New Beer Sunday (Week 669)

NBS! A late entry for me but I had to get one in. I consumed most of the Beer Camp case shortly after it was released but saved the Barleywine for colder days hoping a bit of age could help it out.



My score ended up exactly on par at 3.88

12oz bottle dated 4/12/17 poured into a snifter
A: Amber with a 1/2 finger head
S: Sweet, cherry, caramel, malts, a hint of bourbon
T: Similar notes to the nose but less sweet, the malt/sugar notes are in front of the fruit; adds a bit of oak
M: Full-bodied, a bit sweet, just a hint of bitter
O: A solid if average example of the style

 

Giving or recieving beer? Yep. That happened last night, & today's (1st?) NBS beer is from (Brother & Sis-In-Law) #2. In order to avoid the stress/conflict of everybody trying to get everywhere, we are together the week before Christmas. Annnnd to avoid it even more, we go to dinner at a different local restaurant each year , so nobody has to cook. Mom pays it with my (late) Dad's 2nd pension*. Then we go back to Brother#1's house**.

BRo#2 & S-I-L both enjoy the "weird beer", as I do, as Bro#1 calls it, & brought me an assortment from MA. (No TH or Trillium - 3 young kids make that time-consuming process difficult to impossible.) Today's NBS beer is one of those. Though nominally from NY, Greenport Harbor is closer to them (98mi), than me (276mi).

The beer given? Went to the farmers' market with certain beerspectations (from The FarmHouse Brewery***), but somebody else beat me to it. Ended up with Don't Miss a Beet, a beet saison , and Cuke Skywalker , a cucumber gose. Didn't think anybody would want it, but brought 'em anyway. So..... went to the new brewery up the road****, and got a growler of Tree Ultra Light, & a glass, for my brother-in-law. His go-to is Miller Lite(sic), but occasionally will get nuts, and have an SA Boston Lager. TUL is a session ale homage to AALs, minus the adjuncts, meant to be an intro beer for AAL-drinkers, & non-beer drinkers. Good strategy by them, IMHO.

For Bro#2 & wife I got a growler of Sugar Shack (& glass) , their maple porter. S-I-L expressed interest in the Cuke Skywalker , so that too.

Onto tonight's beer :
Black Duck , an English porter, 4.7% abv, named after a boat known for rum-running during Prohibition.
Looks like a porter, smells like a porter, tastes like a porter. That's a good thing. There's something to be said for a classic, well-done. Nothing life-changing, but a good one, that I would likely never tire of. (I'd like to try. )


4.09/5 rDev +2%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Very dark, almost black, with thin, light tan head .

Aroma : lightly nutty roasted malt, with hints of cocoa and coffee.

Taste : follows aroma , with flavors of black coffee, bitter chocolate, charred wood, and barely-sweet, nutty, malt. Finishes with a moderate,pleasant bitterness.

Feel : on the medium side of thin, finishing with moderate carbonation tingle.

Overall : Looks like a porter, smells like a porter, tastes like a porter. As someone else said, the sum is greater than the parts. Quite good, and don't imagine that I could ever get tired of it. Highly recommend it

*He was "downsized" @ 58, and bounced around 'til retirement. So......had a 1time/yr pension of a few hundred $, from one of those.
** My sister & hubby live in Massena,NY, their son is in Providence,RI, & Brother#2 & family live in MA, just NE of Providence. Brother #1 & family live about 20mi W of here, with Mom about halfway in between.
*** http://www.thefarmhousebrewery.com/beer-cider-labels/
**** http://beertreebrew.com/beer-menu/

 

New Crowler Full of Beer Sunday!

32 oz. crowler of Ommegang Smoked Porter from the best Beer Santa ever — @TongoRad

Thanks, Michael! You're an especially beautiful dude for sending this one!

The aroma features lots of chocolate and red wine with a little smoked wood. All of that is in the flavor, too, though the big early flavor note is an almost hoppy-bitter earthiness that over time turns floral then begins subsiding underneath the sweeter dark-malt notes. For a few swallows it tastes like a West Coast-style imperial stout with lots of burnt-hop bitterness. As it warms and I get halfway into the first pint, that bitterness gets pushed back into the aftertaste (almost disappears, actually) and a sweeter dark chocolate/milk chocolate mix takes the lead role.

Halfway into the glass the aroma also turns sweeter, almost exactly like a mocha java shake from Sweet Eugene's in College Station.

