New Beer Sunday (Week 748)

Happy Sunday, NBS crew! @FlintB bombed me with a massive box this weekend, and this is my first choice to drink out of his stellar selection of brews. I’ve been wanting to try Black Project, and this does not disappoint.

Stargate: Redhaven - Black Project
BA Wild Ale with peaches - 6.9% abv
Vintage 2018
Score: 4.48 (+1.6% rDev)



Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/40377/398957/?ba=CanConPhilly#review

Synopsis:
I struggle to describe the excellence of this beer. Definitely the best beer I had this week. Not super-acidic, nor too sour or sweet. It is a revelry to the forgotten peach, sagging and rotten in a field. Except for this time, the peach was rescued, and used in this beer. Barnyard funk, hay, rotting fruit mustiness...some amazing flavors on display here. This one will not be shared. Thanks again Brian!

 

Left Hand Death Before Disco Porter, 6% ABV, 24 IBU. Pours black with a nice two-finger tan foamy head that left lots of lacing. Nose is malt, nuts, coffee and chocolate. Taste follows with nuts, slight roast malt and slight coffee prevailing over the chocolate. Excellent mouthfeel, overall excellent.

4.08/5 rDev +4.3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

 

Bissell Brothers - The Substance

This is a modern IPA done relatively right. It’s a very murky and opaque yellow. Tastes of pineapple and mango if they were obscured by dough and a bit of abrasive hop bite. Well done and nicely drinkable.

 

A-Pours a hazy golden orange color with a nice head and lacing
A-Aroma has tropical citrus hints
T-The taste follows the nose with tropical citrus flavors
M-A medium bodied well carbonated beer
O-A good DIPA

 

Good afternoon and evening, fellow Advocates of Beer and Tasters of new Malts, Hops, Yeast, Waters and whatever else may have found its way into your beer.

Corbin’s Cannon is a “smoked stout” from Backward Flag Brewing Company out of Forked River, New Jersey. This beer is new, as is the brewery.





Look: Upon pouring this beer, a carbonation issue is evident. A hands worth of beige colored foam erupts from the glass. I suck the foam down, but not fast enough. Inside I go for some paper towel. The liquid is an opaque dark brown color. There is no visible carbonation.

Smell: This beer is clearly smoked. It reminds me of a Schlenkerla Rauchbier on the nose, but not as intense. It is smokey and meaty. There is also some coffee and chocolate. A hint of charred wood. A rich, sweet and savory aroma.

Taste: Smokey, bitter and woody. Quite pleasant. It’s hard to pick out due to the smoke, but the beer seems a touch oxidized to me. It does not detract from the beer though.

Feel: Initially this beer is overly carbonated (no surprises here) and drinks like seltzer. However, after sipping for a few minutes the carbonation seems to adjust itself more toward normal. Odd. I’ve had this experience before with overcarbed beers where they seem to adjust themselves after being opened for a few minutes. I don’t know why. Perhaps the “release” of co2? Still quite prickly, but rounds itself out a bit.

Overall: It’s a decent smoked beer. It hits the spot for such a mood. Wish more smoked options were available.

3.7/5 rDev -7.7%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.75

 

*clears throat*
I rarely show up or contribute to NBS, so sorry but for this beer... well, I thought I had to. Posting the can this time around as I love the HA art. I'm sure "regulars" to the WBAYDN list will see this poured into a glass a LOT this coming week.
Half Acre Bodem IPA, a new full run IPA for them... 6.7% of goodness.
A - Fantastic copper-amber murk but not a turbid NEIPA. Denser "classic" West Coast look. Good head, good lacing.
A - Holy tamale of Earth, pine, and malt. There's a hint of the malt sweet before a dark piney undertow surges on the nose. Heavenly to me.
T - More Earth, pine, Midwest malt, and some of that cashmere hop smoothness. You can certainly get the Idaho 7 in this as well. It tastes like (I know, slight blasphemy) a better version of Two Hearted (again, to my palate).
M - Fantastic, constant, and lingering carbonation - stayed lively through the whole pint.
O - A fantastic IPA that I hope to have many times a year if HA is going to drop seasonally here. Huzzah.
Cheers, NBSers! BOW DOWN TO BODEM!

