New Beer Sunday (Week 714)

Great album! "AAAALICE COOOOPER ,AAAALICE COOOOPER"

Is there an internet abbreviation for if instead of laughing out loud I guffaw over a period of time? I had never thought of it that way but you're kind of right. Hahaha

 

Hahaha. My god! I'm so sorry that you have to deal with that, seriously, but I love how matter of fact you are about it. Honestly it kind of is a breath of fresh air since most reviews of those kinds of beers (myself included) are just thesaurus entries for "fruit".

 

Having a new beer from Trillium called "Bumpkin Island"; gifted from my son-in-law. It's a 6.8% NEIPA. Really enjoying it right now. Canned on 2018-10-16

A - Very hazy-orange with a 2-finger off-white head and good lace

S - Overly-ripe pineapple, moderately dank, orange, melon, earthy and herbal spice, light pine. Very nice.

T - Echoes the aroma but with more emphasis on the orange and less on the dank/ripe pineapple. Biscuit, light pine, melon, lychee nut. Mild, orange zest bitterness.

M - Medium body and carbonation and very, very soft.

O - This is a really good brew that sits well on my palate. I'm glad for the nod to West Coast IPAs with the pine. Well done.

http://www.trilliumbrewing.com/bumpkin-island

 

Boulevard Jamaican Rum Barrel-aged Imperial Stout, 14.5%, 18 IBU. Pours black with no head. Nose is rum and coffee, taste follows, with a slight bitter close. Decent mouthfeel, overall excellent.

Bracing myself for the Packer game...

 

New beer #6. Thanks @Jimmy_Kneecaps !


Imperial Vanilla Black Currant Boysenberry Hill - Southern Grist
Lactose Sour - 7.2% abv
Canned 10/5/18 (23 days ago)
Score: 4.29 (-2.5% rDev)



Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/44180/374123/?ba=CanConPhilly#review

Synopsis:
Tons of vanilla and berry in this one. Great smell and feel, without even a hint of booze. Southern Grist continues to impress.

 

First up today is Tired Hands Pumpkin Chai Latte Double Milkshake. When I got to Tired Hands I wasn’t planning buying and honestly thought I wasn’t going to like this beer, but I actually enjoyed into on draft and ended up buying some to go.

4.38/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

16 oz can, dated 10/22/18, poured into a teku

A- A hazy golden orange with a two finger white head.

S- Citrus, ginger, cinnamon, hints of pumpkin, tropical fruits, some vanilla, touch of cloves.

T- Citrus, cinnamon, vanilla, some cloves, ginger, tropical fruits, graham crackers, some herbal tea, some pumpkin, some earthy hops.

M- Smooth, creamy, medium to full body.

O- A surprisingly good Double Milkshakes, actually is pretty close to tasting like an IPA. Pumpkin spices and flavors actually are really nice in this.

Cheers NBS!!!

 

Hitting the thread a little later than I usually do. Enjoying the second half of the Bears/Jets game now that I’ve settled down a bit. Got home late last night from a short trip bouncing around Florida. Perfect time to share a beer with everyone.

This one came to me from @Franfab . It’s an imperial breakfast stout from Mikerphone called Imperial Smells like Bean Spirit. It’s a big’ole 32oz crowler. I hope I can get through the whole thing with few problems.


This pour is so dark, it’s almost black. It has a creamy tan head. Heavy roast and an accompanying bitterness. Bakers chocolate and coffee dominates the nose and taste. Slick feel. This hits all the right notes you want from an imperial stout. Thanks for this one, Frank!

 

Start off light today, Matchless Brewing Old World Lager. Complete with a tentacle mustache from Halle Berry's Octopus.


Pours straw yellow, slight haze. Head settles at a rocky finger.
Nose is bread, grass.
Taste is subtle- lemon lime seltzer, light malt.
Mouthfeel is medium, soft carb.
I know next to nothing about lagers, but this makes me want to learn more. Thank you for the palate expander, @kemoarps

 

NBS#2 comes from Henhouse Brewing. Often overshadowed by their more famous Santa Rosa neighbor, for my palate and preferences they do plenty of really nice hoppy recipes.

Deep State dated 10.08.18 into a tumbler.





L: Pours hazy brown bronze with 2 fingers of variable density white head with great retention and left sticky ringed/winshield lacing.

S: Pleasant tropical nose, floral forward with mango and pineapple undertones. Some added citrus once the beer warms.

T: Follows the nose to a degree, but has a fairly prominent tangerine aspect. Finishes with mild bitterness and just hint of acidity and astringency, bitterness lingers slightly on the palate.

F: Medium bodied with low-moderate carbonation, full on the tongue and swallow.

O: It's a nice solid IPA. Wouldn't seek it out, but would happily drink again.



