New Beer Sunday (week 496)

Sounds tasty. What hops did you use? What temp was the beer when you primed it? Possibly it was colder than you thought and it had some trapped Co2. Just a thought. Either way, brew on!!

 

Thanks for the link!

Columbus at the start and Citra and Cascade every 15 minutes. The beer was just in my closet while priming, so it should have been between 65-75, but didn't keep track. I used the Brooklyn Brew Shop Everyday IPA kit.

 

No pic tonight....but I did have my first 'Lunch' this evening from MBC. What a fantastic beer!! My only regret is that I shared it with my wife and a good friend (not really cause sharing itself is fun). If I ever run into this one again, I will pick it up regardless of the price.

 

That sounds ridiculous good! Columbus and Citra... Thank you for making my mouth water!

 

New American Wild Ale

It was a great day to wrap up summer in West MI. Blue skies and temps well into the 80s made for a great afternoon lounging around the pool. That is, after a run, moving a couple of couches, and some backyard baseball. It's back to reality tomorrow with the annual week of professional development before school kicks off after Labor Day.

Today's offering came via last season's Fantasy Premier League BIF with @zeledonia. He's an awesome trader as you can see here...



A really nice sour/wild ale. Good and tart, but nothing overdone. You definitely pick up a lot of the woody and wine-like qualities from the barrel aging. I'm still hoping we can retrieve our data from the ratings switch, so I can give this a proper, apples-to-apples review. For now, it's just some well-kept notes in the beer journal.

 

It's a hot and stick day with some rain in the middle, but I did manage to open a bottle La Petite Mort from this year (I've got more in the cellar awaiting the passage of Father Time.)



It pours a dark,opaque brown with a thick tan head that slowly declines to thin ring around the edge. The aroma is redolent of bourbon, coconut, molasses and caramel with the taste following the flavor. Toasted coconut dominates with lots of sweet malt reminiscent of molasses and bourbon from the barrel aging. Lots of alcohol in the flavor, but not overwhelming. Creamy on the tongue and little carbonation. Truly a wonderful experience.

Dad, who is visiting from Maine, wasn't quite sure what to make of it, so he sat back and enjoyed his Old Chub, instead. He preferred it to the TenFIDY I was drinking earlier.

 

You're welcome On my second bottle and the hops are really starting of come out as it warms. Next time I hope to smooth out the imperfections.

 

I think that's great that you're willing to tell us about, and to score your own too. Keep 'em coming. And Congrats on you 1st batch.

 

It's been far too long since my last NBS post. Seems like Sundays I am too f'n busy to take the time to write a proper NBS post. However, tonight I am just chillin outside waiting for the charcoal to heat up.

I finally got my hands on a grapefruit sculpin and I am sure glad I did.

I am a fan of the habenero sculpin but this one really hits a homerun. The smell is unique to any other beer I've personally had. It really smells like grapefruit but a sweet candy grapefruit juice. I should also add I don't like grapefruit juice or the fruit by it's self, for whateva that's worth. The grapefruit really shines but underneath you get the floral sculpin base but the grapefruit is really the star

Taste is yes you guessed it grapefruit but like the nose a sweet grapefruit juice flavor. It has a different flavor than west coast hop grapefruit flavor. The grapefruit really pairs well and plays off the sculpin base. Nice bitterness and malt to round it all out. Half way though the beer the bitterness does start build but not too much at all.

I do mention sweet a lot but it's in no way overall sweet or malty sweet.

Really great beer and I love how they took a good beer made it different but still staying as good if not better.

Cheers and have a good week BAs.

 

Thanks! I will definitely keep them coming. I figure since I review everything I should hold my own beers to the same standard!

 

Congratulations on your first brew baby but if you'd gave it a perfect score I would cry shenanigans unless you brought enough for the rest of the class.

Just kidding doll, please keep your homebrews coming. I think I'm a wit. Actually I'm a high gravity stout. If I got a job schlepping luggage I'd be a porter.

 

Good evening NBS! Hope everyone has had another good week. A bit of a stall in my kegerator project as my collar was a bit warped and pulled away from the liquid nails bond on 2 corners. So I filled in the gaps with more sealant and weighed it down to set in the next week+. I bought all of my official kegging tap setup off keg connection for 380 bucks. Went all out with stainless steel Perlick(630SS) faucets and shanks etc. Looking forward to staining and drilling that collar soon.

