New Beer Sunday (Week 704)

I just had that. I alot of pineapple..agreed.

 

Uggh spent way too much time in the woods today, and wanted to hit town but my woods clothes stink so bad from permethrin and wood mud I couldn't go to town after, and have been tending the driers and cooking the chanterelles for storage non stop. So no new beer is my point.

Happy to hear you are settling in to the NM life, @lordofthewiens , knew you would. Beautiful country.

Congrats to @WesMantooth both for his milestone anniversary and for that excellent life saving work by his son. What a story!

And congrats to @LeRose on his awesome fishing trip. Don't get out so much anymore, but am an avid bass fisherman my whole life. My 8 lb.er is on the wall next to my gramps' 8 3/4 lb.er. Still hope to get a 10 lb.er, one was taken in a farm pond here, but it is unlikely.

Very much enjoying vicariously all the great beer you all are drinking. Gotta get back to the kitchen. This is today's haul. Get to spend every day out in the beauty of nature, and come home with delectable treats. Life she is good. Cheers!

 

Lagunitas Super Cluster DIPA, delish 4.29

Pours an effervescent gold with a thmb of ivory colored head. Nice head retention & much better lacing

S: Citrus in spades, a little breadyness

T: Oranges, breadyness & a little dryness up front, tangerines as well & a little grapefruit on the edges. Grapefruit picks up stema once warm, a little green melon& breadyness too. Finishes with pomelo, grapefruit, a little breadyness & spme dryness

MF: Medium body, fairly firm carbonation , great balance

So easy to drink, another winner from these guys, suprise, suprise

 

Go to town man. Wear that post hike stank with pride!

 

New Beer Sunday: American Double/Imperial IPA

Evenin’ NBSers, with a heads up for those who want a more or less classic example of the West Coast IPA profile.

After picking up some family at the airport who just got back from Europe, getting them some dinner and then getting them settled into their rooms not far from here, it’s time for the evening’s Prairie home companion. This one is their Phantasmagoria.

As usual, my review, subject to revision until the beer is finished, can be found here:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30356/145616/?ba=drtth#review


The aromas/flavors of this beer are mostly about the citrus and pine resin from the hops but with the addition of some very light tropical fruit and some noticeable, but not strong, bready caramel sweetness from the malt backbone. A well made beer I’d be happy to have again and a decent rendition of the West Coast style IPA.

Tonight's music currently on the player is a return to the Peer Gynt Suite by Edvard Grieg.

Solveg’s Song

Cheers, all!

 

Crazy that your kid is already a senior. Seems like yesterday...

That beer sounds amazing as well. Never had a beer aged in Aquavit, but I am a fan of the beverage itself. There's a breakfast/brunch place here called Broder. All Nordic influence with the largest Aquavit collection on the west coast. Æbleskivers and "Nordic" Coffee breakfast is as close to heaven (Valhalla) as I've ever been.

 

Ones ok if it's well made, but it usually leave me wanting more. Unfortunately quite a few breweries are pumping out crap.

 

Beer # 2 with Simcoe this time a hop combo of Ella, Eureka and Simcoe. A collab with Finback and Banded. Incidentally my earlier beer w/ Simcoe was Finback. Short but sweet because I will be drumming.
Pours a golden hazy yellow with a decent head and that is short but sweet and leaves almost no lacing.
Aroma is surprisingly a tad more dank than my earlier beer with more of an earthy onion. Its deep with wet forest floor, citrus and pine. Loads of tropical like passionfruit as well.
Taste follows with onion, herbs, citrus and tropical notes.
Feel is medium light with good carb and that dry finish.
Similar to my earlier beer in many aspects but the Eureka and Ella add that dimension I spoke of earlier. Great brew and easy drinking. For pure Simcoe obviuosly I take Finback solo. But for a great balance on this collab they nailed it. Cheers.

 

I just had my last sip, and the aquavit was still just registering as 'spices' throughout; I never really got a distinctive caraway vibe, myself. Not that I'm complaining, like I said in the review I'd rather added flavors be complementary instead of blatant... just as a base philosophy. But there certainly was an impact on the beer, so I'm glad that they used that kind of barrel in the end.

ETA: I think I'd love breakfast in that place just as much, you're lucky to have it so close by.

 

So pleased to hear that you're enjoying these beers, Michael! I'll have to work on stockpiling some more for you - there are a few beers they've released since my last package... so you may just need to be on the lookout for another box.

I am trying to put together a box for @2beerdogs in the meantime, but hoping that weather will cool down a bit. Plenty of boxes to send when it finally cools down! @Bum4ever - I'm looking at you, too!

 

There's a yeast cake in the bottom of the bottle. I can't imagine HotD pasteurizing. It seems like Ive had some Fred variants in the past that had bubbles. Maybe it was the Adam variants though.

 

Well, I might as well have another, barkeep!

Truth is, I'd been meaning to have this one on NBS since the GF bought it about a month ago. We got some Jackie O's around here late last year or early this year, almost exclusively their 16oz sours, along with I think a couple of their stouts, the latter of which flew off the shelves while the former sat (cost being the likely reason - they're priced in the mid-teens). Luckily for my wallet, we had hit Jackie O's on a trip to Ohio last year, so I didn't feel compelled to pay for the opportunity.

