New Beer Sunday (week 561)

I think @utopiajane wakes up when I get off work, but I'm not sure when she goes to sleep ... so why would she have to wake up? It's all very confusing. You poor insomniacs ...

But it makes for awesome early starts to New Beer Sunday!

I got off work here just a few hours ago in Central Texas, where the Aggies are back to playing some defense, Cowboys fans think the return of the Jedi (QB) will somehow matter and the weather has begun acting like Saruman's atop Isengard blowing our way. We had a crazy wind storm blow through about 4-5 a.m. Monday, tornado warnings and 40-plus mph winds and ... hell, I kept thinking “I wish I were asleep” peeking out the windows of my home watching trees and power lines and rain toss around wildly. I know others have had to deal with much worse (and recently, too, unfortunately), but it looked so bad I finally grabbed the kitty cat, hunkered down with Midnight in my little restroom and waited for the all-clear to hit. Walked outside about 5:30 a.m. and it had all passed ... man, did it feel eerie though. So calm and quiet but like everything out there, even the cold, wet pavement, knew something chaotic had just passed through. It makes you pause and think about all the people who’ve actually had to tangle with a tornado. Alls I had this time around was a little wind and rain.

More wind hit hard Saturday morning while I joined my newspaper’s scramble golf team for a charity tournament. Winds only hit 30 mph on the gusts, though, so we were fine.

On to the beer, a good lager from our friends in Blanco, Texas:


Real Ale’s schwarzbier is a little like a couple other brews I’ve tried from their “Brewer’s Cut” series: good, in step with the style, not a perfect match for my sweeter-malt-loving taste buds. In the case of this schwarzbier, it’s very earthy and at times bitter, reminding me a lot of our very hoppy/burnt-malt bitter American brown ales and black IPAs. But there’s so much good dark malt in the beer that the nose is wonderful, very sweet and much lighter than the flavor, and as it warms, the flavor opens up a little and allows some balancing sweetness out of the gates. It never tastes sweet, never really matches flavor to the aroma, but it does become a lot less bitter. It’s also got a nice smokey oak-wood flavor with a near-perfect mouthfeel ... crisp, light but full. Yay for lagers!

I bought one six-pack of this beer and that's all I will drink of it, but it’s very encouraging in terms of getting back into Real Ale’s Brewer’s Cut series. I’ll be looking for their next offering over the coming months.

The review:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/458/194059/?ba=Premo88
3.96 (rDev -1.2%)

My Bearkats won a big football game last night at Central Arkansas, so I'm up early in part to watch the FCS playoff show ... our play-by-play guy and color analyst on the radio (Kooter & Leroy -- not a joke) got me all excited about not only getting into the playoffs for a fifth straight year but possibly getting a first-round bye.

Whatever. Just show me a "Sam Houston State" somewhere on those brackets and then we'll move on to the noon o'clock show live from Miami, Return of the Jedi (QB):



This Dallas Cowboys season still seems doomed for 2-14, but what the hell. Let’s have some fun for at least 3 more hours and see what happens ... and drink some beer!

Thanks, @utopiajane for kicking us off ... and cheers, NBSers!

 

Good morning New BSers! Maria, thanks for the early start - it's good for all us wormy early birds. How did the Ga Kho Gung turn out? Sounded really good so maybe I'll cook some up today, or maybe not since Mrs. Lizard doesn't like fish sauce. It's a beautiful day in scummy Pennsylvania as Pete Wombat used to say ad nauseum - our usual gray skies of ambiguous precipitation. Will it rain? Will it snow? Will it drop tons of sleet or hailstones the size of plovers' eggs? I'm betting on a rotation of all of them.

