New Beer Sunday (Week 768)

Another from @Roguer 's box, a Praline Amber: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/26714/160542/

 

Good evening NBS and thanks to @lordofthewiens for the start. BA has been a great resource to me since 2007, The banter and information are an important resource, and the vast fellowship of participants is a treasure.
Today's offering is from our dear friends at Hill Farmstead, The display of the single hop is a treat. This one is an NZ Saaz variant that strikes the tropical and classic spicy elements. Really quite good.
Cheers all

Riwaka Pale Ale

Hill Farmstead Brewery
American Pale Ale (APA) | 5.2% ABV

4.19/5 rDev -3% | Average: 4.32
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

Poured from a 12 oz can packaged 12 days ago, into the test glass
A - Textbook HFB backdrop, golden, glowing, loose knit white frothy cap. Carbonation hides in the haze and provides constant support.
S - Earthy and tropical, ripe melon, and cut grass, a very nice spice thread is buried in there, touches of white pepper, grapefruit peel, and peach flesh.
T - Flavors are in that melon, pineapple, and earthy category, malts add a balanced sweet element. Fresh ripe peach is a thread that adds some balance.
M - So soft on the palate, wanders across the experience, semi sweet start, followed by a full tropical wave, chased by some gentle spice reminders. Finish is complete in a flash.
O - A wonderful single expression of this hop. The base is a delight, add the hop treatment and you have a treat. Time is needed to pull this one apart, The reward is worth the effort

 

Good Sunday afternoon, New Beer Sippers and commentators. I'm approaching my fifth anniversary on BA. I heartily agree with what others have said today: the comradery on this site is really special - particularly here on NBS. I've had the pleasure of meeting several BAs in person and look forward to meeting many more. Maybe we should have an NBS retreat/bottle share.

I'm not participating in the current NBS BIF (first time I've missed one in several years) but my new beer today is from the previous BIF, courtesy of the friendly and generous @woemad - Fremont's 2018 Dark Star release; a barrel-aged oatmeal stout. This is really spectacular! In addition to chocolate malts and oatmeal, there is cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, and raisin. The bourbon is highly flavorful but not distracting. This Stout has everything I love about the style. It's a blend of 24, 18, 12, and 8 month Barrel-aged Dark Star in 7-12 year old Kentucky bourbon barrels. Thank you, Fred! I'm glad I let this sit for a few months. It's a truly special treat. Here's my review:

4.51/5 rDev +1.6%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

2018 release. I received it from @woemad in an NBS BIF. Poured from 22 oz. bottle into a tulip glass. It pours a very dark walnut color with a foamy, mocha-colored cap that dissipated quickly leaving a thin film of lacing inside the glass. The smell is bourbon-forward, along with roasted malt, spices, tobacco, char, and a raisin. Wow, this is extraordinary! There is earthy malt, dark chocolate, oatmeal, cinnamon, nutmeg, leather, tobacco, raisin, black cherry, and lots of bourbon, which adds significant flavor but is not overpowering. I'm really enjoying the dark fruit notes. Each flavor compliments the others. It's one of the most flavorful stouts I've ever had. The feel is luxurious with moderate carbonation, and the 13.6% ABV is warming at first but quickly becomes potent. Overall, this is exquisite! It's lovingly-crafted with lots of flavors. It would make a superb dessert beer; hopefully, the meal is good enough to justify it!

I hope you're all enjoying your new beer(s) today. As always, I look forward to reading your reviews. Cheers, NBS!

 

Today I have two new-to-me Dogfish Head beers, which is exciting and unusual. I have actually quite enjoyed some of their more recent beers, which is cool because for a while there I was getting pretty bored of them. This first one is a "botanical IPA" featuring a long list of adjunct ingredients. Almost strikes me as the list of stuff in a gruit: juniper, lemon peel, hibiscus, coriander, green cardamom, and chamomile. Key difference definitely being that this actually has hops in it, of course



The pour here is quite wonderful, I must admit. A hazy but not opaque golden color with some yellowed overtones if held up to direct light, the beer carries a very dense, foamy head of suds that never quite settles below a full-finger, bringing with it amazing legs and consistent swaths of lace. I am very impressed.

