New Beer Sunday (Week 732)

I’ll look around this week and see if I can manage to find another and if I can that will be fixed soon. No guarantees but I’ll look and get with you if I do!

 

Three way share of Stone's Fyodor with my wife and daughter. In for the day waiting for the snow to start. Onto the beer. Pours black with an everlasting ring of tan head that leaves sparse dots of lacing. Smells of bourbon, oak, coffee and char. Tastes of bourbon, cold brew coffee, oak, dark chocolate, cocoa, dark roasted malts char, vanilla, caramel and a hint of tobacco. Full bodied, light carbonation, creamy and chewy mouth feel and a dry finish.

 

Well said!

Haha thanks. I corked a glass’s worth that I might need to get me through some shoveling later!

 

4 Minute Mile an American IPA 7.2ABV from Twin Elephant Brewing. TE has brewed many excellent IPA's in the 3 years they have been open this is one of the 3 or 4 best of them. The grain bill is Pilsner and Pale malts plus oats and wheat. The Hops used are Strata and Vic Secret. It pours bright golden yellow with a thick long lasting head. The aroma is strong with mango, pineapple and tangerine. The taste is the same but includes bready malt. The mouthfeel is full but soft. The finish is dry and lasting. awesome stuff

 

Happy afternoon, BA's and welcome to New Doppelbock Sunday. Today's beer for me is the eighth in a line of anniversary ales by Port City in neighboring Alexandria, VA. Port City has been brewing beers in the area for something that seems like about 8 years, give or take. Some marketing from their website:

To me, I'd probably say that Port City meets most of its mission as a reliable brewer of high quality and well-balanced beers. People have mentioned Allagash White today, so I thought I'd mention Port City's Optimal Wit has medaled in the Belgian Wit category at GABF multiple times (often times alongside Allagash's flagship). They've won a few other medals at that event including a couple for their English IPA and a few of their anniversary Colossal series (for One, Two, and Five if I caught them all).

Ignoring the sometimes controversial merits of medals, I generally enjoy Port City's non-IPA beers, and today's beer is not in that style (note: I do not dislike their IPAs, they're usually a little more balanced than I really enjoy, however). So let's get to the review of Colossal Eight, a Doppelbock from Port City (I put in a change request already):


The beer sits in the glass with an auburn body that has a decent rusty reddish hue to it with some backlight. A dirty white head builds fairly well before falling lazily to a creamy collar with some airy medium-size bubbles in the mix.

Nose has a medium dark bread base with a dark cherry or berry jam high note. With a swirl to revive some scents via increased head, I get a bit of a spicy note - with a bit of an woody/earthy cinnamon nature to it.

Taste has a malty opening with a fruity sweetness, sort of following the nose. The dark cherry from the nose is joined by some more classic dark fruits (fig, prune) up front. There's a little bit of the spice in the middle that acts as a signal to transition to the darker bread notes from the toasted malts. There's a little lingering bite that I can't distinguish as being alcohol heat or the remnants of the spice from the mid-taste. As I get past the halfway point, this flavor starts to gain a bit of a spearmint aspect to it, oddly enough.

Even though this is sweet, it's not thick or heavy. It does seem a tad sticky, though, and I wished it was just a tad cleaner in this sense. The buildup of the spice/alcohol ending to each sip leaves my tongue ever so slightly, lazily numb about halfway through.

I think this is a very tasty beer, and does seem to check off most of the boxes per the style description on this site that I just checked. I think it might lean just a tad sweet and sticky for me, but it's not really risking being overly sweet, in my opinion - I'd just like a little more of that dark bread coming forth.

 

That’s a very kind offer. Thank you.

 

So I think we were very much on the same page with this beer, you might have liked it slightly more.

 

Good afternoon NBS!
I’ve been aging this bottle for two years and have had a few of the Dark Apparition variants but this is the first time for bourbon, coffee vanilla.

Basically the name says it all. Pitch black, thin head, bourbon, coffee, vanilla. The palate adds butterscotch and caramel. Full-bodied and smooth. The Dark Apparition base is a great RIS by itself and everything Jackie O’s has ever done to age or improve it has been fantastic, this is no exception.
Cheers!

 

Dogfish Head - The Perfect Disguise

Part two of my American IPAs with untypical yeasts. Dogfish Head is annoyingly unclear in what's in this beer, but the concept is an IPA / Kolsch hybrid and it uses two yeast strains. I think it's safe to say that they used a so-called "Kolsch yeast" for this... they imply that they do and they are very literal in their executions. This beer probably wouldn't have been conceived if not for their SeaQuench (which also uses Kolsch elements). The brewer's lack of clarity isn't a special result of the shifty theme of this beer... it just happens to fit.

The brewer asks: "Is it an IPA disguised as a Kölsch or a Kölsch disguised as an IPA?" Let me make this easy - it's an American IPA. It’s a slightly hazy, deep, rich yellow. Head and lacing are great. Tastes of cedar, orange, pineapple, and herbs. This “AIPA” is sweeter than the “NEIPA” that I had before it. This is quite a nice beer but not one I’d revisit. The heavy-handed marketing concept around it threatens to categorize it as a gimmick beer rather than simply a nice AIPA.

 

Yes, just a little more if our respective ratings are the indicators they purport to be. I did check your review and we were pretty close on our interpretations on a fair number of sensations. I liked their Wee Heavy from last year better, even though the ratings are fairly close.