 

A-Pours a very clear ginger color with a very slight head and lacing
A-Aroma has generous ginger, lime and agave hints
T-The taste follows the nose with nicely balanced ginger, lime and agave flavors
M-A light bodied well carbonated beer
O-A good Ginger beer

 

On to new beer number two, Triple Root Eighteen99, a very nice Hefeweizen sent to me by @Blackop555!
4.02/5 rDev +1.5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Thank you Blackop555 for this
12 oz can poured into weizen glass

A- A hazy golden copper with a small, fast fading, head.

S- Wheat, cloves, some bananas, hints of citrus.

T- Whear, breadth, cloves, bananas, touch of citrus and green apples.

S- Smooth, little to medium body, carbonation is a little of the high side.

O- A tasty Hefeweizen, easy to drink.


Cheers!

 

I feel blessed every day. Portland is a city that has everything I love, and when I need something else (peace and quiet, usually), it can usually be found with a 20 minute drive in any direction.

If you ever find your way back, hit me up. First round or twenty are on me!

Cheers

 

Good evening NBS and to @lordofthewiens , thanks for the opening today. I am not a college grad, Both our sons are and we still get the annual (insert drive here) requests. The notion of the reunion is always intriguing, seeing friends etc. but the wholesale and obvious ask at every opportunity is frankly a bit much.
Today was a brewing day here, and a day to keep an eye on the new (to us) dog, we are in that learning curve with each other and so far so good.
The offering has warm months all over it, a Berliner with Meyers Lemons from Central State brewing.
Cheers all

Halsdurschlag

Central State Brewing
Berliner Weisse / 4.30% ABV

4.1/5 rDev +2% | Score: 4.02
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Poured from an undated 12 oz can into the test glass,
A - Initial pour was beautifully clear, a hint of bright yellow, then a swish of the can and out came the cloudy fines of the yeast and lemons. Cap is supported by vigorous carbonation, with lacing delicate and quite attractive.
S - Lemons, lots of lemons, sooo many lemons, Add to that a nice salty musty quality, some peach and melon near the rime.
T - Follows the nose well enough, add a very nice grain element, wheat, there is also a thread of yeast that acts in support.
M - Mouth puckering, all the saliva has left the room, side walls are rolling up, then in a surprise twist, an evening sweetness touches down to balance things nicely
O - A very nice summer offering here, the initial punch softens with a bit of time. The total package is one that screams outdoors in the warm months. 3.9% and packed with flavor Worth seeking out

 

A rare 3rd NBS beer for me today, but I'm feeling good.



Catamount Bourbon Barrel-Aged Porter

Harpoon Brewery & Beer Hall
American Imperial Porter / 10.20% ABV

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

L-The beer pours a glossy black which shows ruby red at the edges when held to the light. The head is greater than 3 inches in height and tan in color. This is a really beautiful beer on the pour. The beer has a really nice cascading effect.
S- The nose is sweet with chocolate from the malts and vanilla from the barrel. It is medium in intensity.
T- Up front the beer is sweet with vanilla from the barrel, yet not boozy at all for a 10% beer. The vanilla sweetness mixes with the chocolate from the malts. The vanilla eventually fades away leaving some dark chocolate to linger into the aftertaste. Late in the aftertaste the becomes more like coffee till it fades.
F- Mouthfeel overall is medium. There is some slickness to it which gives you that feeling of coating. Carbonation is fairly light after the initial pour.
O-If you are averse to sweetness in your beer than you won't like this. If you're like me, and like a touch of sweetness in your stouts, this beer will appeal to you. Usually these type of sweet beers at this strength come off as quite boozy. This one avoids that better most. It's a dessert porter well suited to sharing around a campfire in the late fall. Recommended if you don't mind sweetness.

 

Howdy, everybody! It's been a beautiful weekend here in northern NJ, and the boys and I were able to get in a lot of overdue yardwork between yesterday and today, so I'm quite pleased about that. In about an hour I'll start the grill for dinner, so right about now is the perfect time to relax with some liquid refreshments.

Here's one I have lined up for just such an occasion:

Firestone Walker Rosalie, a "rosé" beer (with hibiscus and grapes).

It's certainly refreshing, and does come across as a pleasant beer/wine hybrid in that vein. Nothing really complex is going on here at all, actually- there's as much doughy 'white bread' from the malt as there is a moderate white grape presence, and any floral hibiscus quality is merely an accent. But very restrained all around. If anything, the wine aspect is reminiscent of a gerwurtzraminer, slightly spicy on the finish, but you really have to focus to pick it up.

