New Beer Sunday (week 604)

Good morning everyone. Thank you @cavedave for even being awake right now like I am. Happy New Beer Sunday. I was walking home from my son's house the other day and I noticed how pleasant the weather is . I love this time of year. September is a lovely time of year as harvest and fall approach. The colors change and after the Oktoberfest it's time to get cozy until the holidays when we will celebrate the season again. You can imagine how delighted I was to find this beer from my hometown Ithaca Beer.



Ithaca Beer Hellish Lager is a fall seasonal and is made with pilsner, two row and vienna malts, German Tettnang Tettnanger hops and has 5.2 alcohol.

What a beautiful beer! Pale gold. A 4 on the srm chart and with a tiny bit of haze. Soft pour with a good head that lasts well for the style.



Nose is sweet grass and earth. Mild white bread with a light crust. Drinks like nectar with a sweet hop herbal and billowy grasses. Expansive malt that is soft, creamy and golden. Spice from hop is surprisingly prominent. This beer also shows you some yeast and if you let it warm you will notice two things, both very subtle. One, a light lemon or citric note to the hop. It's nothing more than a hint. Two a significant flavor that can only be described as the yeast or the beer smell. It smells like German beer! No astringency at all. The finish is flavorful, smooth and has a crisp clean bitterness. I am always amazed at the different textures that the hop can give a beer even in one that has a low to moderate hop presence. The pils malt is golden with a full depth of flavor to it. The vienna gives just a little softness so it's just a bit creamier than breaddy. Hops are gentle, soft billowy grasses. They surprise the finish with spice! Floral also gives soft sweetness to the palate even though the beer is dry. All these gentle and very mild scents and flavors come together sensationally and well defined. Crisp bitter finish. A little bubble but no hard bite so you can see how expressive the malt and hops are. Because the carbonation is not too much all the textures you are getting are from taste. Balanced bitterness shows off the hop character for a brief moment then lets them wane as it finishes decidedly malty.

Pairs well with food in general both spicy and mild. Today it went with breakfast. Other days with spicy chicken and green beans, brie cheese with honey and crackers and ginger nectarine muffins.







Ithaca has said Ta DA! They are known for making hoppy beer and their flagship is a famous IPA but look out because they did this one so well I am betting that they will want to do more. . . I hope they do more. . . they better make some more.

Cheers and congratulations Ithaca on one of the best beers of this year!

Say what you want, just say you love me.

 

Good morning NBS boys and NBS girls! I am an infrequent visitor to NBS because Sunday is the day when my family invariably makes unreasonable and inconvenient demands on my time. However, this Sunday, my children are all leaving on school trips for the week and I hope to be able to snuggle up on the sofa with the missus, a cold bottle of saison and an iPad and have some quality mommy/daddy time... i.e., drinking beer and writing about it.

Like Dave I have no harvesting to do. In my case, the woodchuck had entirely decimated the garden by the beginning of August leaving me nothing to do but mow the grass and sit at the picnic table with my fourteen year-old's airsoft gun and a succession of tasty beverages - getting buzzed and biding my time.

Here's what I hope to be back later to tell you about...

This was entered about a month ago but hasn't been reviewed yet. So, unless somebody gets busy this morning, it looks like I'll be first.

 

New Oaktoberfest Sunday

Mornin' NBSers and special greetings to all you Octoberfest beer lovers and with thanks to @cavedave for this morning's start.

Weather here is cool and dry with rain expected later on for a day or so to help water the lawns.

Turns out today I've a chance for another NBS morning report. (For reasons I won't go into, today I once again get the luxury of a morning new beer. )

This morning's new beer is the Octoberfest from Firestone Walker. (Which seems somehow to fit the start from @cavedave, but purely by coincidence. ) This beer is named Oaktoberfest and the name is a play on words since F-W is located in Paso Robles and Robles means Oaks in Spanish.

As usual my review, mostly finished, appears here:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2210/45148/?ba=drtth#review

On the whole this beer has most of the flavors I associate with Oktoberfest beers. There is some nice bready malt and spicy, grassy hop bitterness and both seem to persist through the medium long finish. For me an Octoberfest paired with Pizza is a near perfect combination. (Guess what's warming for breakfast. )

This beer illustrates for me one of the benefits of NBS. It was reading the comments in NBS by @NotAlcoholicJustAHobby a week or so ago that led me to pick up a single of this beer (well that and the fact I was sure that as a seasonal it was fresh). I like it well enough I'll most likely be going back for more. (Naturally that will be done so that I can fine tune my review. )

In keeping with the play on words used in naming this beer here's a bit of 50's music from two people named Les Paul and Mary Ford who were quite famous in their day and that I found on some of my borrowed vinyl. The duo did a song that includes the word Oaks in Spanish

Cinco Robles

Cheers, all!

