New Beer Weekend #294

My drinking schedule is all messed up today, so it's a rare new breakfast beer for me. This one isn't a complete package, but would be quite good with some tweaks. Probably my only new one this week, see you all on the next one.

Loat Towns Brewing Plough Horse
5.5% American Porter



Pours jet black with a three-finger tan head that lingers for some time.

Aromas of chocolate, cocoa, roast grains, fresh black bread, and some grassy hops.

Straight off the pour, this porter comes out swinging with bitterness: super dark roast coffee, toasted black bread, and roast grains, transitioning to grassy and earthy hop bitterness along with ash and char on the finish. Letting it warm slightly brings out some chocolate at the front of the sip. Letting it warm further gets it into a better spot, with chocolate and molasses coming through and the bitterness coming down and settling in nicely as roast coffee, grassy hops, and slight char.

Medium to medium-light bodied with moderate and fine carb, this starts off dancing on the tongue and then shifts over to a somewhat silky feel as the carb dissipates. A little thin for my taste; some more body would go well with that big roast bitterness profile. Finishes dry.

Overall, if you are impatient and pour straight from fridge temp, this is a decent but overly bitter American Porter. If you are smarter than I am and let it warm properly, it moves into quite good territory. It could use more body and a bit more depth of flavor, but what is there is really good. A nice, roasty and hoppy take on the style.

 

Erm, I bought it, I think, over a year ago. Not that you won't be seeing those variety packs, just that it won't be (I hope) the same batch.
I think that was the only time I had seen them, but I'll keep looking just in case.

 

Dark Ale from StoneHammer Brewing Co.

From a 473ml can dated 16 July 2025. Poured into a pint glass. A scant one finger fine head on a foggy amber brown. the head soon diminished to a ring. Some patchy lacing.

Fruity malts in the nose. Malt forward. Caramel. Some coffee. Toasted grains. A medium dry finish.

A medium body and low carbonation. Smooth and drinkable. Overall a solid English Dark Mild. Smooth and malty.

3.81/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

 

This beer, still trending high, and very well accepted it seems. I enjoyed my cans from the variety pack. The restrained but still perfectly noticeable coffee made it nice for me.

Did you get this from the variety pack? If you did, hopefully you enjoy the other ones just as much.

 

Then most likely not...

 

Almost forgot to circle back and answer. To the best of my research and knowledge, there are no additives in this (and if he is to be believed) or any of the ones he is brewing in this series. It's all supposed to be styles from the way-back machine that he wants to recreate or replicate, not precisely sure which. But the first one, the barleywine, made me think replicate. This one is too sweet for the style description; if he mixed in any old beer it was pretty smooth itself.

 

Sadness.
If I see it again I will pick some up for you.
Cheers!

 

Nope. As I detailed in my post: "...some cans of Dogfish Head Czech-Spresso in the singles refrigerator at my local Wegmans supermarket."

Cheers!

 

Hello New Beer Weekend!!!

Well, I am back home from Jamaica, and I had a blast there. I have gone to work to drop off some rum and shot glasses with the crew, and I also got my phone charging port cleaned out fully. Home from those errands, and it's beer time.

Hot Blonde - Urban Growler - St. Paul, MN - American Blonde Ale - 5%

I have a weakness for hot blondes, so this beer was something I had to buy. I was hoping to have it in the last NBW thread before I left, but, it didn't work out.

The heat is so damn mild in this beer. I do get some flavor from the jalapeno peppers. There's some biscuit notes that show up also. I am glad I bought it.

Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35306/790759/
3.82/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
From a 16oz can. Canned February 18th, 2026.

This beer has a nice slightly murky golden color to it. There's a ton of carbonation bubbles in this beer that are rising to the top. The beer has a pillow/cloud like looking 2 finger white head to it. The head retention is quite good and there's a good amount of sticky looking lacing on the glass.
The aroma of tasty jalapeno peppers hit my nose when I was pouring the beer. Up close it is a nice green, fresh jalapeno aroma. I do get biscuit notes that filter through the peppers.
The flavor doesn't hit as well as the nose let on. There's a mix of biscuit and jalapeno peppers. It's almost hard to get the peppers in the flavor. They are there, and provide a hint of flavor to the beer. There's a bit of heat from the peppers on the finish.
The body is decent. The heat from the peppers is more like a light kiss than a slap in the face.
This beer is good. The heat isn't over the top, and I think most could enjoy it, even if you don't like heat.

I will be back later for my next beer. Cheers.

 

No worries, just mostly bitching about where my local market is now and possibly trending in the future

 

An early post in this thread from me, but I drove down to Bell’s to pick up some special order beers and decided to grab some lunch while here and since there were some new to me stouts on the board I got a flight.

The one I wanted to share is one that few outside of Kalamazoo will see, which is a shame because it was surprisingly good.

The pour is stout black with a more substantial than expected light brown head which left sheets of lacing. Impressive for a BBA stout.
The taste doesn’t hide the cinnamon at all, and as I find cinnamon such an easy thing to overdo, I was surprised by how well it worked.
The vanilla definitely plays second fiddle, but it is there. Carrying all this is Black Note and it carries it all easily.
OA, I very seldom intentionally buy beer with cinnamon but this will be an exception.

 

Just finished a 600 player MLB draft, and will catch up with the thread while listening to the White Sox. @jonphisher was excited when he saw my Supermoon purchase a few weeks ago. They dropped here for the first time, and I never had a chance to try while in Wisconsin. I picked up three four packs, gifted a few, and have a few to test out. My selection today is a Saison.

