New Beer Weekend #283

An early Christmas Present!

Which brings me to another topic: Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays everybody!!

Back to ‘my’ present. My wife and I had an appointment earlier today in New Jersey and on the way home she suggested we stop for some lunch in New Hope, PA (just across the Delaware River from New Jersey). And she specifically suggested Triumph Brewpub. And I enthusiastically responded: YES!

To my great joy I saw they now have a Lukr side-pull faucet installed. The bartender mentioned it was very new, just installed a couple of weeks ago. And in addition, they were serving a Czech Dark Lager on the Lukr: Woohoo!!

Served in a Tübinger dimpled mug:

Appearance:

Very dark brown approaching black with a tan head.

Aroma:

Subtle aromas of dark bread crust, and a hint of baker’s chocolate.

Taste:

Flavor follows the nose with dark bread crust, a hint of baker’s chocolate. There is a medium bitterness.

Mouthfeel:

Medium body, a luscious mouthfeel and a dry finish.

Overall:

This beer is very good – excellent. The Lukr pour provided a luscious mouthfeel. This beer has great drinkability, when I finished my mug I wanted to drink a second but alas, I had to return home to do some chores.

My wife, which is sometimes my harshest critic, stated: It’s good but not as good as your Czech Dark Lager.

Cheers!

@KOP_Beer_OUtlet @rotsaruch @RobH

P.S. For the interested student who would like to learn more about Czech Dark Lager:

https://www.morebeer.com/articles/Czech_Dark_Lager

 

Thanks for the kick off @jonphisher , and I enjoyed your review and Jack's recap of his visit at Triumph's. I am returning to the Aldi variety pack to close out the final two weekends this year. Lagers are the theme for this weekend for which I have three including an Amber Lager. These are all contract brewed by New Realm.

ALDI USA American Light Lager

3.92/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4



12/19/25 - (Can, Home) (Chicago, IL) Can Notes: Purchased via the Aldi Twelve Days of Beer Fall/Winter 2025 variety twelve pack for $22.14 with tax at the Harwood Heights Aldi on November 7, 2025, and refrigerated until opening this evening. 12 oz canned 9/16/25 (can stamp PKGD 04:091625 1016024935). American Light Lager, 4.0% ABV. Avg. analysis per 12 FL. OZ: 110 Calories, 9g CARB, 0g FAT, 0.8g PROTEIN. Brewed by ABW Virginia Beach LLC in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Appearance: Near full can pour into a pilsner glass, yielding a generous bright white bubbly and lightly creamy head leaving light soapy lacing and a bubbly ring and thin cover over the golden straw yellow mildly foggy base with heavy sustained carbonation. Nice! 4.25

Aroma: Nice cracker, salt and pepper aroma, medium plus strength, smells like a full flavored American Lager. 4.00

Taste: Salty cracker, light pepper, corn and floral notes. Light to mild strength. 3.75

Mouthfeel: Persistent heavy feeling carbonation plus the sweet corn flavors make this feel fuller than expected. Hop presence balances out the sweet flavors, yielding a nice lighter lager, that feels and drinks at a regular lager strength, at or perhaps a nudge beyond the 4.0%. Cracker finish. 4.0

Overall: This is a solid "craft" brewed American Light Lager. Nice and easy, no chemical or other off flavors found at times with AALs and other macro light beer offerings, but with a solid enjoyable flavor many lack. This is a beer I believe many regular beer drinkers will enjoy, but also keeping craft drinkers satisfied when reaching for a light refreshing lager. Cheers ALDI! 4.0

 

Poured into a 13 oz wide mouth glass canned on 11/24/25. Pours a very attractive hazy yellow orange with a fing sticky white head that leaves thick streaks of lace with excellent retention. 4.25

Aroma is peach, nectarine, passionfruit, apricot, hints of pine, and grapefruit. 4.5

Taste follows peach, nectarine, passionfruit, a little pine, and grapefruit really well balanced. 4.5

Mouthfeel is above average, soft gentle almost creamy carbonation, not sticky or dry, and at 7.5% it drinks bigger in body and mouthfeel, but still goes down dangerously easy. 4.75

Overall another excellent variant from one of the best in the business. 4.5 Cheers all.

 

Cheers to @jonphisher for getting us started...

 

Thank you @jonphisher for kicking off the weekend!
Did you know that Alesmith now ships to many states that have not been shipped to in the past? I don’t care what voodoo they did to arrange that, and my first box arrived as a class in how to package beer for shipping.
Seriously, I should have taken pictures.
This was one of those, and I got it because I’ve become more fond of rye whiskey aged stouts than bourbon. Not that I dislike BBA stouts, they just swerve into sweetness to frequently.
This one doesn’t.