 

Good morning New BSers! Thabrewerynk you @cavedave for starting us off in your usual alliterative fashion and @utopiajane for your also usual in-depth analysis of your morning brew. You guys are a hard act to follow!

Well, we got back from the Texas beer and quilt run Friday after a stop at self-appointed quilt capital of the country, Hamilton, MO. I managed to spend a little time at the Ninja Moose brewery/taproom and I am pleased to report that the brews are better than they were last year. I don't know about time healing all wounds but it can certainly help a brewery improve. There is still an odd end taste to the beer (a local water problem perhaps?) but it is much less noticeable than previously. Unfortunately I didn't have time for more than a couple of beers ( a combination of their opening time and my wife's buying habits). As usual, there was one local there and four of us who were either passing through or waiting on our wives. Or maybe 1500 is just too early for most of the local guzzlers.

Anyway, today's entry into the NBS archives is:



$ 10.81 (Including tax)/bomber ($ 0.492/oz) at Spec’s, SATX
Bomber BB 4/22/17 at 42 degrees into a hand washed and dried JK snifter, allowed to warm to 50 degrees
Aroma – coffee with milk
Head large (Maximum 5.5 cm, aggressive pour), light tan, frothy, diminishing to an irregular frothy seven to 10 mm ring with legs and a heaped frothy layer
Lacing excellent -multiple complete rings of mostly tiny to small bubbles
Body – dark brown/black opaque en masse but the stream when it pours is a clear medium brown
Flavor – markedly coffee with a little lactose-like sweetness which hides any roasted malt or alcohol. No hops, no diacetyl. Ends somewhat bitter.
Palate – medium, almost creamy but still slightly watery, soft carbonation

A very pleasing coffee stout, a little on the thin side but still enjoyable. If coffee tasted this good, I’d start drinking it again!

Appearance 4, Aroma 4.25, Flavor 4.5, Palate 4, Overall 4.25.
Rating 4.31, Avg 3.99, rDev +8%

Incidentally, the incoherent ramblings about Hamilton, MO, can be part of clue #2 for NBS BIF.

 

A First for me a Sunday where I can contribute a bit. Coming up is Neshaminy Creeks Bourbon Barrel Creekfestbier Lager. It says it's brewed with blueberries, brown sugar, locally sourced honey, aged in bourbon barrels and conditioned with blueberries, clocks in at 9% Abv. A lot going on for a lager to be sure. But first a few errands and I'm making some hot ass Texas chili today, so the beer will be chilling until things are simmering. Also making stuffed jalipinios, I stuff them with pimento cheese and bacon.

 

Good beer!

(But you may want to double check that entry as what you have may be a new label on a beer that was entered some years ago under a slightly different name.)

@zid

 

Had this last night as a closer, and my (admittedly tired) impressions were that it was an "Oktoberfest pale ale" - in that it seemed to be more balanced than maIty and the hop profile seemed more grassy and, well, American than the more evident spicy trait I'd prefer. But I'll give it another shot, maybe today

 

Summer of Pilsners – The Last Pilsner of Summer is 1896 Michelob

Summer is coming to an end in a few days so for the last Pilsner I will discuss an ‘old’ new Pilsner: a reconstruction of the original Michelob of 1896.

I wrote an article on the topic of brewing a Michelob beer of 1896 (the first Michelob beer) and it was published in Brew Your Own (BYO) magazine in September 2015.

A small extract from that article:

“Adolphus Busch had an entrepreneurial spirit, and while Budweiser was successful, during a trip to Bohemia he was inspired by the local beers to produce another lager to expand his brand portfolio; he was to name this beer Michelob. Michelob was first brewed in 1896, and according to an article in the magazine The American Mercury from the 1920s, at the time, “Michelob was perhaps the best beer ever made in America and the most expensive; it sold for twenty-five cents a glass. In New York, at one bar at least, it was sold for forty cents by a barkeep who told his patrons that it was imported.”

Who wouldn’t want to drink the best “beer ever made in America”?

Unfortunately there are no brewing logbooks existing for the AB beers at that time so reconstructing an 1896 Michelob beer requires some ‘detective work’ with inferences made from articles and technical brewing books of that timeframe. Two old technical brewing books were helpful:

American Handy-Book of the Brewing, Malting and Auxiliary Trades by Robert Wahl & Max Henuis, 1902 (available as a Google e-book)

One Hundred Years of Brewing: A Complete History of the Progress Made in the Art, Science and Industry of Brewing During the Nineteenth Century, (author unknown), 1903.

