New Beer Sunday (Week 662)

It’s Halloween week which means two things: I’m on vacation and/because my birthday is on November 1. I always take this week off, and Halloween is my second favorite holiday next to Christmas. It is by happenstance that today’s new beer has a lovely Dia De Los Muertos theme to it.

Fulton Brewing’s Specter IPA
7.1% ABV

3.93/5 rDev -3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Poured into a shaker pint glass.

Look: Opaque thick straw yellow with a slightly burnt yellow hue. The head is white and sea foamy with spectacular sheets of lacing.

Aroma: Orange peel zest, subtle grapefruit rind, spicy zesty hop aroma with a musty note.

Taste: Immediately juicy with orange citrus and grapefruit bitterness followed by a yeasty, musty taste not unlike another well-known west coast brewer.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied, dry.

Overall: Wanted to like it a lot more but the musty dank component prevented a higher score.


The weather here is spectacular! Sunny, low 50’s, the leaves are all colors. I love this time of year. I may be back with a second new beer later. Cheers!

 

New beer #3. Talk about a great trade extra!

Beelzebub - The Alchemist
American Imperial Stout - 8% abv
Undated can
Score: 4.17 (+0.2% rDev)



L - mocha 2-finger head atop a deep black body. Head lingers for several minutes.

S - chocolate, molasses, toffee, burnt coffee, booze.

T - a smoky start leads to a charred, bitter middle. Very little sweetness.

F - thick, creamy body.

O - This is the opposite of a dessert stout. Extremely bitter, with smokiness being the most prominent taste. More a Cascadian Dark than a stout. I dig it, but not at all what I was expecting.

 

Reading novels is one of the most enjoyable pleasures of life. I rarely have time to read these days but do on occasion and there is absolutely nothing better than getting lost in a good book, like you said no matter the format.

 

I'm very happy that it is NBS even though I will be outside raking up leaves for a few hours. I have been busy since Thursday evicting a chipmunk from the attic. Had to find and plug up the hole along the side of my roof. Yesterday I had to replace a surprise dead car battery. Better at home this time of year instead of a parking lot in the middle of winter.

My new beer is Risk from Good City Brewing. It pours a clearish orange color with a 1.5 finger white head that leaves behind a collar and patchy lacing. Good amount of citrus, grapefruit and unripe orange peel. There is a light caramel, honey, and bread malt aroma blended in. Some pine lingers. Bold bitterness of citrus, grapefruit, unripe orange, and some pine. A good sweetness comes in after of bread covered in honey and caramel. Finish has some interesting lemon drop like flavor along with piney bitterness. Great use of the hops in this. Medium body with full carbonation. Bitter and oily on the palate. I think this is a nice cross of old school / new school IPA from Milwaukee.

 

not one of the better pix I've posted on here, but it's Brown's Intonation DIPA.

My son wants me to carve the pumpkin in the background to Optimus Prime, (oh boy, I have my work cut out for me, might be back later with a pic of that depending how well my "pumpkin carving skills" turn out,





as for the beer:

The aroma had some sweet grapefruit hop spice/zestiness riding on into some light citrusy pulpiness and pouncing on the bitterness portion of the rind. Just a touch of grassiness came in underneath.
The flavor seemed to have a nice embrace of the balance between sweet to spicy to zesty and doing a fairly decent job of pulling in the bitterness. Light portion of wheatiness. Aftertaste seemed to grab a bit more of the bitterness while pushing back the spicy/zestiness.
The mouthfeel was about medium bodied, perhaps just a hair under yet gave off a fairly decent sipping quality due to the harshness of the bitterness bite. I didn't mind so much for me, but I can see how a ton of people are possibly going to write this one off. However, the carbonation and the ABV are both on par by the brewer.
Overall, as a DIPA, I say this one gets it done right! Give it a little bit, let it warm and in my opinion, I say this seems to bring that "old school" DIPA bitterness to the ring to play with some "new school" DIPA hop aromas.

 

My favorite book is easily Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. When I read the book the first time I was a burnt out college senior. A few mistakes had lead to me not getting into grad school like I had planned. Reading about a guy basically checking out of the material world was great at the time and really hit a nerve. Never ended up in grad school but have continued my education some. I have wrote a paper or two over how the book effected me since that first reading. When I opened this tread this morning this was the first book that came to mind. I had the soutrack on today while I cooked lunch.





4.47/5 rDev -1.1%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

A: Body is a very orange juice colored body. There wasn't much head or lacing in the beginning. Enough carbonation to keep a small head and a light lacing while drinking. Color is good but head/lacing is lacking.

S: Big fruity smells out of the can. Grapefruit seems to be the predominant smell. Also picking up some oranges and lemons. Very good aromas.

