New Beer Sunday (Week 726)

Ha, this was the only one I sent that I haven't had myself and I thought was a direct pandering to your preferences. Lesson learned: good beer wins over style!

By the way, I LOVE your reviews. Cheers!

 

A few days ago, while walking through a local Total Wine, I realized that I've never seriously had a non-alcoholic beer. That made me curious, so I picked up a couple of the "better" ones. The two I've posted so far were Clausthaler Dry Hopped and Erdinger Alcoholfrei. I understand that those two beers might have been pushing toward the different styles, and thus were potentially incomparable, but IMO, the Erdinger was a superior product. Erdinger Alcoholfrei was actually sort of drinkable next to some decent German hefeweizens I was having that night. That said, neither was objectively good. This here is a continuation of my experiment. When I saw the words "IPA" and "non-alcoholic" on the same label, I had to buy this. So...

Surreal Brewing Company — Chandelier Red IPA



Look: This beer comes in a deep red hue. Even my aggressive pour down the center of a tulip has only yielded half of a finger of head. The head itself is off-white in color and sudsy. It dissipates quickly but leaves a persistent ring of bubbles around the edge as well a little bit of lacing.
Smell: Smells like a N/A beer. There are discernible aromas of hops and malt, but no distinct flavors I can pick out.
Taste: The taste is weird. I think Chinook was one of the hops used in this "beer." It's bitter to a degree (the brewer claims 48 IBU post a triple hopping procedure) but doesn't feel like an IPA. There is very little substance to the taste. I guess, to me, this is what I imagine hop water to be like.
Feel: Watered-down body, medium carbonation.
Overall: Umm... This isn't an IPA, not even close. Whichever way you look at this, it's not great. What this is, is hop-flavored murky water. In the end, if I had to drink more N/A beer, I'd take both the Clausthaler and ther Erdinger bottles I tried a few days ago over this.

3.75 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 3.25 | 2.5
(This beer is not in the database currently, and neither is the Surreal Brewing Company. I will work on adding them now.)

 

New beer #4. Thanks @FlintB !

L’Obel - Speciation
Sour - 7% abv
Vintage 2018
Score: 4.34 (0% rDev - 1st review)



Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/48069/350890/?ba=CanConPhilly#review

Synopsis:
This beer reaffirms why I now consider “sour” as my favorite style. It’s a showcase for the boysenberry, which I would not be able to identify blind, but tastes both unusual and comforting at the same time. Not as tart as a blackberry, but more assertive (and less sweet) than an everyday blueberry or strawberry. It looks, smells, tastes, and feels like I want every beer to be. I hope others get to try this one too. Thanks again Brian!

 

Good afternoon NBS, back for a rare 2nd entry, my sweetheart has business travel to Cleveland
a few times a year, and brings back a treat from Great Lakes Brewing on recent trips. I understand the challenges of being in business for several decades and staying current in the market. That said, Great lakes has a spot in my heart. So this week is 30th Anniversary Imperial Oyster Stout. A really good stout that's a bit amped up with cocoa and oysters.
I like the dance between the base stout and the adders. Think salty chocolate, and a kiss off alcohol added.
Cheers all
Imperial Oyster Stout

Great Lakes Brewing Co.
Russian Imperial Stout / 10.70% ABV

4.06/5 rDev -1.7% | Score: 4.13
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Poured from a 22 oz bottle dated 2018 into the test glass
A - Deep and dark, with a solid pour, a thin tawny cap can be created. Carbonation rises through the darkness to a confluence of islands on the surface.
S - Bakers chocolate shaved, dark roast coffee, chocolate malts, a bit minerals and hints of dusty basement.
T - Dark malts, cocoa, a bit of caramel, and toffee, with a nice salty touch.
M - A bit light on the palate, carbonation is solid and acts as the wave for semi sweet and salty to ride on. The tension between salinity and sweet is really quite good.
O - A wonderful stout with a decidedly fun take. The oyster and Cocoa add to the base stout quite nicely.

 

Thank you for falling on the sword here and then telling us about it, so the rest of us can avoid this one. I’m curious about n/a beers, but that sounds dreadful. Eek!

 

Round #3 and probably the last for the day.

One from the generous @Vidblain , my first Trillium beer!

