New Beer Sunday (week 512)

Barleywine gone askew. Be careful!

 

yep, it's definitely sweet. not overboard for me, but it's funny you mention it -- I *almost* mentioned both in my review and here initially on NBS that drinkers who don't like overly sweet brews should probably steer clear of this one, grab a dubbel or another quad.

you got to try it on tap? I'd *love* some of that.

 

New American Stout Sunday

Hello all! Hope everyone has been having a good day!
Weather was wet, but mild, here in the Milwaukee area.
Today's beer was VERY enjoyable. I loved it. From Ale Asylum: Big Slick. Glad I bought a second bottle (wish I grabbed the whole 4-pack - or 6-pack?). I'll be getting more of this when I see it!

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/13837/31266/?ba=jwc215

Going to watch Sunday Night Football! Have a good week all!

Cheers!

 

Round two for new beer Sunday.
My second offering from Muskoka's Hoptorial pack...Mad Tom IPA
Muskoka Detour's big brother.
A - very nice, slightly cloudy, good head that holds at one finger.
S - citrus, pine, hoppy
T - smell x 2
F - good, definitely bitter, but, not overly so
0 - A great IPA from a great Ontario brewery
Sorry no pic

 

Damn straight! Braurei Heller-Trum produces my favorite rauch biers.

 

Yes. Actually, the first I had it on bottle was last night. In my mind, at least, the tap version had a bit more "pop" or "bite", be it the spice or carbonation (or my imagination), I can't say for certain.

 

Ok - after these and a few other posts about this, had to mark a want (my technique to recall beers I want to try or re-try), and I am not a big smoked beer fan.

 

Evening all! For this NBS I got a couple of new one's!!
Spent the day with the family at Candycane Lane at Hershey Park and had dinner at a local Red Robin where they had a local brew on listed on the tap list: Sap Sucker Maple Porter from The Vineyard and Brewery at Hershey, however when I ordered it the waitress sad they were out! Instead they had Naughty & Spiced on tap from the same; sure I'll have that!

Sorry for the shitty lookin' pic; my camera phone sucks. But the beer was tasty! Here's my review:
Had on draft at a Red Robin in Hershey, PA.
Had a look of a dark apple cider; murky brown and a thin head. No lacing left in the glass.
Smells of the spices that are in it: cinnamon, nutmeg and come clove.
Tastes like a pumpkin spiced beer with a more malty backbone than pumpkin. Super easy to drink and not overly spiced to the point that some pumpkin beers are. The orange peel that they add really evens out the spices.
Could really see myself drinking a couple of these on a cold Christmas Eve or winter's night.
Very tasty indeed. Rating: 4.06/5
Definitely need to check this place out next time we head out there; of course Troegs is always an option too! Which I will be reviewing another first timer from them shortly....
Cheers!

 

Good evening NBSers and Special Salutations to all you Stalwart Seekers of Superior Stouts.

The weather here in SE PA today was on the chilly side and fairly cloudy so we never did see the sun. However there was no precipitation so my wife and I were able help out with co-hosting a Holiday kick off party at a nearby historic house. There was a light but enthusiastic turn out as people came to share party cheer, chat with old friends, and explore the Colonial era Christmas Decorations.

Tonight I'd like to share with you a bit about one of the things that makes this site such a great resource for some of us. While I don't always do it now that one can just to ratings of beers I am a firm believer in the value of reviewing a beer, both at the personal level and sometimes for the benefit of others as well. Living in PA, which has a unique case law in place and a shortage of bottle shops, I am occasionally faced with having to make a choice between buying an entire case of a beer I've not tried before or leaving the case sit until someone else buys it or it gets so old I don't want to buy it. (On a per case basis an untasted purchase can be a pretty expensive gamble.)

Deschutes Brewing is newly being distributed here in SEPA and a few days ago was the first time I'd seen any of their beers here. So when my beer guy pointed out to me the two cases of the Obsidian Stout he had on offer I came home and started sortiing through the reviews (numbers alone may tell me it’s a good beer, but will I enjoy it?). I found reviews by two of the reviewers I trust and after reading them they were very influential in my deciding to buy a full case of Deschutes Obsidian without ever having tasted it.




Tonight as a Survivor of Satiation with Super Strong Stouts I'm sipping on the pour of my first bottle from the case. Not surprisingly, at least to me, I'm enjoying this first bottle because I've found it to be both much as I expected from those reviews and because it is definitely well worth having plunked down the cash for an entire case. So, you may ask if you've not had the Deschutes Obsidian Stout, what is this stout like?

