New Beer Sunday (week 568)

Good evening NBS, hope everyone is enjoying the end of the weekend once again. Thanks to @cavedave for getting us started off this week. Nothing much going on here, just been chilling out all weekend. Got the laundry done this afternoon, and braved some shitty roads to get my bottle returns, and a couple fresh 6 packs to add to my go-to drinking beer stock.

Here are today's new beers:

Adding to my ever expanding list of Ohio breweries. Every time I go back home there seems to be a new one available. This is a great milk stout. Aromas and flavors of big dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, cream, toasted dark bread, nuttiness, light smoke/char, and light herbal hop. Light-moderate herbal hop/roast bitterness; with a balanced bittersweet finish with a great creamy/silky mouthfeel with some light sticky/chalky notes from the roast malt/hops as well. Absolutely lovely mouthfeel for a 5.3% beer. Medium carb/body; very smooth and drinkable. Very robust and flavorful; with very strong aromas to match the flavor profile. Really enjoyed this. I grabbed a can of their Pale ale as well, so I look forward to it. Also +1 for can dating, it was easy to find. 4.05


Another outstanding Mikkeller beverage. Aromas and flavors of big pineapple, tangerine, grapefruit, peach, mango, melon, passion fruit, berry, lemon zest, orange peel, and pine hops; with moderate chocolate, cocoa, toasted dark bread, and light charred malts; with herbal/floral/grassy hop earthiness. Good sized pine/rind/roast bitterness; with a a nice sticky mouthfeel with a fair amount of creaminess and light roast chalkiness as well. Light-moderate dryness that increases through the glass from hop oils. Fucking awesome beer. A fantastic showcase of the Mosaic hop, very bright and juicy; with a nice robust roasted malt backbone. Aromas were absolutely incredible on the hop brightness. This is something I will definitely buy again. 4.22


This is incredible! Aromas and flavors of big cinnamon, mint, nutmeg, ginger, clove, vanilla, coffee, and cream spice; with balanced milk chocolate, cocoa, caramel, brown sugar, toast, and dark bread malt sweetness; with some herbal/spice earthiness. Light-moderate herbal spice/roast bitterness; with a bittersweet balanced finish with a fantastic creamy/silky medium-full body with some slight sticky/chalky notes from the spice and roast malts. Very smooth sipping with a small lingering warmth of alcohol. This was absolutely amazing. Sure, not as good as regular bomb, but it's getting up there. Seems like they dropped out the chili pepper; and added cinnamon, mint, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice to me. And it works seamlessly in near perfect balance. I am buying more for sure, I already have my beer guy saving me at least one more. 4.35


Great Saison! Brewed with Sorachi Ace and Tettnang hops. Aromas and flavors of big lemon peel, orange zest, grapefruit, pear, pineapple, apricot, white grape, peppercorn, wheat, cracker, hay, straw, herbal, grass, and yeasty earthiness/light funk. Nice moderate peppery spicy finish; very smooth and fairly crisp finish; medium-high carbonation with light-moderate dryness with some light wheat creaminess and hop stickiness in the mouthfeel. Very drinkable @ 6% as expected. Absolutely zero complaints. This is a completely excellent saison across the board. Batch said Summer 2014, but the hop character still has a lot of nice presence; with well rounded yeast complexity and a solid wheat/pale malt backbone. Delicious. I have been really impressed with this brewery thus far after 3 beers, and I got 2 more saisons from them along with this one. The first 2 were an Imperial stout and English porter. I look forward to finding more stuff from them in the future. 4.1


Cheers!

 

Wish I had a picture to post, but I was too lazy to take one. (My phone was dead and I wasn't going up 2 flights of stairs to get a charger). My new beer this sunday was Trillium's PM Dawn. This was a delicious beer. It poured a deep, impenetrable pitch black with a moderately thick khaki colored head that disappeared into a ring around the glass. The smell yielded dark, roasty coffee with some chocolate malts to round out the scent. Huge coffee and chocolate notes came through on the taste. Not much else, but what was there was incredible. Perhaps one of the 3 best coffee stouts I've ever tasted. The mouthfeel was medium. There was a bit of chewiness, and the alcohol was pretty non-existent. I easily polished off the entire 750. Overall, this beer was fantastic. The Costa Rican French roast coffee was one of the best types of coffee that you could pair with an American stout. I was very impressed with Trillium's version of a coffee stout and I'm excited to try the future editions that they have in store for us.