Supermoon Beer Company Saison Bay View

3.77/5 rDev -5.3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5



Full review linked above. Really beautiful aroma, but when it came to the taste, a nice lemon, though without the complexity or depth experienced with the nose. It's a good effort, would order a different saison from them for a second chance, but likely would only try this again on draft before another four pack commitment. Not sure which of the two Supermoons left I will pull for tomorrow.

Cheers everyone!

 

Good Saturday afternoon, New Beer Weekenders. I'm enjoying my second of three new beers from Rushing Duck Brewing. This one is Tarragon Tripel. The heavy use of tarragon seed differentiates it from more "traditional" Tripels, e.g., La Fin du Monde. I drank almost the entire can before I "got" what Rushing Duck was trying to achieve: a more earthy, herbaceous taste.

Reviewed 2 weeks after can release. It pours a hazy, golden orange with a two finger cap of creamy, bright white foam and thick film of lacing inside the glass. Very attractive! The nose is fragrant and characteristic of the style featuring banana, apple, citrus, and musty Belgian spicing. Its taste has all the flavors I would expect but there is more tart lemon and less banana than I smelled. There is clove, coriander, and peppercorn but they don't pop as some of the better Belgian-brewed Tripels. The tarragon seed adds a strong, herbaceous, earthy taste that is pleasing. This ale has a full, well-bodied feel with an elevated level of carbonation. The 8.4% ABV gives it good substance without overwhelming. Overall, the key thing about Tarragon is the tarragon itself. While the other, more traditional Belgian spicing is muted, the tarragon gives it a unique taste. It is enjoyable ale that grew on me as I sipped it.

4.09/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

I'm looking forward to reviewing Rushing Duck's new English Barleywine tomorrow. Till then, cheers, NBW!

 

Hopefully your Delaware trips will result in some get new beers to share.

 

I wound up at one of my favorite bar and restaurants in town...I know strange Hughie's is a Vietnamese beer bar...one that I have supported from their first week open (which was over a decade ago now ha).

On tap was Sierra Nevada Springfest. Which is something I have seen around this site, but never locally until now...American IPA of course, 6% ABV.



Pours a clear pale golden/yellow color. A one finger white head forms and recedes after a minute. Lace is left behind.
Aroma is Lemon, citrus, cereal grains. Its rather standard, but enjoyable enough in that regard.
Taste wise, a bit more going on here. That lemon, citrus hop flavor up front. A bit more melon, even a peppery spicy character. Along with cereal grains. A lingering bitterness is nice, and brings everything together.
A lighter body than expected, especially for the ABV. Though crisp carbonation that finishes clean and dry is always a plus for me. Very enjoyable to drink, I can come back to this with ease.

This doesn't reinvent the wheel as they say. Though, just all around solid. I will take that in a heart beat. Maybe if the nose was a bit more expressive, I would score this even higher. Oh well, just something simple, hoppy, and I want to drink more of, which is the name of the game.

Overall score is 3.94, easy B+ and I can easily see me upping the score on more tries.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/140/773668/?ba=champ103#lists

Oh, and not a new beer...but Racer 5 IPA on tap, which I haven't seen in a LONG time. With an amazing pork Banh Mi, with pate, and eggroll. Sorry for the non new beer here, but have to show off more of Hughie's selection and great Vietnamese sandwiches...

 

I was unaware these threads close, which I found out by trying to post new weekend beers on a Monday. Is it OK to catch up by posting last weekend’s new beers with this weekend's new beers?

Ayinger Bavarian Pils
Rothaus Pils
Piggly Wiggly Pilsner (a grocery store house brand brewed by 3 Sheeps in Sheboygan, WI)

Beck's

Four pilsners, none of which I'd buy again. I thought maybe I'd like them because I'm looking for something with just a bit more "clean" hops than Carlsberg. Nope.

I think I'll start experimenting with Kölschs now.

 

Ayinger is one of my favorite Pils, to bad you didn't enjoy it, to each their own But yeah, its all good by me. Sometimes I'm a little behind as well and need to catch up ha.

 

Howdy, NBWers! Enjoying a new American-made Vienna lager in my glass this warm and sunny afternoon:

Vienna Lager • 5% ABV • 6/2/26 best-by date printed on bottom of can

Short version: Good not great.

It looks and smells the part, and the mouthfeel is very solid, almost silky for a lager, but the flavor lags behind just a bit and unfortunately in a very predictable way IMO. American brewers often struggle to get the malt right with this style, and the result is a more earthy, bitter beer that has a flavor note that reminds me of a copper penny. I find this in American-made marzens too, FWIW.

Still, not a bad beer and one I'll likely pair with food to see if pairing it with something savory can bring out more of its potential sweetness.

Official review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/49210/579703/?ba=Premo88#review
3.91 (-1.8% rDev)

Though it's very slight, this is the first Alstadt beer I've rated with a minus rDev score, which is accurate. I still enjoy the beer and love the brewery ... and we need it now here in Texas with Live Oak apparently jumping the shark. What a loss! Fortunately, we have good to great German styles coming out of many of our other breweries, and I'd argue Alstadt is leading that charge.

FWIW, here's my Alstadt scorecard so far:

German Pils — 4.28 (+3.1% rDev)
Helles Lager — 4.19 (+11.4% rDev)
Kolsch — 4.15 (+9.2% rDev)
Altbier — 4.10 (+4.6% rDev)
Vienna Lager — 3.91 (-1.8% rDev)

Cheers!