New Beer Weekend #278

Thanks to @Victory_Sabre1973 for getting this started

...three 3s jersey life lager
...mostly clear pale gold appearance with a very thing but lasting head
...close to medium carbonation with about a medium body which added up to a nice feel
...aroma is everything I expect from a lager. Yeast, grain, toast,cereal, slightly earthy and mild malt
...taste has some mild sweet grain and cereal, earthy,toast and malt.
.... a really nicely well done beer from a local brewery,totally enjoying this

 

Last new one from my trip last weekend to Kansas City-
East Forty HBIC Barleywine

Appearance: Clear dark amber, good head.

Smell: Minerals, sweetness, barrel wood.

Taste: Starts moderately sweet and thick, caramel dominates until some barrel/wood and booze comes in. Smoothes out as it warms up. Remains pretty heavy in body. Finishes with barrel, booze, and what seems like a little hoppiness.

Overall: I didn't get to stop by the brewery while in Blue Springs, but picked up this bottle while in town at a bottle shop. A somewhat mild BA barleywine, doesn't whack you with booze or huge flavors, just a nicely balanced barleywine.

 

I really like that one as well @HoppingMadMonk

 

A Noble Place

My wife and I are returning from a road trip to visit family and friends in New Braunfels, TX. Drank a lot of beer at Wurstfest there (e.g., pitchers of Paulaner Oktoberfest). We are now in Louisville, KY and earlier this evening had beers and dinner at Noble Funk Brewing. The first beers we ordered was Victory Pilsner which they label as an Italian Pilsner. How did this beer taste:

Appearance:

Straw colored with a thin white head which diminished quickly.

Aroma:

A combination of bready Pilsner malt and herbal/floral from the hops,

Taste:

The flavor follows the nose with the combination of bready malt flavor and herbal/floral hops flavors. A light - medium bitterness.

Mouthfeel:

A light-medium body with a dry finish.

Overall:

This beer is very good! After drinking one pint I ordered another.

Cheers!

 

Thank you for opening the weekend taps @Victory_Sabre1973 -

Tonight I have one that was recommended by a person in Binney’s. One of two that I bought.

Henna Coconut Double Rainbow.
The pour is stout black, the viscosity is visible and the head is minimal and dissipates quickly. Fairly normal for the ABV.
The aroma actually reached my nearly gone sense of smell, no chocolate covered strawberries could I see so it must have been the beer.
The taste is dominated by strawberry, chocolate follows quickly. I’m sure vanilla is in there but I couldn’t distinguish it from the rest. Same with the coconut. It seems to blend into the other flavors.
The imperial stout is carrying a heavy load of adjuncts but does it really well.
The feel is viscous, pure and simple. Smooth and soft, no hard edges at all.
OA, one of the pastry stouts I would be happy to drink again.
My last for the night, back tomorrow.
Cheers!

 

Eviltwin greenhouse
...semi cloudy gold appearance with a lasting white head
.... light carbonation with a close to medium body
...aroma is bread, malt,apples, floral and hops
...taste was bread,apple at first then turned a bit into a hop earthy bite.
...overall a very enjoyable beer

 

Happy Friday NBW. Thanks to @Victory_Sabre1973 for the thread introduction. Slept in mostly today, but I was up all night listening to the Mark Twain biography by Ron Chernow. What a life so far. About 40% through it now. Went to Aldi and got food and beer in the evening. Then the smoke shop had 5 gram of dabs for $40 of LA Confidential. Hits pretty hard for Indica. Hoping to get more beer reviews uploaded from backlog, as with my book reviews. Just passed 200 books for the year.

BIF beer from @Ozzylizard , Ranger Creek Texas Bourbon Barrel Series Limited Edition Wee Heavy. 2022 vintage. Good head retention and spotty lacing on the glass. A bit murky. Aromas of big caramel, brown sugar, brown bread, toffee, dark fruit, bourbon, toasted oak, light pepper/spicy alcohol booze, and yeast earthiness. Taste of big caramel, toffee, brown sugar, brown bread, bourbon, toasted oak, dark fruit, light coconut/pepper/oak spice, and yeast earthiness. Light pepper/herbal bitterness, and bourbon/oak spiciness on the finish. Light-medium carbonation and medium-full body; very creamy/silky mouthfeel, light lingering spicy oak/tannin dryness. No cloying/astringent flavors. Mild increasing warmth of 11.9% and barrel booze after the finish. Not as complex malt-wise as I expected, but very well balanced between malt, yeast, and barrel flavors. Body feels a bit light from the barrel tannins, but still rich. 4/5


Cheers

 

Queen stout
... black,murky brown appearance
...very light carbonation with a slick,full creamy body which added up to a very pleasant feel.
...aroma is cocoa,mocha,cinnamon, and fresh ground coffee beans
...taste has some mild sweetness matched with a dry heavily roasted coffee grind element.
Some cinnamon and chocolate show up but only as backup dancers to the mocha and dry,ro a step coffee beans.
... it seems perhaps a little rough around the edges but it a very positive way. Theres no confusion around the flavors as each one stands out well

