New Beer Sunday (week 529)

Good morning fellow geeks - and a tip of the hat to @utopiajane for getting us started today (hope you feel better soon!).

I've got a brief story to tell before I get to the actual new beer portion of my first - full-length - post in New Beer Sunday. I've served as a judge at the Carolinas Championships of Beer for the past four years. It's always a highlight of the year for me. The judging takes place in the Olde Hickory Brewery (Hickory NC) - one of my favorite breweries, period.



It's open primarily to breweries from NC - but, as the name suggests - we see some brews trickle in from other local states too. I'm never sure exactly what catagory I'll wind up judging, this year it was porters - a style we're all familiar with - but halfway through the fifteen I examined I was of the mind that it will be quite some time before I go out of my way for another - talk about filling.



Here's a shot of the final judges table - this is where the professional brewers take all the beers we hopefully knowledgeable brewers pushed through to the final round. They're looking for the best of show.



If you're still with me - thanks - I'm slowly getting to a point here. As a judge, there are some pretty cool perks - above and beyond sampling beers all day and discussing them with the pros - I often get to take some of the brews home. When brews are submitted, the labels are taped over & given an identifying number. You can't look at a bottle and tell what brewery it is from. Of course - many of us drink enough that we're savvy to what particular bottle types many breweries use. For this reason, the judges never even see the bottles - stewards bring the beers to us when asked. So, at the end of a long day, when I'm allowed to take some unopened brews home with me - I'm never really sure what I'm taking. This makes for one hell of a fun evening - the unveiling is always a blast. Sometimes the labels are intact beneath the duct tape - other times there are no labels at all and I'm left to imagine who brewed the beer. This particular beer was opened and shared this morning:



I knew it was brewed at Trophy Brewing, Raleigh NC, but I was unsure what was in it. Luckily, the cap had "BIS" scrawled on it. Best in Show is the name of a brilliant saison Trophy makes - I'd only had it a few times prior. But when I poured it... take a look... it didn't look like a saison. The nose had some of the right notes - fruity, earthy yeast & spice - but it had others too. It smelled of charred wood... and bourbon. The taste followed suit - amazingly complex. I've never tasted anything like it, honestly. Now - that being said - stylistically, the bourbon does dominate here - but what a wonderful surprise. So, I jump on BA to see if I can find out anything about this - am I really tasting what I think I'm tasting? Boom - there it is: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30983/143028/ Makers Mark BA Best in Show - brewed once. Lucky Sunday surprise for me - and a wonderful beer that I'm sad to see slipping away.

Spring is trying to spring here, at the house of Long in Cramerton, NC:





Thanks again to @utopiajane - thanks to @Premo88 for the kind words - and to @cavedave... cheers, brother. Hope there are no hard feelings.

Happy Sunday!

 

I got another new one lined up.

 

New Saison Sunday

Greetings NBSer's,
And a special Get Well Soon to our hostess, @utopiajane, and a I wish you peace to @kemoarps.
After a rather cool week we have a little warmth starting yesterday and may last through the week. Yea! Typical for spring it comes with a lot of wind, which I really don't enjoy. Boo! But it calmed down enough last night to have a nice evening fire outside.
Another CA beer I was able to drag back from my recent trip. I guess I liked it more than many (rDev +7)
http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/recent-activity/

And one of my favorite Beatles tunes.

Best to All this week

 

Welcome! I wasn't around my computer last week, but I did check the thread Monday morning. I'm glad to see you join us in the spirit @malty intended when he founded NBS over 10 years ago. Looking forward to seeing more reports from your neck of the woods!

 

Judging 16 beers is brutal enough, but all of the same style. Ugh! Palate fatigue.

 

Hello again NBS. While out of town this past week, I was able to get some of this as I wasn't able to find it anywhere around my hometown. A tip from another BA in the forums led me to a distributor where I was out of town for work. Haven't had my one bottle of KBS yet but I hope it's as good as this.



4.54/5 rDev +4.4%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5

Bottled 3/27/15

Some have complained about the label but I kind of like it. Reminds me of my old man doing the crossword all morning.

Pours dark brown with dark swirling tan head and retains pretty well, especially the ring around the glass. Head retains more than most other stouts on my limited resume.

Nose is coffee bean, roast, with bourbon overtone. Little bit of cocoa powder. Not much alcohol in the nose for a big BBA stout.

Taste immediately reveals the bourbon with quick coffee flavor to stop it from being a booze bomb out of the gate. Some alcohol warmth and some bitterness carries thru. I think it hit this too cold because as it warms, the semi sweet chocolate and barrel wood really take on their role in the balancing act and tame the bourbon and coffee. Some caramel and toffee sweetness is there too but barely. Nice range of flavors.

Feel is heavier side of medium but not the fullest stout I've had. Carb is medium too. The beer is overall pretty sticky and the semi sweetness lingers more than the bitterness from the coffee. The alcohol leaves its mark too but in a good way.

Glad I was able to get my hands on this one. Not having much experience with coffee stouts let alone BBA ones, I don't have much to compare it to. I do know it's very tastey, carries a range of flavors all playing well with one another, and met my expectations from what I've read on here. Get some!

 

Hey sharing is caring! I'll share brews with ya anytime!

Cheers!

PS - you did NOT want the allergies I had on Tuesday... nearly cost me a bottle of Parabola...

