New Beer Sunday (Week 693)

Visited old friends in Chicago. Happy to discover that they love craft beers. No wonder they are such good friends!

Topping Goliath’s Scorpius Morchella

4.48/5 rDev +0.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Bomber poured into a teku glass

Hazy orange with active carbonation , two finger white foam cap settles to a creamy island of foam

Aroma of melon, peach , lime citrus, whiff of pine

Taste is melon, , peach then pine

Starts creamy then Lingers with a gentle hop bite, quenching

Good beer

 

We’re sitting at a bar in the Detroit airport waiting for our flight home.
This beer seems to have achieved some notoriety on this site, and I’m happy to try it.
It is a hazy apricot color with a small white head. There is a good amount of lace.
A fruity aroma, both citrus and tropical. Some pine resin.
Mango and grapefruit taste. Pine late.
Smooth in the mouth
I liked it

 

Urban Family - Clouds of Pale Gold

This is a 5.3% “brett farmhouse ale” brewed with meyer lemons and dandelion greens.

The beer is a delicate clear yellow and has a very nice head. It looks like other brett saisons that I’ve had. Carbonation is fantastic - soft but lively. The taste is dry dry dry, earthy and fragile. Wonderfully so. There’s an interesting herbal component that actually reflects the subtle influence of meyer lemon and dandelion (real or imagined)… but this totally ducks and weaves… and that’s why it works as well as it does. This is a great beer. It’s refined without coming across as too precious. That’s a tough combination to pull off well and it’s something that more American saisons should aspire to.

 

Do you think that the color of the beer in your picture is an accurate representation of the color to your eye?

 

@woodychandler[/USER] - I'll have to track down your raves about Tavour - I find them useful (Tavour, that is - your raves - don't know yet

@Ozzylizard Haven't you learned by now that I am as useful as lactate glands on a snake or bull?!? Any purported usefulness on my end is either highly overrated or an outright hoax! Yer time is yer own, but I wouldn't squander it on the likes of yers truly. YMMV.

BTW, I was not raving specifically about Tavour, but the variety of beers to which they allow me access. It's a good deal, a nice service & highly recommended, but that could be applied to any other company that may come along, offering a like service.

 

Not the double? Caps have you throwing caution to the wind methinks.

 

My stepdaughter was in town for a friend's wedding this weekend so I shared this one with her late last night when she got home from said wedding. She and I enjoy raspberry so I usually save my berry beers to share with her when she's in town. She's primarily a wine person but we've discovered she has a sweet spot for the sour/tart beers. When I received this one from @Smokesnotes in the NBS BIF I knew I would be saving it to share with her. I had heard of elderberry before but wasn't really sure what it was, a quick Google search made it appear to be a perfect choice for a sour.

Pours a slightly cloudy cranberry red with a pink head that quickly disappeared.
Smells of tart lemon, berries, light funk.
Taste is of mixed berries, raspberry and cranberry seem to be the most prominent. Tart lemon also present. Some mild earthy funk.
Light to medium body. Tart, dry finish with a good puckering quality.
Overall a great sour, my first from Speciation and it won't be my last.

 

Rogue chocolate stout
...appearance is solid black with little head
..just help average carbonation whip just above a medium feel overall
..aroma is roasted malt,black coffee and cream, some dark chocolate
..taste is similar to aroma. It has a slight dry taste,mildly sweet as well as having a very mild bitter coffee finishthere's a lingering taste of burnt black coffee and cream
...pretty solid chocolate stout, would have it again. Doesn't seem complex at first but as it warms it becomes more complex

 

Happy Sunday NBS players. Sunny, cool, and windy here on the island with the feel of coming rain in the air. A good 20 degree drop from yesterday. Out and about this Sunday morning. Hitting a little home depot and then home for work around the house and baseball.

Stopping at Moustache brewing here on my way home also. My first new beer today Needlepoint, ddh ipa. The brew checks in at 8.9% abv and features chinook, cascade, centennial, And Columbus hops.

A subtle hazed pour with a murky golden amber color. Sugary hops on the nose. Tangy hops upfront with subtle tropical fruit, and white wine. Decently smooth on the flow with a subtle bitter finish. A nice hit of pine and resin on the finish as well. Mouthfeel is moderate body with lingering flavors. The double dry hopping isn’t the greatest example and seems to fall a bit flat on that aspect.

Overall, not bad but not great either. I like the bitter pine and resin but the fruit tones are too subtle and the white wine is a bit to much. I’m in the mid/high 3’s here players.

