New Beer Weekend #257

Hello New Beer Weekend!!!

No more pregame for new beers, it's time for the main event. Here's my first beer in this edition of the NBW virtual bar. Thank you @GreenBayBA for opening the bar up for another weekend.

Tres Pepper Mango - Bad Habit Brewing - St. Joseph, MN - Chile Beer - 5.7%

I was worried about heat in this beer based off the aroma. Heat doesn't hit me hard, unless I'm downing a lot of Carolina Reapers (don't be stupid like me and eat 7 of them in one sitting). The flavor is pepper, but an earthy flavor, with almost no heat. It is a very tasty beer.

Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/42984/750961/
3.83/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
From a 16oz can, purchased at the brewery with no date on it.

This beer has some murkiness to it and has a nice dark golden color to it. There's a creamy looking 2 finger white head to this beer. The head retention is ok, but not great, and there's no lacing on the glass.
The nose is a holy heck moment. I am getting a huge pepper hit to my nose. The pepper is somewhat earthy smelling. I am getting a faint touch of mango hitting my nose to mellow out the pepper aroma.
Taste - Well, the pepper flavor hits right away. This flavor is like the nose - earthy. It is green tasting, if that makes sense. There's just a faint touch of heat here, but not much. I am guessing they didn't use the seeds at all, which does cut down on the heat. There's just a touch of mango to add a bit of sweetness to this beer.
I am liking the feeling of the peppers. It lingers in my throat a long time. Very smooth feeling beer and full bodied.
If you're afraid of heat, you might want to avoid this beer, even though it isn't really hot.


I am done today, but I have a feeling I'll be back sometime tomorrow. Cheers all!!

 

Brewing Projekt German Chocolate Cake X-tra Special Delivery Imperial Pastry Stout, 8.8% ABV. Pours thick and brownish black with a large bubble one-finger dark-brown head that left chocolate syrup residue. Aroma is chocolate, vanilla, and coconut. Taste follows, quite sweet, moderately bitter. Decent mouthfeel with light carbonation. Overall excellent.

4.08/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

 

Good Evening Y'all!
Disappointing start to the weekend...
Salvatore
no pic.
On tap at Fullerton Farmers Market.
Pretty enough for style but small fluff, low retention, and no lacing.
Smell is mildly grainy with a hint of wispy herbal hops.
Flavor is too sweet for style.
Mouthfeel is light with lower than hoped for carbonation levels. Perhaps this is the tapping here but still.
2.97/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 2.75 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 2.75

 

Easy drinking on a warm summer solstice evening in SoCal - cheers!

3.97/5 rDev -2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Packaged on 5/27/2025 - enjoyed on 6/20/2025 - poured from a pint can into my Radegerber pokal.

Clear flax body, magnolia cap. Fluffy tendrils of lacing - excellent retention.

Crackery, vaguely floral aroma - clean and subtle.

Malt forward, yet crisp and bright. Hints of citrus and hay. Modest but persistent bitterness (35 IBUs). Fairly dry finish with some lager yeast character.

Medium-light bodied, well carbonated, refreshing.

Simple but not simplistic - a decent domestic take on the style, though perhaps better with food.

 

Greetings, New Beer People!

Full disclosure: Tonight I had a New Beer with an ulterior motive.

The ulterior motive is that I wanted to review a beer from a country I hadn't reviewed a beer from, so I could level up on the "International Taster" achievement.

And the beer was this one:



Komes Imperial Stout

Look:
The body is a clear, dark cola-brown with amber highlights. Up top is a rather sudsy head of tan foam which dissipates quickly but returns eagerly when I swirl the glass. It leaves a few scraps of lacing behind.

Smell:
Starts off with figs and chocolate covered raisins, followed by toffee, dry red wine, toasted malt, and alcohol. Dark roasted malt provides some earthiness as the beer warms. There's also an unpleasant metallic note.

Taste:
Sweet milk chocolate and astringent red wine to start, followed immediately by a punch of dark roasted malt that temporarily neutralizes the sweetness. The middle is a semi-sweet combination of toasted malt, plums, and coffee with a squirt of chocolate syrup. There's a slight tangy character around the edges. It's not bad but it is a little distracting. Thankfully the metallic note in the nose is nowhere to be found. The long finish is full of raisins and dark chocolate, with a resurgent sweetness that battles a lingering roasted malt bitterness. Alcohol shimmers on the palate like the air above a hot surface.

