New Beer Weekend #282

Evil Twin Brewing Our Most Popular Holiday Beer. A Belgian Strong Dark Ale with the requisite "holiday" spices, 8.0% ABV; 3.56 overall

Pours an effervescent chestnut/mahogany with one finger of mocha colored head. Average-ish head retention & lacing. Fairly viscous

S: Cinnamon, dark fruit & a little vanilla

T: Follows the nose, figs & plums & a little leafy & woody hops up front, a little brown sugar & juicy fruit phenol. A bit of salted plum, cinnamon, figs & brown sugar as this beer warms up. Finishes with brown bread cinnamon, nutmeg, dryness ^ woody hop bitterness

MF: Medium body, slight carbonation. Body thins out some once warmed

Drinks easy enough for the style, but this is a one & done for me. Too much cinnamon for me to really get into

 

Unwind evening continues, listening to Sublime now...

Alesmith + Modern Times - Barrel Aged Speedway Stout x Monster's Park Chocolate Espresso Edition (2025)

16oz can served in a stemless rastal. 2025 vintage. Bought it a few months ago at Full Throttle Bottles. I think the stamp says it was canned on 03/18/25.

Pours black with a dark tan head, modest in size. Moderate carbonation, very fine and slow. Smell is screaming dark chocolate with coffee cowering in the corner. Sweetness is noticeable but hard to characterize in the smell -- maybe chocolate syrup.

Taste is really strong coffee and chocolate, maybe a bit more on the coffee side than I would have expected from the smell. Sweet, but not overwhelming. Anise isn't quite the right word, but there's some cola and horehound. Booze and vanilla is definitely noticeable. Sweet, but not syrupy.

Mouthfeel is big, but not oppressing. Quite good.

 

lol
Getting two means I get to drink one casually and review one.

 

It will hold up

 

Not even slightly worried. Thanks so much, Russ!

 

the color on the that UBE took me by surprise. The brewery is calling it a white stout, totally didn't get that, but might be hung up on the color

 

Hmm
Interesting. White/blonde stouts are unusual. Haven't had one that blew me away, but usually there's terrible cognitive dissonance between the flavor and the appearance.

 

Happy Friday, New Beer people! Special thanks to @Victory_Sabre1973 for performing the opening ceremonies for this thread.

My first New Beer of the weekend comes from @jonphisher , who sent me a stellar box of beers. Of course there was never any doubt that my first beer would be the rauchbier...



Von Trapp Trösten Smoked Dark Lager

12-ounce can. Date stamp reads "BEST BY 02/22/26". Enjoyed in a nonic half-pint glass.

The clear body is an appealing dark brown with copper highlights. The head of cream-colored foam is dense but short-lived, and is kinda lacking in the lacing department. The nose makes up for it, though. It's loaded with savory smoke on a bed of dark, toasty malt.

The flavor starts with malt that's mildly sweet and appealingly nutty. There's also plenty of well-integrated smoke. Notes of caramel and toasted wheat bread lead to a drying finish that offers spicy noble hops and a touch of dark roasted malt. A hint of dark brown sugar comes through in the swallow.

The medium body is round and smooth, with gentle but suitable carbonation. Wonderful drinkability. Enough smoke to keep me happy, but not a one-dimensional rauchbier by any stretch.

Overall, this is a really nice beer. I could drink a few of these in a row, and I'd be happy to do so.

 

Once again, your cat is quite gracious, allowing you to display your beers on the cat shelf (aka stairs).

 

Waiting at a work site for power company, so might as well post a beer


Up & Down
6.5% IPA by Brix City



Poured from a twelve ounce can, the body is a hazy yellow with a big foamy white head. Good lacing.

Aroma is a citrusy mix of orange and grapefruit with a wee waft of mosaic kitty pee (though not pungent).

Taste follows nose and is a bit sweeter than aroma, but nothing over the top. Tangerine, orange, grapefruit flavor dominates. The hop bitterness is very low, just a bit on finish.

Mouthfeel is medium with good carbonation.

This beer could be my breakfast juice.

 

Good morning NBW
I picked up a single of this to try

Very Merry Monkey

12oz can BEST BY Sep 15 2026 poured into a tulip glass at just above fridge temp 9.5% ABV. The beer pours bright medium amber with light khaki colored head. The head recedes to a thin ring and single layer of bubbles. Slight lacing. The aroma is mild with molasses and ginger juxtaposed with bubblegum & banana esters. The taste is semisweet with clove, molasses and ginger sprinkled atop a hefty tripel. Minimal bitterness. The feel is medium bodied with average carbonation and a semi dry finish. The high ABV is fairly well hidden witj just some general warming. Overall, it's a holiday cookie tripel as advertised.

 

Congratulations! That's a hell of a milestone!

 

Congrats on 2400. They can't all be bangers

 

Congratulations on #2400
Cheers

 

I had another New Beer last night, but didn't bash my notes into an actual review until this morning. It's another excellent beer from the generous and perceptive @jonphisher



Dogfish Head Pennsylvania Tuxedo
The color is a rather spectacular gold-amber with an almost imperceptible haze. The head of vanilla white foam looks creamy and leaves decent lacing. The nose is malty and bursting with spruce. There's also a bright lemon-lime component underneath.