Today's new beer is:



Ah I here the distant sounds of Mrs. Lizard stirring - soon the interrogation will begin. Anyway, for some reason I'm not a great fan of Clone Shoes - their beers, while OK in general, just don't particularly appeal to me. Perhaps that first questionable experience with Blaecorn Unidragon a few years back in San Antonio when the store clerk was extolling the virtues of the brewery, back before I began to appreciate RIS. Or maybe I'm just not impressed by the artwork or the nomenclature used. Anyway:

Undated bottle at 42 degrees into snifter
$ 7.99/bomber ($ 0.363/oz) at Consumer’s Beverage, Lancaster, NY
Aroma of coffee and pecans; pecan fades leaving only coffee at the end
Head small (< two cm, aggressive pour), light brown, frothy, quickly diminishing to two mm ring and frothy partial layer
Lacing fair – partial ring of tiny bubbles, some stalagmites from the ring
Body dark brown/black, opaque
Flavor weak – roasted malt with slight coffee, no pecan, just slightly bitter; no hops, no alcohol, no diacetyl
Palate medium, slightly creamy, soft carbonation

Appearance 4, Aroma 4.25, Flavor 3.75, Palate 4, Overall 4. Rating 3.96, Avg 3.9, rDev +1.5%

And for all of you who survived last night's simulviewing of Puma Man on MST3K and the all day long Turkey Beer celebration on WBAYDN, thanks for joining us and I hope your livers heal!

Prosit!

 

Greetings, BAs! Happy NBS, and thank you @utopiajane for the great review to start things off this morning.

Another brewery that has made its way to our fair area in recent months is Oskar Blues. I picked up their Canundrum variety pack as soon as it hit the shelves here and was introduced to Yella Pils, Dale's, Pinner, and Old Chub. No Ten Fidy so far; however, OB IPA is now available locally, and Death By Coconut arrived here couple of weeks ago. I'd been hoping to try the latter, which I was finally able to do this weekend thanks to @Strike00. The review:

L- Pours a deep brown with tan highlights and a thick tan head that leaves a nice amount of sticky lacing.



S - Coconut. Dark chocolate. A little roasted malt. Not picking up much of anything else.

T/F - Coconut is predominant, with notes of bitter dark chocolate. There is a bit of citrusy tartness on the palate. Finishes sweet, with some cloying tartness. A little on the thin side.

O - You can't say you weren't warned. This one delivers on its promise. Very solid base beer, with the coconut and chocolate providing a nice dimension to the flavor profile.

My experience with this did raise a couple of questions. First, is there any alcohol in this? Second, and more seriously, is "Irish Porter" a thing? I'm no expert on any of this, so if there's some nuance that distinguishes this from an "English Porter" (its BA classification), I'd be interested to know what it is.

I realize that the whole coconut/chocolate thing might be off-putting to some; however, for those of us who love all things coconut, this beer nails it.

4.17/5  rDev +1.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Prost!

 

Good morning good morning!

I've returned to my natural nocturnal habitat, and sure enough my very first night back they asked me to stay over for an additional four that morning. I'm still not entirely sure that I DID make it home and that I didn't just pass out at work and get stuck in the empty room at the end of the wing. I'm going to take the extra money I earned and invest in one of those fancy 'gradual light increase' wake up alarm clock things. Hopefully that'll help the sleep issues some.
Grateful for the rain we've been receiving of late: even aside from the simple fact that I really do love the rain, we've needed it. Badly. Hopefully it continues. Added bonus: the mountains might even get a real season out of it this year! From world record snowfall when I was in HS to barely even opening last year... Hell we might even get some snow here in the lowlands, from what I hear!! As someone who doesn't have to drive in it, I'm excited.

Anyway. The beverage I finally settled on this morning is another collaboration from those hopheads down south. This time Stone is working with 4 Hands, out of St Louis (drank a decent amount when I lived there. Unimportant but: I still think their label art is consistently some of the most aesthetically pleasing out there), and Bale Breaker (you know hops? Most of them come from Yakima valley here in WA. Bale Breaker is a brewery owned by the folks who own the hop farm[?] on which it is located. Talk about straight from the source!). Sorry Not Sorry IPA is the result of this meeting of the minds.

