New Beer Weekend #253

Jacks abby light work summer wheat lager
...cloudy murky tangerine colored appearance
...just under medium carbonation with a heavy body. Wheat beers always feel thick and heavy to me,in a good way
...aroma is definitely wheat,maybe some mixed grain, a flowery fruity element which comes off pretty strong
...taste has very mild sweetness with some citrus peel which creates a mild dryness. Wheat and mixed toaste grain follows.
...overall I expected a good beer but this is better than I expected

 

So a question to you both - where is the crossover between being a good mouthfeel and being sweet to being sickly? Which may be poorly executed beer or intentional, depending on the goal, these days, I guess.

Am I wrong in thinking classic, well made drier stouts and porters suffer in ratings in categories other than mouthfeel because they aren't sweetened and/or under-attenuated. Which at one point this would be considered a flaw , though maybe that was just because it was a possible waste of money?

 

Gotahold Brewing Devil Put Aside Lager Bohemian Pilsner, 5.3% ABV; 4.23 overall


My can says 5.3% close enough

Pours a bright & effervescent gold with one finger of eggshell colored head. Minimal head retention & lacinf

S: Bready, doughy, some herbal notes

T: Dry, sweet breadyness, grassy & mineral hops & a little lemon up front. Grassyness & lemon mix in with breadyness & a subtle yeast bite as this beer warms up, woody hops surface as well. Finishes dry, flinty with grassy & herbal hops, a little bready sweetness

MF: Medium body, dialed back carbonation, great balance

Well put together Pils that drinks very easy



I need to get up to Eureka Springs and check these guys out at the source

 

My response may be seen by some (you?) as being flippant but it is not intended to be. From my perspective there is a clean (no pun intended) distinction in that mouthfeel is a body/texture aspect while sweetness is a taste. A beer can have a think mouthfeel without being sweet (i.e., the body is from dextrins which are not sweet). Now a beer could also both have a thick body and also some residual sugars which will be perceived as sweet.

Now, this is a question I am uncertain about. I would like to think that a beer style such as an Irish Dry Stout will not be punished for not having a sweetness aspect but I really don't know how folks (BAs?) react here.

Since we are discussing Stouts, I recently homebrewed a Milk Stout (first time making this beer style), which was a kit beer gifted to me from my friend Billy Joe. This beer kit included some milk sugar (lactose) which will provide some body but lactose is not typically perceived as being very sweet. I also added some other dark malts from my inventory (e.g., Black Patent Malt) which will in some way mitigate the perception of sweetness in this beer. The stats of this beer:

• OG: 1.053
• FG: 1.021

With a final gravity of 1.021 this beer will likely have a thick(er) mouthfeel for a small (4.2% ABV) beer. It is still in the bottle conditioning phase so I have not tasted it yet. My guess is this batch will have a chewiness to it but not be what I would categorize as being an overly sweet beer but I won't know for another week or so.

Cheers!

P.S. This discussion smacks of an overall topic of achieving balance in a given beer (style). Maybe this article will be helpful to you:

https://www.morebeer.com/articles/Balanced_Beer

 

Good evening denizens of NBW, and thank you @Beersnake for another thoughtful opening.
I need to focus on a beer the first time I try it in order to, as accurately as possible with my lack of smell, discern what I’m tasting.
Look and feel play an oversized part in my rating so I tend to be more stringent with my scores there - but taste is obviously the primary concern.
Mouth feel is important, a viscous lager is not ideal and a water thin imperial stout is worse.
Obviously that’s just my opinion, so take it for what it is worth.
Tonight I had one that I had hoped was better than it ended up being; not that it was bad in any way, it was just, well, not impressive. Still tasty though!
Found it in a Colorado bottle shop and thought it would be a good fit for an upcoming SAN. And it will.

It just won’t be a great one.
The pour is strong coffee brown and appears black in the glass with a 1 cm beige head that dissipated slowly. Nice looking stout.
The taste is good; a solid representation of the style, coffee, chocolate, a hint of bourbon and some vanilla. There was some dark fruit (figs maybe?) initially but not after the first couple swallows.
The feel is lighter than I expected for a BBA stout, little viscosity but by no means unpleasant.
OA, I will have no problem finishing the 4 pack; it’s essentially an easy quaffing BBA stout that has no additives or adjuncts.
All for tonight, cheers all!

