New Beer Weekend #288

Greetings, New Beer people. Thanks to @Victory_Sabre1973 for getting this thread into the world on time and under budget.

Like @snaotheus , I'm starting with a tasty low-ABV New Beer:



Fort George Low Key Small IPA
ABV: 2.8%

Look:
The beer is a pale and slightly cloudy straw yellow, with a frothy head that shrinks quickly to a rough skin and uneven ring.

Smell:
The nose is rather subdued but still offers a tempting tableau of sweet orange, mango, red licorice, and delicate floral notes.

Taste:
The flavor is very much in sync with the nose. It opens with zesty orange marmalade on top of a bed of crisp cereal grains. The middle features notes of red licorice, pineapple, and peach with a breath of diesel. There's just enough sweetness to bring the fruity elements into focus. The flavor level is mild but not watery. It does drop off quickly in the finish, though, leaving behind hints of orange, grain, diesel, and...oregano?

Feel:
The body is light, with spritzy carbonation and a crisp, decisive finish.

Overall:
Low Key is mild and enjoyable, with surprisingly good flavor for such a small beer. Interestingly enough, there's never really any doubt that this is supposed to be an IPA, albeit a tiny one. Nice beer. I hope it's still around when the weather gets warm again. This would be a good quencher at a Timbers match on a hot and humid afternoon this summer.

 

Cheers to @Victory_Sabre1973 for getting us off to roaring start! First legit new beer of the night:

Social Project Brewing Map of Problemmatique Triple Hazy IPA with Rakau, Vic Secret, & Nelson Hops, 9.4% ABV; 4.08 overall

Pours an effervescent & super hazed straw/gold color with 2+ fingers of fluffy eggshell colored head. Pretty good head retention & better lacing

S: Melons, white grapes papaya & mango. pineapple once warmed up, fades a bit once warmer

T: Follows the nose, some peach & cantaloupe notes, a little dryness, pomelo as well up front. Dryness, green melon, pineapple, a little pomelo & lemons as this beer warms up. Finishes a little dry with pinapple/orange juice, some white grape & green melon

MF: Medium body, creamy carbonation, later becomes more assertive. Nice balance, acidity that seems to drive home the booziness a bit

Fantastic drinkability has some Dole Pineapple Whip vibes to be sure. Flavor driven: mouth feel, nose & appearance lagged

 

Prairie Grand Hazelnut Reserve BBA Imperial Stout with Dark Chocolate & Hazelnuts, 13.5% ABV ( this is way more barrel forward than I expected!!! ); 4.36 overall

Pours an effervescent cola color with fast falling tan head. Minimal head retention & lacing, some viscosity

S: Booze infused figs & cherries, brown sugar. Just gets better as it warms, vanilla & Bourbon pick up

T: Follows the nose, vanilla, Bourbon & Creme Brule' with tobacco hop notes & barrel up front. Some hazel nuts sneak in through the booze along with a little chocolate, leafy hops & a little bit of orange & pineapple & raw barrel as this beer warms up. Finishes with dark cherry pipe tobacco, Bourbon, treacle & orange liqueur & Dark Chocolate

MF: Medium body, restrained carbonation & booze warmth in spades. Becomes a little silkier once warmer

Lovely take, wish I had picked up a few more. This will age fantastic I reckon

 

The second of three Werk Force Sleepy Bear offerings, this one with all the ingredients listed PLUS Madagascar Vanilla, Marshmallow and a blend of Roasted Cacao Nibs from Puerto Rico, Haiti, Trinidad, Uganda and Ecuador. Will this detract or enhance my 3.69 rated standard offering? Is it worth the extra $2.85 spent? Let's find out together.

Werk Force Brewing Company Barrel Aged Sleepy Bear (Death By Chocolate Cake) (Release Date 11/26/2025)

4.19/5 rDev +0.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25



1/24/26 - (Can - Home) (Chicago, IL) Can Notes: Purchased at store temperature December 10, 2025 at Beer on the Wall Park Ridge for $15.38 including tax. Refrigerated upon returning home before opening this morning. 16 oz., no can date but a release date of 11/26/25, no ABV on the can. Two Thousand Twenty Five Bourbon Barrel Aged Sleepy Bear Death By Chocolate Cake. Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout brewed with pale wheat, roasted barley, oats, rye, chocolate, honey and caramel malts, and milk sugar, Madagascar Vanilla, Marshmallow and a blend of Roasted Cacao Nibs from Puerto Rico, Haiti, Trinidad, Uganda and Ecuador. Hopped with Magnum and Fuggle Hops. Fermented with Chico Ale Yeast. Brewed and canned by Werk Force Brewing Company, Plainfield, Illinois.