This weeks new Sunday beers:

Very good stout. Nose was a bit too perfumy on hops. Taste of dark chocolate, cocoa, roasted malt, coffee, toast, dark bread, light char, herbal, grass, and roasted earthiness. Very nice robustness of malt flavors with light earthy hop presence in the back. Good roasted bitterness/sweetness balance. Nice moderately creamy mouthfeel. Very smooth. 86/100; 3.8


2010 Vintage. This was really excellent! Taste of big raisin, plum, cherry, fig, date, pear, apple, caramel, brown sugar, toast, toffee, brown bread, with a bit of herbal/light peppery hops. Real slight bitterness on the finish; zero cloying sweetness or booze. Extremely well balanced flavors with plenty of great fruitiness and malt complexity; with a great mouthfeel that is well attenuated. Smooth, fairly crisp, and lightly slick feeling. Just overall really great all around, I will make sure to buy a 4 pack this year. Very impressed. 92/100; 4.1


2 years of age now. Very nice stuff. Taste of bright tangerine, pineapple, peach, lemon, pear, apple, white pepper, hay, straw, grass, candi sugar, bread, light funk, and yeast earthiness. Nice earthy/spicy finish with a touch of tartness; very crisp and carbonated. Fairly dry. Well balanced flavors. Very smooth @ 8.3%. Still got some of these guys laying around town. May grab another for the hell of it, for later on. 88/100; 3.9


Cheers, have a good night!

 

New old beer Sunday
(I've seen this around since I got serious about the good beer and am finally trying it)



For a tripel, it tastes a lot like a witbier. Translation: I've had better tripels. It's not bad, but it's no Tripel Karmeliet. Of course, what is?

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22/34/?ba=Premo88

Cheers!

 

New Single Hop Sunday

Had to work all day, so my entry is a little late: Sierra Nevada Harvest Single Hop IPA- Equinox



As far as I know, I haven't had any other beers with Equinox hops, so this is a rare treat to smell/taste a new hop isolated. Aroma is woodsy, a little herbal, and the best term I can come up with is "German." Label also mentions citrus, but I don't get any of that. Taste is more fruity and softer than I would have guessed from the smell, but still firmly in herbal/woody/tea-flavor territory. No astringency in the back, but the hops definitely get showcased as the malts do more mouthfeel work than strong flavor contribution.

I was disappointed with the Yakima 291 single hop beer, but this seems much better executed (or maybe my 291 bottle had a rough life before me), and has the kind of malt transparency I like in a single hop beer. I'm a much bigger fan of citrusy/fruity hops, but this was a tasty hop lesson.

 

While I can greatly enjoy a single hop IPA, or the harmony of Amarillo and Simcoe, some of my other favorites use 5 or more. Stone Enjoy By using 9(?), Pliny at 5(/), and now Green Flash WCIPA uses 5 with the addition of Citra. I think the new WCIPA tastes more citrusy, actually, but I'd expect that because it's Citra Cheers!

 

Let us start with the jam.

Now, Hola Hayburners, It's been too long since my last visit to BA let alone my last NBS post so I'm glad to be back. OK so even if it was a 100 degrees this evening while I was hiking the beer industry thinks that its time for Autumn, so screw it I'll play along. Tonight is my first taste of SN's Narwhal.

I wasn't actually planning on buying any beer today but was going to grab something for my wife and there it was staring me in the face, and I had to have it. I'm not a huge fan of SN most of their offerings just don't do it for me, but this is an exception. Loved this from the first pour to the last oil slick drop sliding back down the glass.

 

Continuing the unconventional theme...

I had to come back for more. Finally put together a spreadsheet backup (in light of recent developments), and this is the first one I actually utilized the weighted formula with since 'the update,' instead of just kind of putting a number on there. Feels much better, and like it more accurately reflects what I felt about the beer. Go figure.

A surprisingly frustrating bit of making curried chicken (problems with the 'helpful' people mucking about with it, not the recipe itself...) inspired me to disregard my previous... underwhelming experiences with unconventional brews from the last couple of days and crack open one that I'm certain is quite divisive among its drinkers: Indra Kunindra. Wow. WAY out of left field, but, IMHO, extremely well done. The coconut lends a cooling creamy smoothe note to the body, not dissimilar to a milk stout, while the lime provides sweet and tart and the madras curry augments the inherently roasty bits while adding its own little flair that doesn't feel nearly as out of place as it should. And the cayenne comes in at the end to give it that little burst of heat to make it all come together and give you that much more impetus for the next sip. This won't be for everyone, but consider my firmly on the side of liking it and wanting to try it again if I ever see it.


Ha, I guess I must be on a turn of the century New York rap binge, didn't even realize it...

 

I'm a little late to it, but I was pretty busy yesterday. Last week I mentioned picking up some pumpkin beers. I think I specifically mentioned Cisco's Pumple Drumkin and Wilhelm Scream from Magic Hat. I liked both, but I did drink them later in the week rather than waiting until now. One that I did drink yesterday (Sunday) was Hop Knife from Troeg's. I was pretty impressed with it. It was a very nice beer with a good hops profile, especially in the aroma. I would recommend it.

EDIT: I can't get the picture to show. Maybe later today.