New Beer Sunday (week 605)

That and the hops are the two things that I've always suspected, but what makes me question the water theory is that they have a line of sours/wild Belgian styles that are excellent and completely devoid of this flavor (at least the handful I've had).

 

SurlyFest is most definitely not a "typical" Marzen-style lager - too much rye for that, especially in this year's version. Then there's the whole "dry hopping" thingie. But it's pretty good, IMHO, and you did an outstanding job with your review.

Your brewery pics are AWESOME.

 

Reminds me of a brewery in Utah.

Cheers!

 

Hear, hear!

I think sometimes people assume there are things in beer only based on the name or label that aren't actually there and they "perceive" those things as if they were in the beer. Hell, I probably do it too.

Huzzah!

Wow, congratulations! I was proud with 30 or so of a brewery. That's impressive!

 

I'm with you I'm sick over that Giants loss.
I can't remember when they had so many penalties, turned the ball over numerous times and couldn't stop anybody on defense......Oh wait that was last year

 

Evening folks. Banner day here and I'm privileged to be able read all your stellar reviews. Unfortunately it's going to be a NoNewBeerSunday for me. I'll catch up next week. Keep em coming!

 

Greetings fellow NBSers! After a cloudy morning, the sun has come out for a pleasant late summer afternoon here in the Fourth Corner. I had a fairly beery week, started out with a big bottle share on Monday, and ended with splitting bottles with fellow BA @TheBungyo last night. I had started with 3 pints at a local brewery, had 3 more at a pub down the street, then went TheBungyos. I ended up crashing at his place, making sure to set my alarm for work this morning. Sadly, I set it for Saturday, and woke up when I was supposed to be onsite. Oopsie. I hustled in and got the finish line beer garden for the Bellingham Marathon set up and running, while nursing a stubborn hangover.

I had some other stuff to do, then just hung around waiting to go tear down the beer garden. Finally, my head was better and it's beerthirty. I did get a couple new reviews posted up this week as well:
http://www.taptrail.com/gruff-brewings-the-racket-wish-rock/

http://www.taptrail.com/whatcom-women-in-beer/

My first NBS entry come courtesy of an awesome BA member, @cherche

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/31987/96841/

I'll be back with at least one more entry in a while.

 

New Wee Heavy Sunday!

Again the Rockies let the other team tie or win the game in the late innings. Deceit brew, definitely nothing special. On too some music.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/31807/102715/?ba=Wasatch#review

Cheers!

Fates Warning Theories Of Flight (180G) (German) (2 LPs) (Gatefold) 2016 InsideOut Music NM

 

First Pumpkin ale of the season.



Spooky Tooth Imperial Pumpkin

Fat Head's Brewery & Saloon
Pumpkin Ale / 9.00% ABV

3.39/5 rDev -13.3% | Avg: 3.91
look: 4 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

L- The beer pours a clear beautiful caramel. The head is a modest 1 finger of off white foam. Lacing trails along the side of the glass with each sip. There does appear to be a significant amount of floaters however which detracts slightly from the clarity.
S-The smell is pure spice covering up anything else which might be present. It smells like a cheap candle.
T-The spice presence is initially strong with cinnamon and a bit of clove overwhelming the palate. Eventually the palate gives up trying to get anything else out of the beer. The more you drink it the easier it goes down. Still if your looking for actual pumpkin presence, you'll be disappointed.
F- Mouthfeel is light with a modest prickly carbonation. The beer is quite drinkable despite the 9% abv and high spice presence.
O- If you like pumpkin spices you'll find this beer to your liking. If you want some actual pumpkin presence you should look elsewhere. Overall I'd drink the beer again if offered, but it isn't something I'd buy again.

 

Ah back from a nice hike at Seneca Creek State Park.. man what a perfect day for it too!

On to some beers!

Double Rainbow | Cismontane Brewing Company


Cismontane Brewing Company - Double Rainbow IPA by imbibehour, on Flickr

Poured from the bottle into a Spiegelau IPA glass.

