New Beer Sunday (Week 534)

Hey what's going on?!!

Phew, busy exciting weekend! Learned a lot of lessons let's just say, and managed to keep myself in check. Working on some new beers, but running low!!! Time for a beer run soon!!

We have had one of the driest May's on record, but the rain finally came and looks like some more is in the works. Much needed, my tomatoes, herbs and all that eating good stuff needs water badly!

Speaking of eating... today's French omelette was superb... never get tired of these.. and if you mess up your mistakes... well.. you can always still eat it!


Devouring morning and after ritual by imbibehour, on Flickr

So what's new for our hero today??? Going for a nice big one... American Barleywines can be really good, but they also have a huge hop presence and richness, and often they can put me to sleep... so hopefully that wont be so bad for so early in the day... but we will be good..

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Bell's Saturn: The Bringer Of Old Age - Bell's Brewery, Inc.


Bell's Brewing - Saturn: The Bringer of Old Age by imbibehour, on Flickr


Poured from the bottle into a large snifter glass.

Thick out of the bottle, with a deep bronze orange color for the body. Fills the glass and looks a little hazy and cloudy, but has some real shiny clarity as well. Head creation is pretty tiny, manages a thin creamy one finger tan head, dissolves to big bubbled and thin puck and collar. Some leggy lacing and weeping on the edges.

Very enjoyable aroma. Thick toffee and mild maple like sugar, with a nice vanilla quality but not horribly sweet. Toffee candy and crisp caramel qualities and an almost maple like oak sensation it seems, with a hint of fruited tropical hop aching out. Sweetness slowly builds to a real nice controlled toffee and malt richness, thick, airy, inviting.

Palate takes a solid angle but goes for some hop aggression within the right limits. Tangy mid palate mixing in with toffee but also some chocolate angle comes out, slightly milky tasting. Large fruit blast in the middle, pine and earth with a mix of tropical sweet finish. Excellent mouthfeel, chewy and dense, full rounded in the palate coating everywhere with a perfect sense of sweetness, caramel and honey coating aromas and flavors abound. Really mellows out nicely with great soft sweet touches of oak and woody character.

A great barrel aged barleywine taken to a good level.

look: 3.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25 | BA generated rating 4.21

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Really diggin this one, I like the fact also that it sits in a place between extra barleywine big, and not overblown barrel aging extreme. Good place to be.

More to come but time for some lunch

Later!

 

Happy New IPA Sunday!



http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/651/6076/?ba=MadCat

So the good new is that I'm feeling better this week! But, it is bitterweet as I am currently waiting in an airport to go to San Diego for work, without my wife and daughter. Yes, I know San Diego is a great place to be as a BA, but it isn't the same by myself. Fortunately I'll be getting dinner with a good friend / coworker tonight, so that's a bonus, plus it's a short trip. So expect a second post late tonight (will still be before midnight pacific time). And I get to get out of the unseasonable weather here. It is nasty humid and in the 80s in NJ and supposedly will only be in the 60s in SD.

Up for today is Ithaca's flower power. It is a wonderful IPA that I'd gladly drink more of if I wasn't paying airport prices. I don't know if I have seen them locally but now I know to look. Also, thanks Greywulfken for starting us off in style!

Cheers!

 

Good afternoon all,

So before I begin, a bit of a protocol conundrum. So I am posting a NB bubut is it really an NB If I've had it's predecessor? Oh well, here it goes anyway....



So this poured a nice clean white head which left behind very nice lacing. Nose provides something earthy, like a little musty but not a lot paving the way for the immediate bitterness that has definitive dank qualities amongst the onion, grass and mustard seed. Mouthfeel is more syrupy in nature than it's thinner predecessor and finishes with a bitter blanket on the tongue.

I don't think I can judge my fondness of this on just one bottle, but so far I like it a bit more than the original.

 

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/212/98431/?ba=Bitterbill

Oh my. How I do love a "Tripel aged in Cognac casks"!

 

Sounds a-mazing, its right down my alley of preference since they use dark roast coffees. I really hope I see this, I will not hesitate to pick up! The color is very interesting and would definitely have prepared my senses for something else other than a complex bold coffee flavor.

 

A sumptuous Sunday to you, Dortmunderisch dandies and Gosian gents, and to you Lambical ladies. It’s a humid 70-something degrees in NWNJ, and my windows are sealed up tight. My A/C is on, and the sun struggles with large blankets of clouds, and I struggle with die perfekte Wörter, as it were, to write out my weekly NBS review. This NBS marks the first NBS upon ticking/trying 1,000 beers. A somewhat momentous occasion; and I hope to not disappoint.