Feel:
The body is medium-heavy with a texture that's creamy and a little oily. Feels under-carbonated. Alcohol hides about as well as a fat cat behind a chair leg.

Overall:
Komes Imperial Stout has some impressive mood swings. Sweetness rises, falls, and rises again. Bitterness raises its voice to get a word in, and ends up shouting. The rich fruity character is appealing, but doesn't play well with the other elements. Ultimately, it has a lot to say, but isn't good at forming sentences, and its company ends up rather exhausting.

 

Thank you Micah @GreenBayBA for the open and another review of 3 Sheeps' excellent BA program. Also would say Central Waters is a worthy contender.

Mods @beergoot or @mactrail , please update the thread numbering to 257. Thanks!

Getting this beer in before an early morning flight, not sure how the first day in Vegas will go including shopping or outings for new beers starting on New Beer Sunday #1061 tomorrow. I bought five singles Wednesday, primarily to secure this new collaboration by two legendary breweries.

St. Bernardus and Weihenstephan Kombine

4.15/5 rDev +2.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25



6/21/25 - (Bottle - Home) (Chicago, IL) Bottle Notes: Purchased June 17, 2025 at Beer on the Wall at store temperature for $4.58 including tax and $1 discount. Refrigerated at home until opening this morning. 11.2 oz, no bottle date, possibly the 64th day of 2025, or March 6, based on bottle code 2564 1042. Best by date of July 2026. A collaboration between St. Bernardus and Weihenstephan. Unfiltered Helles, 6.0% ABV. Product of Belgium, imported by D&V International, Inc., Juniper, Florida. Brewed & Bottled by Brewery St. Bernard NV, Watou, Belgium.

An unfiltered, full-bodied blond beer bearing a subtle hoppy aroma and a first in many ways for St. Bernardus a bottom-fermented brew without bottle fermentation. Staying true to the German Reinheitsgebot, it features Weihenstephan yeast, and a unique hop blend from both our own and Weihenstephan.

Appearance: Poured close to half the bottle into a small flute glass, yielding an unfiltered cloudy yellow light tan base, minimal carbonation, and generous creamy and puffy bright white head which leaves generous soapy lacing and a quarter inch head over the base. Looks great. 4.50

Aroma: dug right in after pulling for bottle review notes, yielding fresh baked cracker, backed by floral and grassy notes and mild sulfur. 3.75

Taste: Salty cracker, light pepper backing. faint sulfur, Floral and grass notes not found, sulfur felt mostly on aftertaste. Comes together well. 4.25

Mouthfeel: Light and easy drinking, below the 6% ABV. Malt flavors nice, balanced by hops to yield a nice balance with no excess. Faint gentle carbonation, cracker start to finish. 4.25

Overall: This offering works for me, a nice balanced helles. Pretty simple in terms of depth of taste, but enjoying what I'm gleaming. Glad I picked this up near the distribution date, this is a solid offering I hope to see down the road, though with the collaboration it may be a one and done. 4.25

 

Engorile Brewery (Barcelona, Spain) III Anniversary Edition - Double Black IPA

A collab with an outfit called Dry & Bitter Brewery. 44 cl can poured into an IPA glass. 7.9% abv. No date on the can, but the beer is actively being sold on the brewery website, so it’s pretty current and it is very fresh.

Big rich foam topping deep brown brew.

Nose is malty up front, citrus in the mix. The Mosaic hop wafts through the darkness.

Tasts a little sweet, with good citrus, malt, caramel, cocoa powder. The balance of malt and hops (Strata and Cryo Mosaic) makes for a pleasant drinking experience. Fine bitterness, herbaceous, plenty of roast, light coffee, a dry and smooth finish. (My mental Rolodex keeps saying this tastes and feels like a hoppy bock.)

Mouthfeel is medium, so is the carbonation.

Overall, this kinda falls short of ‘double IPA ‘ territory, and doesn’t have an ‘Anniversary’ accent that screams “Special”. If this Spanish microbrewery was listed in the BA database, I’d probably call it just short of 4 on a 5 scale.

 

Hack 'N' Slash from Stonepicker Brewing Co.

From a 473ml can dated 05/13/25 into a pint glass. A one finger off white head on a hazy amber gold.The head soon diminishes to a layer. Some patchy lacing.

Citrus in the nose. Tangerine and orange. tastes of fruit up front with a bready malt backbone. Again citrus hops. Some citrus pith. A moderate hop finish.