I brewed my first batch of 1896 Michelob in the winter of 2015. The ingredients of that batch were:

· Rahr Premium Pilsner Malt

· Styrian Golding hops for bittering and Strisselspalt/Saaz hops for flavor and aroma

· American (Pilsen) Lager yeast (Wyeast 2007)

For the second batch I decided to go a bit more ‘Continental’ with:

· Weyermann Floor Malted Bohemian Pilsner Malt

· German Magnum hops for bittering and Saaz hops for flavor and aroma

· American Lager yeast (WLP840)

So, what does a reconstructed 1896 Michelob beer taste like? I will tell you!!

Served in my Polish Pilsner glass:

Appearance:

Straw colored with a HUGE long lasting white head. I actually scraped the ‘excess’ head off the beer with a knife before drinking this beer.

Aroma:

The first impression is the aroma of bready Pilsner malt and then there is light-moderate herbal/spicy aromas from the hops.

Taste:

The flavor follows the nose with a nice combination of bready and herbal/spicy hop flavors.

Mouthfeel:

Medium carbonation, moderate body with a very pleasant crisp/dry finish.

Overall:

This may not be the “beer ever made in America” but it is pretty darn close!!


Cheers to Adolphus Busch for creating the original Michelob beer of 1896!!!!!!

@telejunkie @rotsaruch @kellyst @nc41 @RobH

 

So this is my 1,100 beer and I always try to make the milestone special and this is no exception. Pours a gorgeous bright orange with a 2 finger fluffy white head that leaves behind some spotty lace, as it settless fairly quickly into an out side ring of bubbles. 4.5 Smell is vanilla, butterscotch, fresh baked biscuits, rum soaked raisins, clove, and oaky bourbon. 4.25

Taste follows nice big hit of vanilla and butterscotch up front, with dark fruit, biscuit and oaked bourbon on the back end. 4.25

Mouthfeel is almost medium, plenty of life for its 11.8% ABV, as most barrel aged beers a touch on the dry side, and a sipper that drinks pretty darn easy considering the style. 4.25

Overall this is as always with Firestone a treat. Very complex, impressive drinkability, and a all around excellent beer. 4.25

 

Isn't that a beautiful looking beer! Cheers Jack and Happy New Beer Sunday!

 

Congratulations! That is lovely! =)

 

Good to hear you didn't pick up any Oak notes that some reviewers have reported.

 

Greetings, fellow NBSers, and thanks to @cavedave for getting us underway,

I'm early today because I'm getting off work now. Knowing this would be the case, I did my new beer duties on Friday and Saturday instead.

On Friday I tried a PNW IPA from a brewery that was new to me, from Moses Lake, WA, that was born in a bowling alley:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/34028/233094/?ba=woemad#review
I was underwhelmed, though it may have been due to age.

Saturday I hit a Michigan IPA courtesy of @gopens44, that, likewise was probably suffering from age, but I got enough out of it to conclude it's probably a quite tasty example of a Midwest style IPA when fresh, from a brewery that I hadn't heard of before but is now on my radar.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/29952/176183/?ba=woemad#review

Finally, there was this: a "fresh hop ale" whose appearance on the scene has been much anticipated locally:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/20680/246331/?ba=woemad#review
Man, those fresh Centennial hops are juicy!

(Pics are on Friday and Saturday's WBAYDN threads for those desperately wanting to see them)

One of these beers may soon be in the hands of someone else. That's all I'll say for now, except have a great week! I'm off to bed!

 

Good morning all. Let me start by saying I don't like carrots. Oh I will use them in cooking long simmered recipes but when serving the carrots are fished out of my dish and added to my son's plate. He likes carrots but won't touch broccoli in any form (where did I go wrong) but I would just as soon it stayed in the ground. This morning's beer was previously avoided because it contains something of carrots. I know because it says so right there on the label as obvious as a skull and crossbones.

For years I've consistently avoided this vegetable of the Devil (it even grows in the direction of Hell), but being aware that a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds (Emerson), I decided to venture out from the corner of my box.



Light clear golden color with generous white cap and lacing.

Aroma at first is layered spice infused ripe yellow fruit with a light touch of citrusy hops.

Taste is great. It's Belgium with a bump like the accent touch of a lemon twist in a perfectly made martini. Just enough to be present but not at all intrusive. The usual flavors of banana, clove, citrus and white pepper we often find in Belgian blonde ales are there but in a more subdued way, as if the conductor directed the choir to sing sotto. Malt serves as a foundation but seems present more in the body than the flavor. Aftertaste brings something like a mild nuttiness with just a hint of juicy rather than sharp hops.