The nose is distinctively spicy, of course, with immediate aspects of juniper and cardamom jumping out more apparently than the other ingredients. Slightly grassy and resinous by turns, with an odd savory/earthy note as well. Almost musty, somehow? Reminds me of some of their "ancient ales" series stuff from like 6-8 years back. Glad to read that this utilizes some rye in the grist alongside ample hopping from Centennial and Simcoe varietals. Super interesting and has me wondering what'll be in store on the palate.

My first sip is pretty explosive... big juniper, pine, spice, rye-laden earthiness, floral hops, grapefruit, lemon balm/lemon peel, coriander-like earthiness and more anonymous citrus. Well, it does have a gin/genever flavor to it, for sure! Complex layers from the cardamom and flowers added lend a zippiness and, again, almost a gruit-like herbal quality to the proceedings. It's definitely very bitter, though, and the Simcoe pushes back against the adjunct ingredients in a playful yet satisfying way. Bright and enjoyable feel with moderate carbonation and a good, refreshing bite on the tongue. I can't say I would drink this all the time, as with a lot of DFH beers in this sorta vein, but it's definitely an interesting and successful beer for what it attempts to do. I've never really been a huge fan of their experiments blending wine and beer (Sixty-One is trash still, by the way ), but this experiment with bringing the world of gin and beer together is a fun and creative one. Looking forward to more good stuff in this vein from DFH soon. Check this out if a gin-infused IPA sounds like something you'd like to try. You might be as impressed as I was if you have an open mind.

---

So, weird coincidence. Yesterday morning, I purchased my very first fully-modular analog synthesizer, the Erica Synths Pico System III. I've been wanting to get it for a while, but it seemed to sell out almost immediately whenever I found it in stock and didn't have the money on hand. However, recently I worked a ton of overtime at work so I had a bit more saved up. I checked for its availability once again and, lo and behold, found a single unit available from a trusted synth webshop for 15% off! Excited, I immediately grabbed my credit card and snatched it up.

Today, I went to my favorite record store (Bull Moose in Salem, NH) and what do I see in the front of the "C" stack of records in their miscellaneous section but a live archival record of the Grammy-nominated musician Suzanne Ciani, an early pioneer of the Buchla modular synth systems. I don't believe in fate, but the excellent album cover and description I quickly read on my phone of what this record contained had me shelling out the almost-30 dollars for it. I'm listening to the B side right now, and I'm very happy with my purchase. It's like a time capsule to the early days of West Coast style synthesis, all done super-capably and intelligently. To say Ciani was ahead of her time would be an understatement.

Here is the album in question...



And here is a spectacular (and funny) demonstration of a Prophet-5 by Ciani herself on Letterman in 1980...



Cheers all... back with another new one in a bit.

 

The latest from Wunkerkammer Bier, Greensboro Bend.
Ingredients gathered on 08.18.2019.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/47666/446553/



375 ml. bottle.
Moderate to vigorous pour yields a nearly one inch white head over a hazy, straw colored body with sticky lacing. Nose of earthy lemon, pine, forest floor, apple and a certain woodiness along with the oak from the foudre. Taste mirrors nose pretty closely with wonderful earthy/herbal flavors to go with the sumac berry tartness. Finish is slightly puckering and certainly dry. Wow! Nice feel and overall, yet another delicious (and very unique) offering from Vasili the gatherer.
Cheers!

 

Picked this up last night. Line at TH is not bad at 8:30 on a Saturday. They had a nice band and plenty of friendly dogs to entertain my wife. The bottom of this can says 10/3/19.

4.19/5 rDev -0.7%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Pours opaque dark brown with an espresso-looking head except with larger bubbles mixed in. Unfortunately that beautiful head is short lived. Not much for the nose here, kind of like when you open a chocolate sampler box, but more subtle.
This beer tastes like an expensive milk chocolate bar with a finish similar to a melted fudgesicle. A creamy mouthfeel just adds, closer to fat-free milk than whole milk though.
Nicely done. I like my stouts less-sweet, but I think some people will find this perfect for their taste.

 

Sure. I've had it for about 20 years. Still in real good shape. It's a round neck. I had the action lowered so it plays closer to my other acoustic guitars but still high enough for bottleneck slide. I keep it out on a stand at all times so it's easy to just pick up and play.

