New Beer Weekend #294

Greetings everyone, back to home after an enjoyable trip to Bell’s and a number of bottle shops around Grand Rapids. I may post a haul pic later because it’s pretty impressive. At least for me.
This is one I picked up last time I was there, it hasn’t been in the back of my car for 75 miles.

The brewmasters at Bell’s have done it again; taken an already excellent RIS into something not necessary better, but excellent in a different way.
The pour is stout black with a half inch brown head that left rings of lacing, and for a BBA RIS that’s pretty good.
The taste is certainly full of coffee and dark chocolate, and the vanilla is much more vanilla bean, almost harsh, than most vanilla laden stouts. It certainly adds a very rich flavor though. The rest of the stout wraps it all up.
The feel is lightly viscous, ideal for this beer.
OA, just another reason to be happy to live close enough to the brewery to visit occasionally.
All for today,
Cheers!

 

Superbowl Squares2026 BIF haulage from the awesome @masamuel2 monkish KICK KNOWLEDGE DDH DIPA, 8.2% ABV; 4.12 overall

Pours a very hazy fold with one finger of beige head. Below average head retention & nice lacing

S: Faint melon, grape must, limes & tangerine

T: Follows the nose, dryness, some passionfruit, papaya as well up front. Grapefruit dominant as this beer warms up, dryness a little melon, pineapple & peach as well. Finishes dry with, pineapple sweetness & grapefruit& a touch of cakeyness

MF: Medium body, moderate carbonation, pretty good balance. Carbonation skews creamy once this beer is warmer, some acidity

Drinks easy for the ABV, solid

 

Happy Birthday @ReformedWineNerd, quiet, dogs, beer; mine kind of birthday right there.

 

Brix city achtung
... pretty clear pale gold appearance
...medium carbonation with about the same for the body which all added up to a nice feel
.... aroma is yeasty crusty bread, floral honey, some cereal and grain
...taste has some very mild sweetness that gets a bit stronger in the finish. Floral ,honey, and cereal
With a bit of bitterness in the aftertaste
.. to me this was an interesting,above average well made lager

 

New-to-me style is Bigfoot by Sierra Nevada. I really enjoyed this however I feel a need to try some other Barleywines.
Cheers!



4.04/5 rDev -2.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

An easy pour released two fingers of creamy beige foam with long retention, a fat ring and cap leave behind irregular blotches of lacing. Clear copper-amber body, burnt orange in front of bright light.

Bold smell, caramel and toffee leed over bready toasted malt with pine, resin, citrus and herbal hop aromas. Faint alcohol and indistinguishable older fruits in the background.

Semi-sweet at first with high bitterness, quickly drying sweet malt tastes are replaced by bready malt and a warming alcohol astringentcy. Hop flavor is very high, grass, spice and white pepper are added to the mix. Caramel, toffee and fruit flavors last throughout (baked; apple, raisin, lemon, plum and pear).The finish is semi-dry and very bitter, drawn out to a bitter aftertaste featuring the spicy pepper with residual fruit and almost burnt brown sugar.

Meduim full bodied, malty rich and oily with generous carbonation. Warms extremely well, smooths out as fruity and sugary flavors return. Alcohol smell and taste are low for 9.6 ABV, astringentcy is average. Matches style guidelines.

 

1st of a several beers I've got lined up for NBW...
Kane Head High IPA.
Can stamped 2/21/26, purchased today at Beer King, NJ.
Met a local beer guy as he put two 4pks in his cart. (It's his go-to.) We talked IPAs-NJ, NY, VT-for an hour, standing in front of the long wall of fridge doors, bringing other Sat- afternoon-beerrun-guys into the mix as well. He's not on BA, but was going to get the app and get on.
On to the beer...
A few weeks ago, I tried Kane's DIPA Over Head- the big brother to Head High- and was blown away! In my review I called it the best DIPA this side of the Green Mountains.
So I had High Hopes going into it.
Upon cracking the can , and then pouring, I was not overwhelmed or even seduced by the whafting of fresh hops. Hmmmm....
It pours an absolutely beautiful gold with a thin but frothy white top.
Initial sip was underwhelming, disappointing.
No lacing. As it warmed up a little it developed some more flavor, but, overall, really indistinct and kinda boring. Not dank or resinous, not bitter, not piney; no citrus, grass, spice... Hmmmm...kinda stumped here.
It's a beautiful beer, and tastes fresh, "good," and def drinkable (actually, at 6.6%, highly crushable), but just not exciting, complex, profound...
My taste buds/hop receptors might be blown out by steady DIPAs as of late, so it's possible I'm just not able to process a straight-up IPA at this time
I've got 3 more of 'em to explore....
Cheers to Saturday night and NBW!