As with most stouts this beer poured into a Duvel glass is an opaque black with a nice 1/2" dark tan head that looks as though it will persist for a reasonable time and leave at least some foam on the surface and a small ring of foam around the glass as do most stouts. There is some foam coating one side of the glass and a couple of patches and rings of leggy lacing. The aroma is full of dark roast malt highlighting coffee and chocolate. As expected from the aroma, the flavors are nicely complex. There is dark, bitter roasted malt underlying the coffee flavors and semi-sweet dark chocolate and they are all playing together nicely here without any one of them insisting on dominating the action. The mouthfeel is smooth with light persistent carbonation. And the finish tapers off into that dryness that invites another sip (or three ).

Overall this is so far an impressive beer and one that offers an abundance of flavors and complexity along with an ABV (6.4%) that would permit having more than one. Looking forward to the rest of the case and doing a full review.

 

Good evening, NBSers! I love the idea of a BIF specific to this group. I used to do some trading with other BAs back in my early days on this site, but it's been several years. Not to mention I've been trying to watch my beer spending lately so I'm going to sit this one out. I hope it's successful for everyone involved though!

This weekend has been downright exhausting. Lots of traveling and visiting family and friends. Managed to have a few good brews over the past couple of days before settling down back at home to enjoy a new beer with dinner. Too tired to cook, so ordering Thai was totally necessary. I went with a yellow curry dish. What better time to break out a new gose?!



Westbrook does not distribute to my state. So when I was doing some work in NY recently, I jumped on a six-pack of this as soon as I saw it.

As you can see, it pours a slightly murky golden amber color with a fluffy white head. The head dissipates almost immediately and leaves no lacing on the glass. The aroma is excellent, filled with citrus fruit, coriander spice, and sea salt. The taste follows suit but lactic sourness dominates. Overall, it's light bodied, very dry and refreshing.

I haven't had many beers in this style to compare this one with, but if you put this side by side with Anderson Valley's The Kimmie, The Yink, & The Holy Gose, I don't think I would be able to tell the difference. So I'm a litttle confused by the difference in ratings. Both are enjoyable beers, but I really think I enjoy this style more in the warm weather. It's the perfect beach beer to me. That doesn't exactly translate well to drinking it in the middle of December, but it did make an excellent pairing with dinner. The citrus in the beer really goes nicely with the bright flavors of the curry and the sourness cuts right through the spice. Cheers!

 

Gosh, I have begun to do this somewhat regularly, and it is very rewarding in fact and spirit. Count me in!

 

Another new Sunday beer: New Glarus 20th Anniversary Ale. The bottle just states Strong Ale but this beer is categorized as a Belgian Dark Strong Ale on BA.

The beer is very, very good. Nice complex dark fruit flavors with a pleasant mouthfeel.

This beer looks yummy in my Tripel Karmeliet Chalice.

Cheers to New Glarus and @ jRocco2021!

 

Pretty simple feedback here: don't worry about impressing anyone. This BIF, as it's been stated by its OP, is not about "wow'ing" anyone, it's about sharing local love, and I can say from experience that Texas has plenty. If you're concerned about freshness, then don't send IPAs, that's a simple fix. Real Ale White is a great witbier, St Arnold's makes a ton of great beers between the Divine Reserve series, if you can get your hands on anything Bishop's Barrel, or even some of their standards. (512) Pecan Porter is excellent, and if you can get Lone Pint Yellow Rose it's guaranteed to be fresh because it sells out too quickly not to be. Community and Buffalo Bayou are both also doing good things, but with less notoriety than the aforementioned.

I listed all that without even mentioning Jester King, which should be an obvious choice, though perhaps a bit harder to find.

Also note that it doesn't have to be local beer, just something your target can't get themselves, for example Prairie is not distributed nationwide and makes some incredible beers, not just the Bomb lineup but Bible Belt, Cherry Funk is pretty tasty, and some of their hoppy and saison beers as well.

I'll close with this: the simple fact that you're concerned about this shows that your head is in the right spot and tells me that you'd be a great participant.

Cheers!

 

Hello to all, happy nbs
Pretty crappy week of rain and snow here in CT, but one good thing happened. My long time radio station of choice 106.9 wccc that went off the air a year or two ago is back. Irockradio.com for all you rock fans out there give them a listen. Other than that theday was great. The wife and I went to nyc xmas shopping today. Found myself some good brew for future Nbs ventures. Although today I didn't have any new beers I did purchase some new beers for myself. I hope everyone understands Count me in for the nbs bif sounds liken n awesome idea

 

That song lingers in my memory as a 17 year old high school junior. Ginger Baker's drumming is the best I've ever known and Clapton's outburst near the end was a revelation for the era. Great song about who knows what?

