New Beer Sunday (week 597)

Finally one last cap for the night... nice end too..

Black Malts And Body Salts | To Øl



To Øl - Black Malts & Body Salts by imbibehour, on Flickr

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Poured from the bottle into a snifter glass.

Creamy frothing two finger light tan colored head. Settling like a light coffee vanilla scoop of ice cream on my glass. Thin bubbled, with a light top but some nice staying power, and a very attractive puck. Body color gives a simple dark walnut brown, not quite black and very opaque.

Muted nose for an aroma. Soft malts and hits of char, maybe a bit of black licorice squeaking in. Coffee angle is not that noticeable, some nice fruit tones come in, hinting towards red berried dark fruit but very small. The subtlety is actually nice, but I feel like I should expect more.

Palate luckily brings more of the goods. Lots of deep dark roasted malts on first sips. A near velvety mouthfeel that fills the palate with lots of char and dark chocolate roasty character. Mild sweetness almost milky but not exactly, with a nice mild sensing chewy hop angle, mild sensing mint and choclate that balances wonderfully. Silky minty aftertaste, lingering senses of after dinner mint breath.

A real nice brew, hints at some excellent minty hop character and chocolate without all the added extras. Wonderfully put together, just needs the aroma on the nose to get the home run.

look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25 | BA Score: 4.06

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Cheers all!

 

Night cap, Burley Oak Rude Boy.
4.19/5 rDev +7.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

16 oz can poured into a pint glass

A- A clear ruby red with a two finger off-white head.

S- Sweet, dark fruits, raisins, hints of cherries, molasses, some sweet bread, floral/earthy hops.

T- Dark fruits, dark bread, some caramel malts, brown sugar, some earthy/floral hops, touch of rye, nicely balanced.

M- Smooth, light to medium body.

O- An easy drinking beer, definitely for 8% ABV. The idea of a session Barelywine is a fairly good description of this. Worth picking up!

★482 characters


Cheers!

 

Sorry...new to this. It was great. Strong citrus scent...especially grapefruit. Really inviting. Super flavorful and drinkable. One of the best beers I have tried...very happy I made the trade (I traded Heady Topper for it and Pliny was a better beer to me...but to each his own).

 

Grimm Subliminal Message.



Pours a 1/2 inch head which reduces to a ring fairly quickly.
Very nice nose of cherries and oak.
Nice sour cherry on the palate.
Feel is better than most.
Overall this is the best Grimm sour I've had and I want more!

 

Now I'm at River City Brewing, and I'm drinking their Downtown Cream Ale, a collaboration with numerous other downtown breweries for Spokane Craft Beer Week. Each brewery used the same basic recipe, but with their own wrinkle. River City brewed their version with ginger. The ginger is a subtle aftertaste rather than a blow to the head and sinuses.

Before that, I had a Tart Saison brewed as a collaboration with Perry Street Brewing that lived up to it's name while still retaining a classic Saison profile.

 

If my post had anything to do with that, I hope you banish my words and go into Sumatra Mountain with an open mind... but I doubt you'll have any trouble with that. BTW, if you haven't already, check out the Gun Hill thread in the regionals.

 

I love this website and the people on it. How else could I come home from work on a Friday to 17-day old Zombie Dust on my porch for no other reason than someone wanted to share. Awesome, just like this beer. I'm jealous of those of you who have regular access to this. I love APAs, and this one is brilliant.



17 days old poured from a 12 oz bottle. Pours golden amber color with minimal white head which quickly disappeared leaving minimal lacing. The smell is strong citrus (mostly orange) and hops, as would be expected from a citra-hopped APA. This borders the edge of an IPA, but it's done brilliantly. The mouthfeel is strong carbonation but smooth. The taste is all citrus, orange,and hops with almost no lasting bitterness but a good malt balance on the back end. This is an outstanding beer that would be a daily drinker for me if I had access to it.

 

I'm finally connected. Probably should be brief. Found a new brewery to me today - Bosque Brewing Co. from the ever expanding Albuquerque,NM scene. Drinking 'Just For Fun' an imperial black IPA, clocking in at 8.7% and a hefty 90 IBUs.