 

Magnify pirate pils
....semi cloudy gold orange appearance with a lasting white head
... carbonation is about medium with the body close to the same
...aroma is toast,yeast, cereal and light but potent floral earthy hop element
...taste is almost identical to aroma,smooth and clean comes to mind
... I wouldnt mind this being in my summer rotation

 

To me, the gold standard for American Barleywines. But Old Foghorn was a great one too

 

Another Ninja Porchbomb from @muchloveforhops3

Hopworks Brewery Stoke Series S'mores Stout, 8.0% ABV; w/Cacao & Toasted Marshmallow, 8.0% ABV; 3.25

Pours an effervescent chestnut with minimal tan head. Minimal head retention & lacing

S: Vanilla, booze, cocoa &marshmallow

T: Booze upfront, cola, maple syrup, vanilla, barrel/oak notes up front. Marshmallow, cocoa & a little cola as this beer warms. Boozy brown sugar & maple candy, some dryness & charred barrel on the finish

MF: Medium body with restrained carbonation. Body falls apart once warmer

Didn't meet expectations, just got messier the warmer it became, mouthfeel really sad just skewed way too sweet

 

It's a deep rabbit hole, but thoroughly enjoyable!

 

I am often surprised by the beers that users I recognize as posters for many years are finding new. This post definitely hit - especially with the "new style" side of it. Cheers!

I am so sad I will never find that beer again - at least not in original form. Though maybe a remake / reboot of some sort will live up to my memory, somehow. Though I only recall really liking it, not specifically how it tasted, so I guess it is truly lost.

 

I usually dug most versions more than others. We got totally snubbed this year or will it show up in two months after roasting in a warehouse?

We seem to be skewing to mediocrity here. Slamming beers, N/As & ciders. I will try to support locals trying to hold the line. Right now I am blaming medical weed & Gen X punks with no basis of facts with a little global warming thrown in.

 

I need to get all the way to Nebo next time. Settled for their Morganton outlet last summer. Still awesome

 

Foam Brewers - Long Distance Driver
5.5% "West Coast Inspired India Pale Ale"
Brewed with American and European malts, and hopped with Chinook, Citra, and Simcoe.
Relatively light on the malt bill, this is a hop-forward beer. It is also pretty crisp, so it is definitely drinkable. Sharp bitterness with woody and mandarin orange and grapefruit rind and pith notes. I liked it, but not my favorite American IPA or Foam beer.

Cross-posted in WBAYDN #4887 and What New England beer are you drinking now? (2026)

 

Now I need a damn Bahn Mi. We have one solid joint here for that & Pho. Rarely have I wandered past that on the menu..

 

As a rule; keep it to the present, but we don't know any different. This is more about a deep dive on what you think, taste, feel, etc. during a certain timespan. This thread is about deeper convos about the beer.

The What beer are you drinking now thread can work for some of that. But still also needs to be more about the now than the then. Just don't be a stranger...

 

My bet is you would enjoy it, but I also can't say you'd love it. FWIW I'm enjoying a second can of it right now, and the crusty bread/toasted pretzel flavor is popping out more, which is nice. It reminds me a lot of Saint Arnold's Spring Bock, which I also have in the fridge, so at some point I'll have to do a side-by-side maybe.

Oh ... I found it at that same West Alabama HEB. Like I say, their Texas craft beer selection is massive. You have to check dates because some of the stock in there is old, but a lot of it is fresh or relatively fresh.