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-Two things jump out from the initial pour (aside from the AWFUL name): the aroma is just an angels wrap of peaches and juicy tropical fruits and citrus, and second, this is much more auburn than I expected. This is topped with a head of soapy bubbles that settle to their edges pretty quick. Some lacing. Nothing to write home about.
-That aroma though... it just works so much for me. The juicy fruits and peaches and whatnot. Killin' it.
-So... there's a couple of things going on here. What I like: the apricot/juicy hops. A good strong bitter finish. Smoothe body. Unobtrusive carbonation. What doesn't work quite as well for me: the way all these things come together. I've had IPAs that split the line between bitter hops and juicy sweetness really well and it can work. It can REALLY work. Somehow here, though, it doesn't really come together. It should, too. On paper. It progresses from the apricot/peach/tropical sunshine to stone fruit -- you know how plums can be somewhat bitter/sour, especially with the skin, unless you let them get almost too ripe? That's what we're working with here. Which can work! And should be a natural transition from peachy sweet to hoppy bitter. Finish embraces that plumskin bitterness wholeheartedly with some pine and maybe citrus thrown in. All dusted over with the juicy fructose again, and an inescapable alcohol presence.

This beer packs a lot of things I like. And a lot of things I like that should work well together. But it just doesn't come together as well as I had hoped. The numbers still look quite good, and they are deserved, but they bely something unsettling about the experience of drinking it. I think they tried too hard to have it both ways. Sweet and bitter can work together, but here there's something jarring about it, most pronounced in the finish which is lingering in both the plum sour and the peach sweet. Ultimately I can see why some people really like it, and why some people really don't. Don't regret having made the distinction for myself, though I probably won't grab another.


That's enough empty meandering from my fingers. You've all been quite patient to deal with scrolling past this wall of text. My apologies.


You'll have to forgive the mess (well I suppose you don't have to, but I'd prefer if you did. Or not. Do you.) as I'm dead in the middle of packing up to move in three days. Exciting!

 

Greetings again friends,
Just a quick hello, and to say that I have somehow dodged some health "issues". I'm still laying off of the beer, and it is very tough. It is beautiful, very cool, and the trees are still alive with color. People that live here don't think about it much, but damned I live in an old forest and we are blessed by the quietude of years ago.
Here are some oldies that are way better than good, and exist in an iconic territory. Youtube is a truly amazing resource!
Cheers all and please have a nice day. Go Panthers.

 

Yuengling making a hoppy beer, who would have thought that would happen!?!

Yuengling recently released a new winter seasonal of IPL. To the best of my knowledge this if the first hoppy (>50 IBUs) beer that Yuengling has ever made. So, even a brewery established in 1829 is entering the 21st century of US craft beer making!

There is an intriguing video of Yuengling where the initial planning of this beer was part of the video; you can watch that video here:



Do you think that Yuengling which is renowned for producing AAL beers (e.g., Yuengling Traditional Lager, Lord Chesterfield Ale, etc.) can properly make a ‘modern’ hoppy beer? Well, let’s see.

Served in my Spiegelau IPA Glass:

Appearance:

Pours a clear, golden color with a fluffy white heads that leaves lacing on the sides of the glass as I drink the beer.

Aroma:

There is indeed a very noticeable hop aroma in this beer. The first aroma that I perceive is earthy and there is some vegetal in the background as well.

Taste:

The flavor follows the nose with hop flavors of earthy with some vegetal as well. There is a firm bitterness that is accompanied by a noticeable malt backbone. IMO this beer has a very good balance of hop flavors and malt flavors.

Mouthfeel

Medium bodied with a dry finish.

Overall

I think this is a well-crafted beer! I must confess that hop aroma/flavor of earthy/vegetal is not exactly a favorite flavor profile of mine but I think that the folks at Yuengling executed well on this beer. If I had to assign a letter grade to this beer I would do so two ways: for my palate this beer is a B- but if I were a beer judge at a beer competition I would grade this beer as a A- since I do not think it would be fair to dock this beer points simply because this beer is not particularly tailored to my personal taste buds.

There are two other aspects which I greatly appreciate about Yuengling IPL:

· Thank you for putting this beer in brown bottles. If only Yuengling would make the decision to no longer use any green bottles for their other brands of beer that would be awesome.

· I only paid 7 bucks for this 6-pack. This beer is a deal.