And throughout all of this, the aftertaste has a wonderful wood flavor. It's generally light and subtle, not a black-charred log of mesquite or oak from the BBQ pit but more like the aroma of a lumber yard or new home still being built turned into flavor. If that even makes sense.

The "smoked" aroma and flavor is very light, lighter than I would like, but it's in there just enough to tease and tantalize.

The review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/42/308109/?ba=Premo88#review
4.44 (+13% rDev)

As the chocolate flavor builds back over the earthiness, I go back and raise the score ... don't see how I can lower it. What a beer! The best thing about it is it never settles down ... the notes just keep mixing and matching, changing and reverting back ... each sip or whiff of aroma seems just a bit different from the last.

Cheers!

 

Happy New Beer Sunday! I have a bunch of new beers to try, so I guess I'm going to start with this one.



Bell's Winter White Ale comes in a hazy yellow color with a soapy white head. The head retains as a thin ring, and some spotty lacing is left behind.
On the nose, I get banana, lemon, orange, vanilla, straw, and clove.
On the palate, I get orange and lemon upfront, followed by some light banana and a wheaty, grainy, creamy malt backbone. Some vanilla notes. Finishes lightly dry and lightly spicy with some clove and a touch of grass.
The mouthfeel is smooth and lightly creamy thanks to the wheat, moderately carbonated. Thins out on the finish, but doesn't get watery. Finishes clean and lightly dry.

This is a nice unspiced witbier--or rather, I suppose it'd be considered an American pale wheat ale. I like it quite a bit. Yet another great beer from Bell's--who, along with Founders, my most purchased from brewery. I think I like this better than Oberon, too. Oberon is more sweet whereas this is more crisp and dry. Cheers!

 

Good evening, fellow NBSers,

Chiming in late this Sunday. It's a snowy 36°, with some wind chill keeping things from getting soupy outside. Two inches of snow was predicted for Friday, so, of, course, we got Seven...

Between dental issues and a combination birthday dinner/football watching party (among the worst Seahawk games I have seen that didn't happen in 1992), I managed to squeeze in one new beer, but it wasn't much to write home (or BA) about. It would seem there are good reasons dubbels come from Belgium instead of Lithuania:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/40956/195926/?ba=woemad#review
Not truly awful,.but not much good, either.

As I'll probably (my Dad's health is putting things in question right now) be on the other side of the state, celebrating Christmas and doing all sorts of family stuff, there's a good chance I will not be partaking in next week's NBS, so Merry Christmas to you all.

 

Orange juice?



...Or is it IPA?



Got this one from @StoutElk_92 . It's dated 10-12. It's decent...but there's a ton of grain alcohol I could do without. Still, at the end of the day, it's Trillium, and that's hard to beat already. Nice grapefruit peel notes and a firm malty backbone!

 

The main beer I was looking forward to trying tonight is Foreign Objects Pig Factory.




It comes in a hazy dark amber color with a small white head. The head dies down quickly to a thin film, and sheets of lacing are left behind.
The aroma is potently hoppy, but also candied sweetness. It smells like guava, mango, pink grapefruit, Nerds candy, caramel malt, a little bit of pine, and blueberry candy. I'm pretty sure there's Mosaic in this.
On the palate, you get a ton of red grapefruit and orange flesh upfront. It's citrusy sweet, with some mango and papaya playing into that tropical sweetness. The malt is also sweet, caramel. The lactose in this contributes an additional sweetness with vanilla notes and creaminess. However, it's not cloying. It dries out a bit more on the finish, with some lightly piney notes and spicy hops. Maybe Chinook?
The mouthfeel is super creamy and thick. I'm pretty sure there's a ton of oats in this as well as lactose contributing to creaminess. This reminds me a lot of a Singlecut IPA.

Overall? Not bad. I thought this would be a New England juice bomb, and while it does share some similarity to NEIPA, it's sort of its own unique take on IPA. It leans a little sweet, but overall it's a very good beer. I like it.

 

Entirely my pleasure, I thought you'd appreciate that one. And I'm glad to see that the crowler made it in good shape. .

 

I'm sure they have some left for next weekend.

 

NIce label though.

 

Glad you liked that beer - I think it's great. In my eyes, it's really different from most porters on the market in the States because of the ABV. There are few substitutes for sub 5% porters that taste that good and aren't imports. The problem with it is the lack of bottle dating. I'm reluctant to buy sixers of undated beer. There had to be a catch.

 

That one sounds great. And as for your predisposition of a lack of fondness for the darker amber leaning hue, while it steps away from the color for style, I find it captivating. Beautiful pics too.