New Beer Sunday (Week 727)

This afternoon, I was at one of my favorite breweries in Houston. They always make excellent lagers in just about any style. This weekend they released a Schwarzbier that is excellent...

Holler Brewing Semiclassic at 5.7% ABV


Near opaque black, plenty of tan head and lacing. This has a great malt character. Toasted and bread like with a bit of chocolate and coffee. Though without being roasted and bitter. Just a touch of earthy grassy hops in the finish. Excellent carbonation, clean and dry. I had several today at the brewery. Full review below...

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/45647/395147/?ba=champ103#review

 

Happy Sunday everyone!

Hoping all of you are having a great end of the weekend. Those of you in the coldest of places? Stay safe and do not go outside. Ever. Until it gets to above zero. And wear snowsuits to bed. Stuff like that.

Anywho, today in drinking my mystery beer, coutesy of @Blackop555 in the 8.5 bif.

Allie unknown about the beer, except one big hint that comes from the cap: it’s a beer from brewery vivant. I’ve never been disappointed from these folks, so I’m excited to figure this one out

Forgot to pay attention to the pour, but settled in the glass a surprisingly opaque burnt orange. A dense finger of head, stays put for quite some time.
Smell let’s me know this is definitely wild, possibly with some fruit.
Taste confirms. Tart, a bit of grain, funk, and I’m gonna say strawberries. It’s a bit more tart than what I would expect of a strawberry beer, but the color points me away from any other berry. Feels nice and pillowy despite its tart punchy finish.

If I’m right about the strawberry (I think I am?), from looking through their offerings, I believe I just drank vivant’s strawberry rhubarb sour. The rhubarb explains the not so strawberry vibes lol.

Since October or so, I’ve had 4 pretty awesome straeberry beers.
Plan Bee - Amour
Jester King - Omniscience & Proselytism (#5)
3F - Speling Van Het Lot VII.v (strawberry + cherry), blended and alive
And this one.

And taking that into account, this year if strawberry beers (a super hard fruit to work with) have been full of surprises. I stand by Amour being the best of the bunch. This years batch was incredible. JK ended up making the worst one, by far. And this Brewery Vivant one ends up in a toss up with 3F. Which is insane, being that 3F makes some of the best stuff out there. Goes to show that sometimes the old classic (Doesjeel, A+G) are classic for a reason, and while the twisted fate series is exponentially harder to find, it won’t always be worth it.


Also, found some Heady Topper today in NY! Thanks Roberta’s

 

Poured into a 16 oz Hop Slam glass canned on 12/06/18 and is holding up awesome. Pours a very hazy bright yellow with a 2 finger sticky white head that leaves loads of lace all over the sides of the glass, with excellent retention as it slowly settles into a thin film of sporadic bubbles. 4.75

Smell is guava, pineapple, tangerine, papaya, and some grapefruit rind. 4.5

Taste follows tropical front to back, guava, pineapple, papaya, tangerine, and a nice balanced hit of grapefruit man this stuff is excellent. 4.75

Mouthfeel is bigger than medium, not dry but a tad sticky, a near perfect soft feel, and goes down very easy at 8% ABV. 4.75

Overall I love what these guys do, a NEDIPA time after time and at a competitive price. 4.5

 

Easily the hardest and by far and away the best ‘job’ I’ve ever had!!

 

Wissahickon Falls Park Coffee Porter

Happy Sunday, BAs. This is my second time checking out Wissahickon Brewing in the Philadelphia Metro Area. It’s much more crowded today than last time around.

My one and only beer here pours a dark brown with a thin, short-lived tan head that forms a crown and leaves sparse, spotty lacing.

Quality breakfast roast coffee stands out in the nose, with some chocolate and brown bread behind.

It’s dry tasting with strong coffee and brown bread maltiness, and it has a slightly metallic finish.

It’s thin bodied (probably appropriately so), with a somewhat over-carbonated feel.

This looks nice and smells great, but is otherwise a pretty middle-of-the-road coffee porter. None of the beers I’ve chosen here have ever blown me away, but it’s still a fun enough meeting spot.

 

'Afternoon, folks! I'm getting a bit of a late start today - spent the evening at Central Waters yesterday, and all of that driving (about eight hours on the road) had me tuckered out. Met up with a few of the Newbies for handshakes, tried the CW anniversary beer and a couple of variants, and then headed home.

Found myself a new interest and pursuit in the Sword and Scale podcast - driving on your own for eight hours gets a little boring, and a grisly story or two really helps keep you awake. Makes me look forward to my next road trip (coming up quite soon, actually - meeting up with some of our fellow NBS guys in Chicago this coming weekend).

