New Beer Sunday (week 537)

Isn't that funny because mine went up and down. As high as 3.89 but settling at 3.79. As this drank it's lightness became defiant. The orange made that chocolate stout so buoyant that I raised the over all score. =). My score reflects how much I liked it as it goes up, up and UP!

look: 4.25 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

 

Wow somebody had some strong coffee this morn!
Great opener @cavedave !

 

You deserve some more beer after all of that.

 

I actually saw that band in a sweltering, massively overcrowded bar in Spokane in the summer of '96. A little bit poppy for my tastes but they put on a good show.

 

Gooooooood Mooooorning NBS faithful! I hope everyone is having a terrific weekend. I spent some cash on a few beers this weekend, because why not? The weather is sensational and I felt like having fun with beer this weekend.

Yesterdays highlight was Bam Bière Saison from Jolly Pumpkin. Want a fantastic tart and funky beer that was.


This morning I had a headache; made cinnamon apple pancakes for the family, and finally just decide to enjoy my beer despite the cerebral pain. Thanks to @WesMantooth (from last weeks NBS) I picked up a bottle of Hinterland Whiteout. I truly enjoy IPAs aged on bourbon barrels as they take on a unique flavor.

Whiteout is a sweet and hoppy concoction. The sweetness is from the rich malts, brown sugar, toffee, and caramel. Some bourbon and oak along with hops come in with some pine and citrus notes.

It starts off with flavors of sweet caramel, brown sugar, and toffee. Hints of bourbon and oak. A nice hop bite helps to balance it out. Bitter pine and bright citrus notes of grapefruit, but there is some boozieness.

Pretty decent beer that is more of an American Strong Ale after barrel aging it. Fans of Stone Oaked Bastard should enjoy it.

 

I'm surprised you had no orange in the smell. The bottle I tried smelled like an orange creamsicle bomb.

 

New Scotch Ale Sunday
I don't buy nearly enough foreign beers. Just too much & too many interesting things coming out locally. But as much of a locavor as I am, that means I often pass up some fantastic things. A recent trip to my local store & I tried to start catching up on what I've been missing.

Looking at the top rated Scotch ales, I've only had a few but both of the Founders Bastards are among those I've had. This definitely deserves its top three ranking along with those. It's super-smooth and a great balance of the alcohol one expects with the style (but without being boozy) along with generous sweet malts and a bit of brown sugar & spice. Nice to finally try one from its place of origin! The 'top rated' button within a beer's style is a link I don't often think to click, I usually just take it to the default most-reviewed. I will definitely make an effort to look for more good foreign beers, especially now that it's getting to be pilsner/weiss season.
Cheers!

 

Good morning all. I waited a bit to pop one open after an already busy morning which found me waking up at 4:00 after barely sleeping due to a fidgety dog that fancied noise over sleep. Finally gave in to the alarm clock so we could get to hockey and the gym.

Late for breakfast? Hope not, otherwise I'd look funny drinking this

Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast

I can see the hype around this as it's rather tasty indeed.

Pitch black, little brown fizzy head and virtually no lacing, save for the remnants of a swig. Coffee overwhelms in the nose, little else. Taste coffee only until finally opens up with bitter dark chocolate and muted salt and cola. Faintest of cola at best. Finishes bitter like morning coffee aftertaste and dryness.

Very tasty.

 

New Braggot Sunday

Greetings NBSer's,
Well I finally stumbled upon my 100th style to review here on BA. I'm cramming this between a bunch of events associated with graduating my youngest youngin'. No mixed emotions, until today with small pangs of melancholy associated with time marching on, aging and all that. I'm sure I'll get over it.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/710/155757/?ba=garymuchow
An interesting brew that isn't striking, but has some elements worth exploring, as I make this a beer that I'll sip of the course of close to all day (I got things to do).

Best to all.