Beer: Cacao PM Dawn
Brewery: Trillium Brewing
ABV: 9%


Pouring this from a 16 oz. can into a snulip glass, this beer pours dark brown. Even pouring into the center of the glass, this beer didn’t even try to get any crown up and going. Black in the glass with very minimal highlights at the bottom and a sliver around the edges of the top. 3.5

The smell brings a rich coffee presence along with some chocolate and even slight nuttiness. Almost similar to peanut butter. (But that’s slight) Coffee smell is more creamy than roasty. Fresh coffee. Maybe some vanilla sweetness showing. 4.25

The taste proves I was right in thinking it was more of a creamy coffee than roasty. Which isn’t a bad thing. Cream prominent, chocolate evident, but there is some other layer of sweetness coming too. Caramel, vanilla. They are all melding very wonderfully. 4.25

The mouthfeel is a delight. That creaminess just lends so much smoothness in this. And for this to not form any crown whatsoever, it doesn’t seem to be a bit under carbonated whatsoever to me. Creamy coffee along with the layers of sweetness linger after it’s gone. No alcohol presence at all in the 9%. 4.5

Overall, I’m glad to have had a chance to try this. I loved the smooth, creamy coffee aspects mixing with the balanced layers of sweetness. If it would’ve formed more crown and brought a little more to the nose, this would’ve been sitting closer to 4.5. But even as is, it’s a treat and is sitting at 4.25 for me.

Thanks a lot Chris! I appreciate it.
And thanks to all the NBSrs for sharing their beer with me on these Sundays. Cheers!

 

Happy Sunday NBS players. Unlike a lot of the country the "storm watch" here on the island turned out to be a bunch of shit. Got to deal with all the idiots at the grocery yesterday acting like they won't be able to leave their homes for a week. It was actually kind of warm this morning but now I can feel the bone chilling cold coming in. I'm just about all settled in for the rest of the evening and looking forward to the football games. I've only got two work days this week thanks to the three day weekend and a few days off on the end of the week.

My new beer today is Chocolate Coconut Porter, a local to locals brew, from Spider Bite brewing. The local-to-local thing is a local collaboration between local independent breweries and beer stores to raise some kind of awareness and sell a bunch of beers or something like that. Sounded cool when they started it but so far their efforts just have not delivered for me in the beer department. But I was able to get a single can instead of forking over for a full pack so here goes. The brew checks in at 7% abv and no canning date.

A jet black color on the pour with a soft off-white head. The nose is full of sweet coconut aroma. This note seems to carry right over to the initial sips as it is very coconut forward. There is real nice mix of the chocolate malt which comes on the more that I consume. Nice and smooth on the flow and finish as well. The mouth feel is on the lighter side of moderate. The body is a bit light, but not chalky, and it seems to hold up enough to keep it drinking well enough. Additional notes of cocoa, nuts, vanilla, and lactose.

Overall, it's an ok porter. It's very sweet coconut forward and really seems like a pastry porter. Lacking a bit in the robust chocolate malt aspects. I'm in the high 3's here at best but I'll submit an official review before I pass out tonight. The ba listing has it as the 7th entry in the series but the can indicates that it is actually the 6th.

 

Stillwater Stupid Head

Stillwater beer #2. Unfortunately, I accidentally painted myself into a "bash Stillwater" corner today. It wasn't totally by design. I will admit though, that I bought this beer because it's not what I look for in a beer. According to the fine print on the label, it's a "wheat ale" brewed with pineapple, mango and lactose. The front of the can states: double dry hopped, tropical smoothie, Hefeweizen. I'm the kind of numbskull that doesn't like that they are calling this a Hefeweizen. Just call it a damn "wheat ale" like you did in the fine print. There's no need to drag that German name into this. I also don't think that calling it a parody changes anything. Of course, this beer is classified as a Hefeweizen here and everywhere because that's how these things work. Yep, I already made up my mind that I didn't care for this marketing before I bought it... but I'm also the kind of numbskull that feels that you can't really complain about something you don't know... which means actually trying the beer. I'm also capable of giving it a very fair shake regarding it's enjoyability divorced of semantics.

The beer is very hazy and apricot colored. Nice head. Smells like a NEIPA. The body is slick. Alcohol is waaay too present... oh yeah, just checked - it's 8%. Oh dear. That explains it... but not really. There's certainly a "tropical" fruit quality here above all else, but not to the point where I'd be convinced that it had actual fruit added to it (if I didn't read the can). The alcohol just kills this beer for me. If I wanted a boozy 8% beverage, I'd reach for a Scotch ale... so I'll move on to those next.

 

Lost Forty Trash Panda, 7.2% ABV. Pours pale yellow with a half-finger of white head. Nose is grapefruit and pine. Taste is grapefruit, malt, slight hops, slight bitter close. Excellent mouthfeel. Overall outstanding. I am not generally an IPA fan due to the typical one-note hoppy bitterness, but this damn good, an IPA for non-IPA-fans.

In the background is a crockpot of 10-alarm turkey chili for supper.

 

It's called a Hefe because, I presume it's brewed with a German wheat strain

 

That reminds me, I put a Porsche steering wheel in my Chevy, but the folks at the race track just laugh at me when I say the car is a Porsche.