 

Greetings, fellow NBSers, from the wilds of the Inland Empire (and by wilds, I mean within sight of I-90, so not at all)

Yes, IE's a local term for the region, which helped to confuse local filmgoers when David Lynch's film of that name was released. Muddying the waters is the fact that Lynch once lived here. Some people claim the bar in Blue Velvet was based on a bar in the Hillyard neighborhood, but I think that's bogus. It's 44 degrees, partly sunny and kind of blustery in the Marmot City. It's supposed to calm down and cloud up over the course of the day, but it hasn't happened yet.

In about a half hour or so I'll be opening up a big boy from @beertunes and I'll be tackling my internet machine, which seems to have some technical issues, so until then here's another new beer received from the same awesome BA that I drank earlier in the week (um, the beer, not the BA):
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/18879/51491/?ba=woemad

 

So @Roguer @Homebrew @smakawhat @WesMantooth @hopflyer aptly described this New Sunday Morning Stout beer. Feel free to read my review if theirs doesn't cover it for you. LOL.

 

Now for something no one else on here should have today. For all you Triple lovers, this is a very good one from an employee named Kyle at Lake Front Brewery in Milwaukee.

Aromas of Belgian sugars, yeast, and a good amount of citrus. The citrus from dry hopping is oranges, tangerines, and just wonderful. Light notes of clove and bubble gum.

A wonderful Tripel flavored with citrus of oranges and tangerines. Sweet apricots, banana, lemongrass, maybe a bit of mango, pineapple, then back to the Tripel with slight sweetness.

A beautiful beer on a beautiful Sunday!

 

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/841/5253/?ba=Bitterbill

Is the gal on the label singing....What's going on? She looks like a Non Blonde.

 

Starting my Sunday and last day of spring break enjoying Heavy Seas Phantom Ship, a bourbon barrel aged tripel , nicely done.

4.11/5 rDev +1%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

22 oz bottle, 2015, poured into a tulip

A- A clear golden amber with a three finger white head.

S- Bananas, vanilla, some bourbon, hints of oak, breads, light fruits, pretty sweet.

T- Oak, bourbon, bready, bananas, sweet, hint of slightly tart apples, light fruits, bourbon is not hot or over the top but really balanced.

M- Smooth, medium body.

O- Alcohol is well hidden, barrel aging was done right on this. Very enjoyable.


Cheers!

 

At the open and repaired brew pub.
Saison du Printemps a wheat based Saison brewed with added Rye, German hops and orange peel a very refreshing brew to say the least.

 

This is a recently released one-off from Woodstock Inn Brewery of New Hampshire. Jefferson's Moose, with an ABV of 4.3%. Proceeds from the sales assist the non-profit organization the NH Humanities Council. So I always go for a beer that supports a cause and the Humanities Council has done a lot here to inform and educate people about the state's rich history.

About the beer; it is a very sweet smelling and tasting brown ale. Sweet in the vein of caramel malts, toffee, butterscotch, and brown sugar. An earthy bitterness around back. I spent the day chopping up some large branches that crashed to the ground over the winter. I also raked up the front lawn as spring finally breaks through around here. I didn't want a heavy beer after all of that so this sweet 4.3% beer was just the trick.

 

I need to go out and eat something tasty. So I can review a new beer to me from Austria. Granitbock Ice. 11.5% abv, baby.

 

A blessed NBS to us all. It’s a pleasant 64 and sunny here in the sleepy town of Stanhope, NJ. My shades are drawn and my windows sit open. After a reunion and service of sorts with old parishioners of my hometown/childhood church (Knowlton PCA) and a quick brunch with my mother and sister, I’m back here to do my due diligence in the NBS community. I’ve lived life as a quasi-bachelor for a week and a half while my wife is on business down in Augusta, GA (she works for the USGA and no, I can’t get you tickets). And when the wife’s away, the husband stocks the entire fridge with beer. I’ve been drinking the greatest of stuff, from all over the globe. I’ve dwelt on doppelbocks, chilled out with Chillwave, and wiled away my hours with Wake Up Dead (on nitro…. Ooo la la). Reciting the Lord’s Prayer and observing communion today in church inspired me to review…

Corsendonk Agnus Tripel Ale

Such a positive and religious sounding beer, I found it a little unsettling to pour it (with vigor) into my Lucifer snifter. Ah, the ironies.

Look: Fluffy, stark white top-hat of foam. That eventually settles down. A touch hazy, displaying tiny bubbles rising from the bottom of the glass. Hues of tangerine/nectarine or perhaps, more mundanely, No. 2 Ticonderoga pencil.

Spicy, zesty, florally, bright aroma. A hint of bubblegum from the yeast. Only the slightest suggestion of hops.

Taste: Oh, yeah. I’d say right on the mark for flavor expectations. Sweet malty front, moving into a spicy, fruit middle. It ends grainy, drying with a crisp finish. This guy is like a string quartet hired for an upscale, low-key affair: everything works in quiet harmony to put together something greater than the sum of its parts. A death metal concert, this is not… that’s later.

Feel: Medium or medium minus body, but great prickly carbonation. Not profoundly coating on the tongue, though certainly nice and a good example of the style.

Overall: Great, approachable offering from Corsendonk. This brew reminds me why I love tripels so much, and Belgian beer in general.


In light of the already religious overtones, I provide an equally religious and beautiful musical offering:

 

I'll give you a like for the LTJ video, alone.