But, nah, it's not made for that- this is the very definition of a quaffer. There's a medium bodied feel to it, with an initially sweet hit that finishes crisp, dry and tart. Just the tiniest hint of tannins keeps things grounded. I think the main thing when designing a beer like this is to keep the balance right so that it stays pleasant throughout, and never becomes annoying- and FW did pull that off successfully. But I'm still not feeling like they did it "with style"- in fact, I imagine a twist of lime just might bring this one to the next level. But as it sits, it's a nice enough B+ (3.75) of a beer.

 

Other Half Chopped cheese


Pours a hazed, saturated yellow color with an unusual big, froth head for this style.


Smells of a fantastic passion fruit leaden nose, together with lime pulp and grapefruits. To create an even more intense exotic fruit profile, the aromas offer additional layers of mango, oranges and unripe bananas. Holy cow, this is great, with an intense, streamlined hop profile, topped off by huge buds of skunky weed.


Has a lighter mouthfeel with a noteable carbonation backbone to it, but unlike many other offerings of this brewery the beer doesn‘t appear overly smooth or creamy, but perfectly fitting for a profound refreshment. Don‘t get me wrong, this is still a very soft drinking beer, yet different to their usual ipas, reminding me just a little more of a west coast ipa.


Tastes of an aqueous softness, featuring a slowly uprising lemon defined bitterness, which gets softened by papaya and riper oranges. Has a grassy, weed defined middlepart, allowing even a hint of doughy toffee malts to cut through, enhancing the beer‘s bitterness by quite a bit. Finishes softer, bitter with a note of white bread dough, ripe papaya and a lasting, old school bitter hop aftertaste with a lighter grass note.


Another great, yet noteably different Ipa from Other Half. This convinces by a unforseen interplay between tropical fruits and skunky, herbal grass. Despite its lighter body this is all about the balance, settling for a calmer, complex hop profile among bready malts and a more present, stony carbonation.

 

I'm enjoying a thunderstorm and a beer. I received a very generous box from @JayWhitson this week. This is from Uberbrews in Billings. It's Grandmaster SMaSH Idaho Gem session IPA. A very bright, easy-to-drink beer.



Pours a very light, straw yellow color with a soapy white head and minimal lacing.

The smell is citrus fruit, mostly grapefruit and some lemon.

The taste is dank be and piney with grapefruit pith. It has a lingering, bitter, dank finish.

The mouthfeel is very light and minimally carbonated.

Overall, a nice, light beer with some bright flavors.

 

A new one, as it is a new year. We had the 2018 version of Maine Beer Company’s Thank You, but this is our first go with this year’s. The GF already gave an approving sound of “Mmm” as I was typing this up, but she a fangirl says that just looking at the bottles on the shelf.



Pours clear golden with white highlights. The foamy head doesn’t build as high as I’d expect, though the glass top is pretty wide on this glass. The glass has a grid etching, so a medium cap rides the waves of each disruption of the glass for a sip. Lacing marks the glass as if it were marking a child’s height on trimming of the hall doorway.

Nose has a scent that combines light notes of a few generic qualities: earthy, cereal, mineral, and a bit of melon and dank hops that hide until I take a hearty inhalation. The taste has a typical Maine base that I usually take as a mix of water and malts/grains. There’s a mineral and grain husk that seems familiar from their other lighter-colored beers. The hops are subtle until the very end, with a light bit of spice and a hint of wildflower tea during their quiet phase. In back there’s a reedy grass note that morphs into an dry, light pine wood flavor that lingers.

The label mentions fruits, many tropical in nature, that the drinker should expect. Even when thinking of their suggestions, I’m not perceiving any of it. The beer is only a month old, so I’m not thinking I could even use the faded excuse. I enjoyed this light, clean, soft pale ale despite it not delivering on its claims.

 

Have you ever stumbled across a rotating beer whose recipe has almost completely changed? I didn’t try the original but this batch of Hoof Hearted’s Skittley Bittley Bop is clearly different from the other reviews on its page in almost every way. The only way I would know it’s the same is the name and the label art. I’ve only ever posted my own impressions in this thread but for this one have to do a side-by-side

Original: Seems to have born in 2016 as a saison with coffee added. 8%abv. Now from 4/30/19 we have a “kettle soured ale with raspberry, blueberry, vanilla and coffee” clocking in at 4.5%
A: Earlier reviews mention a brown tea-like appearance. Now it’s light red
S: Others mention green pepper, peanuts, coffee, few mention fruit. I get red raspberry, sour cherry and a bit of malt
T: Coffee seems to be front and center previously, with other roasted malty and herbal saison notes mentioned. Now the sour fruit is front and center with coffee providing a unique background that, while initially coming across a bit odd, actually fits
M: Light and fizzy at 8% before, light/tart/crisp at 4.5 now
O: The coffee definitely got stronger as I reached a light sediment at the end of the glass. Overall a solid sour. Definitely different from the beer’s earlier reviews

I know breweries often update recipes but has anyone else experienced something else so different? Almost all of the earlier reviews were negative, now this is a well constructed brew.
Cheers!