 

Boulevard Tropical Tank 7 Island Saison, 8.5% ABV; 4.21 overall

Pours an effervescent & slightly chill-hazed gold with a pinky of ivory colored head. Very good head retention & lacing

S: Phenols & juicy fruit

T: Follows the nose, a little mango & guava thrown in up front, some grassy hop notes up front. As this beer warms up it makes me think mango flavored Juicy Fruit with some yeasty twang & tart lemon, a touch of white grape skin too. Finishes with grassy bitterness, phenols, band-aids, mango & lime juicy fruit

MF: Medium body, delicate carbonation

Nice tropical take on the OG that drinks very easy. Doesn't unseat the king but this will work as a warm weather take easily

 

Good evening BAs! I’ve spent the evening sipping and pondering this impy stout I bought on Tavour, May of 2023 - Fifty/Fifty Brewing’s “Eclipse - Frey Ranch” (2022), Burnt Bronze Wax, aged in straight bourbon whiskey barrels:



Chocolate and coffee. A whiff of bourbon as beer warms. Taste is chocolate with fading coffee as beer warms. Very little bourbon. Thin for abv. Nothing amiss here, but beer has no omph.

4.25 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4

Glad I only bought one bottle.
Cheers y’all!

 

I think we have overall stats here on BA that show how Irish dry stouts compare to imperial stouts, including the many adjuncted ones that this isn't much of a mystery.

Admitted, "water thin" is likely something most of us on this site do not want in any beer, but I do see a lot of people questioning the thinness (or lack of sufficient thickness) of stouts. I honesty have the opinion that many are swayed by the modern thicker, adjunct stouts when trying a more classic RIS or similar. I may be off, as I was in another thread, recently, so maybe this is just the results of a doddering old man's meandering thoughts

 

A gem from @bbtkd via the NBW Imperial Stout/Barleywine BIF#2 LIF

Central Waters Single Barrel ( Bourbon ) Brewer's Reserve Imperial Stout, 11.1% ABV; 4.29 overall. My 10th beer from these guys!

Hints of coconut surface, along with a little rum & cola accompanied by leafy & woody hops, a touch of toffee too once this beer is warm. Finishes with plenty of barrel, some cola & Bourbon notes, plus woody hops along chocolate syrup & vanilla notes

MF: Somewhat chewy, low carbonation, warming. Carbonation turns a bit prickly once warmed up

Pretty good drinkability, but the mouthfeel detracts keeping this from being elite

 

I love it when a beer I think is going to be one thing and then it isn't and it's really good. This is one of those. Simply saying the name and reading the description of it would lead one to think: Dank, wet grass, herbal, dank aroma...but none of these apply. It is masterfully brewed, nuanced, med-lite bodied, perhaps airy for some, and is interspersed with inviting fruit tastes. The ABV is dialed back a bit and I enjoy this as well. I do roll the cans to break up any sediment as best I can.
Drastic Measures & Junkyard collab Grass Pro Shop HIPA with terpenes 6.2%
4.15/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
16 oz can canned 4/11/2025 into a nonick pint glass.
L: SRM 2 Pours a hazy white grapefruit juice color with some orange, a thin white head that recedes to nothing, very little carbo, a few large sediment chunks, medium-light webbed lacing.
S: A light fruit bouquet, caramelized malts, slightly tropical with warming.
T: Gently sweet, grassy, subtly floral, berries, melon, almost tart, lemon, light orange w/pith, a distant wisp of berries, lip sweet, it has a halo of high-grade sativa dominant hybrid flower and honeysuckle flower.
F: Gently brisk, smooth, semi-juicy with a medium length fairly drying finish.
O: I truly enjoy this beer on multiple levels. A sublime blend so well executed here that it flows and drinks like a session Ale. This collaboration nailed it. I would buy this delicious beer again. It is excellent in its style.

