New Beer Weekend #302

Excellent kickoff @vurt - thanks for starting the best weekly thread on BA!

I recently made the shift from business intelligence (aka glorified report writing) to dba.
I joined a senior (level 3!) dba to make a team of two.

Today I planned on leaving early to go help my daughter in law clean out her garage. (The man she is divorcing literally treated it like a dump) But a database that hosts three different production applications suffered a slow train wreck; they were running queries that loaded 64 million records into memory just to select a hundred thousand.
Childs play you say. They ran the query 5 times simultaneously and effectively filled the temp folder so they could not do any transactions whatsoever. Sucked for the two other apps just minding their own business.
So since the senior dba was out for a much needed break I was responsible for solving the problem.
I was unable to leave early. I didn’t even leave on time. Yet I still went to help the daughter with cleaning the garage.
All that said, I wanted a beer. A big beer.
Perrin to the rescue.

The pour is coffee brown and looks stout black in the glass. The beige head appears for a moment and disappears quickly.
Normally the coconut and turbino (sp?) sugar make this pretty sweet. But this tips its hat towards sweet and jumps into a bourbon barrel, effectively pushing those flavors to the side, barely noticeable. The bourbon is very noticeable. “Hot” as we say in our SAN group.
The feel is, I think, Michigan thin. Not sure why our “big” beers seldom have any body. (Transient and Arvon are noticeable exceptions)
OA, this isn’t a daily drinking beer, but today it really hits the spot.

That will do it for me tonight,

Cheers!

 

New N/A beer in the glass tonight:

10/20/2026 best-by date printed on the bottom of the can

The label says "Golden" but this is not a golden ale, a blonde ale or anything like that. Instead, it's a 1:1 knockoff of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and I'd argue it's a dang good version of that for a N/A version. With that said, it's impossible to score to style b/c I wanted an American blonde ale/golden ale and didn't get that, but it lives in BA's one style category for N/A beers, and it is an N/A beer.

Bottom line: If you want an American pale ale but don't want alcohol, here you go. This fits that profile perfectly IMO, and despite the fact that this beer isn't delivering what that "Golden" word advertises, I'm very happy I bought a sixer of it. And I'll likely revisit it.

Corn note: I do get corn tortilla chip from this to a slight extent. It's not Miller High Life levels of corn, but it's pretty corny. I like it FWIW, but you APA fans who hate AALs/macro brews might not.

Official review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/52867/351645/?ba=Premo88#review
3.47 (-5.2% rDev)

N/A beers intrigue me and continue to do so based on this version. Guinness' N/A version is still the best, but I'm convinced they put pure sugar in that one. This one is 45 calories, which is good by me.

As a die-hard fan of a Southern Belt NHL team, I despise TB and everything they stand for (purely out of jealousy).

Here in Texas, we get to go fishing early this year, which frankly I'm fine with. Maybe that extra bit of rest will help the Stars reload for 2027.



Cheers!

 

I are blind, 3.96 overall

 

Still my Dog. Met him at the 92 Great British Beer Festival. Was stammering fool when I talked to him

 

You or him? Or both? Facts seem vague (my 8-Ball says)

 

Me, such a fanboy

 

I feel that, if you are a true fan of their stuff and are open to the style - as you seem to be - you will not be disappointed. Hope you get a chance to dig into it!

 

I am also super excited about the Schlenkerla Grodziskie @cjgiant as I am a huge fan of smoky beers!

Here's a new beer given to me by @GreenBayBA which is the Central Waters version of their collaboration with Fair State, Northern Rivals:

Appearance: Dark amber, small head but good retention.

Smell: Nice bourbon barrel smell, wood, vanilla, caramel.

Taste: Starts sweet, then caramel and vanilla barrel flavor mixed with a pretty solid piney hop background note. Medium-full bodied. Finishes with lots of barrel, vanilla and wood.

Overall: This is the Central Waters version of Northern Rivals, barrel aged while the Fair State version was not. Very nice to taste the base beer coming through with even some hoppiness present, which usually gets destroyed by the barrel. Very tasty stuff!

 

Killarney Cream Ale from Manitoulin Brewing Co.

From a 473ml can packaged on 03 Jun 2025. poured into a pint glass. A three finger fine white head on a slightly foggy copper. Excellent head retention. A bit dark for a Cream Ale. Lots of fine lacing.

Spicy malts in the nose. It tastes of slightly caramelized malts. Nutty. Finishes dry. Lots of flavour for a Cream Ale. A prickly, spicy finish.

Medium body and carbonation. Overall a solid Cream Ale. Well worth a try.