Appearance: Poured about two thirds of the can into a 12 oz snifter, near black dark blown base and a brief bubbly dark tan head that leaves no trace but a thin bubbly ring around the rim and sustained rising carbonation. 4.25

Aroma: Nice Vanilla upon open, dark roast malt, dark roast malt and bourbon several minutes after open. Consistent after warming toward room temperature. A lot going on here, vanilla strong, every other aroma took effort and concentration. 4.0

Taste: Dark chocolate, and vanilla duke it out for pole position, getting the marshmallow, a nice rich chocolate fudge. Barrel felt more than experienced, but slowly emerges to bring a sweet and strong bourbon flavor. Everything comes together nicely. 4.25

Mouthfeel: Creamy medium plus body, faint carbonation. Sweet vanilla and chocolate fudge start to finish. Drinks strong, would be nice to know the ABV. Bourbon helps offset some of the excess sweetness, but not enough. 4.25

Overall: This pretty much stayed consistent throughout between cold and proper temperature. I typically would like the base beer vs. one with added vanilla and cocao nibs, but this is a more well rounded offering than their 2025 standard Sleepy Beer. Still no rye. but overall I'm enjoying this experience and would consider future purchases even though I am not a big pastry stout drinker. Good work Werk Force! 4.25

 

2 pages on night one…? I had a lot of morning reading to get while sipping coffee.

@snaotheus that brewery seems to brew English beer very well, do the fly under the radar or are they lumped in with Machine House for you all out there?

@vurt that seems like a really cool beer and yea @Whyteboar he sent me some great stuff right up my flavor wheelhouse as well

I wonder if that one will make it to the US @Shanex. Sounds like a perfect start to the day for you.

 

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

Today's New Breakfast Beer:



Abomination Stout (2025) from Kuhnhenn Brewing. 12 fl oz bottle from Half Time. Ordered 12/01/26, received 20/01/26. $ 10.04 (After discount, shipping, and tax)/$ 0.837/fl oz. Reviewed 24/01/26, review 3681. Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Only date is “2025” on the rear label. Stored at home at 40 degrees F. Served at 48.2 degrees F (Bottle suggests 45-55F) in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. The final temperature is 54.6 degrees F.
Appearance – 3.
First pour – Amber Brown (SRM 18), hazy.
Body – Deep Brown (SRM 30), opaque. Under direct light. When rear-lite, same with light penetration at the edges, amber.
Head – Small (Maximum 0.9 cm, aggressive center pour) Caramel with wheat swirls, high density with short retention, falling to a 0.5 – 1.0 cm crown fed by spotty carbonation and a thin partial cap.
Lacing – None.
Aroma – 2.5 – Smoked over a garbage fire with a touch of sewage. No alcohol (unknown ABV, neither marked on the label nor listed on the website).
Flavor – 2.25 – It begins slightly bittersweet with prunes(?). Garbage fire smoke or possibly aged in pulpwood. No malt, no alcohol. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl. Eventually, slight gastric warming.
Palate – 3 – Medium: Edging into syrupy: Soft carbonation.
Style: Sort of follows the ambiguous BA style description.
Final impression and summation: 2.75 Uncredited label art. The bottle is clear glass with a twist-off cap beneath the foil – the initial color of the bottle is caused by the liquid inside. Burns my hard palate, smells bad, tastes worse. Oxidation would have helped. This is only my second brew from Kuhnhenn …
Rating 2.53, rDev 0% (First Review)

 

I group them in my mind with Bizarre and Ilk as local(ish) places that do those styles (and anything else they choose to do) really well. I think they're more under-the-radar than Machine House, but really not that many people outside of beer nerds know about them, either.

I seem to remember when they first started showing up on shelves that there was some kind of lore about where the head brewers came from, but don't have any specifics in my head. Just now, I Googled them to find out their locations, and that's about as deeply as I've looked into them, aside from buying their beer off the shelf at stores.