On to beer: I'm beginning the day with my NBS 8.5 mystery beer from @beertunes:



I made the mistake of playing hell with my palate just prior to drinking this beer - munched on a bit of teriyaki beef jerky and mistook the salt as being in the beer itself... so my initial guess was a fruit gose. The nose is rich with fruit, which the taste introduces a bit of acidity. I had no idea who the brewery was - the bottle shape wasn't ringing any bells (I don't actually recall many breweries at all who do a bottled gose), and the cap was taped. No clues there. I decided to untape the cap first.



No help there - just didn't ring any bells for me. Time to unwrap the bottle.



Aha! Not a gose afterall, but I was on the right track with the fruit and acidity - raspberry can definitely come across that way at times. All of that raspberry in the nose is terrific - a wonderful fruity bouquet, rich, terrific. Taste is slightly thin (seems common with raspberry), but damn! does it ever get sour after a while - salivary glands are going in to overdrive and my cheek muscles are spasming like crazy.

I like this one - very tasty.

This beer arrived a earlier this week, thankfully surviving the terrific cold snap here in MN - it's part of a hell of a nice box Terry sent my way. I want to take this opportunity to thank Terry again for this great box - cheers, sir!



I may be back later. We have a whole bunch of snow in the forecast and I'm fighting with my snowblower... this might call for more beer...

 

New Beer #2 - Wicked Weed’s BBA “Milk & Cookies”:



Pours black with ruby edges at 57 degrees; dark beige foam; good cap retention and solid ring resulting therefrom; moderately heavy lacing; thin legs. 4.75




Baked pie crust and sugary raisins; bourbon as liquid warms; cinnamon nose. 4.0

Sugared raisins, cookie dough, semi sweet malt base, bourbon, cinnamon, vanilla, oak; more bourbon as it warms; cinnamon finish. 4.0



Medium body, moderate minus carbonation; light creamy body, with dry cocoa powder feel. 3.75

Overall I thought the cinnamon was out of balance with the whole; the linger is cinnamon spice; can’t find the 11.3 ABV; so many other flavors in the background, but the cinnamon is ever present...a good holiday beer especially if you like cinnamon. 4.0

 

Happy Sunday NBS players. A rather nice and sunny winter day here on the island. A nice break from the bitter cold we've been having. No football and I almost don't know what to do with myself. A rather lazy Sunday, ran some errands, gots a simple chicken dinner lined up, and preparing for the coming work week.

My new beer today is Sump, an imperial stout w/coffee, from Perennial brewing. We just started catching these guys on distro, and while rather pricey, I really enjoyed Abraxas and this has been a big time want. The brew checks in at 11.5% abv, and has a 12/19/18 bottle date.

A jet black color on the pour with a thick head of brown bubbles. The nose is nicely floral with coffee and malts. A big blast of bitter coffee grind flavor hits right upfront along with a rush of the smooth and lush chocolate malts. Crazy smooth on the flow with a bitter and sweet finish. I love the full flavor of the coffee and on the finish I'm catching a sort of lactose/milk sweet flavor that is really enjoyable. Additional notes of cocoa powder, brown sugar, vanilla, caramel, and charred smoke. Full bodied with just the right amount of stick to allow the flavors to linger across the palate while the abv hides dangerously.

Overall, Wow what a great beer. I'm easily in the 4.5 range to possibly higher her. The killer here is the price point and the god damn wine bottle serving. Right now, its around 23 bucks a bottle. I'll probably grab another but if it were in a more manageable 4 pack/smaller bottle format I would revisit more often.

 

A-Pours a hazy amber color with a generous head and lacing
A-Aroma had fruity and oak hints
T-The taste follows the nose with a very nicely balanced light fruity flavor and some oak aftertaste
M-A medium bodied very well carbonated beer
O-A very nice, very well balanced, and very refreshing beer

 

I hadn't heard that tune before. Man, you made a full circle with egg cream and I learned some new stuff. I wish I could play you an Allman Brothers homage to peach cobbler... Oh well.

 

Greetings all and thanks as always to our host. It's a beautiful January day here and I'm hoping my hike with the dog has burned enough calories to justify my calorie heavy entry today.

A while back it was noted here on BA that the new Guinness barrel aged stout is in fact made from their Antwerp stout that they released last year. I had and enjoyed it back then, so I thought a head to head tasting would be fun. As luck would have it ,there is a liquor store not far from me that has had a lonely 4 pack sitting on their shelf ever since the release, so I snagged it and hoped I'd be able to find some of the barreled version to compare. The stars finally aligned this week!

The Antwerp clocks in at 8% ABV while the barreled version is 10% ABV and aged in Bulleit barrels. I was planning to try and do this blind (one would hope a barrel vs. non-barrel tasting wouldn't require this, but you never know) but the head differential made that impossible. On to the beer:



After 10 minutes:



Look

Antwerp: Deep, impenetrable black with a big, frothy tan head that lasts and lasts

Barrel: Deep, impenetrable black with a small tan head that lasts well for its size

Smell

Antwerp: Lots of leather and licorice along with some milk/malted chocolate. There's also the familiar sort of sweet and creamy smell that I associate with regular Guinness.

