New Beer Weekend #254

Glad you enjoyed Real Ale Commissar, and that more people outside of this little state of Texas gets to try it . That is one of the best classic RIS remaining on the shelves IMO, of course alongside of Old Rasputin.

I'll be at Equal Parts Brewing later today...I think they have at least two new West Coast style IPA's on...I'll report back later. Cheers

 

I enjoyed this one late last night. I’m cheating a little as I had the bottom third of a can my wife opened a couple weeks ago. But, I’m going with the rule that if you don’t open the beer itself, only drink another’s dregs, you can claim the next can as a ‘first!’



This is Third Moon Low Lands. It’s a collaboration IIPA with Interbeer of New Zealand. Hops noted are Nelson Sauvin, Riwaka, Waimea, and Cryo Nelson. Third Moon is a great hazy IPA maker just west of the city in Milton, Ontario. This was one of their several 5th anniversary beers.

The beer pours a cloudy, but bright gold with ample pillowy head that sticks around a long while. The pour appears to have that thick consistency notable on hazy IPAs.

The aroma is strong and vibrant. Lots of tropical fruit like mango and guava, as well as other notes I can’t place.

Similar fruit on the tongue. Gentle bitterness through the sip with a mild dankness. Again, there are some fruity notes I can’t place, but are enjoyable.

Medium body with good drinkability.

This is the kind of hazy I enjoy. I’m a big fan of NZ hop varieties for this style beer and tend to always enjoy a well made IPA with Riwaka. Third Moon are masters of the style and I’d recommend anyone finding themselves in Milton to pick up an assortment of any beer they offer.

Cheers!

 

Good Sunday morning NBS/nbw and thanks @Beersnake for hosting this week.

In response to your question, I dont have food with beer prior or during a review.
Todays offering is from Schilling Beer Co. label reads "American Bock" also has a list of grains from Sugar Creek Malting that " 2 row barley, 6 row barley, Boone County white corn"
Interesting take on the grist of a bock!

The beer is a beauty visually, I have to say that there was a thread in the beer I couldnt get my brain around. Half way through I read the can again and found the white corn and voila it all clicked.
A very good offering
Cheers

Hoosier Bock

Bock | 5% ABV
Schilling Beer Co. in Littleton, New Hampshire

Reviewed by SABERG from Massachusetts

4.14/5 rDev 0% | Average: 4.14
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
Poured from a 16 oz can dated 04/15/25 into the tulip glass
A - Pours a deep ruby/copper color. Excellent carbonation forms a lasting offwhite tower of froth.
Lacing is like tree rings
S - Slightly smokey,Malt forward with notes of caramel, and brown toast. A bit of noble hop in there as well.
T - Earnot to dry. thy, multigrain, a bit of burnt toast, hint of smoke, and old nutmeg. quite interesting.
M - Smooth a silk on the palate, not sweet, with a nice lingering earthy calling card

 

I’ve neglected the opening question of the thread.

I do tend to drink most of my beer with food, usually supper. That is almost universally true of IPAs, lagers, etc. Big stouts and porters Tend to be enjoyed by me later, and on their own.

So, my reviews of beers like the one above are almost always with a meal. Last night, it was take-out Thai (spicy noodles, cashew chicken, green curry and spring rolls). Very spicy food that almost certainly affected the review. That said, I do usually have the first 4-5 sips before the first bite, and get the aroma and taste notes in my head mostly before I begin to eat. I will add to it as I eat, but usually only a few small things.
Cheers.

 

It is! Sniffed the can this morning. Made me wish I could "morning beer" it.

 

And we love you!!
Cheers

 

That sounds like awesome take out, spice is the one thing that clears my seemingly permanently clogged sinuses.

I remember Bourdain in Toronto and it had a very diverse food scene if I’m not mistaken.

As I’ve said many times, too many times, before….one day….

 

Indeed. You name the culture, there is likely a neighbourhood with the food available. I live just around the corner from a nice Main Street/shopping street. In the last six months we’ve had new Mexican, Georgian and Vietnamese places open just five minutes walk from my place. They join the Greek, Italian, Lebanese, Egyptian, Hakka, Trinidadian, Thai, and Costa Rican places. For a few years we even had an Uzbek spot!

Toronto has great food. Can’t wait for you to come up and I can show you around Jon! Cheers.

 

Pretty much just what it sounds like unless I'm missing something. Some companies will age their maple syrup in bourbon barrels, and then once that process is through they'll sell those barrels to breweries to age beers in. This beer was aged in BLiS ones: BLiS™ Bourbon Maple Syrup | 2x SOFI Gold Award Winner

 

Last one from the Oskar Blues mixed pack, Hazy Blues:


Appearance: Hazy yellow, OK head.

Smell: Grapefruit juice, fruit syrup.

Taste: Moderate sweetness to start, moderate citrus flavor with fruit juices. Low bitterness but not overly sweet. Medium bodied, finishes with the fruit juices.

Overall: Last one from the Oskar Blues mix pack, I'm pretty tired of hazies, this one is “fine”, it does manage to avoid the mealy mouthfeel I don't like in hazies. Decent fruity flavor.

The mixed pack in general was good, easy drinking beers. The two I'd already had were Dale's Pale Ale and Mama's Little Yellow Pils.

 

Just a couple new brews for me today, both from Mirror Twin:

Wheezing The Juice | Mirror Twin Brewing | BeerAdvocate



Red Blooded American | Mirror Twin Brewing | BeerAdvocate



Cheers and have a great week everyone!