 

Transient Permastank. Fantastic NEDIPA. Lasting fluffy head retention/thick foamy lacing. Aromas and flavors of huge tangerine, red grapefruit, lemon, lime, peach, pear, pineapple, passion fruit, mango, honeydew melon, red apple, gooseberry, citrus peel/zest, wood, peppercorn, and pine hops; with moderate wheat, cracker, white bread dough, light toasted malts; and herbal, floral, grassy hop earthiness. Light-moderate pine, citrus peel/rind, herbal, floral, woody, grassy, peppery bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation and medium-plus body; very creamy/bready malts, some sticky hops, and light resins/rinds in the mouthfeel. Lightly increasing lingering bitter dryness, no hop astringency. Very smooth/soft, not aggressive, minimal warming 8%. Feels like Citra, El Dorado, and maybe Nelson Sauvin. Very juicy, vibrant, and fairly dank/earthy hops; with a great balanced wheat/oat/malt backbone. Light residual sweetness with lingering resin dryness. Spot on stuff. 4.23


Cheers

 

Good evening, folks. Took some time today after a brisk walk to head to Aslin. Little busier than last time we were here on a Saturday. So we headed upstairs to try our beers.

I had two new ones for this site, the first I added, the second I was first to rate/review.


Sedona or Sonoma!?! is listed as a Petite Saison, mixed culture with goose and raspberries with some wine cask aging. As I reviewed, the gooseberry and mixed culture win the competition for my palate easily, with the wine having a little influence and the raspberry failing to post.


Baby Palate is a more likeable beer for my tastes. Listed as a Belgian Pale on the menu, this one seems to me to fit more into the saison description. The Brett adds a nice little mustiness to the dirt and peppery qualities, mainly in the nose. The taste brings a little melon sweetness that interferes with these preferred notes just enough to not meet what the nose promised, plus it was a tad flat. Overall, I found this a quite tasty offering, though.

(The pastry stout Buku Mocha is not new to us and was just sitting there to warm, but jumped into the picture when he saw Baby posing)

 

Taking a break from the BIF beers, and hitting some ticking beers I picked up recently. Up now is a very nice Pils from Konig: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/40/137/

 

You have to assume within a couple of years they'll start brewing it again. It's too good not to! I was able to grab a few bottles luckily. Have a couple in the basement to age

 

Good evening, everybody! It's good to be back with a new beer after sitting out the past few weeks. One thing that may be in my favor going forward is that #2 Son recently passed his road test, so I probably won't be shuttling him around on Sunday afternoons any more. This may not be good news for my liver (especially if the Giants keep playing like they did today ), but we'll see how it goes.

Today's beer comes to me from the very generous @WesMantooth . Although the season has officially passed I'm sure that the beer itself is still fine .

Fat Heads G'Suffa, their Oktoberfest

Just judging by the color, a beautiful golden copper, I'm guessing that they are going for something in the amber Marzen territory, although not all that deep across the line. The initial sniff confirms that hunch- it's got a nice deep breadiness to it, but also displays solid flashes of toasted bread crust, and just enough of a shot of spicy hop accent.

First few sips are dryer than I expected, but also not as deep in malt flavor as I had hoped. It's definitely got that breadiness with a touch of toast going for it, but the effect is rather shallow and crisp. Fortunately the toastiness builds as I get deeper into the glass, and it really hits its stride around the halfway point.

At this point it's really reminding me of Ayinger, as though they used that beer as their model. It's not as beguilingly rich as that beer can be, but it's a close enough approximation- very tasty and made for the long haul. In fact, call this beer a 'Vienna' and it's a real winner on its own terms. A wonderful A- (4.2); thanks again, Corey!

 

I agree. A very fine beer. Had one earlier in the week.