 

Whoops! I initially hit "Submit" without any CANtent & I lay the blame solely at the base of today's gem of a CAN. First, thank you SO much to CaveDave & Utopia Jane for welcoming me back into the fold after my unseemly CANishment a couple of years ago. I will readily cop to not having been within the lines of the weekly CANloring book, but I was duly baited & yet, I was the only one CANished.

O, my Droogs, so much has CANspired in the inCANterim! New craft CANs hit the market every day & even the Ball CANporation CANnot keep up! Russ Phillips has folded his CANtent due to an inCANtibility to maintain CANgizance! I have been preaching the uncanny power of the aluminum cylinder for almost a decade & while I was once deCANried as a CANrank, I am now known far & wide as Bro. Woody with the Order of Disorder, creator of The CANQuest (TM), my ongoing & unending mission to Crack! open, Glug, drink & review EVERY CANned beer in existCANce.

Today, I bring you a Minhas gem! Who or what is MInhas? you CAN ask. Ladies & CANtlemen, I put a face to one half of the devil(s) inCANate: http://www.cbc.ca/dragonsden/blog/meet-new-dragon-manjit-minhas & her brother, Ravinder, purveyors of the worst swill in CANs ever foisted upon an unsuspecting public.

CAN't buy my claim? Here is today's review of CJ (Crunk Juice) Fruit Punch:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/435/163019/?ba=woodychandler

 

So late to the party:

... but there she is, Mad Meg from Jester King, my new beer this Sunday night.

Review:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/24018/77846/?ba=Premo88
4.2 (+8.5% rDev)

Take Jester King's signature musty barn farmhouse flavor, double the ABV and you have it: Mad Meg. The aroma has a little more tart lemon/grapefruit to it than the flavor, making it closer to their foundational notes. The flavor clearly is loaded with malt ... after smelling the beer for a few minutes, that first sip almost comes off as bready it's so chock-full of malt. As you get into it, the flavor settles more into the musty barn range, but there's still an obvious malt presence you don't always encounter in Jester King's brews -- tastes a little like oranges/orange peel.

I like the beer a lot. It's not one I'll revisit often for myself (25.4 oz. bombers at 8.9% ABV are always a big commitment for us solo drinkers), but along with Ambree, this Mad Meg might be as good a "gateway" as there is to handling Jester King's earthy barn-must flavor. That malt is quite a balancing agent.



Mad Meg apparently is a badass with the hand-to-hand combat:


At a glance, I saw some cool-looking brews, pics and stories from you friendly NBSers in here ... time to catch up (in between housework ... mom is coming in next weekend for our Star Wars Episode VII excursion, which is going to be so incredibly epic words can't describe a tenth of it, but if I don't get more of this cleaning done, she is going to find a wooden spoon and go Mad Meg on my arse! ).

Cheers, NBSers!

 

Well Hello Late Night NBS...
Thanks and Maximum Respect to our benevelont @cavedave for getting the ship sailing in the right direction.
My new beer is a porter...imperial porter? It's called Champurrado by Taps in Brea, CA. It's a very interesting beer. It's shooting for the Mexican breakfasst drink which traditionally is a bit sweet, very think and chewy.
This one pours dark brown, almost no head. Does begin a bit sweet, but it goes in a malty, coffee roast meets a hint of toasty cinammon. Rounds out in the mouth with hints of fig. Mouthfeel is fairly full for a porter. Interesting drink.

Had many more last night, finished around 12:00 midnight with Project PAM (thanks to our generous NJ Beer Czar @SammyJaxxxx ) as well as Darkstar November from Bottle Logic -stunning, 4Hands Madagascar - beyond stunning for me, mixed reviews by others imbibing), and many others I won't try to comment on here. I have to go over my notes, and NBS will be closed.
Notable others: Fou Foune, Hawaiian Speedway, BBA PT5 copper wax (Pappy?), Beechwood Rye Like an Eagle, Quetsche Tilquin, Bretta Rose (Firestone Walker), Utopias 2015...