Stone's Imperial Mutt Brown Ale (this beer does not actually contain any dogs)

Poured with energy into a Sam's Winter Lager Nonic.

Sight: Deep dark brown with ruddy highlights nestled under a thick, creamy beige head.

Aroma: A subtle blend of brown bread, toffee, caramel, perhaps chocolate. It smells brown, and a little boozy. There hops in there somewhere, but subtle. It’s quite English in nature.

Taste: There is a considerable similarity with the aroma, and additions of roasted malt kind of on the sweet side. It finishes dry with a little bit of chocolate and booze… which rears its head as the beer warms up. It is 9% after all.

Feel: Lighter side of medium. Some carbonation present, giving it a gentle spritz; hard to see the bubbles from the color of the beer. The end sticks around a bit.

Overall: Stone did a nice job blending American creativity with English sensibility. It’s easy to drink considering the abv.

Food pairing: Skirt steak quesadillas. Sweet notes in the beer go well with the quick seared steak.

Music pairing: The Stooges “I Want to Be Your Dog” that if you recall, is featured in the hilarious heist-comedy Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. English punk rock meets American sensibility. I might have to watch the movie, for the umpteenth time. It also features a great song, “Hundred Mile City” by a somewhat obscure band named Ocean Colour Scene. Call me a sucker for English beer, Guy Ritchie films, and odd but entertaining soundtracks. Cheerio.

 

During football season I find myself wishing there was still no Eugene, Oregon.

 

This brew pours a a transparent orange/straw color with high carbonation and a .5 finger white head some of which lasts until the end.

The smell is very malty, bready and biscuty. There is a strong caramel note along with a grassy smell.

The taste follows the nose with sweet and roasted malts dominating. Followed by caramel accompanied by a strong bready taste. The finish is slightly grassy but this does not interfere with the crisp, clean lager finish. The feel is thick and bready and the beer is lightly hopped. I don't drink too many lagers but I will pick this one up again if I see it. This brew would be great for a hot summer day.

 

Good afternoon NBS!! Finally having time on a Sunday this month to just enjoy a new beer and post it here! Starting my Sunday Pipeworks Barrel Aged The Revival thanks to @bstyle and I have to say it an awesome wheatwine.
4.36/5 rDev +0.9%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

Thank you bstyle for this
22 oz bottle, batch 377/378, poured into a teku

A- A clear brownish color with ruby highlights and a two finger off white head.

S- Sweet, caramel malts, bourbon, oak, vanilla, oranges, orange peels, some earth spices.

T- Oranges, earth spices, oak, sweet caramel, bourbon, vanilla, hint of earthy hops.

M- Smooth, medium body, touch of heat.

O- A nicely done wheatwine, oranges are a great touch. Barrel aging is well done, 13% ABV is noticeable but not too hot or overwhelming.

Cheers!

 

On to number two on the day, and sticking with San Diego.


So it looks nice, as you can see. Nose brings out just the slightest tiny bit of funk atop an obvious Belgian yeast presence full of circus peanuts, clove and hints of pepper. Taste goes deep with a bitter ball straight away. The nature of the bitterness is less Belgian and more earthy. We have a giant cheese like depth (think lingering sharp cheddar cloyingness?) and finishes with a hint of alcohol in an otherwise dank memory. Mouthfeel is fairly balanced. Not too much of any onisensation, so ya, a perfect mouthfeel for Goldilocks.

It's not bad, just a little all over the place with the Belgian teaming up with a ripping DIPA.

 

Would have joined you earlier, but had to sneak some yard work in between rain showers... Thanks to @Greywulfken for starting us off today!

Today's new beer is Straight to Ale's Fifth Anniversary Belgian Style Quad. It's hard to believe how far these guys have come in the last five years.

This beer has a pleasant sweetness mixed with a multitude of dark fruits and just a hint of a spicy note that a can't quite put a finger on. A very excellent quad. I wish they would use this recipe to replace their seasonal.

Now I need to go and pick up a few more bottles this week...





http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22655/172490/?ba=richj1970

 

Greetings NBSers & thanks to @Greywulfken for stepping up today,

It’s a partly sunny and breezy 62 in the Lilac City. Last night’s Lilac Parade, a torchlit affair that winds through downtown, was something of a fiasco due to rain. I’m not the parade type, and had enough rain when I went out for a couple of Topcutters after work yesterday.