Deep amber red with dark chestnut brown colors, and a great dark gem like crystal appearance. Fine carbonation meeting to a small somewhat three finger controlled head with a bit of creamy and light khaki color. Pill lacing, some good retention and a small island top. The beer just gleams.

Tea and soft to wet like hop aromas emanate off the first whiff. Leafy green and a chewy hop, almost taffy but less sweet and airy toasted bread. Dark notes of toast minus the caramel, leaving sweetness somewhere else but a juicy sensing hop profile with a unique herbality seems to be unleashed. Very impressive.

Palate floats with a bit of syrupy textures and flavors but manages to bring itself back down to earth. Slightly more fruity mid hop palate, juiced with a bit of pine and earthy quality, and an indistinct fruity character. Finishes with toasty and lighter aromas of pine and faint caramel to match. A bit of boozy warmth though on the finish that lingers.

A decent solid amped amber that manages to stay away from thick caramel, but does have a bit of heat that is unexpected.

look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4 | BA Generated Score : 4.09

Cheers!

 

Up next is a brew that will go into my NBS BIF #4, Monkeys With Knives, box. It will be going to a state East of the Mississippi River, and South of the Pennsylvania/Maryland border:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/20680/246332/

 

My NB of the day is brought to me by @SammyJaxxxx. Thanks man!

Long weekend of work during what was probably the best of the year. Beautiful cool days with cloudless skies. Oh well, gotta support the family I guess.

The pour is rosy red with peach and garnet highlights. Light tan head, goes away quickly. Smells of caramel, grapefruit faints of bourbon are in there too. Taste is similar. Caramel, vanilla, bitter hop finish, notes of bourbon, wood. The mouthfeel is where it gets me. Big and chewy, sticky yet smooth. This is an easy drinking, well rounded brew.

Cheers!

 

Swipe Ripe from Castle Island...

Cloudy yellow orange
Thin disappearing head
Strong apricot smell
Semi sweet semi bitter mouth feel
Sticky slight dry finish
Very tasty if you are into fruity dipa's
Nice whiff of fruit every time you tip the glass for a sip. This is a nice offering for a really good brewery

 

I've probably had another dozen or so more that I did not rate, so I've had easily over 100 of them. Boulevard, Founders, and DFH were my gateway breweries into craft, but Pipeworks has been my true love for the three or four years I've been serious about beer. It helps that they are local and the type of guys who will throw anything at the wall to see if it sticks.

 

Good evening NBS, hope everyone is enjoying the end of the weekend once again. Thanks to @utopiajane for getting us started off this morning. Brewed a Citra/Mosaic saison yesterday as I kicked a keg earlier in the week. Got that cleaned out and ran the lines with some oxiclean. Still haven't used BLC on them yet, but I am not seeing any discoloration as far I as I can tell. Still have an empty keg after the saison goes in, so I am probably going to brew something else next weekend. Other than that, did laundry and I will have a pleasant work week. Been pretty relaxed on the workload, because my base vehicle program has already launched. The PHEV version did just start it's second pilot builds last month; but they aren't doing too much drastic changes to it, because it is mostly the same vehicle as the one already in production; except for the electrical architecture and some of the powertrain components.

New beers:

Awesome witbier! Aromas and flavors of big lemon, orange peel, pear, apple, coriander, peppercorn, and clove; moderate wheat/crackery malts; with some hay, straw, herbal, grassy, and light funky yeast notes. Good sized peppery/spicy yeast finish with light herbal bitterness. Light-medium bodied and high carbonation; crisp/refreshing; balanced grainy wheat creaminess and spice stickiness in the mouthfeel; moderate dryness. Wow, I love this one! Definitely some subtle Brett character; but mainly saison yeast going on. Extremely well balanced, awesome mouthfeel. This brewery continues to impress. 4.15


Very nice fruit IPA. Aromas and flavors of blood orange, grapefruit, pineapple, peach, passion fruit, lemon/orange peel, citrus rind, and piney hops; with some light caramel/toasted bread malt; and floral/grassy hop earthiness. Moderate pine/citrus rind bitterness. Medium bodied; sticky/resins and some grainy malt creaminess in the mouthfeel. Moderate resinous dryness, with no lingering astringency from fruit or hops. Really nice balance between fruit and hops; with solid malt backing for bitterness control. Nicely tropical, feels like Simcoe. Good hop vibrancy. Really delicious, would pick up again as singles. 3.88


