New Beer Weekend #284

God bless you all. I am too lazy to author this detailed of a review.

 

My final new beer of the day is this:

Raisin D'etre - Dogfish Head Brewing - Milton, DE - Belgian Dark Strong Ale - 8%

This beer goes down pretty damn easy for 8%. The malty flavors and raisins work together very well.

Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/64/1180/
3.78/5 rDev +3.3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
From a 12oz can. Canned on the 191st day of 2025. (July 10, 2025)

This is a dark amber colored beer in my glass and is pretty clear looking. There's a 2 finger off white head to the beer that has great head retention, and some clingy looking lacing on the glass.
There's a definite raisin aroma to this beer. The raisins have an earthy character to the nose.
The flavor has a lot of malt character to it. The raisin flavor seems to be backing up the biscuit malt flavors. There's also a bit of a brown sugar sweetness to this beer that ties both elements together.
This is a clean feeling beer. The body is a touch light, but it doesn't take away from the feeling in my book.
This is a tasty beer. I've had the Imperial version of it, and I'm glad I got to try the base beer.

I'm sure I'll be back with another new beer tomorrow. Cheers all!

 

I fully appreciate that. I suspect that it may be viable only if doing one or more of these things: limit to Society only, aggressively downsize and compress stored images after a set time (1 year? 2?), purge images after a set time.

 

The Chubby Brewing Company (France) ‘Memento Mergit In Profundum’ Stout blend, aged in rhum and mead barrels.,.

33 cl bottle poured into my Official 2025 ‘Octobiére Fest’ snifter. Bottled September, 2025, BBD 09/2030. But I ain’t waiting. 15% abv.

Flat pour that yields a short fizzy top. The brew is a cloudy orange-brown color.

Nose is rich with dark stone fruits, honey, caramel, mixed nuts, wet oak, Merlot, rum,.

Taste is a pleasure boat of barley wine, brown sugar, honeycomb, tart fruits (Untappd actually has this defined as a ‘mead / braggot’). Funny, I don’t get ‘Stout’. It delivers like a wine barrel aged barley wine. Beautifully sweet, but not sticky lip. The big 15% abv is way well hidden, and I feel I wanna drink this at a quicker pace than just sipping. Mouth watering finish with no alky burn. It’s really nice. Cocktail nice.
There’s a gob of residue in the bottom of the bottle that I did not hesitate to drink.
Nice instant red-cheeks warm wintery buzz.

Mouthfeel is shockingly light and super easy drinking. Low end of medium carbonation.

Overall, it’s hard to put a finger on exactly what this concoction is. Lots of creative blending and barreling going on. Stout(ish), barley wine, rum barrel, mead, armagnac, brandy, guarapo, , yet it’s still Beer. I wish I had a case lot of this one.,. interesting, unique, and, yeah, ‘French’.

The microbrewery isn’t in the BA DB. I would rate this at least a 4.25/5 if it were.

 

Using the tractor beats the daylights out of shoveling or the snowblower. We got about four inches of fairly light snow but it was 15 degrees until about noon here today. So it was mercifully quick work on the clean up.

Felt like something different tonight...



I think this fits the bill. Mortalis Demihydra, 5% ABV sour ale brewed with strawberry, lemon, pistachio, and cake. I think this is in the new category of smoothie sour.

Let's face it, it's ugly. It got worse the more I poured. It's got some chunky bits, it looks like guava juice, and it doesn't produce a head. The chunky bits surprisingly dispersed pretty well but it still be ugly, and as it sits in the glass it separates, too.

Very pleasant smell of strawberries and lemon. There's a vague like golden or vanilla cake smell and a nuttiness. Ok - seems like everything they claim they stuffed in there is in there.

It's a very fresh and nicely flavored concoction. Slightly sweet strawberry leads the way with a counterbalancing lemon juice and a noticeable tang maybe from the fruits combined with the sour base. After the swallow there's a pretty clear pistachio nuttiness. The cake part I'm not so sure about - I can get a vanilla note so I'll go with vanilla cake batter kind of deal.

Feel is light despite the floaty bits. It's actually surprisingly refreshing. The lemon and pistachio carry into the finish. No bitterness, only mildy acidic, strawberry sweet assisted by wherever the vanilla comes from. Mildly carbonated at best.

Overall I'm actually diggin' this one. I've enjoyed most of the Mortalis weird slushy stuff I've tried, and no exception here. It looks pretty awful, but the aroma and flavors are very nice. I'm going to say 3.8 neighborhood here.

 

Bissell Brothers - Swish Silver, hazy pale ale at 4%

16oz can served in a big snifter. Packaged 10/08/25. From @Braunmeister_1943.

