New Beer Sunday (week 533)

Good morning, NBS-ers... It's a beautiful day here in Cramerton, NC. Should only be in the low 80's here today and we may get a quick storm in the afternoon that will cool that down more. We've had a good bit of rain this year and my garden is exploding - it's a good year for the roses.

Here's a brew I've been meaning to try for a spell... happy to have a chance to share it with you all this morning:



















Vow of Silence, from Parallel 49 Brewing Company

This Belgian dark ale pours a nice malty-amber with a well carbonated fluffy white head. The nose is malty and sweet, bruised fruits and raisins and the taste follows suit - the candy sugar is present but doesn't overwhelm and the 9.8% ABV is very well hidden, making this a dangerous brew. Overall a solid Belgian style dark ale. I bought two - setting one back a spell to see what she does. Cheers!

My roses:
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Elvis Costello's "A Good Year for the Roses"

 

Tom, I described it a bit in my post: “vanilla, herbal, etc.”

You might be interested in reading something that I posted previously in the homebrewing forum:

“Here is a list of ingredients and countries from a 1922 pamphlet about Hires Root Beer.

Birch Bark - United States, New England

Chirreta – India

Dog Grass – Germany

Ginger – Africa

Ginger – China

Ginger – Jamaica

Hires special plant

Hops – United States, Northwest

Juniper Berries – Italy

Licorice – Spain

Licorice – Russia

Sarsaparilla – Honduras

Sugar – Cuba

Vanilla – Mexico

Wintergreen – United States, North Carolina

Yerba Mate, Brazil”

http://www.greydragon.org/library/brewing_root_beer.html

Cheers!

Jack

 

Take your time recovering, Roger. I'm sure you have a few new beers to share with us in future NBS threads.

 

Yeah you told us that was the way it smelled. So you're saying Root Beer tastes like it smells. Sounds good.

Interesting list of ingredients for Hires. I wonder how much of that they still stick to, e.g., I'm guessing that the Cuban sugar is replaced by something else....

 

Exactly!

Cheers!

 

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

I had a 3rd bottle of a beer this morning and realized that I hadn't reviewed it before. Would it be okay to post about it here?

 

Happy Mothers Day all, and happy NBS!

Get well, @Roguer. I, too am a bit under the weather, but only since Thursday and the cold is progressing as most colds. Sore throat gone, just a little congestion, so I thought I had a window to try a beer. But I did feel the need to hedge, so I am having a beer I had previously rated but not reviewed. I will also ask my girlfriend to help.


My nose is working well enough to get a bittersweet chocolate scent from the beer. My girlfriend says "Coffee." I do get a bitter roasted note also, but not as strong as she does. I get a light hint of vanilla and neither of us gets a huge amount of bourbon. The taste does bring more bitter roasted notes than the smell, much more coffee-like. I actually laughed out loud as my GF found the exact opposite (although she did find the chocolate taste to be a dark or unsweetened chocolate taste, bitter in nature). The barrel flavored, both alcohol (also noticed by GF) and wood come out early and all combine to give a lingering taste. Feel is a tad thin early, but smooths out with some warmth to make up for it. The flavors are quite bold.

I have another bottle of this, so I can hone my review with that. This tasting pretty much verified my original score, 3.97 (my girlfriend gave it a 4 on her app, which has .5 increments).

I was too sick to meet up with some friends of my girlfriend yesterday for a beer trade. We got some good options for future NBS, things we generally haven't seen around here. I can't wait.

 

Hoping you are well sooner rather than later. Put on Beethoven's 3rd, 5th and 9th Symphonies and you may feel in a better mood. Then you can use the Pastoral for getting in a nap.

