New Beer Weekend #307

Half Acre Double Daisy Cutter Evergreen

4.31/5 rDev +2.6%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Look: deep gold and clear, creamy head, scattered lacing

Smell: berries, pine, papaya

Taste: blueberry, tangerine, papaya, apricot, pine

Feel: med body, avg. carbo, dry

Overall: 8% abv. Nice whiff of berries from the can. Taste is pretty damn good with blueberry hitting me right in the mouth followed by tangerine, papaya, apricot and pine. Excellent brew that goes down too easy. Can't believe it's 8%. My favorite from Half Acre so far. Cheers!

 

Trillium Big Bird dipa


Reviewed by TCgenny from New York

4.29/5 rDev -2.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
Latest Trillium drop at my local joint no canned date, pours effervescently in my glass with a pureness of white head that was upright till settled into mosaics down the glass. Really lovely candied pineapple aroma, like the candy the smells better than it tastes, really fruity and juicy. Taste follows with additional lemony & grapefruit juice, nice balancing smaky num num which I need as a basic requirement in my old age. The last tastes are classic girls scout cookies Lemon Ups.
Feel is nice creamy, medium carb , smooth, hitting light to medium.
So, Trillium is good to occasionally pretty good. This is pretty good!

 

Sexy looking label and good looking beer right there. Interesting that pine is not at the forefront with that name and label.

 

Fremont - Brew 9000, a bruiser of an English barleywine at 14.7% abv

22oz bottle served in a stemless Fremont glass. Dated April 24th 2026. Blue wax. Bought it at the Columbia City location a few weeks ago.

Pours thick, syrupy, cola-colored, with a slow-rising head that disappears quickly, leaving a thin ring that is sustained by surprisingly continuous carbonation. Smell is cola and horehound, nutty and vanilla and molasses, wet wood. Bit of root beer barrel.

Taste is boozy, sweet, but with a surprisingly strong barky bitter turn. Cola and really strong horehound. Earthy wet wood.

Mouthfeel is thick, approaching chewy, leaves a sticky residue on the lips. Very nice beer, but maybe my least favorite of the Brew x000 so far. This does not make it disappointing, except with respect to Brews 1000-8000.

 

Suarez Family Brewers
Backroads Sumac Country Beer
Country Saison

‘dedicated to @SABERG who knows
And @champ103 …. #Saison Lyfe!

Reviewed by TCgenny from New York

4.41/5 rDev +1.8%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
Picked this up in March , whatever it’s a saison bottled in 2024. Pours a pale yellow forsythia with a glowing white head into my favorite branded glass. Amazing aroma of country farmland on a cool day, funky bright fruity, earthy. Taste is bright tart, scintillating fruit, crisp and refreshing, lemon zest, orange peel, hint of arugula . Love it! I associate Suarez Family Brewers as really the class act. I am invigorated by the high altitude spring waters of Catskill mountains, a crystal ice melt from the Ashokan Reservoir from the pristine Woodstock downslopes, maybe even a muchly filtered hintersourced muddy run off from the Indian head mountain into the Schoharie creek , Mohawk River plain, home to the NYS Mohawk Iroquoia, and my wife Sarah , she is known as the last of the Mohicans!

 

Revolution Apple Brandy Barrel Ryeway Rye Beer, 15.8% ABV. Pours deep red with a four-finger beige head that left no lacing. Aroma is apple brandy, vanilla, and rye spice. Taste follows, plus roast malt, moderately sweet, equally bitter, some brandy burn. Silky mouthfeel, leaving sticky lips. Overall excellent.

4.42/5 rDev -0.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

 

Your glass is so cool,
Is that a brand or just your nickname?

 

Good evening. Pleasant morning, but hot and sticky mid-day, cooling and starting to spit rain. Concrete guys will be invading tomorrow. I'm disappointed that we haven't nabbed a trespasser or two in the pit, but that's how it goes...

Must be odd, additive-laden beer weekend for me. Here's another that moves to its own groove.



Barreled Souls Speakeasy Halekulani, a 7.6% gose aged in bourbon and rye barrels with pineapple, orange, lemon, grenadine, Angostura bitters, brown sugar simple syrup.

It looks like cloudy orange soda. Hefty head of off-white foam that quickly subsides to a respectable, slightly chunky cap.

Tropical and citrus on the nose. Some nice herbal smells in the background. Sweet brown sugary note - almost rum-like. I'm not really finding much barrel in the aroma. It's there but pretty faint.

