New Beer Sunday (week 629)

Our first stop when visiting our daughter is CCB. A month ago I picked up a bunch of Jai Alai and could have purchased a 2015 Hunahpu for $75. I passed.

 

It was a long weekend, but my FIRST Robotics team has qualified for World Championships! One of my best friends just got D1 All American on the track too! First up is a coffee beer from @Geuzedad .



Huss Brewing Company's Koffee Kolsch.

Pours straw yellow with a little fog to it with two fingers of tightly packed white head. Head retention is good with no lacing left behind. Aroma is bolstered with coffee, yeast esters, biscuit and lemon malts. Very lively and smooth. Flavor profile follows the same path with yeast esters, biscuit malts, and a nice coffee addition throughout. Mouth feel is smooth and crisp, with a medium thickness. Overall, this beer sips smooth and crisp, and with the addition of coffee keeps this a fun beer to have on hand. Crisp and pleasant enough for a sweltering day, but tasty enough to sip smooth on a fall day.

Score: 4.5 | 4.25 | 4.25 | 4 | 4.25 | BA Score: 4.24 | rDev: -0.5%

 

Definitely more research! And you're most welcome. What a great post; I'm really glad to see how much you enjoyed it and couldn't wait to pop one open. I think you may be hooked at this point .

I'm making some chili later today, myself. It'll probably stray a bit from the classic Texas red, but it'll get me through the week just fine. I found a market where I can get smoked pork neck, so I've been using a few pieces for flavoring, and it adds a great touch.

Happy Sunday!

 

New to me. Delish!!

 

I opted for the wand without the hard end, just a plunger tip. Tubing fits over the wand and the spigot. Sounds like that one is a nightmare.

 

Been wanting to try one of these for a while now. Not disappointed


4.13/5 rDev +1.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

Pours darker gold. Thick, medium, off-white head that lasts a while with lacing.

Smells Citrus, malty, earthy and dank.

Taste better than smell. Bready malt, strong Citrus, well-balanced with white pine hints and some hints of tropical. Finish is mostly dry with bitter light Pine linger. Higher body and smooth medium carbonation

**Pants aren't mine but I'll wear whatever i want**

 

Thank you! I'll be making another pilgrimage across the state, hopefully another stop at Side Project, and seeing our robot kick some butt

I also got some hardware that I can't wait to display in my office.

 

Happy NBS. How's everyone dealing with losing an hour or their day? I woke up early, but then it was not early because of the time and made pancakes.

I'm taking it easy today with beer and basketball. The WI Badgers are playing for the Big10 title against MI, so that will consume my afternoon. A snow storm will be passing through tonight into Monday afternoon, so tomorrow it will be back to winter. Let's get to the beer!

I received Black Tuesday from NBS BIF #3 and am finally getting around to drinking this monster of a beer. It pours a very dark brown with a 1 finger thin tan head that fades into thin ring. Active micro bubbles keep the beer swirling and dancing on the surface. Aroma is sweeter malts, chocolate covered caramel with vanilla and bourbon soaked raisins. The taste is dessert like, with caramel covered in milk chocolate. Mocha late with some raisin, vanilla and bourbon notes. Medium feel with soft carbonation and some booziness from the high ABV. I'll take the day to enjoy this one.



GO BADGERS!

 

Congratulations! Is it a performance/skill robot or a fighting robot?

 

Up next is a milk stout I found around my hometown that I've never seen before. Come to find out it only has two reviews on here despite being added in 2014. New distribution perhaps? Either way, I'm excited to see what's going on here.



Burnt City's Freight Handler.

Freight Handler pours a burnt and charred black with a finger of khaki head. Head retention is fair with a few dots of lacing. Aroma is pungent with notes of smoke, char, toasted malts, and lactose. The smoke here is only a prequel of what's to come. Flavor profile is dark with hearty notes of smoke and peat throughout. The finish is almost entirely smoke. Toasted malts and lactose work to lighten up the flavor profile a little, but the smoke and peat keep this beer grounded in the dark and earthy sector. Mouth feel is medium in thickness with a pleasant graininess to it. Overall, would be Burnt City an appropriate name for this beer. It's dark, earthy, and filling for a milk stout, but still well represented throughout.