Cheers to Yuengling for crafting another seasonal craft beer!!!

 

I have such mixed feelings. As a human being, I can't stand the Cowboys. And that's before the whole Greg Hardy fiasco. As a SW fan, I resent Romo being cast as defender of the light and bastion of hope for the galaxy. But as someone who foolishly signed up to play fantasy football via this very website, with large boxes of expensive beer on the line, and a certain number 9 likely the only thing between me and massive shipping costs...

'Help me Tony Romo. You're my only hope.'

 

great description! I feel like I drank that beer

 

3.85/5 rDev -1.8%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

This brew pours a solid black with a two finger mocha head which quickly dissipates however some remains as a collar. Decent lacing.

The smell is full of chocolate, roasted malts and spicy hops. There is some boozy smell as well. Some fruits and nuts in the background as well.

The taste follows the nose with the thick chocolate and roasted malts in the foreground with spicy hops overlaying everything. There is also a fruity and nutty taste in the finish. Some booze leaks through but it is generally well masked. The booze gives a warming feeling; this is good to drink on a cold night like tonight. This compares very favorably with other Imperial Stouts I have had.

 

You might well be the first person in the history of communication to reference Texas college and NFL football teams, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings in one paragraph!

 

Morning, BA's - first time posting in NBS

Go easy on me!

Many of you likely already know I love Anchor Brewing very much.....a lot to like, for sure!

Their "Our Special Ale 2015" is a delicious hearty holiday brew.....I look forward to these beers every year in November, and they change up the recipe slightly every year, and have lovely label art with a different native California tree adorning it for each of the past 41 years....pretty incredible they have been doing this since 1975!

Anyway, this beer tastes of raisins and dark figgy pudding and all things "Christmas".....I even go as far as ordering a new OSA glass every year from Anchor and have I think, a sample of OSA's going back to 2008....may have to do a holiday vertical this season !

Mouthfeel is medium bodied, alcohol is virtually nil, and it is a bready, roasty beer that is going down great on this chilly winter like morning! Get some and grab some holiday cheer!



http://www.anchorbrewing.com/beer/christmas_ale/labels

http://www.anchorbrewing.com/beer/christmas_ale

 

New Maryland Brewed Coffee Stout Sunday
This one comes from Monocacy Brewing courtesy of @Shroud0fdoom There are just a few minor tweaks that would make this beer significantly better to me. My thoughts below.

3.84/5 rDev -8.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

The pour is excellent. Very viscous. Black as oil. The very dark brown head isn't real substantial, and doesn't last very long even with a hard pour, but it does retain a fizzy ring the whole time.

Smells like roasted coffee, chared grains, some molasses, and a little bit of chocolate. Pretty well rounded aromas, but the coffee is dominant.

When it comes to flavor, the coffee kicks in your front door and punches you in the mouth. There is a lot of bitterness. Very ashy, like burnt coffee grounds scraped off the bottom of a kettle. There is some nice sweet molasses, and a hint of fruit. I continue to let the beer warm, and it improves for me, but am still having a hard time not being overwhelmed by black coffee.

The body is a mixed bag for me. While the base is very full, and has a nice texture, the carbonation is off. Too fizzy. If it were dialed back, I would be in the 4.25 range at least.

As a disclaimer, I am not a coffee drinker. That being said, I love me some coffee beers. This one is actually bordering on Peche Mortel territory in a lot of ways. I gives me glimpses of other phenomenal beers like FBS, Trillium Night and Day, or Terrapin. It just doesn't integrate that coffee profile nearly as well. I would still recommend it. I suspect a coffee junkie would drool into it.


*edit
This beer continues to improve by balancing itself out more and more as it warms to room temp. I may adjust accordingly

 

L - 4 golden orange body. White lingering head S - 4 fruit caramel T - 4.5 fruity, caramel, hoppy after taste F - 4.25 smooth, light but coats the mouth, perfect carbonation with good kick O - 4.25 great IPA! Best I've ever had!