Texture is not at all heavy which belies the 7% alcohol.

Overall this is a contemplative combination of elements that makes the complex seem simple, like the shape of a perfect tea rose where all the parts combine together into a most pleasing whole. This beer was made for those sit, think, drink moments.

 

My wife and I need to have our heads examined. We've agreed to watch my sister's yappy cockapoo while she's in Europe. We have three large dogs (two goldens and a yellow lab), and we're not sure how the new addition will fit in. Her dog has been here for brief visits, and everyone seemed to get along. I'm thinking everything will go well, but there's still that bit of trepidation.

Since today is the last Sunday of the summer, I decided to look backward with a summer beer, and not forward with an Oktoberfest. I picked up La Griseta by Oxbow on the suggestion of the proprietor of my favorite store, Spruce Creek Provisions. Before drinking it, I thought I'd look up the definition of a grisette. Griesttes originated in southern Belgium and are typically low-alcohol, light-bodied, saison-like golden ales. They are regarded as beers for the working class.
Oxbow's take on it "is a spelt-based grisette. Mixed fermentation followed by extensive aging in stainless steel creates a tart and fruity character in this refreshing traditional farmhouse ale."

La Griseta is a vibrant clear yellow color. There is a thick white head that dissipates quickly, leaving just a rim of white.
There is a peppery, fruity aroma.
Tart lemon taste, sweet grain.
A crisp, refreshing beer.
Probably my favorite summer beer. And I've had some great ones this summer.

 

Warm and muggy Long Island morning, skies overcast and hinting at the possibility of rain. Football on deck for the day, personally hoping for the Giants and Steelers to do well, but generally just happy to let RedZone works its football crack magic and let the points fall where they may. Narcos queued up in Netflix as a second source of stimulus, and maybe I'll even fuck around in the wastelands of Fallout for a bit, although I seem to have basically conquered that scene at this point.

Grabbed the latest release from Evil Twin at the store on Friday, their Imperial Biscotti Break Raspberry Umami. I am a fan of their Imperial Biscotti Break and its variants - not sure if I've had them all but I've certainly had a handful.

The "umami" in the name made me skeptical. For those unfamiliar, the term refers to one of our five primary senses of taste: sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and, well... umami. I know... It's a Japanese term that indicates something pleasantly savory, suggestive of proteins and meats, and scientifically it is associated with the amino acid, glutamate (found in savory and meaty foods, 'natch ).

So, yeah, not sure where they'd be going with the stout, but here it is, and here I am, submitting its first actual written review... I let it sit out during breakfast and it was fairly close to room temp by the time I got around to popping the cap...

Pitch black pour with moderate apparent viscosity. Produced a slim finger of dark tan foam that slimmed into a flimsy cap and left sparse motes down the inside of the glass.

Aromas of chocolaty molasses and sweet coffee were lightened by something vaguely tart and tannic, with faint herbal impressions as well.

Sweet roasty chocolate malts did in fact have tart berry flavors woven within, and elements of the oak barrels came through cleanly. Not too sure about the umami aspect, though I suppose there was something "pleasantly savory" about the drink, but some of that came by virtue of the feel.

Medium body leaned toward the full side; impeccably smooth and creamy-feeling. A bit of the raspberry tartness gripped the tongue slightly. Finishes with an oaky aftertaste that had a mild drying effect. The complexion of the feel was slightly reminiscent of how your mouth feels after drinking broth, which I'd guess from the name, was a desired characteristic (and I don't mean that it was in any way gross or off-putting).

Another compelling entry into their Imperial Biscotti line. I like berry stouts, like the Bramble and Backyard Ryes from Goose Island, or Pipeworks Raspberry Truffle Abduction, for example, and this hit all of the same marks. I will credit it for having a certain distinction owing to whatever process they followed to impart an umami element, though I don't know if it made it any better or worse. Pretty much broke even with the others for me, but I think I prefer a berry stout to bring something a little more "decadent sweet" rather than "savory pleasant."

4.29/5 rDev n/a
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

Cheers, NBS - here's to new beer in your glass...

 

Good Morning NBS!!!

Thanks to Dave for the buoyant beginning. And Maria for availing us such impeccable descriptions so early in the morning.

