New Beer Weekend #265

I rated this at 4.31
Off Color Apex Predator Saison 6.5%

 

Collective Lager from Collective Arts Brewing

From a 473ml can dated May 20, 2025. Poured into a pint glass. A two finger white head on a pale gold. The head diminishes to a thin layer. Some patchy lacing.

Grain and bread in the nose. Subdued malt flavours. A long, mild noble hop finish.

A medium light body with good carbonation. Overall a solid American lager. Clean, light and refreshing.

3.72/5 rDev +3.6%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

 

Revolution released a few other Amburana barrel or flavored beers last Winter, and they were well balanced and enjoyable, as Revolution’s Deep Woods offerings tend to be. Others seem to like it, but my experience with this beer lined up as usual with @GuyFawkes . He’s just more polite in his review.

As noted yesterday, I will celebrate New Beer Sunday #1069 with the clean Beer XV treatment, and hope for a better experience.

Revolution 15 Year Beer

3.53/5 rDev -17.1%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.25



8/17/25 - (Home) (Chicago, Illinois) Can Notes: A four pack of 12 oz cans were included in the 2025-2026 Deep Woods Season Ticket Allotment. Picked this up refrigerated at the Brewery on 8/6/25. I kept refrigerated at home until opening this morning. Canned 7/2/25 @ 9:06:33 AM. 13.5% ABV 15 Year Beer. Blend of barleywine ale & rye ale double barrel aged in bourbon barrels with cherries. Revolution Beer LLC, 3340 N. Kenzie Avenue, Chicago, Illinois.

Appearance: Poured full can into a special XV year anniversary teku glass, yielding a rust brown Coca Cola base and tan bubbles which linger for a hot minute before leaving no trace beyond a faint collection of carbonation floating to the top. 3.5

Aroma: Nice aroma, starting with a strong smooth bourbon lead, backed by a nice rye, lightly spicy, with dates and raisins. I don’t find the cherry, even after specifically searching, and that’s fine by me. Really nice blend. 4.25

Taste: Cherry done playing hide and seam, it is strong, though thankfully not dominating all else. Let this warm a bit, with minimal change. Cherry to barleywine, my precious ryeway and double bourbon barrels left on the side of the road. It’s OK, but disappointing. 3.25

Mouthfeel: The sweet barleywine flavors are accentuated with the cherry, bringing a sweetness level beyond my preference, as Straight Jacket is sweet enough / proper for an English Barleywine. Drinks strong, at least to ABV level. Faint gentle carbonation, creamy, sticky full body. Rye and bourbon try to balance, but Sweetness up and over in terms of balance. Cherry barleywine finish. 3.5

Overall: This is more palatable than the Amburana variant. Grateful I can find a touch of nuance, but not enjoying as much as I would like, as even after fully warm, the rye and bourbon I most highly anticipated were little seen stage props. Perhaps I’ll appreciate this more with some age as I did X Year beer. More Neil Diamond than Warrant, but not in the mood for either this morning. 3.25

 

This is from late last night.

I took my son to see the Toronto FC game yesterday. It was his first MLS game. He’s a huge soccer fan, but a bit of a Eurosnob/EPL-snob when it comes to following leagues. Friends of my wife whose boys went to school with Michael Bradley’s son during his time with TFC handed down to us recently a tonne of TFC kits and clothing that they had been given. This seems to have been the catalyst for him being interested enough to goto a game. We had great tickets (11 rows up behind the TFC bench - thanks to my lovely wife) and being that close to the action really got him interested. It ended in a 1-1 draw with newly transferred-in striker Jules-Anthony Vilsaint (formerly of CF Montreal - my team) scoring the equalizer a couple minutes after coming into his first game with the team. My son loved the atmosphere and wants to go again next week! As a soccer fan myself, this can work for me, even if he’s supporting the arch-rival of my team….

So, later, after the kids went to bed, I opened this beer from a brewery I visited for the first time yesterday while waiting for a birthday party my daughter attended to finish.

This is Mascot Brewing Company New English Red Lager. Mascot has three locations. I was at the one in Vaughan, north of Toronto.