Black pour w ruby c thru; huge puffy, close knit khaki foam; heavy lacing. 4.5



Wet dank tropical fruit and dry earthy hop nose! 4.25

Dank weedy bitter hops/passionfruit and mango bitter orange rind; earthy wet forest floor w/ lite skunky-oniony middle; caramel malt subtly supports multiple layers of fresh hop/fruit flavors. 4.5

Medium lite mouthfeel moderate carbonation and sticky resinous tongue coating. 4.25

Overall a bitter earthy linger dripping w juicy tropical fruit. Great balance btw weedy, fruity and earthy flavors. I love finding beers like this - world class! 4.5

 

Got this one on my last trip to Jester King and I'm finally getting around to trying it:



It seems crazy to say that my least-favorite gose is a German import from a brewery trying to make historically accurate renditions of the style, but ...

Braustelle's gose is good but it's flat, not very tart, not very salty and not very grainy -- it's not the things I love most about our American-made goses. This brew has me wondering f we've tricked up the style to fit our palate.

A couple notes on this brew:
1. The first whiff off the head is FUNKY ... sour, salty, seaweedy ... like a half-dried out beach towel that's been sitting in a corner of the car for a few hours. And that note shows up later in the aroma, but in the interim ...
2. This beer at times smells like a fruity English pale ale/German helles/dormunder/pilsener ... super bready and apricot and sweet. How this brew can pull Nos. 1 and 2 at more or less the same time? You tell me.

The review:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/10574/91086/?ba=Premo88#review
3.79 (0% rDev ... no kidding)

I like the beer, but I like our goses (Jammer, Otra Vez, Martin House's Salty Lady) much more.

Cheers!

 

Lotta great people take part in this thread. Virtually all the beer trading I've done has been through it, and I've no complaints.

 

Got to have Perennial's 17 Mint Chocolate Stout tonight - splitting it with 2 friends. Really tasted like an Andes candy in beer form (meant as a compliment). Lovely dessert beer. Hope to someday try the barrel-aged version...

 

My wife thinks I'm nuts that "complete strangers" know our address and send beer for no reason. She thinks I'm equally nuts for bubble-wrapping beers and mailing them. She knew what the box was the minute she saw it from the driveway. I told her there are no strangers on BA (although possibly some strange people...)

 

Still not a style I am really into. I keep trying to get on the sour train but I think its not for me. I don't think I could ever say, "Damn I want that sour over that Belgium quad or ba stout.

 

Showing up for last call
Westbrook Siberian Black Magic Panther
This is good but still a bit hot at about 4 months bottled. Contemplating on getting another to let it age, wish I could find one of the BA variants.

 

Getting a late start tonight.

Trying this one from Singlecut
Softly Spoken Magic Spells.


This is the first time it was bottled and it is in high demand. I managed to get 2 bottles. It is 5 days old-pays to drink local.

Here is my review:
4.61/5 rDev -0.9%look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5

Poured from a bottle dated 5/17 A: Hazy golden beer with a finger of light head. Quickly subsides to a ring. Light lacing S: Subtle hints of citrus rind, pine grapefruit pear T: similar to the nose Citrus rind, grapefruit juice, pear apple and hints of pine MF: clean crisp hint of the 8.6% alcohol O: I was expecting a N.E. style juice bomb. This is so much more subtle and interesting. The juice and bitterness balances itself nicely. This is a special beer.

Pairing this with Dark Side of the Moon
Softly Spoken Magic Spells is a lyric from Breathe

 

Hello Again NBS and I guess it's time for Late Night NBS.
Stunningly glorious day here in So Cal. Radiant sun, immense cumulus clouds scattering shadows far and wide, cool breezes carry sweet blooms of jasmine, and countless other spring blessings. I love that spring hasn't fully abandoned us.