I missed last week’s NBS as I was out of town visiting the family for Mother’s Day and for my cousin’s wake. He died last fall, but he had once stated he’d want a big party for his loved ones to see him off, so it was decided we’d hold it when the weather was good, and it was a bittersweet day with great weather & lots of great food, wine and homebrewed beer courtesy of my other cousin. Monday I stopped at White Bluffs Brewery in Richland on my way back and had their Bluffdiver IPA (decent, but not great) and got a growler fill of their Bierre De Garde, which seemed a bit malty for what I was expecting (not that I know much about the style) but was nonetheless quite tasty.

Today I’m starting off with a tallboy of an IPA from a brewery near Flathead Lake in Montana that was brought back via a beer mule from Missoula:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/16868/54179/?ba=woemad

Okay, but I suspect the undated can had held the beer for a while, so if I ever get a chance to revisit it fresh, I’d probably like it better.

I’ll be back in a little while with a growler of a local IIPA that shouldn’t suffer from freshness issues. The first keg of it was tapped Friday!

 

Tyranena's Balling the Queen - Citra and Simcoe IIPA with honey!

The aroma is quite tropical with pineapples, passion fruit, and mango. I also pick up some faint citrus of orange and grapefruit along with some sweet honey drenched bread. The hops stand out with juicy mango, grapefruit, and orange flavor. Other tropical fruits reveal themselves a bit later with the honey covered bread. The finish is bitter pine and grapefruit.

Exceptional IIPA that will hit distro soon!

 

I’m not typically one to participate, but it’s a quiet Sunday and I happen to have a new beer. Thanks for keeping this going and keeping it open for all to enjoy.

Saturday was busy and then led to some volume drinking through the evening into the late night. So, I’m taking it somewhat easy with a sipping beer.

Hanging out watching the lacrosse quarterfinals and getting some work done around the house. Great first game so far. Hopkins just coming out of nowhere late in the season.

I get the feeling it is a little hot and humid around here, but I don’t plan to do much outside today. I’m going to hide inside. So, no need for light refreshing beers today.

Heavy Seas Blackbeard’s Breakfast from their uncharted waters barrel series. Other than the gods of barrel aging at Firestone and Goose Island, there are a lot of people making decent barrel aged beers these days. I think both Heavy Seas and Clown Shoes make some very good to great ones at a very good value. If they put it in a barrel, I’ll give it a shot. This was like $8.



I think this has a great balance between the coffee and bourbon flavors. Neither is overpowering or pushing the other out. There is a great roasty (is that a word) undertone. Just a bunch of chocolate and vanilla goodness. Hides the alcohol for a 10% beer. No burn or heavy aftertaste. It’s a little fizzy to start and the smell is muted on the downside.

Looks like it came out to a 4.04/5 on the rating system. On the yes/no scale, this is a big yes.

I need to do a better job of picking up the stuff these guys put out and stop worrying too much about what the label says it is. I guess I take the local guys for granted more than I should. This is a very good beer.

 

Boulevard Dark Truth Stout - best before date 8-27-16 date code looks like 4263.

Appearance - Black as the night sky, very thick pour, one finger dark mocha brown head. Gorgeous looking
Imperial Stout in a glass.

Aroma - Roasted malts, chocolate, figs, Belgian funk, bit of smokiness, spicy hops. Very nice aroma!

Taste - If you were to look up the word 'robust' in the dictionary you would see a picture of Dark Truth
Stout pasted right next to it. My goodness, what a beer. Very intense flavors of roasted coffee beans, burnt chocolate,
bakers chocolate, charred figs and raisins, dry figs dates and raisins , leather, dry leaf tobacco, milk chocolate, hints of smokey charred wood, molasses, Belgian yeast but not much, chalky dryness, bitter spicy rye malt and bitter
piney spicy hops in the finish and a sweet sugary breadiness that tastes kind of like raisin bread.

Verdict - Best stout I've had so far this year and certainly one of the best non-barrel aged stouts I've ever had! So much depth and character in this beer. I am almost stunned at how good of a stout this is. Although I will say this, it is a different take on a stout. Not very many breweries are using Belgian yeast for their stouts. It certainly gives the beer a different texture to it. I am not exactly sure how to describe that difference other than just saying it's like a cross between an extremely roasty Russian imperial stout and a Belgian quadrupel. However, the soviets win this one. The roasted flavors seem to overpower the dark fruits. Its so roasty that the dark fruits taste like they were cooked on a stove for too long and got burned, definitely not your beginners imperial stout. LOL! In fact, I might not actually call this beer an "imperial stout" I think I would call it a "Belgian dark rye stout".. crazy stuff. I have never had a stout that tastes exactly like this, I think I love this beer...