Kidding. Cheers.

 

New Beer Sunday: American IPA

Afternoon NBSers with a heads up for those who like to try out collaborative beers.

This football afternoon’s new beer for the Saints-Rams game is a collaborative beer that involved Alesmith and Stone. The beer is called Gregarious Nature.

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

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/396/366111/?ba=drtth#review


The aromas/flavors are full of citrus, citric zest and pine resin. The citrus includes some grapefruit and some orange. There’s lightly toasted malt and its sweetness in the background but the its the hops that are showcased here. It has that finish where the dryness at the end invites another sip. Definitely a drinkable and enjoyable beer that I’ll be looking to have again. Hopefully this is not a one-off from these two breweries.

Cheers, all!

 

I'll balance this out by stating that I enjoyed the Classique I drank last week.

 

Yeah, I too had to read the label two or more times to get the "of" to show up inside my head and thinking.

 

New beer from new brewery on this way too snowy Sunday. Close to 20” so far and still coming down strong.

Cheap Songs II: The Seller of Scented Herbs
From The Referend Bier Blendery

Appearance is light straw, slightly cloudy, active bubbly carbonation leads to thin off white head. Head popped itself out into nothing pretty quickly.

Aroma is herbal and spicy, some dried citrus zest. Hard to pinpoint the herbs and spices used. You can tell it’s tart from the aroma.

Flavor is bright tartness, sweet lemon and citrus zest. Balancing oaky presence and a nice level of herbs and spices. Nothing overpowering. Sweet spearmint and spices that I can’t pinpoint.

Soft and light bodied, moderate carbonation.

Overall an interesting and well made brew. Added spices is not usually something I’m excited about, but the use here improved the final product.

 

Good luck from here to your close family. Best wishes.
Last night we had a gathering of 10 old friends, 5 of which are all 1969 Grimsley High School grads. We will attend our 50th reunion this fall. We lost a very close member of the group recently, and it was a palpable absence. We had a blast and told stories for hours. My sides literally are sore from laughing......Best of wishes once again.

 

I'm back and wishing a happy Arctic NBS to one and all!
After missing last Sunday due to fun, food and frolic with the wife and her folks, I am back with a new-to-me local in a novel-for-here format. There is not a growler culture here whatsoever despite valiant efforts by some people. They finally made them legal a year or two ago thanks to lots of lobbying from craft brewers, but people's general lack of education regarding them pretty much killed off any attempts. Lots of places would fill from the tap (without a hose), cap it and sell them pre-filled. No one was/is set up to purge.
Le Dispensaire de Bière is a fairly new, very well-equipped little hole-in-the wall brewery/growler place here. New enough that I had to add it to the site. I had a job a couple blocks away this last week and so I took advantage of it to pay them a visit. They have a decent variety of beers on tap and one of those futuristic closed fill systems. They are a notable exception to the lack of growlers here and I'm excited that they opened. They do, unfortunately, insist on pre-filling some of their stuff. I am not a fan of that at all. Nonetheless, based on my visit and the growler they filled for me (a pretty tasty IPA), their nifty machine seems to waylay some of my concerns. Now I'm going to get into a Helles and see how it pairs with some football. This beer will be the true test as I had to buy it pre-filled (but tasted it fresh in tap). It was "growlered" 9 days ago.

It pours pretty nice, its age in the growler is immediately obvious with its lack of head compared to what I tried at the brewery. Luckily this is not the case in the rest of the beer. It is pretty straightforward all told. Aroma is of lightly skunky hops, and pale malts. The flavor has some meaty pale malt flavor as well as lemony and a peppery bit from the hops. It is nice and drinkable while still being substantive. The main thing that I'd complain about is that it had fallen off a touch from being pre-filled. I knew that going in and it was actually less-affected than it could have been. Also I understand why they have decided to package them this way. Nonetheless, it is noticeably better fresh (though it still was not bad).

Here is my official review.

Santé!

 

I enjoyed reading this review for two reasons: We commented on two aspects of the beer and drew the same conclusion about one, and a very different concision about the other.

Here are my comments with emphasis added:

“This beer smells and tastes like a pineapple, lemon meringue, banana smoothie. Creamy aroma. Lemon citrus and pineapple tropical fruit hops. Medium sweetness on the palate driven by moderate, traditional Hefeweizen flavors. Very light bodied and way too drinkable for 8% It is totally radical.

Interestingly enough, as I look this beer up while writing my brief review, I see that it is actually brewed with pineapple, mango and lactose. I did now know that. That is weird, wild stuff. That actually takes away from the beer for me. Here I thought the hops were generating these flavors. Then I find out it’s brewed with fruit. If I like it, I like it. Does that really matter? I feel like it does. Either way, it’s a fantastic beer.”