T: The tastes mimick the smell well. However, the oranges seem to overpower the grapefruit.

M: Very soft mouthfeel. Easy drinking beer. The carbonation has a slight tingle/burn feel to it. Flavors of this one hide the booze well.

O: Very good beer. Only thing missing is the head/lacing on the appearance.. Everything else about the beer is top notch.

 

Do whatever is necessary to secure their BA Scotch Ale - financial malfeasance, trampling little old ladies, whatever it takes.

You're welcome.

 

Finally getting to try FFF Broo Doo thanks to @bstyle!
4.25/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Thank you bstyle for this
22 oz bottle poured into a teku

A- A clear bright copper color with a three finger white head

S- Piney, slightly dank, floral, citrus, mandarin oranges, some stone fruit, touch of tropical fruits, some sweet malts.

T- Oranges, citrus, pine, resin, floral, some sweet bread, slightly tropical.

M- Smooth, medium body.

O- A very nice classic IPA, great bitter finish. Worth seeking out.

It is a great example on a well done wet hop IPA, with a classic piney finish that is missing in a lot of the hazy IPAs, cheers!

 

Greetings, fellow NBSers, and thanks to @lordofthewiens for getting us going this crisp, fall morning.

I'm someone who tends to be reading 3 or 4 books at a time at any given moment. My domicile is essentially a storage area for books and CDs (and beer!) that also happens to include space habitable for a human being as something of an afterthought. Right now I'm concentrating on Citizen Vince, a novel by local writer Jess Walter. I found a signed copy in a used bookstore in Coeur d'Alene a couple weeks ago and bought it with the intention of giving it to my Mom for her birthday next month (I recently had a conversation with her about literature that had led to talking about local authors like Sherman Alexie, and I found she was unaware of Walter), so I'm going to blow through it first. I've temporarily put aside a book about the USS Indianapolis in order to accomplish this goal.

Speaking of local, local weather conditions consist currently of temperatures in the mid-40s right now, with mostly cloudy skies. Lately the thing is to awake to temps in the 30s that warm to around 60, but rain and even snow is a possibility this coming week. Snow is something I am not yet psychologically capable of coping with, especially as I've pledged myself to help some friends move next weekend.

A great number of beers, mostly new to me, were consumed on Wednesday. My reviewing skills went out the window relatively early on, so I'll start my NBS accounting off with a central Washington IPA I drank yesterday afternoon to cheer on the Washington Huskies (70° at Husky Stadium-in late October?!).
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/31389/300043/?ba=woemad#review

From here until this evening, when I attend a "Scottish Wake" at Iron Goat and will, predictably, be drinking their beers, I'm going to be hitting some beers from @WesMantooth, as I will probably continue to do for some time.

 

Good afternoon NBS!

Spent the weekend camping at Shenandoah National Park, last weekend for the campsite we were at before they closed for the winter. Couldn't ask for much better weather, a little windy but not too cold. Good enough for a campfire, marshmallows, and enjoying the last of the fall colors.

Hope everyone has a happy Halloween!

Picked up an anniversary "six pack" featuring 5 bombers from Blue Mountain for their 10th anniversary. This beer is a play on their Spooky pumpkin ale, where they aged it on chocolate midgees (Tootsie Rolls), in rum and bourbon barrels. Just warm enough to chase away the chill from the rain we're getting.

Pours a thick, dark brown color with a thick, two finger off-white head that fades almost completely away. Smell is rum, chocolate, sweet, vanilla, hint of bourbon, and a little malt. Taste is chocolate candy, spiced rum, vanilla, pumpkin, cream soda, and a hint of bourbon at the end. Creamy feel, little carbonation, medium-heavy body. Goes down easily, no alcohol burn. Overall, I think this is an improvement on the base beer, strays far from being a pumpkin ale but it's delicious in it's own right.

 

Good afternoon and happy Sunday. I just love a day off. Today I took my wife out to lunch and they had Shiner Bock on draft. I had never had one so what the heck. It arrived in a 16 ounce glass that was almost over full with 1/8 inch of head. I am not a bock expert but I do enjoy darker beers. The color looked like coffee when the filter folds over. Not what I had envisioned. The smell was malty and a touch sweet. It didn't taste bad but it sure was thin. I actually enjoyed it. At 4. something ABV it tasted like 4. something ABV. I would not be too far off if I described it as the Coors Lite of darker beers with a touch of sugar added. I would drink it again if it was handed to me but would not seek it out. Enjoy the rest of your day because tomorrow is Monday. Boooo.

 

New beer #4.