 

Good morning NBS, thanks to Maria for the kick off and the clarifications on last week.
Warmest wishes to all you special Moms out there, we just finish a Skype conversation with both sons,
Mom was thrilled to have both "boys" on the same screen!
I to support the notion of dedicated point person(s) to keep things special in this forum.
The greetings from a familiar friend to kick things off and remind us of why we are here keeps NBS
near and dear to me.
Grey here in WMass, but the trees are in full glorious bloom, first local asparagus omelet of the season !
Todays offering is from Smuttlabs, I was a little put of initially by the nose, that quickly subsided, and I found the beer
quite enjoyable, as noted lots of lager like qualities driven by the use of the Brett. This beer needs a soft cheese and fresh baguette to pair with.
Cheers all

Smuttlabs Daily Brett

Smuttynose Brewing Company
Saison / Farmhouse Ale / 5.90% ABV

3.51/5 rDev -5.6% | rAvg: 3.72
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75

Poured from a cage/corked bottle, dated 3/10/15 into a pilsner glass.
A - Gold straw color, wonderful clarity, active carbonation supports a lasting thin cap. No lacing at all.
S - Sweet malts, wheat grains, honey and ginger, notes of lemon, battle it out against strong biscuit, and ash. All this driven by a wonderful almost tickling effervescence.
T - Light grains, pilsner malts, some wheat ( I am guessing) That strong biscuit quality from the nose carries right into the palate. Touches of lemongrass. The use of Brett is delicate, keeping the experience crisp.
M - Sharp to begin, the middle is ashen dry, finishing with a linger on the palate that keeps that lemongrass and honey drop candy quality. The body is surprisingly Lager like with crispness and delicate touches.
O - Billed as a pale ale with Brett, no doubt about that. Lager like in texture, very little hop presence and super crisp. These aspects all make the offering quite enjoyable.
Cheers

 

Cheers Maria. I initially didn't want to make a post on NBS but I am pretty much snowed in and don't plan on going out to grab something new. This storm is going to dump more snow than any during the Winter.

 

Happy NBS everyone!!! Hope the day brings you better weather than the emerald isle!

Today I bring you all Postman's knock a Rich Ruby Porter!

This is still from the big bag/box of beer goodies my wife bought me for Christmas via a gift voucher for the real ale store that i cashed in after my January dry Athlon! I still have about half the 12 Stout/Porters left and only 2 left of the American beers... Saving the Anchors for a special occasion!!


4.25/5 rDev +14.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Appearance - Deep rich ruby almost barley wine like colour with a thick tan head of tight foam that dies to a lace cover over a body of moderate to heavy streaming CO2 in a dark vessel.

Smell - Very sweet with treacle and golden syrup leanings mixed in with almost burnt malts and dried fruits, mostly on the prune fig end of things. There is also very nice bitter coco elements in here.

Taste - Every bit as good as the aroma, this beer boasts a heavy malt front. The malt flavour profile ranges from the treacle and syrup end to the burnt and dark malt end with plenty of pastry and dried fruit in between the two. The whole brew is well balanced by the bitter choc back and the earthy woody hop. However they do promise vanilla on the bottle and I simply do not get it!

Mouth feel - smooth and creamy with moderate body and a rich long lived linger with some lightly astringent and drying properties.

Overall - Very good! This beer boasts big malt flavour which is balanced nicely by a good hop element!

And now today's vid. I post this because I took my son for a walk in the park earlier and as we stepped out the door the Local marching band were out the front Bagpipes and drums blaring and the Ulster Scott in me swelled with pride and so i decide to post one of the most awesome band shows I have ever seen...

Enjoy



Guid Forder...

 

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/63/149763/?ba=Bitterbill

C&Ps out of the way. Happy NBS anMother's Day to all of the NBS faithful!

As I said in my other post, the snow is really coming down. Cold and heavy.
Putting that aside, my month of May will be more fun soon. The 16th will see Harmony, Hops and Hope, a beer festival that will donate plenty of moolah to worthy causes.
The 31st will see another of Casper Beer Tasting group meetings at the Wonder Bar.

Thanks again to Maria for letting me post today! CHEERS!

 

My parents live in Custer, SD. Looks like a last stand for winter!

 

Greetings malty matriarchs and maternal midwives of Magnum, it’s time once again for your poetic and prosaic provider of pertinent NBS reviews, John of Stanhope.

Good morning and well wishes to all mothers (hell- and even mothers-to-be) out there on NBS. I hope you sent yours some flowers, chocolates, or maybe, mother’s day beer. It’s scheduled to be a nasty 82 up here in NWNJ. I feel that though I might not have the absolute ideal themed beer for today (Pelican’s Mother of All Storms perhaps), I still have a brew most likely produced by someone’s mother.


On the docket today: Deliria by Brouwerij Huyghe.

Poured somewhat gingerly into my Lucifer snifter.