Flavor follows in the same order: satisfying, toasty malt infused with spruce. The lemon-lime character is more like citrus zest than juice, but with a subdued intensity. The citrus and spruce are nicely enhanced by the moderate malty sweetness.

The body is a hair heavier than medium, with a pleasant bite of carbonation and a little warmth on the back end.

The spruce in Pennsylvania Tuxedo has a more resiny and spicy spruce character than I get from Oregon spruce beers like Fort George's Magnanimous IPA, which comes across as softer and a bit more fruity. I like that spicy pine kick. I'm also impressed with the balance, the intensity of the flavors, and the way it drinks below its almost 9% abv. This is a fine specimen of a spruce beer. Thanks Jon!

 

Starting off my NBW and stouturday with one of this year's BCBS variants:

Bourbon County Brand Chocolate Praline Stout (2025) | Goose Island Beer Co. | BeerAdvocate



I liked this one, definitely one to try if you like the sweeter tasting imperial stouts but with a good amount of barrel too (more so in the taste than in the aroma anyway). Plan on trying another new brew next, cheers!

 

And next I had one of the other BCBS variants:

Bourbon County Brand Cherries Jubilee Cask Finish (2025) | Goose Island Beer Co. | BeerAdvocate





I liked this one too, but I thought the aroma was a little weaker on this one so I liked the Chocolate Praline Stout more. But it was still pretty tasty so no real complaints here! Debating on another brew or some whisky next. Either way if I don't have another new beer today I plan on having some tomorrow. Cheers!

 

Still catching up on the past 24 hours here. Planned to try this in the morning, but I knocked a bottle over which started to fizz through (barrel aged) so I salvaged that one and was knocked out of tasting commission until now. This selection is from a brewery I'd like to visit in Maine during my first trip there as a craft beer drinker.

Allagash Ski House

3.79/5 rDev -5.5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75



12/13/25 - (Can, Home) (Chicago, IL) Can Notes: Purchased at Beer on the Wall on 12/10/25 at store temperature for $2.84 including tax, refrigerated until opening this afternoon. 12 oz canned 10/6/25 @ 5:03 PM. 7.5% ABV Winter White Ale. Brewed and canned by Allagash Brewing Company in Portland, Maine.

Cozy up, or let the festivities commence, with the notes of citrus, spice, and fresh ginger you'll find in Ski House. This full bodied wheat beer is brewed to bring you the cheer of snowy haven, no matter where you happen to enjoy it.

Appearance: Full pour into a large tulip glass yields a generous bright white bubbly creamy head which leaves generous soapy lacing over an unfiltered yellow straw orange base yielding heavy sustained carbonation. 3.75

Aroma: Peach, citrus, coriander, all playing nice at a medium strength level. 4.0

Taste: Consistent with the aroma, peach lead coriander backing. Lighter in strength than the aroma, chill. 3.75

Mouthfeel: Unexpected prickly carbonation slowing me down. Drinks strong for a wheat beer, but under the high for the style 7.5% ABV. Still gets you halfway in. Sweet overall, sweeter than anticipated. coriander for the finish win over citrus. 3.5

Overall: This is a good offering, carbonation holding back a higher score on my end. Would like to try a draft version. I'd take a White over this one. 3.75

That's it for today as I don't like impacting a rating after two heavy hitters. I have a local Christmas themed beer slated for tomorrow.

 

Good day BAs! Thanks @Victory_Sabre1973 for opening the thread!



Christmas Bomb from Prairie Artisan. 12 oz bottle from Spec’s # 100, SAT, TX, 11/11/25. $8.63 (including tax) ($0.719/oz). Stored at room temperature in store and at 40 degrees after purchase. Reviewed 13/12/25, review 3656. Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Stamped on the shoulder in yellow ink an unspecified (PKGD/BB) date “09.25.2024.” Stored at home at 37 degrees F. Served at 55.9 degrees F in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. The final temperature is 61.3 degrees F.
Appearance – 4.
First pour – Deep Amber, (SRM 15), hazy.
Body – Black (SRM 40), opaque. Under direct light, the same, with a heavy tan precipitate visible through the glass. When rear-lite, opaque but ruby brown at the edges.
Head – Average (Maximum one cm, aggressive center pour). Tuscan Brown, fizzy, short retention, leaving an 0.05 cm broken (but constantly renewing) bubble ring and no cap.
Lacing – None.
Aroma – 3.5 – Weak chocolate, no alcohol (13% ABV according to the label).
Flavor – 3.5 – Slightly sweet with weak chocolate and some weak spice, maybe nutmeg, maybe some pepper. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl. Pleasurable gastric warming.
Palate – 3 – Medium: Slightly creamy: Soft carbonation.
Style: Follows the BA style description.
Final impression and summation: 3.5 Uncredited label art. Easy drinking vaguely spicey vaguely chocolate stout.
Rating 3.48, rDev -15.9%

Got a couple of questions for those Prairie Artisan drinkers - 1) Is the date PKG or BBA and 2) is the label current or old? Thanks in advance!