 

Had the pleasure of trying this one yesterday, courtesy of @sulldaddy..

Barreled Souls - Dickel's Cabin 2023





Notes:
P mahogany w/ a small khaki head; fairly quick recession to a thick ring
N med to med bold raisins, figs, followed by dark sugars, toffee and booze
T delicious blend of big toffee caramel notes and vanilla, supported by dark fruits, tobacco, followed by sweet sticky bourbon, a fair amount of boozy warmth, some oakiness and creme brulee-like character as well, excellent
Mf med bodied, soft med to med carb, some stickiness
O one fantastic barrel-aged barleywine; thanks again for the opportunity, Sully!

Cheers

 

Going to the movies, having Sword Logic, a west coast IPA from Bosque.
A hazy orange color. One inch white head that persisted. Sheets of lace.
Subtle aroma of sweet malt, citrus, and pine.
Taste follows the nose. Grapefruit and pine with a caramel background.
Medium body.
An average IPA.

 

I have the distinction of buying Steve’s Bourbon Barrel aged maple syrup when he was selling at craft fairs. Yes, it was amazing.
He approached Founders way back and asked if they would sell his products in the taproom. Kosmicki (sp?) asked Steve what he did with the barrels after aging the syrup.
Couple years later, CBS is introduced.
The rest, as they say, is history.
And I did miss remember - BLiS is “Because Life is Short”
Cheers all, I will be back soon with a new one, just wanted to catch up.

 

On my way home from the cities, and making a pit stop.

WacTown Wheat - Waconia Brewing - Waconia, MN - American Pale Wheat Beer- 4.7%

Super tasty and refreshing. The main knock on it is the lack of aroma.
Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/36554/143510/
3.6/5 rDev +5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
On tap at the brewery.

This beer is actually quite clear looking in the glass with a touch of haze to it. There's a bit of a white head.
I am just getting nothing on the aroma. At least it isn't off putting.
Ok, where was the aroma, when the flavor is so stong? I am getting a ton of orange flavor in this beer. There's hints of biscuit that come through in the flavor.
This beer is quite crisp and clean feeling. It feels quite refreshing.
I don't know what happened to the aroma, but the flavor and feel of the beer makes up for it.

Might have one more pitstop. Cheers.

 

Another new German import lager for me today:

Klosterbrauerei Ettal's Kloster-Dunkel • Munich dunkel • 5% ABV • no bottling code

The short version: mildly disappointing b/c the beer was mostly flat. Not 100% flat, so it's nothing so terrible as needing to be poured down the drain, but one of the reasons I think I love lagers so much is they are often highly carbonated. This one is not, and it's possible it's because it's a fairly old bottle or possible the cap wasn't on as securely as it should be. Either way, I'm growing more and more wary of buying bottled beer — the other two beers I've had from this brewery were canned, and they were fantastic.

It's obviously a solid beer with a truly magnificent nose ... lots of fruitcake, dark dried fruits and a very yeasty pizza crust pop that I find in Belgian dubbels, quads and strong dark ales. The flavor is slowly sweetening as it warms, though it's much earthier and yeastier and not in a yummy pizza crust kind of way but in a earthy, dirty almost bitter way.

Official review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2432/24206/?ba=Premo88#review
3.59 (-8.2% rDev)

Hard to score, frankly, but I'll re-review it if I can find a better version in a can. I won't buy this beer in bottles anymore ... I hate that, but I've also given up on Fuller's London Pride in bottles for the same reason. I've had too many overly flat bottles of that to think it's mere coincidence.

END BEER REVIEW
_________________
START OF BEER + FOOD THOUGHTS

When it comes to food and beer, I generally don't drink beer with food at home, but I always make sure I've got some food in the belly before I start drinking alcohol. I don't fuss over what I eat before reviewing a new beer other than trying to avoid a lot of sugar or sweetness — for example, I had a pancake breakfast today with coffee that had just a bit of oat milk in it, no sugar/sweetener of any kind. And plenty of water. I finished the pancake, then for about 30 minutes before opening a beer, all I consumed was the coffee with oat milk and ice water, no food. The oat milk does have 7 grams of sugar/serving in it, but I don't find it sweet. If I did, I would've eaten a handful of raw nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, baru nuts) and drank plenty of water to reset the palate after the sugary tasting drink. I've also kept oak cakes in the house for this reason — they're a tried and true palate resetter among the whisky tasters, and I can vouch for them. They have almost no flavor.

When I'm out in the wild, I'll drink any kind of beer with any kind of food, but generally speaking I prefer pale beers with fatty/salty foods, especially pilseners or helles lagers, American adjunct lagers (and their "light" versions), Euro pale lagers or anything from the British pale ale family. In fact, a proper pint and a sausage roll or British-style pie is about as good as it gets in the beer-food pairing arena IMO. If I'm feeling frisky, I'll have a stout or other dark beer with food, but I prefer pale beers.

I'm not much on beer + desert pairings, though I've no doubt a good stout probably pairs perfectly with many deserts. I love both of those things so much on their own that I've always felt one would distract me from the other and vice versa. It seems like a sugar overload. Still, I'm trying to be more open-minded about pairings in my old age, so who knows?

Cheers!

 

Here's one I didn't have on my BA bingo card: @beergoot doing anything in Giddings much less spending a night there.

May I ask how you ended up in Giddings?