 

Greetings all,
We've got a nice easy early Summer day under way. I'm recovering from some knee work, so our walk took a bit longer than normal and the dogs loved it. Summertime upper Piedmont is vibrant and truly full of life...and pollen! I'll be picking blackberries and blueberries soon. Martha and I are headed to Asheville on Thursday to celebrate our 34th anniversary. We are staying right uptown within walking distance to all we'll ever need. Wicked Weed, Curate, Green Man, Burial, Hi-Wire, Zambra and on and on.
Today's beer is Foothills IPA of the Month/June. 5.9%, 60 IBUs, "experimental hops".
This is a very bright, fresh, tropical and citric brew. It is very alive with a beautiful bead and head retention that is remarkable...like a shield of cream on top of a glass of juice! A great summer beer, juicy, not light, but oh so drinkable. This one carries the flavor of two beers.
The aromatics are all pine and tropical and the flavor profile follows in sync. I've had all of Foothills monthly IPAs and this is my favorite. As it warms, there's a slight white pepperish spicy edge that adds to complexity and for varying food choices.
This is one of my all time favorite songs and performer.

 

Not that I am stalking you (exactly what a stalker would say) but this was your 666 review. If you would have done some pre planning like I did (cough, cough, lie, cough) you would have easily secured those extra 4 votes for WBAYDN DWTD.

More to the beer though. This is why best by dates piss me off. Better than nothing? Sure However, I sometimes dont even have a general idea when stuff was bottled without a lot of homework. Stuff tends to show up in my area late too. Example: I still have no Hoptimum within 45 min of me. That being said, I dont find that to be a real hop forward ipa anyway. Very malty and juicy.

 

New "see what Brett does to your IPA" sunday? Not sure what to call this, but in any event im trying a 1 yr old
bottle of Victory Wild Devil vs a fairly fresh bottle of Victory Hop Devil. I'll share some comparative notes
and then some specific Wild Devil notes.
Compare notes:
Appearance - Color may be only slightly different, Wild Devil just a touch lighter, but pretty much the same. The
most notable difference is in the visible carbonation levels, not surprising since the Wild Devil is bottle
conditioned. Fast rising carb bubbles in the wild Devil while the Hop Devil just has some lazy ones floating
upward.
Aroma- Strong clove, banana, spicy pepper on the Wild Devil, real musty like a champagne would smell. Musty, dust.
No real hops detectable, but i do get some citrus and tropical fruitiness. On the contrast, Hop Devil has that nice
piney and grapefruit hop character, w/ a much more noticeable maltiness. Hop Devil smells much more sweet.
Taste- Grassy, earthy, spicy, fruity w/ some ever so slight tartness in the Wild Devil..again i get that musty type
feel, banana, nice tangy finish and aftertaste, almost zero hops apparent. Hop Devil just tastes so much maltier,
big sweetness followed by the bitter finish w/ pine and grapefruit, mild toastiness.
Mouthfeel- Very difficult here, the Hop Devil tastes flat next to the Wild Devil even though i know its not. Its
just thats how effervescent and carbonated the Wild Devil is. The Wild Devil is extrememly crisp and bubbly, very
clean. Hop Devil is sticky sweet, but still a fairly crisp finish.
Overall- If done blind I would never be able to guess one was the base beer of the other. It would just be impossible
(for me anyway). They are different in almost every way except for color.
Specific Wild Devil notes:
One year later the hops have completely faded. I remember having the beer initially at around 3 months and i got a
lot of the hops still. Tastes and smells like a true belgian beer now, w/ a lot of nice funky notes, the musty
notes i mentioned before, and that nice tang in the finish. It also has a lot of tradtional belgian notes like the
clove, banana, spiciness. Overall, a very successful aging project, the beer has completely transformed for me and
in a pleasent way. I couldnt see how the beer could change much more with some age, but in no way would i think it
couldnt age more.

 

I just edited mine too. Forgot to talk about your beer

 

Good afternoon to all my fellow NBS followers. And to all my fellow NBS BIF participants game on guys!
It was a little chilly this morning as I left for my early Sunday bike ride at about 5:15 and with in in the low 40's here I ended up cutting the ride short after about 20 miles and called it good. I really hadn't expected it to be that cold and my spandex shorts and jersey left me a little under dressed.