Poured a copper red with modest head that dissipates slowly.

Big malty aromas off the top. Lots of brown bread crust, toasted grain, caramel. Very mild floral aroma in behind.

Taste follows closely. Heavy malt character. Toasted grain, dark caramel. Some earthy notes as well, particularly on the finish. The floral hops on the nose are near absent on the tongue.

Medium body with a fairly noticeable bite on the finish. Enjoyable.

This was a decent, very malt forward lager with light to negligible hop presence on the tongue. I liked it, but probably wouldn’t buy again.

I bought 6 new beers from this brewery yesterday, so hope to have one or two more today to share.

Cheers!

 

Interesting take on the amburana and the follow-up today. I got the impression you might be averse to amburana (perhaps unfounded), as it does tend to be something that generates polarizing opinions. I am definitely siting right near the end of one of those poles, the "give me more" pole.

There was something I tried recently (I am pretty sure it was a whiskey) where I thought, "This amburana is bordering on intense" and could imagine that someone with a lower tolerance for the flavors might experience what I did with a much lower dose of amburana, so to say.

The fact that you have found amburana work well in balance gives me an even better idea about what I would expect to find in the beer you reviewed earlier in this thread.

Cheers!

 

No - of course not. Most times things are what they are, and my wife may have been (or possibly still is) a crazy cat lady.

Unfortunately the way things are in the world the parallel thought does occur to the slightly cynical mind, unfortunately.

 

Tröegs Sunshine Salt and Lime Lager
4.3%



Poured from a twelve ounce can, The body is a clear gold after a few minutes of chill haze. Nice white fluffy head. No lacing.

Aroma is a tart lime with a bit of bread. Taste follows nose and adds a wee bit of salt in the background. Finish is crisp with a fading line.

Mouthfeel is medium to light and carbonation quickly fades.

Thanks @HoppingMadMonk for this solid summer beer.

 

Drekker Cherry Berry BRAAAAAAAAins Double Fruit Smoothie Sour, 6.6% ABV. Pours deep maroon with a one-finger pink head that left puree residue. Aroma is cherry, strawberry, and vanilla. Taste is strong cherry, plus strawberry, blueberry, and vanilla, quite sweet, moderately tart, salt on the close. Thick and smooth mouthfeel, overall excellentish.

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

 

make it 220 w/Apex Predator Saison... a fantastic beer!

 

Hey NBW'ers,
I am just finishing a fantastic Imperial Coffee Stout Sump from Perennial many of you are familiar with.

Onto the review:

4.45/5 rDev +0.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5

Picked up a single 16 oz can from the Appalachian Vintner in Asheville on 6-20-25 for $8.99. 2025 version with "2 36D" stamped on the bottom; consumed 8-17-25. Cold stored since purchase.

Beer poured jet black with a very nice tan head.

Nose is very nice as i am getting dark chocolate from the medium roasted malts while the coffee addition combines nicely and does not overwhelm the malts.

Taste is spot on; the medium roasted malt base follows the nose and gives a dark chocolate flavor with some roastiness. Coffee addition initially is bold but blends in very nicely. Hopping is nicely done and balances leaving a nice roasted coffee flavor after each sip.

Mouthfeel is near perfect, full bodied with each sip being velvety smooth.

Overall, definitely amongst the best coffee stouts, right up there with Speedway!
Cheers!
Tom

 

3 Floyd’s Black Colossus Bourbon BA Imperial Stout w/ pasilla and ancho peppers, vanilla, cocoa, cinnamon, coffee, and lactose. New release by these guys. Sounds great on paper, but tough to execute all of the adjuncts.

Pours pitch black with a finger length dark tan head that dissipates quickly.

Aroma is big cinnamon, some vegetal pepper and spice, big vanilla, dark chocolate, slight caramel, little roast. Some ever-so-slight bourbon as it warms, but not much barrel presence with the adjuncts dominating.

