can get an excellent BA imperial stout from Breakside for less than $20, anything more expensive than that becomes a really tough sell.

 

Didn’t want to respond until after to avoid a jinx, but that didn’t help. The jersey I posted last night has Tie Domi on the back, and his Son was one of the few who showed up tonight. Never heard of fans throwing their jerseys on the ice in disgust before tonight, but I guess everyone who can afford tickets to the new MLG are millionaires. Our tickets cost $6 each at the OG MLG, saw Gretzky’s last appearance. Go Oilers and Whalers!

Glad you are joining us. Siunds like I would have enjoyed that beer more than you based on the flavors, bitterness and dry finish you experienced. I don’t find that combo often in an NEIPA/Hazy IPA.

Cheers!

 

Jackie O's + Pelican - Mother of All Bricks

375ml bottle served in a BA stemless rastal. If there's a date, I don't see it. @DIM sent it to me in Stout/Barleywine BIF #2.

Pours dark brown, clear on the edges, very aggressive pour yields a thick ring but not much more. Smell is boozy molasses, vanilla, syrup, char.

Taste is basically as the aroma suggested, maybe add in some horehound/rootbeer/cola character. Booze tones down a bit, surprisingly, but still big sweet and boozy.

Mouthfeel is on the light side of thick. Smooth. Nice beer. Dangerously easy to drink.

 

From @bbtkd via a LIF from the NBW Imperial Stout/Barleywine BIF#2

Covert Artisanal Ales Aether Blended Ale. Two different Stouts one in 4 Roses Barrel & the other in a Rye Whiskey Barrel, 13.0% ABV; 4.15 overall

Pours an effervescent chestnut/mahogany with a pinky mocha colored head. Some head retention & lacing

S: Dark fruit, chocolate, hints of whisky

T: Follows the nose, pronounced barrel dryness, seems very Rye whisky barrel, a little caramel & vanilla too up front. Vanilla & cinnamon as this beer warms up, dark chocolate, a little caramel & some barrel once this beer is warmed up. Finishes with chocolate, coconut showing up late, caramel & vanilla, plus some barrel dryness/rye peppery notes

MF: Chewy, dialed back carbonation. Body thins a touch once warmed up, sticky on the lips

Super drinkability, loads of flavor, nose & body not quite on par. Barrel is there, but takes a back seat

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Awesome posted in the wrong forum, Now in the correct one & there too

 

@vurt
Just has an FW Rye BA beer that shits on anything Side Project has ever made

They suck and their prices suck even more.
So do all these other breweries.

Anything more than 25 dollars can fuck off. A bottle of Buffalo Trace is 23 dollars here.

 

Nice, wish that Bison would show up here a little more

 

It was this thread (well, technically it was NBS) that really got me interested in so many styles and breweries, so much out there. And this thread lets me know what to look for.
I was going to have a second tonight but it wasn’t to be. Dang it. I have one I really wanted to try too.
Next week. Definitely.
Cheers all!