 

Happy Sunday! Hope everyone has had a great weekend!

My first one from Praire

3.74/5 rDev -0.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.75

Picked this up at VE in Boardman, OH. Poured into a snifter.

A- Body is a uniformly hazy straw yellow hue. Pours with a 1-2 finger soapy white head which eventually fades to a thick collar an some lacing is left behind in the glass.

S- Nose is somewhat mild and typical for a saison. Citrus, coriander, clove, floral hops, spicy bready yeast, a hint of funk.

T- Flavor is similar to the nose. Floral hops accent the front, with a slightly funky yeast backbone. The finish is slightly bitter with hops and a seltzer-like flavor. Left to linger is a hint of citrus, a hint of spice, and a moderate bitterness that seems to be more attributed to the carbonation than floral hops.

M- Light to medium weight bready body with very high, tingly carbonation. Carbonation is similar to that of seltzer water.

O- Overall this is a nice, light, drinkable saison. Pretty typical for the style. The only miss for me is in the carbonation. This is my first brew from Prairie and I am looking forward to trying more.

 

Good evening NBS! Hope everyone is enjoying the end of the weekend once again. Definitely looking forward to participating in the BIF. Sounds like a great idea!

New beers for me today:

This is a very very good saison. Taste of big lemon, orange peel, apricot, pear, apple, white grape, light banana, pepper, wheat, bread, herbal, straw, grass, and yeast earthiness. Good amount of earthy yeast spiciness with some bready-like tartness on the finish. Very well balanced yeast and malt flavors with earthy hops. Very smooth and crisp finish that isn't too dry; leaves a bit of a bready-like mouthfeel and taste on the finish. Really enjoyed this saison. I really wouldn't classify it as a petite saison at 6%, but still a very well rounded saison no doubt. I really love their standard saison offering. 4


This is an incredible quad! Appearance and clarity are very impressive; it did keep a nice cap with some good lacing on it. Aromas are pleasant and balanced between dark malt/candi sugar, yeast, and bourbon/oak notes. Not too strong but really nice. Taste is enormous. Huge caramel, raisin, fig, date, brown sugar, brown bread, toffee, vanilla, toasted oak, bourbon, light clove, light coconut, and oak/toasted earthiness. Some light yeast and oak-like spiciness on the finish. The balance between the barrel, dark maltiness, and fruity yeast flavors is just incredible. Zero booziness at all for being this young, and very smooth sipping with a bit of a slick feel; with some modest warming after the finish. I drink a lot of Vivant, but I've never had a barrel aged beer from them. They fricking nailed it. 4.33


Totally awesome all around. I love fruit beers. Taste of big milk chocolate, cocoa, coffee, tart raspberry, toast, dark bread, light smoke/char, and some roasty earthiness. Some modest roasted bitterness on the finish. Very great balance of the fruit and dark/roasted malt flavors. A minimal perceivable tartness on the finish. Super robust and full bodied considering the ABV. Very smooth and creamy. I have seen a number of comments about this that say this is too fruity. I'm not seeing it at all, definitely more into the sweet stout area though; but is not cloying at all. It is extremely well balanced with minimal fruit tartness present on the palate. Very delicious and still keeps the imperial stout character across the board. 4.23


Cheers! Have a good night NBS!

 

As promised here's Troegs Impeding Decent that I just finished for NBS entry #2!


4.4 / 5 rdev 1.4%
Pours a deep dark black body with little to no head forming or even showing up at all.
Smells of coffee, vanilla, deep roasted malts.
Taste is delicious! Plenty of bittersweet chocolate, coffee and oak with a bitter citrus-hoppy finish and some lingering oak.
Big mouthfeel typical of a RIS, but at 9.8% not a lot of that alcohol burn you can get with some other RIS's with a higher abv. Definitely a sipper but not so much that you can't get it down and move on to another beer for the night.
Overall a great beer from Troegs, one which I am glad they brought back since I missed the original release. I find this easy to drink and very balanced between a dark roasted stout and the hoppy finish.
Since it's the NBS thread I'll only go with one fitting song...

Cheers!

 

I happen to be drinking that one right now. I agree that it is delicious. It's like drinking Chocolate and Vanilla ice cream. Cheers!