 

This beer was very disappointing. Not surprised actually. It was tough to finish.
Leinenkugel Tropical HIPA 7%
3.27/5 rDev -13.7%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3
19.2 oz can into a 20 oz tall glass.
L: Pours hazy dark gold with light carbo, a 2" massive white head which, after multiple pours, recedes to froth, random spots and islands of lacing.
S: Quite fruity, heavy guava, citrus. Very tropical.
T: Tropical fruits, passion fruit, very heavy guava, citrus, some over ripe, it is sweet, confection sugar, very light tartness in the center, distant coconut, lightly earthy, no alcohol.
F: Lightly brisk medium-length bodied feel with a juicy center and a medium-fast wet finish. It goes flat halfway through the glass.
O: I believe the fruit flavors are added haphazardly and the base beer is muted by this hastily assembled messy punch mix. It tastes fake and industrial but drinks okay for 7%.

 

Haven't seen the Sensation IPA. Will look for it.
I too grow tired of Hazies rather quickly. Not the best summer beer IMHO but that's just me. Some that aren't so thick are getting more of my attention.

 

Over 90% of the beers I have are new-to-me singles that I'm reviewing at home. I sit in my recliner where I'll drink the beer while editing the picture and doing the review, possibly after adding the beer. Strong beers usually take 1-2 hours to drink. I do real simple reviews compared to some others, covering what it is, how it looks, the aroma, the flavor, the mouthfeel, and overall.

Owing to prolonged chemical exposure during two jobs when I was 18/19, I'm not real good at aroma. TBH sometimes I look at the beer description and other reviews for queues - what it's supposed to smell like, then I ask myself what I can pick out. As far as taste, I'm better on detecting that. I prefer to review at home so I can take time with it, but when I have a new beer away from home, I take notes on my phone.

 

Thanks @Beersnake for kicking off the extended Memorial Day weekend. Will catch up with the posts likely after I complete my final two "season ticket" Sox games Saturaday and Sunday. Have three Pipeworks beers slated as my theme this weekend. Looking forward to my next trip to the Dojo. I don't believe any weather is congruent with the wearing of Socks and Sandals (I don't own sandals), but bought the beer anyway.

Pipeworks Socks and Sandals Weather

3.13/5 rDev -17%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 2.75 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 2.75



5/24/25 - (Can - Home) (Chicago, IL) Can Notes: Purchased May 6, 2025 at Beer on the Wall at store temperature for $4.55 including tax, refrigerated at home until opening this morning. 16 oz canned 4/18/25. 6.0% ABV, Hazy Pale Ale with Citra, Simcoe, Amarillo and Centennial hops. Artwork by Anna Lee Doughtie. Pipeworks Brewing Company. Brewed & canned in Chicago, Illinois.

Appearance: Poured about 12 ounces into a Pipeworks shaker pint glass, yielding a hazy pineapple juice base, and generous creamy bubbly bright white head which dissipates with minimal spotty lacing and a thin creamy cover over the entire base. Looking good. 4.25

Aroma: Tangerine, citrus and lemon aroma, all near equal, light to mild in strength, enjoying what I work to gleam. 3.75

Taste: Consistent with the aroma, though the flavors are light and a bit muddled competing with an ethanol alcohol flavor. Meh. 2.75

Mouthfeel: Light and easy drinking, sustained prickly carbonation. Sweet flavors dulled by ethanol and bitterness. Tangerine and ethanol start to finish. 3.25

Overall: This is a somewhat rare miss for Pipeworks. Was hoping for something lighter than a Ninja vs. Unicorn which I loved yesterday, but this is a run of the mill bland hazy with not much to write home about. 2.75

Hoping the two "blood" offerings planned for the rest of the weekend work out better.

 

Classic Pilsner from Avling Kitchen and Brewery

Poured a 473ml can into a Pilsner glass. A bid, fluffy white head on a slightly hazy pale gold. Excellent head retention. It sticks around to the end. Sheets of fine lacing.

Smells of spicy herbal malts. Lots of grain smells. Tastes of bready malts up front. Sweet. A very long spicy hop finish.

A light body and good carbonation. Overall a top quality Pilsner. Well worth a try.

3.99/5 rDev +4.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4