This was pretty nice. Aromas and flavors of big juicy strawberries, tart/sour lemons, green apple, raspberry, pepper, oak, vanilla, hay, straw, musty funk, leather, and light white wine vinegar; bit of wheat/bready malts. A bit off putting after the finish on flavors: Plastic and band aids, but not too horribly strong. Nice moderate sour finish with some tannic oak/yeast spice. Medium bodied and well carbonated; crisp, dry, and acidic mouthfeel; and not astringent on sourness. Slightly grainy. Fairly refreshing as well given the ABV. I really enjoyed this, but it would have been wayyy better without the plastic/band-aid finishing flavors. 3.7


Cheers, have a good night NBS

 

We got a new friend today, named Jasper. Here he is being introduced to his new buddies-

Jasper's the black and orange one on the left. He came from one of my son's friends who can't really take good care of him anymore, and we're all hoping he'll be happier here. Fingers are crossed...

Meanwhile- I'm enjoying a new beer that I've been sitting on since early September-

Crooked Stave Petite Sour Blueberry

Oh wow, this is good. Nose is vinous, with a good amount of berries. Some other fruit qualities co-mingle, like Macintosh apple and pear, along with some honey-like sweetness. A sturdy platform of oak supports it all, and the tiniest amount of barnyard funk lurks in the shadows. It reminds me more of a blueberry flavored mead than a full-on blueberry wine; here it is sharing the spotlight with the more complex vinous aspects.

The palate ain't pulling no punches- it's quite sharp and acidic. There does seem to be just enough sweetness to keep things in check, but that's all it does. The gentle berry-like fruitiness is front and center for a short bit, before the oak takes over on the long lingering finish. Any contribution from the brett is very subdued, lending a slight earthiness underneath. The more I sip, the more I find myself thinking of tart rose wines rather than blueberries. Then again, those wines do tend to suggest berries of all kinds, so it's interesting to have something coming at it from the other direction.

I'm really enjoying this bottle. I'd maybe make a few tweaks- up the amount of brett, get some more contact with the blueberry skin, just a bit more depth- but overall I'm quite happy with it. A- (4.25).

 

Greetings All from the Great Northwest, finishing up a great early fall weekend.

Today we have 7 Hop IPA from Rogue Brewing.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/132/111176/

Not as good as the 6 Hop IMO, perhaps a little too much of a good thing? More of an Imperial IPA as I taste it. But good.

We had a little trailer trip this weekend down to the Wenatchee Valley. Met up with some friends old and new. Autumn Festival in Leavenworth and all that.

I see in the DBF I am out of new beers, so this probably writes a finish to the Pales and IPAs for the summer season. Not that I don't drink them in the winter, love the SN Celebration Ale, but this time of year I usually go looking for the reds, ambers, Oktoberfests and the like. We'll see what I can find for next week.

Until then,

Happy Trails!

 

Wow. Felt like I was reading a haiku on steroids !!

 

After being gone all week, I've spent most of the day trying to catch up around the house.

The world must certainly be upside down when it was 20 degrees cooler in Vegas when I left than it is here now. We missed breaking an 80 year old record of 100 by a single degree today.

Today's new beer was from my recent trip to Maine. Oxbow's Saison Dell'Aragosta - a Saison brewed with Maine lobsters and sea salt.

I get plenty of tart citrus and saltiness but nothing from the lobster. As a Saison, this is average, but it makes a really nice Gose. Either way, really refreshing on a hot day.



https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/26439/170846/?ba=richj1970#review

 

My last NBS entry for this week is also from the Ninja box sent by @cherche . This beer didn't really push my buttons, and the having to look up batch numbers was a PITA. Mine didn't even have the batch number, it just said Simcoe: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/23347/250402/

The widemouth can was kinda weird too.