Taste is big cinnamon and vanilla, along with pepper heat that comes in mid-palate and settles in on the finish. A pleasant amount of heat for me, but I enjoy spiciness and I could see the heat and cinnamon spice being too much for others. Accompanying notes of cocoa powder, milk and dark chocolate, slight caramel, and some roast. Little bourbon emerges as it warms. The vanilla and lactose are key, bringing much-needed balance to the cinnamon and peppers. Not really finding the coffee or barrel in the mix of things.

Solid medium body. Slick and oily with a slight stickiness. No alcohol for 14.1%, but the pepper does provide some burn.

The coffee and bourbon barrel character are missing, but it's still quite enjoyable. Almost like a lighter version of their Chemtrail with peppers. The pepper character and vanilla is utilized nicely and are the highlights of the beer for me. More barrel character and coffee, along with a lighter dose of cinnamon, could really amplify this beer. As it is, it's still some tasty stuff.

 

Sitting on the deck as a storm rolls through the mountains.

Mountain Man - Jeremiah Johnson Brewing - Great Falls, MT - Scotch Ale - 6.5%

The aroma is lacking but the flavor isn't. Tasty.

Review :
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/29660/374141/
3.69/5 rDev -9.6%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
From a 12oz can. Canned on 06/30/2025

Nice dark brown colored looking beer. There's a 3 finger tan colored head. The head retention is great and good lacing on the glass.
Slightly roasted nutty aroma. The aroma is somewhat light.
The flavor is a lot stronger than the nose suggests. Roasted nutty flavor to the beer.
Smooth body. Decent depth and fullness.
Tasty beer overall.

See you all later. Cheers.

 

Good Sunday afternoon, New Beer Samplers and commentators. And thank you, @Beersnake for starting the weekend with a great question. On the one hand, as I've gotten older I don't drink as much beer as I used to. On the other hand, we have so many good local breweries that there are constantly new beers to try. This is #127 for me for 2025, which is a little less than where I used to be in August.

Today's new review is Slurpin' Spaghetti, the first collaboration between our hometown brewery, Autodidact, and Other Half. It's hopped with Vera (new to me), El Dorado Lupomax, Citra, and Simcoe. It was just canned on Friday morning, released at Noon, and by 5:00 p.m., the supply was running low. My first observation is that it doesn't taste - or drink - quite like an Other Half DIPA. In particular, the mouth feel is lighter. But the taste is World Class!

It pours an opaque, bright orange-lemon color with a very large, fluffy, ecru head and extensive, thick lacing with excellent retention. The fragrant smell includes lemon, watermelon, red berry, and a whiff of pineapple. This is tasty! A sophisticated balance of tart citrus, pine resin, berry, watermelon, pineapple, Skittles, and a touch of earthy spice. The El Dorado hops really shine and the Simcoe adds good residual bitterness in the after taste. The ale has a fairly lite feel with pleasant carbonation, and it tastes so good that I barely notice the 8% ABV.

4.42/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

This is high level beer! I hope everyone has a great week. Cheers, NBW!

 

Thought I had this beer before, but I think it was it's cousins. Anyways, here is a review.

3.85/5 rDev -10.9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Purchased 2-days ago from a store cooler and kept cold until served. Poured to pretentious tulip-like glass from a 16oz can stamped 06.03 25.
The body is apricot in color and completely opaque. The white head is of a single size bubbles and does not fade too fast. Lacing is almost a complete wall of bubbles briefly, falling to spider-webs.
The aroma is mild. I’m reaching for descriptions. Maybe citrus and papaya.
The taste is much less subtle. Some papaya/quava, but hope bitterness takes over in a good way. Surprisingly after that the finish is rather sweet.
The mouthfeel is medium for the style. Carbonation is medium plus. Alcohol is noticeable, but not detracting.
A good beer.

 

Totally forgot to address this Tim. For 2025 i am below the standard @LesDewitt4beer and you have set coming in at 184. Since relocating to Western NC in April 2021 i have logged 1283 so it seems the new beer pace is slowing a bit. Perhaps that is due to moving a year ago and leaving a band of beer drinking brothers in the old 'hood.
Cheers!
Tom

 

We should be there in the coming days, we arrived in VT today. We haven’t been in a few years, the the bierhall, but may try to make it during our three days up here.