New Beer Weekend #275

Happy NBW everyone! Started off my new brews today with a great imperial stout from Little Fish Brewing:

Moonville Stout – 2025 | Little Fish Brewing Company | BeerAdvocate





A brewery that's more known for their wild ales, I wish they'd make more imperial stouts because they do a great job with them. Cheers!

 

48 degrees this morning; looks like Fall has arrived. Good dog walking weather.
Now watching Ole Miss/Oklahoma, so far a good game.
I'm drinking Midway Marzen, an Oktoberfest from Ex Novo.
This beer is a copper color with a small off-white head that leaves a bit of lace.
Caramel aroma, some herbal hops.
Caramel and toffee in the taste. Late bitterness.
Soft mouthfeel.

 

What a supremely inviting opener this week!

And that beer sounds amazing.

 

And cheers to @snaotheus as a Beer Saint!

 

Love me some Bosque!

 

Burtonian Beers (France) ‘Triple Hop’ Belgian Strong Ale

33 cl bottle. Packed on 9/30/2025 25 miles from here. Bought at the Octobiére Festival in Toulouse, handed to me by the brewmaster.

This is a Belgian ale banged with noble hops. It’s really punchy, bitter, with underlying sweetness. Drinks bigger than its 8.5% abv.

The brewery produces English ales in France. I’ve had their English IPA and it was tasty. This effort is good, but I don’t believe I’d search it out. Haven’t done the official rating yet, but I reckon 3.75/5 will be fair, and some of that is based on freshness.

 

Weissbier from Rorschach Brewing Co.

Poured a 473ml can into a pint glass. A one finger off white head on a cloudy dark apricot. The head diminishes to a ring.

Spicy banana smells. The taste follows the nose. Dry. Some minimal clove and apple. No hop presence.

Medium body and carbonation. Overall a serviceable but unremarkable Hefeweizen.

3.74/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

 

That reads like a really good beer!

 

Next up for my new brews today was this good imperial stout:

I'm Not Allowed To Talk To Strangers | Abomination Brewing Company | BeerAdvocate






I liked this one, worth picking up if you like chocolate and coconut. Should have one more new brew today, cheers again!

 

I thought it was pretty good. Not sure because they're in the same town as Jackie O's that they don't want to make a lot of imperial stouts, but the ones I've tried from Little Fish have all been pretty good.

 

Today I'm super anxious to try Fox Farm's first forray into a wet-hopped harvest beer- Flowers. I purchased this less than an hour ago at "The Farm" to the tune of $5.25/can. Seems I'm only the 2nd one to rate it on BA so rDev +5 doesn't mean much.
If I understand the brewery's blurb on this, it is wet hopped with Vista hops from NY and fortified with cryo fresh hops Krush, Simcoe and Citra from Yakima.

4.6/5 rDev +5%
look: 4.5 | smell: 5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5
Purchased cold today at the brewery and kept cold until severed. Poured to a pretentious tulip-like glass from the 16oz can dated 10/15/25 (10-days in the can).
The body pours out hazy bright gold, but passes light. The head is thick and full. After fading, lacing is very good. The lacing is super clingy and would probably stay there and dry to the glass if not cleaned.
The aroma immediately after pouring is like sniffing a glass of hop flowers, simply amazing. After those volatiles leave the smells fade to a “normal” beer hop smell. There is a slight onion background, but it is not annoying.
The taste is not flowery, ironically. But there is plenty of citrus and berry. Never sweet, but it starts mild and ends with a nice hop bitterness. Seconds after the swallow there is a sense of malt balance, oddly.
The mouthfeel is medium light. Carbonation is appropriate.
The pour aroma alone is worth the purchase of this beer. After that fades it's still damn good.

 

And had another stout for my last new brew for the day:

Multple Infinities Vanilla Mocha | Artisanal Brew Works | BeerAdvocate





Worth trying if you like vanilla stouts. It was good, but not great. Should be back off and on here the rest of the weekend to check out everyone else's new beers!

 

Everyone loves a good drama story. Keep us up to date with the aftermath months from now.