Score: 4 | 4 | 3.75 | 4 | 4 | BA Score: 3.79 | rDev: -1.6%

Personal aside: Wow. This thing is nuts. While I'm not sure I'll be able to finish a glass, it's an appropriate beer for someone seeking a dark, peaty stout that doesn't drink like a meal.

 

Newcastle Brown Ale

Clear and clean looking, brown, small head that leaves a lasting film and ring.
Smells like wet corn and light brown sugar with a good bit of funkiness, like lager yeast, but it calls itself an ale.
Tastes bitter, nutty, and corny with a thin mouthfeel. Aftertaste is like wet laundry with slight bitterness, slight sweetness.
Overall disappointing. I guess I was expecting a decent beer, but this one was kind of a bummer. But whatever, glad I finally tried it. Cheers everyone!

 

Thank you! It's a robot inside of "FIRST Robotics Competition". It's a skill/performance type robot competition for high schoolers. I merely mentor, make sure we end every build night with no separated fingers, and spur up discussion on what would or would not work.

Fighting robots would be wicked neat though. I used to watch one of those shows about fighting robots when I was a kid. The one with saw arms, and flippable bots, and flamethrowers, etc. Neat stuff.

 

Well it is afternoon here in NH with the time change and all. Thanks to Maria for the great start as always. I'm spending another Sunday hunkered down here at home with the 16* temperature right now and wind gusts of up to 20mph. Even the dogs don't want to spend any time outdoors today. I've got the first of 2 boxes of beer to get packed up today so I can get it shipped before the impending blizzard hits here on Tuesday.
My preparations for my annual St. Patricks day bash have been on going for about 2 weeks now when I started corning the 30# of briskets I will be cooking next Saturday. I have over many years got the preparation down to 3 weeks in the brine and the about 12 hours of slow cooking at about 225* in a honey mustard sauce with a quick sprinkle of brown sugar at the end and a quick glaze with a butane torch.
Well it is NBS so for today I have chosen a beer released on Friday that I picked up at the brewery and it is BFD 25 from Great North Aleworks. Listed as one of the brewing ingredients is a 25# block of NH Granite.

Now for the review.

Poured into my snifter from a 12oz can picked up at the brewery on 3/10/17. The beer pours a hazy golden brown color with a thin creamy tan head on top.
The aroma in the glass brings forth the Bourbon Barrel aging (8 months I think was written somewhere) along with the sweetness from the malts used in the brewing.
The taste is wonderful blend of the barrel aging bourbon with the of the malts. There is a nice sweetness in the taste that's blends with the bourbon really well.
The mouthfeel is smooth and almost creamy making this way to easy to drink at 10.8% ABV.
This is a well done beer that hopefully will become a yearly release for this up and coming brewery.
4.24/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

 

Happy Sunday to all! This is my second new beer Sunday and I have to admit that I am starting to look forward to it. Yesterday I went to my favorite ghetto grocery store that sells items ridiculously cheap. This includes meat and beer. This week they had a mountain of Shocktop Ginger Wheat and a couple of pallets of Saranac Clementine Pale Ale. The Shocktop was all of $2.99 a sixer and the Saranac was $3.99 a sixer. I couldn't stomach the thought of Ginger Wheat so I picked up 2 six packs of Saranac Clementine Pale Ale. I enjoy pale ale and don't mind citrus in my beer. It is assumed that this stuff is old based on the price. The bottle was age marked but I have no idea what it meant. So here goes. It was in my garage over a 15 degree night so the beer is cold. Poured a cloudy orange amber with a decent off white head. Some of the head has dissipated but some still remains and it is leaving a decent lacing. It smells like a pale ale with a bitter tangerine-like odor. Kinda like when you squeeze a tangerine skin and the oily juice squirts out. First sip was a mild surprise. The pale ale base is still there and the clementine is present but not overpowering. The mouthfeel is what you would expect from a pale ale and the finish is best described as bitter clementine. I personally have always turned up my nose at Saranac but have to give them credit for this brew. I would rate it as pretty good. Especially at 3.99. I would probably buy more if it were summer and I didn't have a pile of leftover "cheap" beer from past excursions to my discount store which I thoroughly enjoy. I love a deal. Especially on beer and steak (beef loin strips at 2.99 cut to order)!! Enjoy the rest of your Sunday! Cheers.