A smooth mouthfeel. Medium body and carbonation. Overall a solid American IPA.

3.84/5 rDev -6.1%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

 

What a beautiful backdrop, looks like paradise.

 

Yinz get beer at Farmers' Market? Lucky bastards! Around here they'd be burning beer farmers at a stake!

 

Looks like I'll be tracking down "Perfect Days!"

 

Good day BAs! Thanks @GreenBayBA for opening the thread!
Mrs Lizard and I went to some play last night by the local theater group, written by somebody with too many X chromosomes - two godawful hours of FEELINGS! The final message - we evolve! Thanks Ms. Obvious - there's two+ hours of my life down the drain. Even worse - they only had macrobrews at the bar!

Thank Dog I've got a MUCH better brew for cross-post with WBAYDN:



Trip in the Woods Brandy Barrel Aged with Mandarin Oranges & Cocoa from Sierra Nevada. Single 25.4 fl oz undated cork and cage bottle. Purchased 05/06/25 from Sierra Nevada on-line: $ 20.00/$ 0.787 per fl oz. Reviewed 21/06/25 (Review 3545). Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Stored at 37 degrees F at home. Served at 53.8 degrees F in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. The final temperature is 57.2 degrees F.
Appearance – 4.25
First pour – Medium Amber (SRM 12), hazy.
Body – Chocolate brown (SRM 30), opaque. Under direct light, same. When rear-lite, ruby.
Head – Average (Maximum 2.7 cm, aggressive center pour). Biscuit, lightening to sandy tan as it oxygenates, high density with a rocky top, average retention, dropping to a 0.3 cm crown and a complete, rocky cap.
Lacing – None.
Aroma – 4 – “Dark fruit” and a whiff of brown sugar and of wood. No yeast, no malt, no hops, no mandarins, no alcohol.
Flavor – 4.5 – Begins slightly sweet with weak figs, cocoa, and just a hint of mild citrus. No yeast, no hops. No alcohol (11.4 % ABV, according to the label). No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl. Moderate gastric warming.
Palate – 4 – Medium: approaching creamy: soft but lively carbonation.
Style: Follows the style guidelines as condensed by BA.
Final impression and summation: 4 (After deducting 0.25 point for an undated bottle) Uncredited label artist. I’ve had the BA Ovila Dubble a few times, when I’ve been lucky enough to find it, and really enjoyed it. This current iteration is better – you can rarely go wrong with mandarins (I add them to my salads). The cocoa counterbalances the little acid added by the mandarins. Overall, a pretty darn good drink I’ll track down again.
Rating 4.22, rDev 0% (First review)

The play, incidentally, was "Circle Mirror Transformation" by Annie Baker. It won an Obie Award in 2009. And if I wasn't showing support for my future daughter-in-law, they couldn't have dragged me there. Any play about actors is immediately suspect.

 

Thanks @GreenBayBA for kicking things off and agreed, 3 Sheeps is likely the best in the state for barrels, although Central Waters is no slouch, they habitually have thinner-bodied stouts than my style preference, but it's also a consistent theme so they are clearly doing what works for them.



4.33/5 rDev -2.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
2024 vintage courtesy of Quality Inn Placentia Anaheim Fullerton (IYKYK)

Pours pitch black with thin cap of off-white head. Nose is vanilla, chocolate, rye. Taste is barrel-forward, plenty of char, oak, rye and vanilla. Mouthfeel is medium-bodied, moderate carbonation. For the abv, I'd likely have pegged things to be more slick. Finish ends with dark chocolate, some rye spice and some char.

 

And hopefully she fully appreciates you here!

Cheers to you Bob!

 

This rant is not directed specifically at you:

Why the heck do German breweries use such an outrageously long best by date here!?!

A Helles beer is best enjoyed quite fresh and not from 15-16 months from the packaging date.

One more reason to purchase US craft brewed German style beers!!!

OK, rant over. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Cheers!

 

Světlý Ležák 12º, a Czech Pale Lager from Godspeed Brewery

A 355ml can dated 4/Jun/2025. Poured into a pint glass. a one finger off white head on a very slightly hazy light amber. the head diminished to a layer. Some patchy lacing.

Smells of grain and hops. Tastes of bread and crackers. Some caramel. Sweet at first, then dries. A lasting mild resiny hop finish.

Smooth mouthfeel. A medium/light body with good carbonation.

3.99/5 rDev -0.2%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4