 

NBS beer #2



Sugar Creek Dubbel

Sugar Creek Brewing Company
Belgian Dubbel / 7.60% ABV

4.28/5 rDev +3.9% | Score: 4.12
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

purchased June 2018

L-The beer pours a deep clear reddish brown. The head is a one and a half fingers of off white foam. The head recedes to a film and thick ring.
S- Plum right off the bat in the nose. Spice reminiscent of cloves follows through the middle. A bit of yeast at the finish.
T-The taste up front is a mix of fig and plums. That perfect spiciness mixed with brown sugar picks up mid sip and finishes out the sip. No alcohol detected. Really nice.
F-Mouthfeel overall is a solid medium. Carbonation is also medium.
O- One of the best American made dubbels I've had. If you like the style this one is worth trading for. Highly recommended.

 

Happy Sunday NBS players. Despite getting, and expecting, our highest snow totals of the winter its a rather nice day here on the island with temps hitting the 40's. Suppose to get more snow tonight with 2-4/4-8 inches expected. Pretty comical accumulation totals compared to a lot of the country. Doesn't stop the local news cast from going apocalypse/sky is falling style on the "storm" warnings. A rather lazy day for myself, as usual, with a little taco night lined up for dinner, and I'm taking it pretty easy on the drinking today.

My new beer today is Loyal to the Soil, a session ipa, from Lithology Brewing which is one of these newer pop-up breweries on long island. The brew checks in at 4.2% abv, and it has a 2/12/19 canning date.

An amber color on the pour with blonde highlights, clouded clarity, and a fast white head. The nose is pretty muted and I get faint hops/malt. Upfront, the drinking hits with a very herbal quality to the hops. Some pretty muted citrus notes come on with lemon, and orange. There is a real dominate earthy tea flavor on every sip that is pretty off-putting. A rather light body that falls on the watery side and offers very little bitter on the finish. I have no idea what the hell these guys are going for but their description on the can is a bit misleading.

Overall, about as bad of an ipa that I've had in a while. Absolutely awful, and I'm grateful that I was able to only purchase a single can. I'm in the 2.5 range at best to possibly lower.

 

New beer, brewery and style Sunday for me today.

Muddy York The Legend of Bernard Grodziskie, Polish Grodziskie, which I entered as a smoke beer on the site.

I generally like beers using smoked malts. There is another local brewery that does them very well. This is my first foray into Grodziskie though.



Pale straw with an effervescent head that dissipates slowly leaving gentle lacing as imbibed.

Smoke hits the nose first. A hint of sweetness.

Smoky malts on the tongue with a little mineral character. Light

Very light and effervescent. Not quite watery.

A pleasant ‘Polish Champagne’. I enjoyed this and would love to try more in the style.

Cheers!

 

Drinking my can from @larryi86 now too, so will compare with your notes.

My can burst out of the can with great force. Lost a half-ounce to the explosion. Pale banana-yellow is a good descriptor, although my head is 2-3 times bigger

I get coconut and grapefruit the most. A little pineapple and herb as well.

Moderately sweet, creamy tropical fruits. You nailed it Arthur. I get the white wine and grass you noticed, but also getting a lot of banana as well. Perhaps a bit of buttery diacetyl too. Low bitterness. Moderate-low sweetness. Low booziness.

I’d say a little more than medium body, with slightly low carb.

Agreed, the smell is great, but the taste is a little too sweet banana-forward. Pretty good though. Thanks Larry for the chance!

 

It has been too long since I have contributed here on NBS. I'm going to try to get back into a regular habit.
I made the fairly short road trip to Maine yesterday to hit a release at Bissell Bros. But given the size of the line when I arrived I decided to pass and continued on to Allagash and was greeted with no line and some great doughnuts. I did return to Bissell Bros a little later in the afternoon and was able to pick up the beers I was looking for.
This brings me to my beer for this NBS Neddles from Allagash Brewing

Neddles

Allagash Brewing Company
American Wild Ale / 10.50% ABV

4.27/5 rDev +1.2% | Score: 4.22
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

This beer pours a light brown color with a creamy tan head.
The nose is mild not the tartness of some beers of this type. Notes of the rum barrel aging come through to me in the nose.
The taste to me is complex it has hints of sweetness blended with some molasses and hints of stone fruits.
The mouthfeel foe a beer of this type is very smooth and mellow.
This beer is complex and has a lot of things going on. It totally hides it's 10.6 ABV. The beer is wonderfully smooth to drink. The taste is so enjoyable.
My biggest disappointment is I only bought 2 bottles !

 

Jester King Cerveza de Tempranillo





Appearance: This beer pours translucent ruby red. Mid flow from the bottle to glass it looks like watery, red wine vinegar. In the glass it looks like red sangria. The foam is light purple in color and disappears after pouring. No visible carbonation and no lacing.

Smell: Grape juice, juicy and jammy blackberry and raspberry, lemony citric acid and a hint of white vinegar. Red berry fruit by the foot. A hint of powdery, floral, earthy must. Zero indication of 8.1%.

Taste: Up front some sweeter, jammy, berry notes balanced by some more tart and acidic blackberry, Granny Smith apple and skin, light orange citrus in the middle. The finish is dry with bitter grape skin/tart red wine grape off the vine. Again, zero indication of 8.1%.

Mouthfeel: Virtually no carbonation. I think this detracts from the overall drinking experience, as some lively carbonation would really enhance the flavor profile of this beer.

Overall: This is a fine beer. It’s rather middle of the road for me from a sour and funky standpoint. Mildly sour on the flavor and funk other than slightly on the aroma. It reminds me a lot of drinking a glass of red sangria with a lot of fresh fruit thrown in, but more dry on the finish. I’m enjoying the beer but I would not buy it again.