Pours very hazy yellow-orange with a medium to small sized dense, wispy head. Smell is bright citrus and a little tropical fruit juice, some citrus pith.

Taste is much richer than the ABV would have suggested. Citrus and pith and a little bit of the big chalky vitamin C tablets I used to love when I was a kid. Earthy/citrus-rindy bitterness.

Mouthfeel is also richer than the ABV would suggest. Not thick, but big and airy. Quite effervescent. Little bit of chalkiness. Overall...this is a really good session IPA, in my opinion, though I don't think it's crazy to call it a pale ale either.

 

Hade some hopes for this one, but...

Abita Office Party Holiday Stout, 6.8% ABV w/Cocoa Nibs, Vanilla, Cinnamon & Nutmeg; 3.48 overall

Pours an effervescent chestnut with one finger of mocha colored head. Below average head retention & lacing

S: Cinnamon, dark fruit & cocoa

T: Cocoa, cinnamon, nutmeg, faint coffee notes up front. More cocoa, cinnamon & coffee as this beer warms up, pretty dry, a little nutmeg as well. Finishes dry with cocoa, some mint candy, cinnamon & watered down coffee

MF: Medium body, subtle carbonation, body thins a touch once warmed up

Drinks okay, this is a one & done for me, too much on the cinnamon & the body is really lacking for the ABV. Abita really hasn't done anything in years that excites me & this is no exception

 

This review sounds very familiar...

 

Nova cella schlaubetaler landbier
...very clear light gold with a thin white head
...medium carbonation with close to average body
...aroma is grain, corn, cereal and yeast. Bread and toast comes out stronger as it warms
.. Taste is corn, cereal and toasted grain. Some yeasty bread as well as toast also
...overall it ranks pretty well on all categories

 

Sierra Nevada Springfest IPA
American IPA
4.12/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
PKGD 120425. Poured into a Samuel Adams Perfect Pint.

A: Bright clear gold with 1-2 finger foamy white head with decent retention and thick lacing.

S: Bright aroma with an abundance of floral and citrus hop notes with a toasted malt flash

T: Flavor is also bright with tangerine, white grapefruit, and lime with lighter herbal, slightly grassy note and plenty of floral qualities. Bitterness is light but snappy. Mild floral esters.

M: Lean with light body, high carbonation, and dry finish.

O: SN Springfest IPA brings bright citrus and floral hop and toasty malt aromas and flavors with a lean, drinkable body and dry finish. Exactly the type of solid seasonal IPA you come to expect from Sierra Nevada.

 

Well this is interesting…very intriguing.

 

Bissell Brothers - Swish, hazy DIPA

16oz can served in a big snifter. Dated 09/29/25. Sent to me by @Braunmeister_1943.

Pours murky orange-yellow, slight tan turn to it, small dusty head and light carbonation struggling to surface. Smell is a little booze, a lot of juice, plenty of citrus and citrus pith, something green like cut leaves.

Taste is an excellent reflection of all of that, throw in a little overripe tropical fruit salad, something almost spicy about the resinous bite of the hops. Melon / bubble gum is also there. Juicy.

Mouthfeel is big, thick, slightly chalky, very effervescent. This is a really nice beer.

 

Martin House Brewing If You Get the Nachos Stuck Together, That's One Nacho. Hazy IPA, 10% ABV; 3.94 overall

A little over two months old

Pours a very hazed gold with one finger of cream-colored head. Average-ish head retention & better lacing

S: Citrus, nectarines, fades once warm

T: Tangerine, a little vanilla, a little guava, some dryness & lime up front. Some powdery dryness, tangerine, pomelo & some nectarine & pineapple once this beer is warmer. Finishes with dryness, nectarine, pineapple & pomelo

MF: Medium body, slight carbonation, good balance, slight acidity

Great drinkability for the ABV, I'd try this again if fresher. Way better than most of their offerings

 

Rhaner wiesbier
...cloudy burnt orange appearance with a thin white head
...just below average carbonation with a bit of a hefty body
...aroma is banana and clove out front yet subdued a bit at the same time. A bit of dried citrus fruit and sweet bread.
...taste is clove and banana, mildly sweet with the dried fruit and sweet bread following.
...overall a nice enjoyable beer

 

Found this one while strolling the aisle at Total Wine, the gargoyles caught my eye.

The pour is dark, not quite stout black but dark. Rather goes with the style, no?
The head deserves a mention, it was tall and proud. The lacing was in sheets, or rather a sheet of lacing.
The taste is mild for the style, yet complex. A tiny bit of biscuit and coffee and a fair amount of hops. Not much piney bitterness, but definitely hops. It’s all relatively mild.
The feel is properly light, not quite crisp. But it works for me.
OA, a tasty Cascadian ale that I will have no problem finishing the 4 pack.