New Beer Weekend #253

Alesong - Terroir Project: Walnut Ridge (Pinot Noir) 2023





Notes:
P clear deep blush, small white cap, quick recession
N lovely nose of aromatic floral notes and fruitiness, light funk in the mix as well
T this is really good, big floral notes meet light to med grape character, grape must; earthiness lingers in finish/aftertaste, was expecting a super tart profile, but the tartness is very restrained in this one, super drinkable
Mf light med bod, soft med carb
O one really nicely done wild ale

Cheers

 

Quaffable and drinkability are in a subset of easy drinking and well made beer. Drinkability to me is tasting all of beers components on first sip- like a
barley/hops lozenge Hamms is quaffable.

 

Yeah it's at least an A as Hefes go for me

 

This delight is from @bbtkd via the NBW Imperial Stout/Barleywine BIF#2 LIF ( dumb luck guesses got me these beers)

Covert Artisan Ales Egg Pie Imperial Stout 11th Edition ( Buffalo Trace Barrels ), 12% ABV; 4.53 overall

Pours an effervescent Chestnut/cola color with one finger of fast-falling mocha colored head. Zero head retention & lacing

S: Tons of dark fruit, plenty of Bourbon, fades a touch once warmed up

T: Follows the nose, very barrel forward, Creme Brule, woody hops & a little vanilla & maple candy up front. Mellow Bourbon notes, molasses, charred sugar, dark chocolate, maple candy & vanilla once this beer is warmed up.

MF: Chewy, warming with moderate carbonation, fairly sticky on the lips & teeth

A complex beast of a beer that rewards you with layers of flavor, you do feel the ABV on this one. I enjoy them sweet & rich & this one goes up to the line of greatness IMHO

 

Greetings NBWrs - taking a moment to enjoy this fresh WCIPA - cheers!

4.27/5 rDev -1.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Packaged on 5/14/25 - enjoyed on 5/24/25. Poured from a pint can into my Dogfish Head shaped pint glass.

Nearly clear golden amber body with a fat fist of papaya whip stiff peaks creeping out of the glass. Thick, rocky lacing; superior retention.

Hop forward nose suffused with orange zest/blossom and lower notes of papaya, lime, and forest floor.

Citrus forward palate entry, followed by woodsy/herbal notes, and a kiss of lime along with the clean crackery malt base. Neutral yeast. Moderate but smooth bitterness. Medium-dry faintly earthy finish.

Medium bodied, creamy yet zesty with plenty of carbonation.

Another pleasant seasonal Swami's variant.

 

Greetings, New Beer People! Hat tip and glass clink to @Beersnake for setting this thread in motion. And also for the phrase "I can see the mouthfeel on this one," which is a terrific description.

I did open a new beer last night, but I was sitting with my wife on the patio, chatting most agreeably and enjoying the warm evening. Not an ideal situation for reviewing a new beer. Nor was the beer compelling enough to get me to pull out my phone and jot down a few notes anyway.

I put the 2nd half of the beer back in the fridge so I could pay better attention to it today. And here we are:



Breakside Brewery (Portland, OR) and Boneyard Beer (Bend, OR) are both celebrating their 15th anniversaries this year. Apparently they opened within days of each other. So they collaborated on this West Coast IPA called Quince (Spanish for 15).

Breakside Quince WCIPA (collab with Boneyard Beer)
Canned on 5/9/25 at Breakside Brewery.

This is a pale gold beer with a touch of haze, capped with a head of finely beaded foam which quickly shrinks to a persistent collar and a big island in the middle. The nose is subtle for a WCIPA, mostly citrus (lemon peel, lime zest) with some woody undertones around the edges. Not very sweet or malty, but still somehow mouthwatering. The flavor starts with semi-sweet malt under a payload of fresh lemon and grapefruit peel. The beer dries out quickly through the middle, and offers notes of lime, black pepper, and a hint of tortilla chips. The finish is dry and quenching with a respectable bitterness. Mouthfeel is light with carbonation that was quite vigorous when I opened the can yesterday and is still energetic today.

Honestly, this is a bit underwhelming for a milestone anniversary beer from these two Oregon IPA experts. It's tasty, for sure, and offered an intriguing collection of flavors through the middle. But I'm not sure I would pick this over either one of their flagship beers. Still, I'm glad I tried it.

 

There are lots of hop farms in the Willamette Valley. My Mom, who was born and raised in Portland, used to go pick hops every summer at a relative's farm in that area.

Crosby Hop Farms has a tasting room on one of their properties where you can drink hoppy beers while surrounded by hop bines:

Topwire Hop Project

Reminds me of drinking at Bale Breaker's farm in the Yakima Valley. A wonderful experience.