Captain's Daughter - Grey Sail
DIPA - 8.5% abv
Canned 9/28/17 (31 days ago)
Score: 3.98 (-8.1% rDev)



L - Massive 3-finger eggshell head atop a medium orange body.

S - orange, grapefruit, candy, and something floral.

T - citrus with a floral backing. Rather sweet. A lot of booze. Low bitterness.

F - medium body and carb.

O - Not sure I like this as much as the aggregate. It's sweet and boozy, which makes me less likely to seek it out again. Maybe fresh the bitterness would outweigh the sweetness?

 

A gift from @vabeerguy as we had a brief meet up and drink yesterday:


This The Veil beer was born about 20 days ago. Typically cloudy, it has a slightly watered down pulpy orange juice look to it. There’s actually a bit of lacing on the hotel “glassware.” Strange another local brewery had Vic Ferrari on tap yesterday, wonder if there was some coordination, if not collaboration between The Veil and Final Gravity on that one. This is redferrari.

Nose is a little spicy (could be alcohol, perhaps), but more generally is grapefruit and pineapple. A very light pine sneaks in as well.

The spice and more spruce-like notes pop in early, before the grapefruit/pineapple take over. A pith and pine bitterness thread runs throughout, with a little more pine wood note lingering in the end. Warmth brings a little malt balance and extra juice splash to the middle and front of the taste, but this seems to stick to the bitter side overall.

Another nice beer by The Veil, skirting the line of juicy and bitter. Medium full feel isn’t as soft to me as some cloudy IPAs because of the bittering aspects.

As for reading, I’ve been sticking to Star Wars easy reading books on the Kindle recently. I go through periods of reading activity and lack of it. I’d say this is a bit of a slow period. I do have some more Steinbeck to read, perhaps my favorite author. Maybe this thread will spur me on.

 

Ommegang Rosetta, pours a dark reddish brown with a thin but lasting foam head. Aroma is odd but in a good way,fresh cherries,cherry candy,maly,yeast and a bit of a sour funk smell. Taste is the same,its tart,sweet,and sour but never does anything go to the extreme. This was sort of like cherry soda for adults but the abv is low but still there to make this satisfying. Overall I liked it a lot and wasn't disappointed after waiting several days till nbs to open this

 

Love reading your notes the day after I drank my can. I didn't get pineapple but got everything else you mentioned. It's a solid Veil brew but not their best.

 

Having some technology issues so I used this picture that I found online. I have not had a chance to read any posts in this thread yet, but I am going to go back now and read. Hope everyone is having a great sunday.

When I opened up the bottle I got a slight almost cinnamon smell, some lactic acid, and some cherry. The flavor is an assertaive, but pleasant acidity with some cherry, spiciness (like cinnamon), some earthiness, and oak. The beer has a prickly carbonation and is a great sipper. A very good kriek. However, I would have appreciated a little more complexity from this beer.

Look: 5
Aroma: 4.5
Taste: 4.25
Feel: 4.75
Overall: 4.5

 

Good afternoon, NBS, and what a nice kick off from @lordofthewiens . I am a reasonably avid reader these days. A step down from voracious when I was younger. Thinking about it, my taste in reading material follows my tastes in beer and music...pretty hard to patten and pick favorites. Love science fiction, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Stephen King. Technical thrillers. Beer stuff, of course. Nathanial Hawthorne. I, too, was hesitant about the Kindle approach but I have come to love it. I can load up the iPad and read whatever I choose on a trip and not have to carry extra weight.

Dreary day here in the kingdom, perfect for lazy football watching. We are apparently right on the edge of the more severe rain and wind, but as they say it depends on how things track.

My new beer at the moment:



This beer falls into the perfectly adequate beer category, which will land it around a 3.75 or so for me. Heavy on the fact that my immediate impression is that I just like it. Pours as you see it, a darker golden color with a foamy head that falls quickly to a ring, some rafts, and a little cling. Mild malt backdrop, floral and grassy hops, very mild lemony note. The taste is pretty clean with a touch of a mineral taste. The malt is crackery, the hops mildly floral, slightly grassy, a bit of lemon and some peppery notes follow in the aftertaste. It is a bit north of light bodied but not much. Serviceable, good beer for a gathering - good enough to just drink, not complicated enough to bother anybody.

Shishito peppers on the left, Thai hots on the right. Last gasp from the garden.Not sure what to do with shishito peppers, but some may sacrifice themselves to tonights meatloaf. Gonna hot sauce the Thai's.

 

Yeah, it’s not sweet, and I’ll admit it’s more the closest thing I could equate what I was getting than saying it’s so obviously pineapple. There’s just something paired with the grapefruit note that kept it from being more citrusy and/or more bitter.