Thanks to @ONovoMexicano for this divine Pils from the Land of Enchantment.
BEER by La Cumbre

4.3/5 rDev +6.2%
look: 5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

This is one of the best Pilsener style beers I have ever tried!
Pours a luminous straw color. Giddy head leaps from the pour. Dear Lord, this is the clearest beer I have ever seen. New category? KristalPils? I coould actually read the can THROUGH the glass. Amazing.
Smell is slightly sweet and hints of floral and spice.
Taste is sublime, subtle waves begin with a bready malt sweetness then moves to a little hop spice. Finish is understated hop bitterness that taps down the sweetness.
Keeps a mild carbonation throughout.
Overall, a GREAT beer.

 

Awesome to see that you enjoyed this. Hope all is well, man!

 

Well I was wondering what was going to be my LNBANBS (whattup @2beerdogs!)offering, and as I'm scrolling through the day's posts I see a picture of something sitting in my fridge and it is decided. I didn't read your impressions before I cracked my bottle, just froze the page and started drinking and thinking. I didn't get as much bourbon as you seemed to, and mine seemed almost more akin to an Old Ale than a pure Wee Heavy but I think we can absolutely agree on the outcome: this is a damn tasty beer.My gratitude -- once again -- to @WesMantooth for hipping me to this here bottle as part of his NBS BIF#3 (the BIF that won't die! Seriously, there are still random ninja strikes hitting poor unsuspecting souls every once in a while like a mobile minefield of generosity). Thanks Corey!

It's funny, though, that you mention Backwood's Bastard. Because I happen to have a couple of Backwoods Bastards on hand. Mayhaps a follow up with comparison is in order? Seems so! I actually have a couple of older bottles in my 'cellar' (I really need to start going through these instead of just letting them sit and probably go past their peak), but I opted for the 2014 bottle that Corey sent along in the second salvo of his incredbile NBS BIF#3 box. I figured this kept the theme tight, but it also offers some chronological stability. Who knows what five years sitting will do, so is it really fair to compare a new (or at least newer) 'competitor' to one that's been sitting for a while? There's minimal information to be gleaned there, too many confounding variables. Keep it tight.

Thirsty Dog Wulver and Founders Backwoods Bastard (2014) are both delicious BBA Wee Heavys. Let's just get that out of the way right off.

Appearance-wise I am torn. The Backwoods Bastard appears somewhat lighter, more translucent and less body, with the Wulver offering a deeper richer tone and palette. What passes for head though trends me towards the Bastard of the North, though, as it proffers a much cleaner smoother ring of white, and there's something mesmerizingly gorgeous about the fine detail of the collection of carbonation this one presents while the Wulver was more a collection of big brash brutish bubbles.



Nose leans towards the Wulver I must say. The depth and richness of the caramel and toffee with the gentle interplay of the oak and vanilla just win out over the broader spectrum appeal of Jon Snow's boozy raisins with leather and dried fig and sure there's some toffee there too as well...

Flavour. Now ultimately, this is probably the most important attribute. I give just the slightest edge to Ramsey Bolton's (nee Snow) lineage (yes I just finished watching Game of Thrones. Yes, I got mildly emotional during the big moment that I won't spoil for anyone who hasn't seen it who plans to). While both feature quite similar palates, and both are very clearly very well executed, I feel that the Bastard plumbs the subtle tendrils slightly deeper than does the Wulver. The Wulver hides its alcohol content masterfully, and shifts the focus more to the old ale-esque leather and tobacco leaf, while maintaining nods to the toffee and caramel that brought us here, using the oak and vanilla of the bourbon as layers to keep everything close to centre. The Bastard though takes many of the same notes and plumbs their depths juuuuust that much deeper, and uses the bourbon's offerings to bridge and bring together, ensuring a minimal presence of cracks, rather than bringing laying it in and using it to fill in the cracks.

Both of these are fantastic BBA Wee Heavys as I state above and both should be sought out and enjoyed. But I have to give just the slightest edge to the Backwoods Bastard.
(though if memory serves, I feel even slightly more affinity for Black Raven's Splinters. Next year I'll pick up enough that I won't have to ship off my only bottle!)

 

i'm withyou 100 percent on that.