Barrel: Immediately smells much more deep and intense than the Antwerp. Still a lot of licorice, but it has more of a dark and almost burnt quality now. Leather is still there. The chocolate is darker now but it brings along some vanilla and maybe cinnamon? Definitely some booze on the nose though I'm not sure it screams bourbon per se. I give the Antwerp another sniff and it seems *very* light and clean compared to the dark richness of this.

Taste:

Antwerp: Taste follows the nose with the malted chocolate taking center stage from the licorice and leather. Finishes very clean with a little bitterness in the cheeks and a fleeting, slightly sweet aftertaste.

Barrel: Putting this up to my face I'm again struck by just how much more intense and rich this is. There's the bourbon! Taste otherwise follows the nose though the leather and licorice again take a back seat to the chocolate. It tastes a little sweeter than the nose would suggest and I'm not getting the bitterness in the cheeks I got from the Antwerp. Taste lingers much more in the back of the throat though with a definite bourbon reminder.

Feel:

Antwerp: Surprisingly thin and almost a little watery for an 8% stout. This makes it very drinkable, but if I'm going to be drinking something that boozy I'd prefer something a bit more chewy that I could slowly savor rather than feeling immediately ready for the next sip.

Barrel: Much more substantial feeling though perhaps still a touch thin considering the abv and barrel aging. Certainly makes the "sit and savor" cut though.

These are both super tasty but I think the Barrel Aged version is a better example of what it's trying to be than the Antwerp is. The latter is just a little too thin for its ABV in my book while the barreled version is getting a lot of mileage out of its relatively low ABV for the style. If there's anything that really makes these stand out from the pack it's the strong licorice/leather character which to me seems pretty unique. And it's worth mentioning that these are both very reasonably priced with the Antwerp 4 pack under $10 and the Barrel version under $20 (I paid $16).

Cheers all!

 

Great Sunday afternoon, New Beer Sippers and commentators. New beer #1 is a Barrel-Aged Stout from Wicked Weed. It was a Christmas gift from my daughter who brought me several North Carolina beers. Some of WW's big stouts are very, very good. Sadly, I was somewhat disappointed by this offering. On the one hand I'm glad it isn't cloyingly sweet; on the other hand the various flavors seem to get lost and it's overtly boozy, even for me. On my scale I'm still a little over 4 but I was expecting a lot more. Here's my full review:

4.06/5 rDev -3.8%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Poured from bottle into a Wicked Weed snulip glass. It pours nearly ink black with a thin, foamy, khaki-colored head that dissipated rapidly leaving thin, spotty lacing. On the nose there is cocoa, freshly-brewed coffee, vanilla, toffee, and a whiff of maple syrup. Although subtle at first the bourbon smell becomes more apparent as the glass warms. The taste is coffee-forward and the bourbon is stronger than I expected. Swishing it around my mouth I taste the maple syrup, vanilla, and cinnamon but it finishes surprisingly bitter with notes of burnt coffee, char, and tobacco. I'm glad it's not cloyingly sweet but it comes across as a little bland. The feel is also a bit thin for such a big Stout. There is moderate carbonation and you don't miss the 12.3% ABV. It's pretty hot. Overall, while there is nothing wrong with this stout it didn't wow me as I thought it would. Some of Wicked Weed's BA Stouts are more memorable than this one.

I hope you're all enjoying your new beer(s) today. I'll be back with a review of a local IPA. Cheers, NBSers!

 

Poured into a 16 oz Hop Slam Snulip glass the canning thing is strange on this one, thinking 3 or 4 weeks old. Pours a very hazy orange with a 2 finger sticky white head that coats the sides of the glass with thick patches of lace. 4.25

Smell is apricot, hard apple candy, honey dew, pine, and grapefruit rind. 4.25

Taste follows apricot, hard candy, melon, tangerine, and some grapefruit. 4.25

Mouthfeel is bigger than average, sticky fairly soft mouthfeel, and goes down very easy at 8% ABV. 4.25

Overall I am struggling to find many complaints with this one, just solid all the way around and again at an excellent price. 4.25

 

Foreign Objects – Fascination Street
Canned on Dec. 27, 2018.



Look: Murky bright yellow body; a finger of head on a semi-aggressive pour; decent head retention; amazing lacing.

Smell: Tropical. Notes of mango, papaya, and tangerine.

Taste: Follows the nose; very tropical and juicy; lots of papaya and mango.

Feel: Very good NEIPA; medium body and carbonation; no apparent alcohol.

Conclusion: This one hits the spot. Out of the three Foreign Objects beers that I’ve had (other two were Willful Delusion and Wet Gravity), this is the best one.

4.5 | 4.25 | 4.25 | 4.5 | 4.25
Overall: 4.29 (rDev +2.6%)

 

I’m convinced that if I had that glass I’d spill some beer every time I used it.