My new beer for this Sunday is from Nightshift Brewing in Everett, MA. This is there now flagship IPA Santilli which came from there rotating Morph series.

This beer poured a slightly hazy very light orange/ yellow color when poured into my tulip glass. A thin creamy white head was on the top.
The nose of this beer is of tropical fruit with some mild earthy tones. Perhaps a little grass if you let your nose linger.
The taste is smooth with the tropical fruit flavors coming through. Not a lot of bitterness a fairly smooth drinking IPA which I do enjoy.
The mouth feel is smooth with just the right amount of carbonation which stays steady throughout the glass.
All in all this is the type of beer I have come to expect from the guys at Nightshift. The Morph series continues on but Santilli will stand for a long time.
I hope you are enjoying this great day as it is now 71 here in central NH and I have a few delinquent chores to do today as my beer trek of yesterday left certain things undone.

 

I am a sucker for Chocolate and orange, even though some of the Blackwater series rub me the wrong way... I got a bottle of this even though I rarely partake in ST these days... also thought it would make a good vid/review too.

I like your thoughts, but I am also a little disappointed in what I heard... oh well guess I will have to try it myself and hope for the best

 

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/23315/71466/?ba=Bitterbill

C& Ps out of the way. G'day NBS faithful!

Cloudy and coolish morning here in Casper. Heading towards a high of 69 Fahrenheit.

I had a blast Friday night at the Keg & Cork with their first Firkin Friday. Odell kicked things off with Easy Street Wheat with Strawberries and Lemonade, St Lupulin with pomegranate and Ginger, and, my favourite, IPA with pineapple and Serrano peppers.

My new beer is a pretty good bitter forward IPA from Crazy Mountain. My opinions aboot it changed constantly during the session and it did end up with a decent rating by me.

I don't have another new beer to share with you all so I'll go back to reading the rest of the posts.
Cheers!

 

Summer is here down in Texas. The rains that brought flooding across parts of the state are gone, and we've hit the point in the year when looking at the Weather Channel 10-day forecast is like listening to a good Busta Rhymes A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A rhyme scheme: 90-95 degrees, 0-20% chance of rain (translation: pigs will fly before it rains), winds 0-10 mph ... every day, always, over and over and over until October. Hopefully it rains at least once in June. It'd be a shame to give back ALL of the ground we gained this spring in terms of the good agua.

Speaking of good agua ... I've been wanting a good hefe lately, and lo and behold:



Fort Worth, Texas' friendly brewery Rahr & Sons brews up a very solid hefeweizen. Their Summertime Wheat has the hazy orangish look, a lot of banana, a little clove spice and goes down very easy. About the only thing it doesn't do is push up a big hefeweizen head, but as much as I love a good pour, the good drinker beats the good looker every time, right?

The review:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/9969/31601/?ba=Premo88

3.85 (+7.8% rDev)

I didn't give it big numbers, but that's more a reflection of my overall feelings about the style, not the beer (as in I like a good hefe, but I don't love it ... I prefer to be "just" friends ). One thing that holds back our relationship is the clove flavor -- a note I'm not a fan of -- but Rahr's hefe has what seems like the proper amount of that note, which is to say well short of Belgian witbier levels but enough to spice things up.

Compared to the bottled standard from Weihenstephaner, Rahr's is a bit more lemony tart and not nearly as sweet, though it does *hint* at bubblegum at times.

Good brew and it fits our Texas heat perfectly. I only bought a couple of bottles in a mix-six, but I'm picking up a full six-pack later this week.

Happy hunting and shipping to all you NBS BIF No. 2 participants! I'm sitting this one out personally but look forward to seeing what y'all come up and hearing the stories -- the good, bad, hits, misses ... it's all big-time fun and very entertaining.

Cheers!