 

The leftovers of this one from last night

Helped a vendor ( he might've weighed 150 lbs ) push a Sand Bed up a truck ramp yesterday, the knee isn't impressed today/ All their other damn beds have drive assist, not this one

 

Toppling Goliath Brewing Hazy Day Sue. How does it compare to the others in the Sue series? It has a familiarity to it, but it stands on its own. The look is similar to King Sue, with a dark orange hazy appearance, and light off-white foam ceiling. The smell is grapefruit, vanilla, mango, and raspberry. The taste is grapefruit, raspberry, pinecone, vanilla, and starfruit. The mouthfeel is soft, smooth, dry, and crisp, with medium carbonation. Overall, this is a great addition to the Sue line of beers. It would be a wonderful summer session ale. I hope Toppling Goliath Brewing brews it fresh next summer.

 

Wiseacre Brewing Sky Dog Amber Mexican Style Lager

Amber gold color with quickly diminishing white cap.

Mild aroma of sweet malt and floral hops.

Taste is solid malt sweetness at first followed by a medium hop kick which remains riding over the malt to the quick, clean dry finish.

Medium texture with balancing carbonation.

For a food friendly Mexican style beer richer and and fuller than the average AAL.

 

Northbound Smokehouse and Brewpub Doppelbock


Appearance: Clear deep red, big head.

Smell: Rich, sweet, cherry, toffee.

Taste: Nice sweetness with a solid malty base. Toffee, dark caramel. Balanced, mild earthy hops to level it out. Medium bodied.

Overall: Took home a crowler of this award-winning doppelbock, it definitely deserves its accolades! Just a supremely drinkable and tasty doppelbock—rich but balanced and smooth as silk.

 

Yeah, I've had that impulse. It is surprisingly easy to drink, and satisfying. If it were availble in 12-ounce cans I’d throw back 2 in a row with gusto.

 

For my first new beer of the day, had this pretty good one from Warped Wing:

Whiskey Rebellion - Chocolate Churro | Warped Wing Brewing Company | BeerAdvocate





Cinnamon really has a kick here, but doesn't overwhelm the other flavors. Pretty good imperial stout, but recommended more to people who do like cinnamon. Cheers!

 

Most Sierra Nevada releases are quite late to hit Connecticut. This Springfest beer is about the earliest arival I remember. Maybe distribution is changing.
I'm digging in.

3.8/5 rDev -5.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Purchased cold from a local store in a 12-pack and kept cold until served. Poured to a pretentious tulip-like glass from a 12oz can dated 12.18.25 (about 37-days in the can).
The body is a clear, light gold color (SRM 2 or 3). The rising of nucleation bubbles is visible throughout the session. The significant white head sits above on the pour, but fades to a ring and an island within 3-4 minutes. Lacing is medium to low, but some foam does cling forever.
The aroma is mild with some cut grass and hint of hops.
The taste is hoppier in a good way, dry, not too bitter and certainly not sweet. Yes hoppy, but malt is not completely hidden.
The mouthfeel is light. The carbonation is a little aggressive, but not to distraction.
This wasn’t really a wow-beer, but it is very quaffable and would be a great fishing or mower beer.

 

A little more to do tomorrow morning to get ready for the storm. Looking forward to getting a solid snow base that will hopefully stay until spring.

Today's new beer is one I've been wanted to try out without going in for a full pack. Finally got a chance to sample a single and am glad I didn't spend on the 15 pack as this one didn't do it for me. Should be back with something better tomorrow.

Long Trail Riverside Lager
4.8% Helles



Pours bright gold with a thin and short-lived white head.

Aromas of hay, grass, cracker, white bread, and honey.

On the palate things begin to break down. There's white bread, biscuit, and cracker along with honey and some slight floral notes. A peppery hop bitterness builds from the middle of the sip through the finish and aftertaste. It isn't unpleasant by any means, but it all feels a bit muddled. It's lacking those clean, distinct flavors that I expect from a Helles. As it warmed, honey became much more prominent and the peppery hops faded to a better balance.

Medium-light bodied and significant active carb that prickles across the tongue. Finish is lacking that clean and crisp feel. Slightly dry finish but not enough to prompt you to get right into the next sip.

Overall, somewhat mediocre compared to offerings from New England lager breweries. It tastes good, but doesn't have the characteristics I want in a Helles to go along with the flavor.