BA Score = 4.01, rdev = -0.5%

 

Good afternoon fellow NBSrs!

I’m sharing a new to me beer courtesy of @2beerdogs from NBS 8.



This beer looks like a typical NEIPA , but the taste is pretty unique.

It’s very “dank” for lack of a better term and the fruity aspect is very mild.

It’s thick, creamy and slightly sweet. The citrus/tropical fruit take a backseat to the dank hops.

It’s a departure from the usual juice bombs that I’m used to in the style and I enjoyed it very much. Overall somewhere near 4 if I were to rate it.

Derek, you sent a bunch of killer bottles that I will be digging into very soon. I’m just waiting (impatiently) to move in to the new crib first . We are so close it hurts!....

@lordofthewiens sorry to hear about your mishap as I’m still recovering from my minor injury....





Cheers all!
And see you boys hopefully again today!

 

Spent the last couple hours shopping around for photo props. Now it's time for some beer. Visiting a classic IPA that I've been longing to try for a while, and @jhavs has made it possible.



Maine Beer Company's Lunch.

Pours a standard orange with an unfiltered, hazy look that becomes a little more hazy as the lower ounces of the bottle are poured into the glass. Head formation is two fingers of stark white foam, with good retention. Aroma is pine, floral, herbal, and orange. Pine really stands out in this mix, but without an encumbering bitterness it often brings. It's a simple, clean profile. It's not loud and boyish like some other IPAs. Flavor profile has more citrus up front, with pine, herbal, and floral hops falling in behind. Again, well reserved and clean. Toasty, biscuity, wheaty malt notes spring through, firming up the flavor profile and delivering a balanced relationship between hops and malts. Mouth feel is lightly fuzzy and velvety, with a medium consistency, heightening the experience and enjoy-ability. Overall, a balanced and nuanced IPA that doesn't favor hops drastically over malts, and instead utilizes both to form a splendid balance.

Score: 4.5 | 4.75 | 4.75 | 4.5 | 4.75 | BA Score: 4.71 | rDev: +7.3%

Personal notes: It reminds me of O'Dell's IPA and Russian River's Pliny the Elder. Clean profile through and through. My rating may be a bit high, but I want to reward good effort in making a clean IPA.

 

Happy Sunday NBS players. Another cool and crisp fall day here on the island. A pretty nice day following the wash out we had yesterday. Spending my day watching football and maybe a little daredevil. Jets are just so beat up and just getting overpowered by the god damn bears.

My new beer today is Frog's Hollow Double Pumpkin ale, from Hoppin Frog brewing. Figured I would give a pumpkin ale a go with the holiday season heating up with Halloween this week. I'm sure all the xmas stuff will be out first thing Thursday. The brew checks in at 8.4% abv, 7.3 IBU, and no apparent bottle date.

A burnt orange color on the pour with sediment and a fluffy white head. The nose is very floral with all those pumpkin pie spices. A rather smooth start to the drinking with plenty of those spices up front but just not nearly as pronounced as the nose suggests. Very smooth on the flow and finish too. Decent notes of the big mix of spices. Plenty of cinnamon, ginger, clove, nutmeg, paprika, and vanilla. The ginger comes off as a rather strong flavor and does seem to drown out the other spices a bit. The mouth feel is moderate and drinks a bit heavier. There is also a sort of powdery feel perhaps from all the spices used?

Overall, I'm in the not bad but nothing great area here. Nothing really wows me here and I would put it as average at best.

 

New beer #7. Thanks @thisischuck01 !

Intruder Annihilation - KCBC
DDH DIPA - 9% abv
Score: 3.9 (-3.9% rDev)



Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/46089/375449/?ba=CanConPhilly#review

Synopsis:
A decent dipa, but doesn’t compare to the Other Half brews produced just down the road. Alcohol is well hidden, but hop flavors are mild.

 

Good afternoon, NBS'ers. I don't get around these parts often and, in fact, I can't even remember when the last time I had an hour on a Sunday afternoon to post here. But my family is otherwise occupied today and, with your kind indulgence, I submit the following...

Mysterious Haze
Smuttynose Brewing Co.
Double Dry-Hopped NEIPA (allegedly)
6.7% abv

(Pardon the poor lighting - late October in New Hampshire and, in keeping with the frugal Yankee cliche, I'm too cheap to turn a light on).

I admit to having been nervous before opening the can because I have a real nostalgic affection for Smuttynose and I was quite certain I was about to be disappointed. As you can see, It doesn't particularly look like an NEIPA and it really doesn't smell like much of anything. In fact, it doesn't especially taste like an NEIPA either but it does taste really, really good. So, anyway, phew. My review follows:

From a 16oz can, dated 10/23/18. Served in a Smuttynose imperial pint pub glass... because #properglassware.