 

Another new German import for me:

Plank-Bier's Dunkler Weizenbock • 7.9% ABV • no born-on/best-by date

Now we're talking! This beer is fantastic ... chock full of dark-malt (dark-wheat?) flavors in the classic doppelbock range of fruitcake, dark dried fruits, gingerbread and other yummy brown bread/dark-bread pastry notes. It's not cloyingly sweet with plenty of balancing earthiness, but it's arguably on the sweeter side. It's also got just a hint of a wheat-beer tang to it ... not quite tart or sour but heading in that direction of a lemon/lime/citrus peel thing. An absolute gem if you like doppelbocks, eisbocks and Belgian dubbels/quads/strong dark ales.

Official review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/5943/36170/?ba=Premo88#review
4.41 (+12.8% rDev)

Thanks to @Beersnake for the intro and for building on last week's query. Good topics the last two weeks, BAs, and I'm enjoying reading everyone's answers.

My beer-reviewing method has evolved over the years. I prefer to review in the peace and quiet of my home, but I used to be fairly strict about *NOT* reviewing a beer until I had enjoyed it at least 2-3 times. If I bought a new 6-pack, e.g., I wouldn't review it until I was on beer No. 3 or 4. And I rarely bought singles. In 2018 I started getting into whisk[e]y, started consuming less beer, and fast forward to today as an evolving 50/50 beer/whisk[e]y geek: I'm cool with reviewing a brand new-to-me beer on the first attempt (like today). Here in Houston we've got a couple great beer stores that sell very good craft/import singles that are usually fairly fresh, so it's easy to grab 4-5 new beers and have a fridge full of great NBW options.

With that said, I recently bought a sixer of Equal Parts' Pilsner Resov, and I won't review that beer until I'm on No. 4 or 5. And I'm not going to lie: I love the feeling of confidence I have about how well I know that beer after drinking more than one.

Happy reviewing, BAs!

Cheers!

 

@vurt lets try this glorious Crosby Hops!
Mortalis Crosby


4.09/5 rDev -1.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Bought at the Avon ,NY brewery last weekend, cracked 5/24 pours a glug glug golden murk with a rich merengue head that has hung on eventually appears like a latte froth. Aroma is a big Wiggles Fruit Salad yummy yummy peach, melon, stone fruit. Taste is peach, melon, sweety , subtle pine, hint of alcohol. Feel is creamy fluff concoction. This was a shot in the dark at the brewery, but really you never go wrong at Mortalis

 

Larry, I just gotta ask: what was your going in expectation for a "modern pilsner"?

Also, what was the canning date for this beer and was it stored in cold conditions when you purchased it (and when you brought it home)?

Cheers!

 

That was my Retirement shadow board, got out as an E-8. I will show the rest, next beer post one way or the other

 

I agree with you here!

I discussed this beer in a past NBW thread:

“Overall:

In one word: EXCELLENT! There is a lot going on in this beer and all of the flavors/qualities play wonderfully together.”

Overall:

In one word: EXCELLENT! There is a lot going on in this beer and all of the flavors/qualities play wonderfully together.



https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/new-beer-weekend-65.662088/#post-7366374

My only complaint is I wish this beer was more economically priced.

Prost!

 

It was canned on March 17th of this year. Taken from the cooler at the store and kept either in fridge or on ice at home.

I expected something clean, crisp, and with at least some of the usual Jacks Abby hop signature. It was actually pretty bland the more I got into it. I'd say insipid, actually. It seemed a little "undecided" about where it wanted to go.

 

First, what an awesome mom…second, I’ll add that to my list of dream experiences whenever I make it back your corner of our country.

I was just looking at their site, what a cool looking spot.

 

Damn ... anytime I'm in agreement with the great @JackHorzempa, that's some serious validation. No joke. Thanks for mentioning your experience with this beer! And you're right about the price. It's certainly not on the cheap side.

 

Hanging out at my favorite Vietnamese beer bar...Hughies. My buddy and I both had this, and its great. What am I talking about..

Wandering Don, IPA at 7% ABV.

A collaboration with Firestone Walker and Odell. Yeah two excellent breweries, how can this not be good?



Pours an impressively clear golden'/yellow color. A white head forms with good retention and some lace left behind.
Fruity, almost tropical fruit in the nose. Melon, grapefruit, citrus, dank. Very nice.
Taste wise, like the nose, fruit salad up front. Ranging from slightly tropical, melon, citrus pith. A bit of pine and grapefruit. Plenty of bitterness lingering, which is welcome and drying at the same time.
A medium body and carbonation. This is ultra clean and finises wonderfully dry. Something I can easily come back to.

This mixes a bit of new age fruity hop, with a more melon and tropical fruit character, and finishes in a more old school IPA way. Plenty of bitter dryness as well. Yep, I'm a fan. One of the better IPA's that mixes new and old together IMO.

Overall score is 4.09, easy A-
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2210/742763/?ba=champ103#lists

Oh, and had with a great grilled pork bahn mi, with all the fixens...including pate and an egg roll.