 

Nice that Maria's up at all hours and can get this thread started (maybe not so great for her, though).
It's cloudy and cold here today. Feels like snow, although I don't think any is in the forecast.
My wife and I were in Portsmouth yesterday and had dinner at The Green Elephant, a new vegetarian/vegan restaurant. They have a sister restaurant in Portland which we've been to many times. We're happy that they're in Portsmouth, a fifteen minute drive for us. Nice setting, excellent food. I had peanut curry, which had chickpeas, soy meat, potatoes, and carrots. My wife had Siamese Dream, rice noodles, coconut cream. A wonderful meal, and we will be back many more times. We got home, too stuffed to move. I channel surfed between TCU/Oklahoma, Baylor/Oklahoma State, and Notre Dame/BC. Happy that Oklahoma squeezed out a win. I spent a year there in the late 70s, and got into OU football. The guy who drove the Sooner Wagon at the games lived two houses down from us. I thought Oklahoma State looked outmatched against a Baylor team they should have beaten. And Notre Dame needs to play a whole lot better if they're going to contend for the national championship.

Today for New Beer Sunday I am drinking Smuttlabs Rouge De 'Shire, described as a farmhouse raspberry ale aged on oak chips


The beer was a hazy red/orange color. It had a one-finger head that persisted for several minutes. It was quite carbonated.
Nice aroma of raspberry and sweet fruit/syrup.
Strong raspberry taste. Moderately tart. A light oak taste at the finish.
Medium-bodied, very bubbly.
Nice beer!

 

I was very pleased with this one as well, it's a great bargain also I agree.

 

Hey what's going on...!?

Crazy weekend, I am off to the market to buy a BUCKET TON of food for visiting in-laws who I will have to be cooking up a storm and feast for shortly! Farmers market, then probably the grocery store... that kind of thing.

Been fairly productive weekend, but also busy. Would like some more R&R but there's just too much to do. Luckily the beer fridge is once again stocked nicely with new goodies and many new choices. It's dipping a little cold, we really got spoiled here past week it was ridiculously warm I had NEW TOMATO plants coming up!! ARe you KIDDING ME??

Well anyway getting one in earlier than usual cause I am gonna be off and running shortly on a million errands.

So what is new for our hero today?!

Salted Caramel Brownie Brown Ale (Ben & Jerry's Collaboration) - New Belgium Brewing


New Belgium Brewing Company - Salted Caramel Brownie Brown Ale by imbibehour, on Flickr

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Poured from the bottle into a nonic pint glass. Enjoy by March 2016.

Deep mahogany red, dark with fantastic clarity going through the glass, practically crystal clear if it wasn't so dark. Head is off tan, fluffy and with a nice two finger foamy fine bubbled head. Real nice crown as the beer settles to half a finger, like a bit of whipped topping. Very lovely looking brown.

Aroma hits the spot and is advertised without going overboard. Moderate toasty malt notes, and small but excellent sensing milky creamy chocolate. Not much salty action sensing, but definitely nailed the ice cream character wonderfully. Not even highly sweet either.

Palate brings everything back down to earth. Light bodied but filled with and excellent truly creamy mouthfeel, with a fun bit of prickly fine carbonation on the tip of the tongue on each sip. Milky tones in the mid palate and a bit of sharp brine towards the end but ever so slight. Mild caramel and milky chocolate but also washes a little fast as the flavors tend to disappear a little quick. Lightly sweetened and not even the slightest bit syrupy. There is a taste of chewy brownie and a hint of fudge in here too.

The beer delivers and tastes and reminds me a lot of ice cream. Was also concerned this would be filled with lots of horrific sweetness but it's anything but that. Nice one for a change in the oddity category. If you are looking for a sweet brew though, this isn't going to be it.

look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4 | BA Generated score: 4.12

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I gave a little bit of this to my wife and she found it horribly bitter, which is no surprise. I like that this is also one of those easier to grab NB brews that didn't get overly dumbed down, or just really sweet or something. I had a Genny Salted Caramel brew in the past that was horrifically sweet and was happy that this wasn't some giant sugary mess. Not always impressed with NB but once in awhile they deliver for me.

Cheers! onward