It was a fine evening...and I actually remember it (mostly)

 

Hello all. It finally was like an actual winter day here in Cleveland today, as the temperature dipped down into the 20s and we got about 2 to 3 inches of snow through out the day. This is only the 4th time or so over the past 3 months or so where it actually feels like winter. Contrast that with it being in the lower 50's yesterday and one being able to be outside quite comfortably with just a sweatshirt on! They say if you don't like the weather in Cleveland just wait 5 minutes. Ain't it the truth. So I stayed inside pretty much all day today and just took it east. I only stepped outside to de-ice my car and put it in the garage so I won't have to take the time to do that before I go to work tomorrow. So my weekend is ending with a Drafty Kilt Scotch Ale from Monday Night Brewing out of Atlanta, GA. That's my new beer. Have a good week all! http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/26516/71870/?ba=neenerzig

Eric

 

Enjoy your bonus time with Charlotte!

My vet made a good diagnosis with this dude years ago, and my last year with big Poncho was the best:

Poncho died in 2011, but having the extra time with him was pretty dang cool.

Good luck!

 

Those look great can you tell us a little something about the beer? The style, the appearance the taste the nose . . .

 

What made it so good? can you tell us a bit about the beer itself?

 

Good morning my fellow NBSer's. As always I'm writing this on monday morning as I always feel I think more clearly then if I do it after enjoying several brews and that is especially true this morning as the brew in question has a ABV over 10. Its been warm so far here in Jersey but winter is starting to show up. It was a chilly, rainy start to the weekend. I work every saturday at my 2nd job and normally I spend part of the day sorting out my beer stops for when I get out. Beer menus etc help with that. But then one of my co workers calls out sick which means 2 things - I have to stay until closing ( not a bad thing, I can always use a little extra $$$ ) but also means they need someone for sunday. With all that in mind I decided to put off my beer run until yesterday. So there I am working a little but mostly planning where I was headed when I got out. I had finished off a Growler of Kane Head High sat night so I decide why not get a re fill at the Liquor factory in Sparta. As I'm checking their site to see what else is on the Growler list for the day I remember that on the way I pass Taphouse 15 which looked interesting and I had heard good things. Why not make a quick stop on the way back right ?
As I always do when I'm going to a new spot I check to see if they have a website. I'm checking it out and everything is looking good, then I get to the most important item on any site - the beer list. Well, they have an excellent one. I'm going over it and notice they really support NJ brews - this is good. Then I see it - Kane's Silent Nights. I have a 32oz Growler of it at home that I'm saving until some work on my house is finished and I'm extremely curious about it.
My trip to the Liquor factory is a success as I picked up some Carton sit down son cans while getting 2 Growler fills, one of Kane Head High as well as one of Cartons 077xx. I head back with my haul and pull into Taphouse 15 a happy guy. I walk in and the place is pretty crowded but there are some open stools at the bar - perfect. Bartender comes right over and I order a Silent Nights. He nods in approval of my choice and comes right back with the brew overly foamy - to his credit without my saying a word he says " sorry, my bad - let me get you a better pour than that " well done sir. The second pour was perfect and damn this is one fine brew to look at. Jet black with a perfect foamy head. Nice aroma, all good so far.
Then I tip the glass and take my first sip. OMG - Few Brews have hit me like this one. I think I could actually hear angels sing. Holy crap this is an amazing brew. So tasty I almost wanted to chew it. Super smooth and easy to drink but with so many layers of flavor. Some others around the bar must have noticed my reaction and asked what it was, by the time I left 1/2 of the bar had one in front of them and everyone had positive comments. I went home afterwards and took a nap. What a great day and a great way to end a weekend filled with killer NJ brews. Friday night I was at Magnify, sat night I enjoyed some Kane then yesterday. The Jersey beer scene doesn't get the love that some other states do yet but here we come folks. With Kane, Magnify and Carton leading the way, the future is bright. Rinn Duin and Crickethill put out some quality suds as well. There's more but I don't want to comment on any brewery's I haven't been to personally.
Cheers

 

I was fortunate enough to get this one (along with the standard version) in a BIF box affiliated with this very thread sometime last year. While I'm sure pricepoint (freee!!!!!) didn't hurt, I concur that this is a fantastic beer in its own right. Cheers!