The pour is stout black with, for the ABV, a very impressive chocolate colored head that leaves sparse lacing.
The taste, it’s curious how different people taste the same exact beer in very different ways. First off, it’s really very good. I just I don’t get the rye, which was the reason I got it. I did get more than twice the amount of coffee that I normally get in the regular Speedway and it was smooth. Soft roast and a little vanilla, a lot of cacao and it makes for an excellent BA Imperial Stout.
The feel is lightly viscous, I expected more but it doesn’t detract from the experience at all.
OA, very good beer, not what I expected and not what others experienced, but excellent nonetheless.
Cheers all, that will do it for me tonight.
Hope to get in at least two tomorrow.

 

Prairie Sticky Mittens BBA Imp Stout, 13.8% ABV; 4.2 overall

Pours an effervescent chestnut/mahogany with fast-falling tan head. Zero head retention & lacing, plenty viscous

S: Pancakes, maple syrup, vanilla, great nose

T: Follows the nose, some barrel & booze up front, a little vanilla. Coffee, cinnamon, vanilla, maple syrup & barrel as this beer warms up, a little bit of pecan & chocolate. Maple syrup notes, barrel, vanilla, cocoa & cinnamon in the finish

MF: Fairly chewy, semi-firm carbonation, plenty warming

Solid BA Imp Stout, why so much cinnamon??? More Maple syrup please, drinks great for the heft

 

Thanks for the kickoff and the shout-out, @jonphisher. Seems like a good time to return the favor, so let's get to it!



Tonewood Blipstream Pub Ale
16-ounce can courtesy of Tonewood's #1 advocate, the generous @jonphisher. Date stamp is unreadable. Enjoyed in a nonic half-pint glass.

Look:
The body is a cloudy amber-gold that lands somewhere between filtered and unfiltered apple juice. There's a thin head of off-white foam on top that leaves impressive lacing.

Smell:
The nose is delicate, but tempting: bready malt, honey, a mild orange peel note, a tea-like floral character, and a hint of English ale yeast. I also get a trace of sulfur when I sniff the can that isn't there when I sniff the glass.

Taste:
The flavor has a bit more heft to it than the nose. The malt is more biscuity than bready, and the hops finish each sip with a balancing floral bitterness and a pinch of spice. Zesty! Subtle notes of honey, apple skin, dried herbs, and black tea play nicely with the malty base. There's also a faint citrus character underneath.

Feel:
The body is more than light and less than medium, with an appealing soft texture and gentle carbonation. Superb drinkability. Probably the best attempt at cask beer texture I've ever had from a can. Delightful.

Overall:
This is another splendid English-style ale from Tonewood. The flavor is restrained but satisfying, with a balance of malt and bitterness that is the very embodiment of the word "moreish."

 

Love the Bomb series. If you ever see it, I'd recommend trying Black Bombs Over Barley. It was still on tap and I'm fairly sure they had bottles available when we visited in August this year. They took the base beer and did this:

Aged in a combination of Jamaican Rum barrels and Smoke Wagon Bourbon barrels for 12 months and 6 days, Black Bombs is the same base as regular Bombs but with some Pale Chocolate Malt from Thomas Fawcett in England and some Midnight Wheat (a kiln roasted wheat malt) from Briess in Wisconsin added into the grain bill. The malts add some milk chocolate notes with a bit of sweet coffee undertones.

 

Thanks Craig! I didn't know this and upon checking, PA is included, so I just put in my first order!

 

Good day BAs! Thanks @jonphisher for opening the bar!

Well, today's New Breakfast beer is #4 from the BA Big Beer Sixpack - at least I was able to get that ordered in spite of Half Time's website not allowing me to order the original iteration. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of computers?



Holidaze from Humble Forager Brewery. 12 fl oz stubby bottle from BA Big Six Pack (2025), received 16/12/25. $ 105.98 (including shipping and tax) ($ 1.19/oz). Reviewed 20/12/25, review 3661. Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Only date is “2025” om the label. Stored at home at 40 degrees F. Served at 57.5 degrees F in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. The final temperature is 60.4 degrees F.
Appearance – 3.
First pour – Medium Amber (SRM 12), hazy.
Body – Brown (SRM 20), opaque. Under direct light, chocolate brown, but a precipitate is visible through the glass. When rear-lite, opaque, but deep amber at the edges.
Head – None, aggressive center pour. 0.05 – 0.1 cm bubble ring arises and no cap, just three small islands of near-microscopic bubbles.
Lacing – None. But a thin multi-arch band temporarily hangs on the glass before sliding back into the body.
Aroma – 4 – Figs and bourbon, alcohol (13.9 % ABV according to the label), no hops.
Flavor – 4 – Initially, sweet with figs, pecans, and bourbon. No hops, no dimethylsulfide or diacetyl. Moderate gastric burning which quickly dampens.
Palate – 4 – Medium: Approaching creamy: Soft but lively carbonation. Slightly sticky.
Style: Follows the BA style description.
Final impression and summation: 3.75 Uncredited label art. Looks like most other barleywines. The “dark fruit” (figs) is strong in this one. The initial pecan flavor fades as it warms/breathes. Distinctly (but not quite overpoweringly) sweet.
Rating 3.89, rDev -8.3%

Tomorrow will be PaRyebola, one for which I have great hopes!