It was a late one last night. But I wanted to let you'll know about this one:

Pizza Port's Graveyards APA

look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75 3.79 rDev
Poured straight from the 16 oz can stamped 09/07/16.
loosely packed fluffy white head uses quickly and recedes almost as fast. Scattered head hovers and leaves some nice clumpy lacing. Crystal clear and honey in color.
Smell definitely highlights the hops. Mosaic is evident. Goes in the direction of onion without fully arriving. Also, has some pine and citrusy orange notes. For a pale ale, the hops are really the only show going on in the nose. Not catching any malt notes.
Taste is Mosaic forward, followed by a pithy orange to grapefruit. A bit of earthy pine comes through also. Malt really doesn't come in to play in this APA, beyond a backing role. More of a carrying the hops forward role. Having said that, this doesn't really detract from this beer.
Mouthfeel is spot on, almost slick on the finish.
Overall, not a big thing, but maybe a slight more contribution from the malt would be appreciated. But, I'll think about that later, when I revisit this one...soon.
PLUS...this is going to be one of the rounds in my first salvo heading east in the chaos we are calling Monkeys With Knives (Haul Hint #1)

 

Good morning NBSers finished my yard work and time to drink some beer and watch some football. This morning I am getting started with a Berliner Weisse offering from Grimm brewed with blackberries and blueberries. I have been waiting all week to try this and was very excited, I was not disappointed. The smell really pulled you in, lots of raspberries and blueberries and the tart smell was spot on. The taste IMO was almost the perfect balance between the raspberries and the tart bite. My only issue with this is I do not have another bottle!!







Appearance - Pours beautiful deep raspberry color with thin white tight head that quickly dissipates, not much lacing just a small ring around the glass.

Smell - Loads of raspberry and blueberry, you can smell the tartness very juicy with just a touch of oak.

Taste - The raspberry flavor comes out well the blueberry not as much, pretty dry with very nice tart bite. Little acidic with just a hint of lemon at the end.

Feel - Light feel very well carbonated dry finish.

Overall - I loved this beer, the smell had my mouth watering and the flavors were great it had just the right about of tart bite.

 

Morning NBSers!

Football season is full throttle here in my little world in Aggieland, and we survived our first night game of the year last night at my newspaper ... fortunately, we had no overtimes and, for our faithful readers, Texas A&M won (sorry Auburn fans!). Unfortunately, we blew deadline by a few too many minutes. Oh, well, there's always next week. Plus, it will give me the chance to remind our writers that we do, indeed, have deadlines. Writers tend to forget.

OK, enough fun with emoticons ... on to the good stuff, which for me was a little celebration early this morning after leaving the late shift:



5 Stones Craft Brewery's Sleepy Hollow, a pumpkin ale

The review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/32171/105040/?ba=Premo88#review
3.53 (+0.3% rDev)

Sleepy Hollow is the real thing, an earthy pumpkin ale that has a goodly amount of real pumpkin aroma and flavor. There's just a hint of cinnamon in the aftertaste and almost no sweetness anywhere, just a pinch in the nose. And the earthy flavor is not from hops, not bitter like dirt, just earthy like raw pumpkin. Big points to 5 Stones for authenticity.

However, pumpkin sucks. No offense to you pumpkin ale lovers -- I'm not calling for the death of the pumpkin ale. But there's a reason why you put whipped cream on top of and sugar and spices inside of pumpkin pie: raw pumpkin has almost no taste, and what flavor it does have isn't that yummy. And that's what Sleepy Hollow tastes like ... not much and not that yummy.

One thing about Sleepy Hollow and a real pumpkin ale: It serves as a perfect canvas for barrel aging. I've had the barrel-aged version of Sleepy Hollow, and that neutral-nothing pumpkin flavor fully accepted the whiskey and barrel notes, to the point that all I tasted was whiskey, which led me to wonder "What's the base beer taste like?" Which led me to buy regular old Sleepy Hollow. Now that I've tried both, I'd say Barrel-aged Sleepy Hollow 35, regular Sleepy Hollow 14, to put it in Sunday football terms.

A couple of weeks ago I had a session experiment off the recommendation of good BA to us all and all-star NBSer @TongoRad ... nothing extreme or anything just a short run of Sierra Nevada's 2016 oktoberfests:


You were right, Michael. By beer No. 3 I was *MORE* than ready for another ... and another. Alas, it was a school night, so I had to shut it down after three straight, but I'm picking up another six-pack (or two) and trying a run at four or five in a row. For me, I'm not sure the beer got better the deeper I got into the run, but A.) I didn't get bored and feel the need to switch to a different beer, and B.) I didn't experience that palate-fatigue thing where the flavors disappear and get real medicinal. The flavors really held up well. Good call on your part.

I'm probably done with new stuff until next Sunday, but I look forward to hanging out here and seeing what y'all peoples break out today.

Cheers!