 

Cheers to @Victory_Sabre1973 for kicking us off

Toppling Goliath/Boulevard Collaboration Citra Hop Drop DIPA w/Citra, Simcoe & Krush hops ( more about that later ), 8.0% ABV; 4,21 overall

Pours a very effervescent & super hazed/turbid gold with 3 fingers of ivory colored head. Stellar head retention & good lacing

S: Tons of citrus & a little bit of melon as this beer warms up, some grassy notes, nose fades as this warms up

T: Oranges, pomelo a little melon & dryness up front, just a little pineapple as well. Pineapple, tangerine, a little lime, guava & melon as this beer warms, plus more dryness than I prefer. Krush hops aren't my jam most of the time. Finishes with grapefruit, pineapple & dryness

MF: Medium body, fairly creamy carbonation, good balance, some acidity

Fairly easy to drink, if this was a little less dry I'd say perfection, but alas

 

Greetings, New Beer People! Especially our New Beer bartender, @Victory_Sabre1973 .

Last year around this time I tried an outstanding WCIPA called Saturated Substance from Portland's Von Ebert Brewing in collaboration with San Diego's North Park Beer Co. Tonight I had a beer with the same name, and it was a very different beast. In fact, it's different enough to qualify as my first New Beer of the weekend.



Von Ebert Saturated Substance IPA
A varietal of their flagship IPA, Volatile Substance, with terpenes

16-ounce can purchased at Belmont Station, Portland, OR. Date stamp reads "10/29/25". Enjoyed in a 10-ounce Becher glass.

Look:
Bright yellow gold body, very clear, with a fluffy head of off-white foam. The head shrinks steadily to a patchy but enduring surface that leaves patchy but enduring lacing.

Smell:
Cannabis. And a bit of pine underneath a compote of mixed berries that's more aromatic than sweet. And a twist of citrus with a delicate woody undertone. A hint of diesel. But mostly cannabis.

Taste:
Gets off to a great start with a strong dose of pine and spruce. This morphs seamlessly into a lemon-berry flavor with a subtle earthy/dusty character. Strawberries and black pepper are up next. This fades into a long aftertaste of mild diesel, violet pastilles, and tangy pineapple, accompanied by a low-key bitterness. The cumulative effect is fruity and aromatic and not quite sweet (but definitely sweet-adjacent).

Feel:
Light-medium body with carbonation that starts prickly and finishes a bit soft. Peppery finish leaves the palate tingling.

Overall:
A distinctive beer that ends up being rather more interesting than delicious. It passes quickly through a dizzying series of flavors. These were initially fun to pick apart, but were ultimately a bit exhausting. I've enjoyed other terpene-infused beers, and I'm not sorry I tried this one, but I'm one-and-done with this version of Saturated Substance.

 

Sabotage Craft Beer (France) ‘Nage Jackolope, Nage’ Rum Barrel Aged Imp Stout.

Bought direct from the brewer at the 2025 ‘Octobiére Festival’ in Toulouse, France. Bottled in June, 2025, best by June 2036. No typo. 10.7% abv.

(In French, ‘nage’ means ‘swim’, FYI.,.)

Poured lightly chilled into a Teku glass. A single finger of loose foam rises and floats for a few before retreating to the edge.

Nose is the expected dark roast malt, medium roast coffee, and a peppery spice note.

Taste starts mellow - like a porter. Then the dry rum barrel makes its mark, hollowing the mouth to allow the added cardamom’s fruitiness, earthy nutmeg, roasty malt, and coffee to rise up. While tasty, the base stout does not hold its position and subsequently gets lost in the mid-mouth and finish, which is mildly sweet and dry. A full layer of sediment remained in the bottle. I let it sit there.,.

Mouthfeel is medium, there is moderate carbonation.

Overall, all the barreling technique and adjunct addition in the world don’t mean diddly squat if the base beer gets overwhelmed by the process.
If the brewery was listed in the BA DB, I’d slap a 3.75 rating on it.

 

It sounds like you have had 'better' experiences with terpene-infused beers than I have. I have tasted a handful of these sorts of beers and I have not enjoyed any of them.

Cheers!

 

When the GF and I were enjoying a drop of Alchemist this past week, we were at a place that had some RAR (MD) beers that had hops the GF questioned, and I hadn't seen them before. I had somewhat gotten used to cryohops, but DynaBoost (and some similar things) were new.

I quote your post as a jumping of post, but how have you and any of the people posting in this fine thread run across these newer "version" of hops, and do you all feel they are a benefit, or a industrialized bastardization of the "art of brewing"?

Jack - you've obviously weighed in on terpene infusion. I can't say I disagree in a general sense; I at least haven't noticed a strong benefit to beers with, let's call them "alternate" forms of hops. Any notes that have a direction are generally negative, but maybe it is more on brewers to find ways to use the ingredient well versus a characteristic of the ingredient itself. Thoughts?