 

Got an early start to the day. Some coyotes were near our house and they were talking to each other. Two of our dogs awoke, and talked back to them, and they didn't want to go back to sleep. So the dogs and I started watching Sports Center and I decided to start drinking today's beer, BCBS Chocolate Praline Stout.
The beer is black in color. Tiny tan head that dissipates quickly. No lace.
Great aroma. Chocolate, vanilla, caramel. A hint of alcohol.
Even better taste. Chocolate fudge, caramel, vanilla, bourbon.
Sweet, not overly so. Chewy.
Great beer. Need to get some more.

 

La Divine, a Triple from Brasserie de Silly S.A.

If it were any more icy, the glass would have slid off the rail.

From a 330ml brown bottle. Poured into a pint glass.. A one finger fine tan head on a hazy dark amber. The head soon diminishes to a layer. Some fine lacing.

Some pepper, apple skins and old fruit in the nose. Tastes of fruit, bread and biscuits up front. Overall more earthy than most Triples. Alcohol is there but not dominant. A very dry, mild but distinct hop finish.

A medium body and low carbonation. Overall a fine Triple. It takes a different tack than most, leaning earthy and alcohol. Well worth a try.

3.96/5 rDev +8.8%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

 

That's a nice looking pour.

 

Good day all, one in which I will continue watching the always controversial first round of an NCAA playoff. I know I wasn't the only one to predict that 12 (or any number, for that matter) will be a "definitive" number of teams to make the playoffs.

Anyhow, I was sad to see your team go down, @russpowell - I was rooting for them, and I am sure that didn't help. After they jumped out, I was hoping their offense would hold on, even though it looked hanging by a thread at times.

Anyhow, don't want to root for Miami, but don't care about A&M and therefore the conference tie holds a little sway. In the end, I won't be happy or upset either way in this early game. Hoping JMU at least gets to the second half without being blown out, but not so sure that Christmas wish will come true.

And finally, the beer I have poured from the Hardywood gift set is a new one to me - Chocolate Peppermint Stout.


They mention cocoa and natural peppermint on the label, and there is no mistaking the latter of those. Peppermint dominates the nose and it does seem "fresh" as in not at all artificial. There is just enough stout to prevent the impression of sniffing a pack of spearmint gum.

But barely enough, so onto the taste and the peppermint now teeters between seeming fresh and artificial. I still believe the label, but when the natural spicy herbal note joins with the dark roast coffee stout, it created a metallic note I am not enjoying.

I hoped it would dissipate as I sipped - and while I might've gotten a bit used to the taste, it didn't seem very interested in truly swaying my opinion. I don't think a bit of tang from the lactose that I noticed helped. It definitely wasn't something I noted at first, so I don't think it's the cause, either.

So this is the first miss from the box for me, though we haven't gotten through half the options yet. I am hoping the GF likes it, as there is another one that came in the box and I will let her have it.

Edit: I will say that I mention a somewhat "metallic" note in some British beer styles, which I don't mind at all. It is more of a mineral-like metallic note. In this beer, it is more like a chemically metallic - or shiny metal with a hint of the polish that helps it shine. Maybe that makes sense to some of you

 

Green State Evergreen by Zero Gravity Craft Brewery of scenic Burlington, Vermont.
Added this newbie last weekend as an American Lager, switched it to Helles Lager after a review. The label states "Celebration Strength Winter Lager", it could be a Festbier. Try it and decide for yourself. Cheers.



3.96/5 rDev -1.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

A moderate through-the-head pour released three fingers of white soapy foam with above average retention, a cap lasts yet no lacing. Clear deep golden straw body, yellow gold in sunlight.

Mild smell of German hops (floral and herbal) and bready malt (toasted and fresh baked white bread, some biscuit and very faint doughy yeast). Alcohol is barely detectable.

Neutral taste with medium-low bitterness at first, hop flavor is medium and now mostly floral. Balanced bready malt flavors prevails with a hint of corn. The middle is a bit grainy with a hint of apple a stone fruit. The finish is semi dry with a steep rise in hop flavor; overall bitterness reaches a tad above average. Again, alcohol is well hidden for 6.3% ABV.

Medium light bodied with soft and lasting carbonation, balanced well considering that four malts are involved. It mostly resembles a strong Helles Lager. Balanced, smooth and quaffable. "Celebration Strength Winter Lager" states the label. I could not agree more.

 

Happy NBW everyone! Started my stouturday off with this tasty imperial stout from The Bruery:

Popular Opinion | The Bruery | BeerAdvocate





I liked this one a lot, although I was hoping for more coconut. Still a good one though, should be back in a little bit with some more brews.