Well, this one isn't quite as highly priced as those mentioned, and I (and the GF apparently) was surprised to see this is a collaboration with The Answer - a brewpub in Richmond that was just a restaurant/bar when it was at the forefront of the craft beer scene here in Virginia years ago. Still a great place to visit if you are in Richmond, and they do make some interesting IPAs. So, I present Orange Crates:

Ok, the beer started pouring clear, but bottle sediment finally found its way into the mix to muddle up and take the patina off of a light yellow body. The head was moderate on a not-too vigorous pour. The collar that ended up being replenished with each crashing wave of a sip, joining the gossamer island in the middle of the surface.

Nose has a lovely barn house hay and what I would say is wet horse blanket nose. It's that classic musty/dusty/dry wood and ever so lightly funky note. A waft of citrus sneaks in through the busted out barn window - sort of lemony, sort of tangerine, it's not clear enough to pinpoint.

The beer is dry from the get go, with the hay-covered trampled earth from just outside the barn door greets me. The tangerine note comes next, bringing a little juiciness with it that whets the whistle. It shares the entry way with hay and a bit of mustiness. The beer transitions again as I start to get orange pith, and then some grass as a bitter dryness takes over. There's a little mintiness in the final, lingering taste.

The Brett doesn't dominate this beer at this time as I expected, but sort of plays an important supporting role that improves the more obvious notes. The bitter hop presence plays quite nicely into the farmhouse aspects, with a little node to the modern dry-hopping craze and the juicy beers it can produce. So the label speaks to the "iconic" brewers of the past, but doesn't weigh itself down completely in nostalgia.

 

Beer #1:



Anchor - San Franpsycho IPA

This beer is a collaboration with a clothing company. Wow, that's terrific. It's also a "juicy" IPA brewed with peach and apricot. This beer is interesting in how it relates to what we think of as "styles" and how those boundaries will either blur at best or are hopeless at worst. This is labeled "juicy IPA," but it's nothing like a NEIPA. Rather than that, it's simply an IPA with fruit... a perfect embodiment of the term "juicy IPA" taken literally.

It's slightly hazy in the normal sense of the word. Here's a pic to help show this:



The feel seems pretty typical for your average IPA. I (thankfully) don't get any of the banana flavor that I always associate with Anchor. This beer doesn't taste like fresh peach, it tastes a lot like some sort of peach puree, but mixed with a something sharply bitter. The two flavors are incongruous. Not digging this.


Beer # 2:



Edmund's Oast - Coin Operated

This is yet another new brewery to my area. Thought I would try them on for size with this beer. I was very happy to see a "low" ABV Belgian style beer along with the usual IPA fest. The listings of this beer claim that it's 5.5% ABV, but my can was 4.5%

The appearance was shockingly light with an eerie glow-in-the-dark green tinge. The taste followed the appearance. This feels like a Belgian pale ale that was cut with lots of plain water and had a twist of lemon added. I like subtle beers, and I like low ABV beers... I don't need my beers to scream for attention... but there's nothing I like here. This isn't a brewer who is showing me that they can make the most out of a 4.5% beer. I'm surprised the ABV is that high. This beer reminds me of comparing Miller 64 to High Life.

Two duds today with a Heineken in between. Glorious.

 

The sweet pineapple taste has nothing to do with age. I got a crowler fresh last month visiting my parents and couldn’t finish it by myself because it was too sweet.

 

Next time you visit The Gorge, breakfast is on me.

 

Time to settle down on the back porch and get back to doing some reviewing after many months where thinking about beer was the last thing on my mind. I've spent a lot of time in Colorado over the years and was surprised to learn I never reviewed this one in my travels. I'm going to remedy that now.

A twelve ounce can dated 08/07/18 purchased at Daveco Liquors for the friendly price of $9.99 a six pack. The abv. is 5.2% and it was poured in a Odell shaker pint for the review.

The look is a super clean and very translucent pale straw color producing a few centimeters of soapy white foam. No lacing is present. Smells of tangerine, vanilla and oddly enough something akin to mint. The taste is tangerine, vanilla and a hint of floral in the finish. It's feel is slightly creamy crisp and easy drinking.

Overall while nothing complex or fancy, it is very drinkable and satisfies that summertime itch for something light and refreshing. I'll continue to keep a sixer in the rotation until the leaves fall. My score is a 3.05 / rDev -23.8. I sense some homerism for this beer.

Here's the official scorecard......

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/32910/235648/?ba=Prager62#review

 

I’m back with another new one, New Belgium’s Sour Saison-



This one pours a cloudy golden yellow with a billowing head that settles slowly.

The nose and taste present hay and mild banana, along with lemon zest in the nose and a lemon tartness in the taste that compliments the other flavors rather than overwhelming them. Also getting light crackery malt, a zip of zesty black pepper and a nice mild herbal hop bitterness.

The feel is medium bodied and soft with a somewhat dry finish that’s also slightly bitter and sour.

Overall- this Saison really shines with all of the disparate flavors coming together quite nicely. It could’ve been a bit drier in the finish, but overall I really enjoyed it.

Cheers all. I may be back with another.

 

Sounds like a great trip! Bass and breweries, doesn't get much better than that!

 

Not soon enough! Springdale /Jacks Abby, but fishing will be a while. We find places on the water to rent for vacation and this year we took two weeks for the first time in years. But we might be doing some kayak shopping before very long.