Sight: Beautiful and bright gold, lots of effervescence. Tiny, sprinting bubbles to make up the thick, sudsy and stark white head. Some haze, or maybe it’s all the bubbles. Oh, did I mention the deafening pop that occurred when I removed the cork, and the champagne-like fizz erupting from the bottle? Holy pink elephant, Batman!

Aroma: Delicate combination of spice, sweetness, grainy or bready like malt, bright citrus… lemon? Booze. It’s there, hiding in the wings.

Taste: Light and refreshing. It very much imitates the aroma; however the sweetness is not the star of the beer- that would be the dryness. Wow, brut champagne levels of dryness. It makes me want to go back for more and more. I get the spice, but I can’t really tell if it’s the yeast, spices used, or both.

Feel: As you might have guessed- active carbonation, bubbly, light, fizzy. Great refreshing aspect to it all, and finishes super-dry. Light body, or maybe “light plus.” LONG finish, those bubbles stick around on your tongue.

Overall: A satisfying sipper and pleasant brew. As one reviewer made mention of the beer brewed by women, it just shows they’re capable. “Brewer” though typically thought of as male, by default, is a unisex term, and the ladies at Brouwerijj Huyghe have my compliments.


Music pairing: Though I am not Catholic, and do not place emphasis on Mary that my RC cousins might, I still think there are some lovely pieces of music written about her. I suggest Ave Maria sung by Andrea Bocelli.

 

Happy NBS and Mother's day! I had a nice local brewed coffee vanilla stout and Tripel yesterday on draft. Today I am enjoying a beer I had no idea would be released. Tyranena sure is good at keeping secrets.

Wrath Of Rocky is an Imperial Brown aged in bourbon barrels. The aroman is a nice bourbon, vanilla, oak, wood, and caramel malt scents. Smells very nice.

Flavor starts of as a big bourbon vanilla bomb over the brown ale base. Sweet caramel and toffee, bread and malt. Not much in the wood or oak for flavor compared to the nose.

Excellent beer that is really hitting the spot on this gloomy day. Cheers!

 

Petrus Aged Red (330mL bottle)
Brewery: Brouwerij De Brabandere (Belgium)
Style: Flanders Oud Bruin
ABV: 8.5%
Glassware: Poured into a Chimay chalice

Appearance: Pours a dark color that looks brown until held up to the light. Then it shines a bright ruby red with a thin, 1/2 inch white head.

Aroma: Cherry, almost exclusively. There are also some woody notes present. Something else too, that sort of resembles amaretto. Like a sweet nut liqueur.

Taste: Again, the cherry flavor is the most dominant. Sweet and sour combination that balances quite well. Slightly medicinal like cough syrup, especially in the finish and aftertaste, not necessarily in a bad way though. Besides the cherry, there are some other fruits too, albeit more subtly. Plum and raisin flavors. Bitterness is very minimal. The malt of this ale lends sweet flavors of toffee and perhaps a hit of chocolate.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied, light prickling carbonation. Just enough bubble to keep this from being a cloyingly sweet, syrupy mess.

Overall: I'd give it a 4 overall. It is quite enjoyable. Maybe a bit to close to the sweet end of the spectrum for me. I'd like to see a bit more tartness. That said, you won't find too many better beers of a similar style for $4 per bottle. Great value.

 

Hello and happy Mother's Day to everyone at NBS.

My new beer for the day is Founders Rubaeus. I usually like to keep things positive, so I'll try to be short and just say this isn't to my liking. Looks, smells, and tastes like raspberry pop. Which is fine if you like pop. Me, I'm too old for it. Find myself feeling strangely embarrassed holding a pint glass full of red fizzy liquid. I admit, though, that I'm just not fond of fruity beers, and I know many BAs really enjoy this beer, and more power to 'em. We don't all have to like the same things, or, as the late great Lou Reed said, "Just remember different people have peculiar tastes" (though I rather doubt he was referring to beer).

I'm a big Founders fan and on any given day probably have more of their beer in my fridge than anything else. On the other hand, they make what might be two of my least favorite beers: Devil Dancer, and now Rubaeus. Sure glad I passed on Blushing Monk.

Music: Lou Reed, Coney Island Baby (what else)?

 

All the more reason to have a special beer to share with the rest of us. Nothing to distract your attention. :-)