 

Thank you to @cjgiant for kicking off another NBS. Hot and dry here in Arizona so time to dig into lighter beer offerings to tame that sun a little. Today I am enjoying a Pilsner Urquell by Plzensky Prazdroj. A decent pilsner but a little too dry for me especially on a hot day, it just was not as refreshing as I wanted it to be. Overall a decent beer just not something I would seek out again.



4.1/5 rDev +13.9%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

A: Very crisp gold color with nice foamy head and good lacing.
N: Grains, honey, and mild hops.
T: Crisp and refreshing with a nice grain feel, soft honey, and a very dry finish.
M: Light
O: A nice pilsner, flavors are good but I found it to be a little too dry for my liking. Overall not bad but could be better.

 

Happy Sunday, New Beer Samplers and commentators. Well, another cool, cloudy, drizzly Sunday here in North Jersey. It's basically been like this since March. Yesterday was a beautiful hot muggy June day and I hit a couple of my favorite breweries, including Equilibrium. My review today is A New Level of Science and Flower, an 8.5% DIPA. Equilibrium advertises this beer as being "the hoppiest beer to date at EQ." They seem secretive about the hop bill as it's not listed anywhere. In any event, this DIPA is stunningly good, even by Equilibrium's lofty standards. In fact, it's one of the very best IPAs I've ever had. Bold pineapple, melon, and lemon combined with a delicate but flavorful hop bill. Just superb! Here's my full review.

4.63/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5

Purchased on release day and reviewed the next day. Poured from 16 oz. can into Equilibrium teku glass. t pours a turbid, dirty tangerine color with a delightful, fluffy, bright white head and soapy lacing that lasted through the pours. The fragrant nose features peach, pineapple, honeydew melon, lemon, onion, pine needles, and floral hops. Wow! the taste hits you immediately with both bold fruit - both sweet and tart - and a huge dose of flavorful hops but without a lot of bitterness. Equilibrium seems secretive about the recipe and neither the website nor the Facebook page details the hop bill. The fruit tastes include lots pineapple, lemon, and mango. It's also pleasingly dank. The mouth feel is also superb: it's not quite as viscous as it appears but it's still creamy and plush, with pleasant carbonation. It's so tasty that you don't even notice the 8.5% ABV, which makes it dangerous. I could easily down a couple cans. Overall, a New Level is stunningly good - even by Equilibrium's high standards.


I really hope everyone's enjoying his/her new beer today as much as I am. Cheers!

 

Anchor Double Liberty

I’ve had this beer before - back when it was first released. I held onto one bottle and stuck it in the basement. Today is the day I’m opening it. It was bottled 3 years ago almost to the day. For the purposes of this thread, I’m treating the 3 year aged version as a different beer than when I had it fresh.

The beer is a beautiful clear amber/copper. Head is absolutely terrific. Aroma is distinctively Anchor. There’s a sweet banana candy thing going on that jumps out of the glass.

Wow, this beer has really held up wonderfully! It doesn’t feel damaged at all. It’s bright (flavor-wise, I’m not speaking in brewer’s terms regarding clarity). There’s a definite and strong bitterness in the finish. Body is thin. Burps are heavy with that Anchor banana, but the taste going down is fortunately not overwhelmed by this at all. Flavors are more in line with subtle berries and caramel that eventually get overtaken by the strong bitter finish. This was a great drinking experience, but on the downside, the beer begins to wear out it’s welcome just before the end of the bottle. Nonetheless, I’m kinda wishing I had more than one bottle stashed down there.

I remember when this was first released, I thought it was great, bitter, and hot. The beer in my glass today recalls that beer (amazingly so), but I would not say that this was “hot.”

 

That's a world-class beer photo! Love the reflection in the stem of the glass.

 

Pours a very hazy yellow with a massive 2 finger head that leaves thick patches of lace behind as it slowly settles and canned on 5/10/18. 4.5

Smell is tropical all the way guava, passionfruit, tangerine, and a healthy shot of grapefruit rind. 4.5

Taste may actually be even better, a tropical juice bomb, wonderfully balanced with just a subtle hint of grapefruit bitterness on the back end. 4.75

Mouthfeel is a little bigger than medium, plenty of life, not dry but little stickyness from the crazy amount of fresh hops. 4.5

Overall this is just so darn tasty and spot on for the style. 6.5 ABV and it has more flavor than that, but so darn crushable. Thanks @bstyle for this under the radar treat. 4.5

 

I'm sorry it was such a disappointment. On the other hand, you may have posted the only review ever on BA to mention the Manson family. You should get extra karma for that alone!

 

Having a bit of trouble reading the label. Just want to be sure of the name of the beer.