Score - 97 out of 100

 

New German Pilsener Sunday

Hello all!

It's been a nice day here in Milwaukee - in the 70's. Clouds are starting to roll in for the thunderstorm we are expected to get later today.

Yesterday I bought a Samuel Adams variety pack that included a beer that I had not had before - Samuel Adams Downtime Pilsener. Unfortunately, as I walked in the door, my cat ran under me and I dropped the case and two of them broke, one being the new one. Fortunately, two of them survived.

My verdict came in about the same as the general consensus - 3.6 to 3.7 range. It's a nice, basic German pils.
It is listed twice, so I reported it. (It should be under German pils - which is the correct listing - not Czech pils.)

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35/161925/?ba=jwc215

Cheers!

 

Boulevard Harvest Dance is my first wheatwine.

Fairly clear, apricot-golden color with a lasting thick white head.

Refreshingly light and fruity aroma with peaches, banana, honey and hefeweizen yeast all carrying over to the taste. Syrupy mouthfeel and peppery prickliness in the aftertaste.

It's like a peppery tripel blended with a light hefeweizen. A pleasant beer for a warm, muggy Sunday afternoon.

 

Good afternoon all you wonderful gentlemen and women that follow this great thread of NBS. It is a splendid day here in central NH the temperature is in the low 80's with a gentle breeze and as of yet no humidity. It has been a busy morning as we are loading up our new camper for it's maiden voyage next weekend to northern Vermont. The yard work was completed yesterday but not without a little spilled blood as anyone knows that tries to prune an overgrown rose bush.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=306681036122389

My new beer for this Sunday is from the guys at Stoneface Brewing in Newington NH. This is there RIS released for the second time this week. I will admit this is not an new beer to me, but a beer I greatly enjoyed last fall when it was first released. I feel that there are certain differences in this batch that make it more enjoyable than the first.

This beer pours a rich black color with a creamy tan head when poured into my tulip glass. The head dissipates to a thin layer of creaminess on top the fairly quickly.

The nose of this beer speak well of the Tahitian vanilla beans and cold brewed coffee used in it brewing process.

The taste of this wonderful brew is where the vanilla and coffee really shine. Neither one is over powering but blend together for a wonderful rich taste. With vanilla and coffee where can you go wrong.

I think the biggest difference in this batch comes in the mouth feel which to me is much improved this time around. A lot more smoothness with perhaps a little less carbonation than the batch from last fall. If only I have saved a bottle to compare but alas it was just to good at that time and there are none left.

All in all this is a great RIS with lots of flavor even at this early stage, I am hoping that it ages well as I have a few more bottles this time and should be able to keep some around until this appears again next fall. I have to thank the most wonderful in my life that puts up with all my faults for picking this wonderful brew up for me on Friday as given my busy schedule I would have missed out all together as it was released on Wednesday and sold out early on Saturday. But she came through and she and a friend brought me back 2 cases this time. That is true love!

Well I need to tend to my smoker as I have several racks of baby back ribs smoking away over some wonderful cherry wood right now. I'm figuring about 6:00 they should be done and along with some great coleslaw and some fresh jalapeno corn bread I should be able to have a presentable meal. I think my next choice will be to find a suitable beer to serve with dinner.

Cheers to all and may you enjoy this wonderful day

 

Good Afternoon NBS! It is double-y hot out in North of Boston and has been very dry as well. Went for a great walk with the family around the local 'lake' (more like a big pond) and it was great to see so many outside picnicking, playing, and just enjoying the day! Planning on some late afternoon yard work and trying to talk the Wife into some grilling of meat tonight!
Why the bold face you ask? Well today I am enjoying a Double Dry Hopped Fort Point Pale Ale from Trillium in Boston. As said numerous times in BA threads, these guys do some of the best IPAs out there, and had yet to dry the double version. Pours a Orange Julius clarity, cant see the other side, and smells of over-ripe tropical fruit and other citrus love. Taste, follows the smell with definite Mango and other tropical tasting stuff (Papaya?). The feel of this beer is not as thick as the appearance, and is very quenching to drink. Overall, yet another great brew by Trillium and so so happy that they are near to us.
Enjoy the day BA and Happy NBS

 

I agree with your comment on quality and price point on their barrel aged stuff. Not second to many. (Clown Shoes is doing terrific beers too, just more expensive). I will definitely be looking for this one. Love Siren Noire