3.78/5 rDev +1.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

 

Yuzu from Godspeed Brewery

From a 355ml can packaged on 24 mar 2026. Poured into a tulip. A two finger fine white head on a slightly hazy pale gold. the head diminishes to a thin layer. Rings of fine lacing.

Strong Yuzu citrus smells. The taste is Yuzu up front. Tangerine, lemon and slight grapefruit overlays a dry minerality. A dry finish.

Medium body and carbonation. Overall an interesting and well made Saison. Well worth a try.

4.06/5 rDev +2.3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4

 

Greetings NBWers - trying out this oddity from Sante Adairius Rustic Ales as I enjoy the lingering "May Gray" this morning.

3.57/5 rDev -3.5%
look: 3.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.25

Poured from a 500mL bottle into a martini glass.

Clear saffron body with gold highlights and a fast-receding ghost white crown. Fine wispy lacing; vague retention.

Sweet, botanical-rich aromatics with star anise, wormwood, and complex wine barrel notes along with a low funk.

Sharp palate entry, sour and bitter, herbaceous and oaky. Smooths out into the medium-dry finish with some residual notes of anise and alum. Balanced yet muddled.

Slightly thin with adequate carbonation and a hint of astringency.

Reminds me of a more restrained Fantome experiment. More of a wild ale than a saison, dominated by the vermouth notes - pairs well with olives and charcuterie, but too much of a cocktail on its own for my tastes.

 

My theme will be Revolution beers, either Sunday at home or back here. Peeved that post BA “optimization” I no longer am able to access many to most of my pictures I had no issues retrieving until this week.

This is an oak soured ale with prickly pear and lime, 5.8% ABV, $7 12 oz tulip glass draft pour.

Revolution Brewery Cantina Rose

3.49/5 rDev -6.9%
look: 3.25 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.5



Full review linked above. I try to rate all the beers at my core Chicago breweries (Dovetail, Off Color, Revolution, Spiteful), so these sours aren’t up my alley, but like this a little more than the typical sour here. Minimal aroma, nice lime pear flavor, if you like these flavors you’ll likely like this one. Could have used tartness and a bit more sourness. Sweet for the sippy drink box crowd.

 

Spot on review Jack. I'd be perfectly content knocking back liters of that on a regular basis. Nice pic too!

 

I am contemplating drinking another as I watch the Kentucky Derby today. Or should I make a Mint Julep with the 'special' Woodford Reserve Kentucky Derby Bourbon that I purchased in Louisville last year?



Decisions, decisions...

Maybe both!?!

Cheers!

 

Well, I know you HAVE to go with the mint julep, right? But I'm all in favor of covering both bases. Enjoy!

 

Why not?

I posted this in the smoked beer thread, and finally reviewed Bluejacket's Dreaming after adding the beer back in 2019. I was actually a bit surprised to see my username as I rarely add a beer without reviewing it. And I do not recall having this beer at all.


As you can see, the can specifically notes a "smoked Bock" - and I do think that comes out to my palate.

My pour, which might've been a tad aggressive, produced that mountain of cavernous head. Cracking the can was all that was enticed a bit of foam out of the can, so it seemed ready to go. However what you see spent its energy and could not sustain - fading to a thin that could not be awoken. And after all that drama...

After that, the nose gave me a good indication of what the palate would offer - dried dark fruits similar to what you get in Belgian quads and strong ales as well as a hint of fruitiness that I get in Bocks. The taste brought a bit more of a Bock vibe, but similar to the nose. It runs a little sticky sweet, but the smoke and pumpernickel bread (noted in taste but not nose) help to counter things pretty well.

The two beverages actually pair quite well - and for the record, the whisky is not nearly as neon as my phone wants it to be.

And if only I had mint in the house, I could go for a mint julep a bit later on this evening.

I sampled a beer by this brewery when I picked up the beer I just posted about. I quite enjoyed it, listed as a "specialty Saison" on this site. I don't recall that style, maybe it was a part of the last update to styles.

 

Midnight Peel
5.7% dunkelweizen
Sibling Revelry



Poured from a twelve ounce can, the body is a deep brown. A small white head and no lacing.

Aroma is clove with a bit of sweet malt.

Taste follows nose with the clove stepped up even more. The expected banana flavor is minor as the clove steals the show, much to my chagrin. Luckily, the heavy malt and wheat combination is quite flavorful. At finish a wee bit of bitterness.

Mouthfeel is medium, a bit creamy. Carbonation medium.

Solid if unspectacular Dunk that I'd like to try on tap, but I am unlikely buy another can.