 

Congrats!

 

When I saw this on a shelf in my local Wegman's I got really excited. I love Tripels, I love salt (I mean, my old username was "Salt-n-Beer") and I love pepper. Combining all 3 did not necessarily sound great, but I was interested to see how they mixed.

However, before I go into how this tasted, I have to confess that I was very intrigued about the text on the label: "...with Himalayan Sea Salt and pepper". By default, Himalayan salt is mined from salt range hills in areas of northern Pakistan that are at least 600 miles from the nearest sea/ocean. If they used Himalayan salt then it wasn't sea salt. It's like saying that a beer is a "Session Imperial Stout" or an "Adjunct Lager brewed according to the Reinheitsgebot". It's just doesn't make sense.

Regarding the product itself, I have to say that I did not enjoy it and had to drainpour it after a few sips. The typical Tripel aromas were there (but on steroids, which made them a bit off putting) while the pepper's only contribution was an intense burn at the end of each sip, which gave you the impression that the beer was even more boozy than it was.

 

Time for a Missouri brew before lunch and a drum session.



Logboat's Bennie Mocha Stout.

Pours straight black out of the can with only a thin fizz of caramel head rising to the top. Pour was straight into the glass at a moderate rate. Aroma is rich with coffee, caramel, and roasted and toasted malts. It's certainly very lively. Flavor profile opens with a swell of roasted and toasted malts carrying notes of caramel, chocolate, and coffee. The finish is a little bitter, but ends with notes of chocolate and coffee. There is a nice dynamic of flavors here. Mouth feel is medium-thick with a smooth, creaminess to it. No graininess whatsoever. Overall, a very pleasant stout that drinks smooth with a huge array of flavors. The coffee is quite nice in this one.

Score: 3.25 | 4.25 | 4.5 | 4 | 4.25 | BA Score: 4.27 | rDev: +0.7%

Personal reflection: While this beer lacks the presentation straight from the can, the aroma, flavor profile, and feel really counteract that initial weakness. I do enjoy the can design quite a bit though.

 

A bit bittersweet beginning this Sunday, packing the truck and heading home from an annual gathering/fishing trip. Weather and other uncontrollable circumstances made the fishing tough but spending time with guys I've known for 30+ years is what the trip is about anyway, our annual get away from the day to day life to enjoy the brotherhood we have is the goal. Stories told around the bonfire, plenty of cold beer, and lots of great food make it tough to go back to the daily grind.
I passed this little brewery while leaving the lake so thought I'd give it a try. Very welcoming atmosphere but after a tough day on the water just grabbed a growler to go.
Main Channel Brewing IPA from Guntersville, AL.
Pour was a slightly hazy orange with thin white head that quickly recedes to a ring around the edges.
Not overly hoppy in the aroma but do catch some citrus. Definitely smell the malt in this one too.
Taste follows suit, I like my IPAs with more of a hoppy bite but this one was a bit of a sweet, malty taste.
I'd give it a 3.75 overall, it was fresh and local so though I'd give it a try. I'll stop in again next year to try some others. Taps were limited to only 4 during my visit, they were working on some St. Paddy's Day brews so they didn't have others available.