 

Just troubleshooted (troubleshot?) some computer issues and drank half of my new beer while doing so... but here goes anyway!



Picked this up yesterday from Craft Beer Cellar in Belmont, MA. Had no idea we were gonna see any Carton around here, but I grabbed a single of this quickly when I saw that we apparently were! I'm familiar with two beers from these guys because of everyone else in the damn country (seemingly, anyway) drinking them... Regular Coffee and Boat. This one is a coffee cream ale with a nitro treatment, weighing in at about half of the strength of RC.

Pours a clear, deep golden color with a nice head of tight, dense foam. Obviously, since this is a nitrogenated beer, it's made to be hard-poured, but I accidentally picked a smaller glass for it and didn't get to pour the whole can in at once. Still, it looks quite nice. No lace to speak of, but great legs.

Nose is reminding me of C.R.E.A.M. by Sixpoint (remember that one?), and other coffee cream ales from years ago. This is kinda late to the game, I guess, but it does have an authentic light-roast/blonde-roast coffee element and a hefty dollop of creamy vanilla-like sweetness in there as well. Slightly herbal and maybe a little hit of milk chocolate-like elements if I get right in the glass.

Flavor profile is what I expected... crisp and clean but creamy toward the finish. Nitro works for this but I still probably wouldn't want it again because I find nitro beers pretty one-note and homogeneous in flavor and feel. Coffee, cream, vanilla, herbal and grassy hops toward the finish, light biscuity malt... kind of English pub ale-esque in a sense I guess, with that blonde roast coffee carrying through the finish. Fun (esp so if you're a bigger fan of this kind of thing than I am) but it's a one-and-done for me. Hope to see more Carton... I really want to pick up some Boat some day!

 

Greetings all and thanks to Mr. of the Wiens for the kickoff. I've never been to a reunion and don't really have any regrets on that. I remain close friends with a handful of people from both high school and grad school (none from college though) and that's enough for me.

I have a relatively new beer this week from Mayflower Brewing in Plymouth, MA. They have been around for a bit over a decade and claim to have been founded by the great great great (etc.) grandson of the beer barrel cooper aboard the Mayflower. Pretty nifty pedigree! They have been largely a "traditional" sort of brewery with their standouts being their porter, oatmeal stout, and Old English Ale (called their "Thanksgiving Ale").

Either because they want to or because they have to (or probably some degree of both) they've been playing in newer school waters over the past couple of years.and I've got their new double dry hopped NE DIPA called Love & Wrestling. It sits at 8% ABV which is my sweet spot for a double. For those familiar with Mayflower's usual branding, this can is just a slight departure



Look: Pours a very attractive hazy amber gold with a nice white head. Thankfully no murk here, just haze. Head doesn't last too long and thins to a ring that continues to leave spotty lacing for a bit until that gives in too.

Smell: Very strong stone fruit notes of peach and apricot with a bit of earthiness and a little sweet malt as well.

Taste: Follows the nose with the addition of a touch of pineapple and some dank notes. The taste is coming dangerously close to that sort of "over ripe" fruit flavor that I dislike but it's just managing to stay on the safe side of that divide. Alcohol is pleasantly detectable. Starts a little sweet in the front of the mouth but finishes with a mild bite of bitterness. Surprisingly dry on the finish with little aftertaste.

Feel: Perhaps a little under carbonated for my liking giving it a slight syrup-y character. Has the soft feel typical of an NE style beer though.

Overall: For my palate, a decent beer but not a great beer. Picked it up for $12 though which is a nice break from the $15+ options.

Cheers all!

ETA: this was canned on June 7th so it's very fresh.

 

From the few I’ve had from Carton, (by way of @TheGent , luckily and thankfully) I would love to have distro.

I generally feel the same about nitro but I didn’t at all feel like it took anything away from the Nitro Regular Coffee when I had it. It shocked me.

Those cream ales they’re making are in another league, for me.