Pours a just-barely hazed, glowing honey-gold with two-plus fingers loose, big-bubbled, snowy-white foam. Retention is excellent, finally settling back to a thick, lathery collar and fat wads of gobby lacing. (4.25)

A disappointingly faint nose of sort of sweet-ish cereal grain and something vaguely citrusy or maybe just fruity. Meh. (3.25)

Taste is exceptionally well balanced between smooth, biscuity malt and tingly, hoppy, oily bitterness. Caramel, orange, grapefruit peel, lemon zest and spruce. Lightly sweet up front and satisfyingly bitter right through the finish. (4.25)

Feel is smooth and creamy, medium bodied and brightly carbonated. (4.5)

Overall, a very well-crafted beer. I'm sure it helped that it was less than a week old which is really pretty astounding by usual Smuttynose distribution standards. For sure it wasn't as 'wow' as a lot of the IPA's I drink, and I would never have pegged it as a NEIPA if it hadn't been prominently printed on the can but it IS a really good IPA and, as soon as this one's done, by God, I'm going to open another. (4.5)

 

Good afternoon and happy New Biru Sunday BAs. Been a busy weekend... Gardening, beer fest, gardening, played a concert/party, dropped of parents at the airport, gardening... I need (another) beer!

Level Beer is a brewery located in NE Portland, and I've been impressed with them since the beginning. There was no way I was passing up on this one.

LEVEL Beer
Sweep The Leg- Japanese-Style Rice Lager





When a beer looks like it should, that doesn't always mean it looks perfect. This does. Brilliantly clear and the perfect shade of gold with straw highlights. A perfect two finger foamy white cap is constantly being supported by columns of rising bubbles. Perfect sheets of lacing trickle down the glass with each sip. This beer is a pleasure to look at.

Japanese Rice Lagers aren't known for their intoxicating aromas necessarily, but this one smells quite wonderful. A light biscuit blends in with dried husks. A drop of honey, a clean lager background, and an almost forgotten addition of melon lies deep underneath.

A turn approaches quickly. The rice is apparent only briefly at the very end, but this starts much more like a Pilsner, or maybe even more appropriate, an American Blonde lager. Grainy with white bread notes, honey, and again with an after thought of melon. Along with the rice, a grassy finish.

There is a bit of a slickness to this. It doesn't finish quite as dry as I'd hoped. Still clean and bright with a decent amount of carbonation. It claims to be a "beer with balance", but this definitely cones with a bitter kick on the end.

Sweep The Leg is a good beer, but not a great Japanese Rice Lager. Easy drinker, fun beer, will probably even have again. But it misses the points where it counts, and ends up with a Crane Kick to the shnoz in the end. Sorry Johnny.





After my official review, I gave Sweep The Leg a rating of 3.9 with 0 rDev (first review). Kampai!

 

I was waking with with my dogs recently, leashed, and came to the road that is the bridge and dam below the head of our 11 acre lake. Coming the other way was a lady with a Bernese Mountain Dog, a guy coming down the road on a bicycle at about 20 mph. A car was just behind him, and a lady with two Goldens came up behind us. This happened all at once, Otis bolted left and yanked me down. I didn't let go, but I banged my ribs on the steep shoulder and wasn't sure if I was hurt or not. It was an odd madcap thing, but I shook it off after about an hour....and a beer or two...Sheez...

 

Today I have a Helles Lager from Kent Falls.

Here is my posted reveiw 4.5 rDev +4.9% (only the 3rd review)

Poured from a 16oz can dated 9/28/18 into a Pilsener glass.
What a beautiful beer! Initial burst of bubbles rise in the clear golden liquid to a puffy thick head. Serioulsy, this looks like a beer comercial that took days to film just right. Spyder lacing lasts for the entire glass. Tiny bubbles rise for the entire session also, just not as much as at the initial pour.
Peppery bread aroma is dominanent, but there is a background of sweetness.
The taste is peppery also, fades to mild bitterness and really dry finish.
The body is light, carbonation a little high, but I like that.
Excellent example of a Helles.

The really interesting thing is that I got to try this heads-up with Alpen Flo (my wife always makes sure we have that in stock). I think Alpen Flo is great, but frankly, this KF beer beats it. People Power has better carbonation, slightly less maltyness and a drier finish. (And so far, one can down, none have foamed over on opening, a random weekly occurance in my house with Alpen Flo). The Sixpoint is a really good beer, they both are, but head to head, this Kent Falls wins.

BTW @lordofthewiens , unlike you I've broken a lot of bones in my 60 years (used to race motorcycles). 12 months ago I fell off a ladder (trying to come down in a hurry because our super large dog was scaring the mailman, but he wouldn't hurt anyone). Broke 5 ribs, 3 spinal process and severly bruised my hip. Unfortunatly what I have to tell you is that you heal from these things much slower as you get older.