The taste is fairly sweet and a little tart. Light pineapple, fairly strong orange with a bit of lemon zest - because why not? There's some spice presence - maybe cinnamon/cardamom and very light anise. Mildly bitter, pleasantly earthy. I get a bit of a whiskey tang, but again the barrels are in the rumbleseat here. Overall, it drinks more rum-like than whiskey.

Feel is thicker than most of the Speakeasy beers - medium-bodied maybe from the brown sugar syrup? It's warming in the belly with a bit of bitterness on the finish.

Like the flavors - no doubt on that. I actually wish it had a thinner mouthfeel to make it more refreshing. I suspect it emulates a cocktail like the others in this series but not sure about that. Respectable 3.8 or so.

 

Heat seemed to help too...it was at fridge temp when I reviewed, and as it warmed it, it became friendly.

Even so, on its own merits and in comparison with nothing else, it was excellent. Great series, but has to have a low at some point, right?

 

Waxtching the masons do their thing was so fascinating and pleasing to watch, the steps, the precision, the importance of straight and level took a whole new meaning; loved it.

 

Boon - Millesime Oude Schaarbeeske Kriek. 750ml corked/caged bottle served in a tulip. 2020 vintage. Found it on the shelf at my local Total Wine a couple weeks ago, rather surprisingly.

Pours dark red with a brown tinge, lots of carbonation and a pretty solid sustained head. Smell is tart cherries, oak, old grass. Lots of cherries.

Taste is cherry jam with a strong oaky earthiness behind it. It's almost a juxtaposition, and rather difficult to reconcile. Lots of cherry skin. Cherry flavor is actually quite nice after I get over the initial shock, especially something that has presumably been mistreated by Total Wine for the last six years. Tartness is there but not overpowering, surprisingly dry.

Mouthfeel is light, thin, dry. Smooth, maybe a bit on the oily side. Not a bad beer, not a great beer.

 

1st of the new NJ haul...
LOVED Over Head, really liked Head High,
So anticipation and expectations were high for my 3rd Kane...this highly rated (96) offering:
Party Wave IPA

Edit:
I'm thinking my rating will tick def higher in the coming days after drinking my 2nd or 3rd can...
This might be my new favorite beer.
It's different in a very good way. It might be the new IPA, the future of the style...a delicious deviation that defies the standard rubric and rules ...a hybrid that harmoniously marries old skool WCIPA and Hazy NEIPA in a party wave celebration....

3.96/5 rDev -8.8%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
Can dated 5/14/26
Poured into IPA glass and bright, yet pale yellow with a thick head that dissipates quickly leaving a very thin fizzy cap. Minimal lacing that sticks to uppermost rim of glass.
Aroma hits immediately with dank, ripe tropical fruit--strong pineapple, mango, papaya.
Taste follows aroma, with a syrupy sweetness that coats the tongue like nectar. There's actually some bitterness on the end that adds a little bite, which is not traditional for the hazies. Mouthfeel is interesting. Beer listed here as Hazy IPA, though on can it's simply "IPA." The beer looks like a Hazy, but drinks more like a traditional American IPA.
Mouthfeel is medium carbonation, not soft or fluffy as is to style of the Hazies.
The wheat adds body, though the Pilsner malt cuts it some and balances things out.
There's certainly a lot going on here. Its certainly a party...
So, throughout the 90 minutes of my drinking this beer, I found myself asking, 'Just what the heck am I drinking here?'
In the end, I'll say:
Ride the wave, a party wave where Hazy IPA and traditional American IPA swirl together for a party ...a hazy juicy tropical, slightly bitter, slightly thinner, slightly West Coast bitter, slightly dank and resinous party of delicious flavors.

 

Cheers! Glad you liked it.

 

Happy NBS!
It’s been quite a day and I thought I’d finish up with an old (as in it’s been around for a long time) beer that I’ve not yet had. Though I was sure someone, in a BIF years ago, sent me one. (This isn’t that beer)



The pour is the color of a strong tea, with a 1 cm beige head that leaves no lacing.
The aroma is lost on me.
The taste is bready malts and white grape raisins, some plum and a hint of herbal hops. No bitterness at all. It’s all rather subdued, which is very curious.
The feel is thin; a barleywine should (okay, in my opinion) have some heft to it.
OA, this may be the first barleywine that I’ve wanted to try an imperial, or double of. It’s good, just really mild.

That wraps up my day, I hope you all continue to enjoy new to you beers up until the stroke of midnight.

Cheers!