Yeah, I vacillate when it comes to Mr. Newton (and the Panthers in general, but that's a whole another long thing). I understand how divisional rivals especially would take umbrage at the fact that they have not been shy about how much fun they're having this year, and it does get kind of irritating at times, but my feelings ultimately... really what's the harm? They've earned the right to enjoy themselves, because they've been incredible this year (which will hopefully end next week for you guys ), and especially compared to much of what we've seen across the league, really the general public (at least as measured by the internet...) is almost as outraged about the presumptive MVP dancing as they are/were about some of the very real, very dangerous individuals we still see celebrated (Adrian Peterson, anyone?)? I feel like there's a lot of similarities between the two teams (success built off of a tough defense first, with up and coming charismatic young dual threat quarterbacks, and no name brand receivers... right down to the outspoken but effective cornerback at the heart of the secondary and the DROY and his runner up [I still maintain Wagner should have won that year, but I'm very biased...] at MLB.... I could go on). Anyway, point is, I hope we beat you guys next week. But if we don't, I can't be mad about your success and would probably pull for them over any of the other remaining contenders.

I don't know if "very good" is realllllllly that accurate, but I'll take the outcome!

 

The game did keep my interest. I do feel for Blair Walsh.

 

I suppose I should be sure to post before the thread is closed up for the week, but my other beer from overnight (monday morning is still my Sunday... night shift ftw!) is a brew my brother brought me on his way back up from California. He knows that beer is a passion of mine, so he will typically bring me a couple of bottles when he comes back from his sojourns, be it mispours from the brewery his frat brother... works at? runs? anyway, is somehow involved in. Or Alaskan beers from his summers fishing or just random pickups like this.
Kismet, by Mother Earth Brewing (in addition to being a beer/brewery name combo that feels like something straight out of my upbringing) is a pretty interesting IPA. I had a few initial concerns as to the freshness of this and the other brew he brought up (Mongo IPA from Port. I can find it here in Seattle, but he wouldn't necessarily know that and it's more about the thought shown by bringing it up here than anything else), as he had picked them up because they were 50% off at the Total Wine or Liquorama or Albertson's or wherever the hell it was he had picked them up while visiting his alma mater, so I assumed they were old. And Mother Earth doesn't date their bottles, just the cases in which they are packed, so I didn't have a great reference point (I think I can make out most of a date on Mongo though, and I think it's from last September. So not ideal, or really even preferable, but not the end of the world.). Anyway, after I wrote down my thoughts about this brew I perused the other reviews, and comparing them to my own experience, I didn't feel like my drink had suffered any drastic changes or fallings off compared to the experience of others. Is that long winded enough of a backstory/explanation yet?


Kismet is gorgeous in the glass. Dark dark amber, like high quality raw honey, with a nice white head that would could sit atop the shoulders of a stuffed rabbit, said head eventually settled into its corners, but maintained a presence throughout, and left its mark on the glass. Not grandma's lace, but more the isolated dust trail of sci-fi jetwash. Sure. Go with it.

While I rated the appearance higher, I think the nose might have actually been the most enchanting and enticing aspect of this beer. I had texture. Deep and layered, it presented its hops and malts wound strongly together to become a unique presence. The thick honey/caramel of the underlying body supported an interesting milieu of incense and earthy/woody pine and almost floral but not quite... It was interesting. It was enticing.

I enjoyed the taste as well, but not nearly as much as the aroma. The promise and depth shown on the nose proved to be a much shallower, more dulled experience to the tongue. Many of the same themes came through, but it was somewhat more pastel, the tips sanded down and was more of the dull earthy pine with green veins emerging to a finish long and thick with that honey/caramel, pine bitterness and earthy now-itude-ination-ification-now I'm just trying to force this to wrap up.

Point is, this is a unique beer, and one I enjoyed. Not even throughout, and showed more promise than followthrough, but I would easily drink it again given the opportunity.

Hope the beginning of the week is kind to you all, and cheers!