 

Good afternoon NBW
A rare new-to-me tripel

Weyerbacher Merry Monks

12oz bottle with no readable date poured into a chalice at cellar temp 9.3% ABV per label. The beer pours bright light golden amber with off white head. The head recedes to a thin ring and island. Minimal lacing. The aroma is mild with sweet bubble gum and pale malt. The taste is semisweet pale malt with more bubble gum, clove and slight ethanol. Minimal bitterness. The feel is medium bodied with average carbonation and a mostly dry finish. Overall, good, if slightest boozey, tripel.

Cheers all!

 

Hello New Beer Weekend!!!

Well, it is time for a new beer after this extremely tough week. I decided, since I am home now, it is time to go big. Is 13.5% enough?

Devil's Beard - Balsam Lake Brewing - Balsam Lake, WI - American Imperial Stout - 13.5%

This beer looked amazing while pouring it. It smelled downright delicious with strong bourbon and dark fruit notes. The flavor... well, it is a huge let down. Bland is a good word to describe it. The feeling is quite thin for a 13.5% BA Imp. Stout. Just a sad beer with those last two metrics, and it only scores high because of the first two.

Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/65441/763923/#navigation
3.69/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5
From a 750ml bottle. No date on the bottle.

Nice hiss and smoke upon opening the bottle. This beer is pitch black looking in the glass. Looks a bit thick while pouring into the glass. There's a 3 finger tan colored head to the beer. The head is somewhat fluffy looking and has amazing retention for such a strong beer. There's very sticky looking lacing on the glass.
Bourbon notes were hitting my nose as I opened the bottle. Up close I do get a nice bourbon barrel aroma. I also get a huge dark fruit hit to my nose that is mostly plum with a hint of raisin and fig. There's some chocolate noses hitting my nose and a caramel cola note that touches my sense of smell.
Well up front, the flavor is quite bland, and this is a big let down from the nose. When flavor hits, I get the dark fruit first followed by the caramel and cola flavors. There's notes of chocolate. Some coffee flavor.
This is quite thin for a 13.5% beer. Just a huge letdown in the thickness. This beer isn't thick or sticky at all. There's a bubbly feeling to the beer that seems out of place. Not getting any real alcohol burn or bourbon burn.
This beer started out great with how it looked and smelled. Both were amazing. Sadly, the flavor and feeling are a huge let down from what I was getting before.

Since this is a 750, I may be done today. If so, see you all tomorrow. Cheers, and I'll get caught up on the thread.

 

Good Saturday evening, folks. Great fall day here - cool and crisp. Grandson and I dug up potatoes this morning. When I was a kid we grew enough for the year. I stuck some in grow bags, pretty late in the season. Didn't get a lot but enough for a meal or two. We steamed the tiny ones - what a difference from store bought.

This found its way into my glass:



Allagash Chocolate Orange Porter - 7% abv.

Pours a darkish cola color with a huge tan head. Quoite clear. The foam clings nicely as the head falls to a thick cap. Pretty looking beer.

The smell is pretty much straight porter - roast malt, mild chocolate. Not getting much else.

The taste rounds out a little more. It's still mostly porter but there's a bit more chocolate - still not a lot. Very slight sweetness and some bitterness. On the back end of the taste there is the faintest hint of what might be orange. Nice, slightly charry malt. The beer itself is nice, but I'm struggling to find the added flavors.

It's light feeling, nicely carbonated. Just a wee bit of chalkiness. Fairly dry with a residual bitterness that's pushing unpleasant.

Overall, it's fine as a porter. Chocolate and orange - not so much. I like subtlety with flavors, but this seems much less than subtle. To me it's not delivering on what it's says it is but it's a very decent porter. Thinking 3.75 - just not delivering on the flavors.

 

Southern tier maple warlock
...an almost solid black appearance, a bit cola like
...light carbonation with a solid body that seems to have some heaviness to it yet somethings lacking.
...the aroma is the most intense and pleasing part as it comes off like a beer holiday candle. Coffee,malt and chocolate before spice starts to take over.
...taste is similar in that there is some coffee/malt/chocolate sweetness with some bitterness seemingly coming from the spice.
...overall good but personally I may not need to repeat the experience