 

I'm back and ready for more.
As to @lordofthewiens 's discussion point today, I agree completely about the high caliber of people I've met on here. My experience (only 7 people or so) runs the gamut from faceless trading partners to good friends. Even the worst interactions I've had in real life--and there have only been two bad ones--were not really bad. Very nice guys that were just awkward and into beer in a different way than I am. Additionally, in both cases they were guys that aren't active on here at all and who were still good company over a couple pints. So that says a lot.
When I joined I was new to Montreal and trying to figure out places to get good beer after five years of living in Mexico, a place with decent macro beer but a dearth of craft options, at least at that time. I joined and started reviewing as a lark. I had liked quality beer for a long time and had looked at BA before for research, addresses, etc. but actually joining and participating awoke a passion for beer that I had long suspected but had never acted on. Six or so years later I work in/abreast of the industry, homebrew, review frequently, always strive to expand my palate while traveling and generally relish in developing my knowledge of all things beer. Cheers to all of you who have helped make that possible!
For my second beer today I'm going to try one from Halcyon Barrel House. This is a project from Beau's brewing that focuses on barrels, blending and wild beers. I have only had one other offering and it was decent. Beau's normal beers are solidly made and not flashy, I'm hoping that this one is a little bit flashy however. Let's find out.

It pours clear ish gold with an airy off-white head that quickly drops to a fat film, leaving little lacing.
Crabapple-cinnamin nose, almost cheesy (parm) twang to it as it warms up a little(?).
Earthy, spicy, medium sour flavor with woody, dusty malt and clean soft vinegar and green apple. It is very dry, lively carbonation, lingering tart character. This is an all right beer. It is not quite as complex in terms of sourness or saisonness as it could be but is definitely not bad or boring. The foot-like aroma was kind of distracting at first, but is not terrible and I don't think constitutes and off flavor. It blends into the start of the vinegar smell and I am fairly certain it is yeast/barrel funk. If not it isn't enough to be bad and if anything helps with the lack of depth. A tasty, tart, saison.
Santé!

 

Suddenly Comfy is the newest polarizing/confusing imperial ale from Dogfish Head, and I have a bottle to review right now. It's basically a spiced/fruit beer made to be essentially the "apple pie" version of something like Pumking from what most reviews seem to be saying. In other words, it's a very flavorful, almost dessert-y "imperial cream ale" brewed with apple juice, cinnamon, allspice, and vanilla beans.



Pours a distinctly "apple juice" color with some clarity to it. It's not fully clear, of course... still hazy but translucent in a sense. A tight bone-white head of foam sits atop and seems to last throughout my enjoyment of this treat. Good lace and solid legs.

The nose is basically "liquid apple pie" as other reviewers have recently noted, so if you don't like the idea of that you can safely avoid this beer, probably. Strong mulling spice elements with the robust allspice and earthy cinnamon taking center stage. There's a definite pie crust-like element here, likely from the grain bill plus the vanilla bean addition. Smells just like apple pie, seriously. It really IS like a Southern Tier beer in that sense... just spot-on reconstruction of the sensory profile of pie.

Flavor is a little more apple forward with the spice taking a backseat, especially at first. Close to the end of each sip, the allspice and cinnamon mingle with the smoothness of the vanilla while strong bready, biscuity malts combine to lend a nice, full-bodied feel to the beer. And it does taste like a beer, in case you're worried it's more like a semi-sweet cider. This has an apple flavor to it, of course, but the pie crust element is definitely focused on when it comes to the actual palate. I love stuff like this when it's done right, and this is definitely good for what it is. I will likely return to it several times, as it's come out at the perfect time of year. Looking forward to seeing if it gets even better as it warms. Cheers NBSers, and hope everyone has a good week.

 

I liked this offering as well, even though I was skeptical going into it. I'll probably grab more to have on hand for Turkey day

 

The Maiden beer isn’t a pale ale. Look at the can.

 

Sorry, I don't know how to post pics but I'm sipping a Nightmare Brewing Matricide. It's an imperial (15.1!) stout with coconut, almond, lactose, vanilla and aged on cacao.

As with all good stouts this gets better as it warms up. It's a bit too boozy for me even though I prefer imperials but it's still a solid, enjoyable beer. I imagine at this abv I'll really love it by the end lol.

I have one of Nightmare's IPAs waiting for me as well, so I'm interested to see their take on that style.

Happy Sunday!

 

Happy Sunday. Weather definitely has taking a turn to the chilly unfortunately. I'll have to overcome and stout it up with a little Avery Barrel Aged Vanilla Bean Stout.

 

A-Pours a very nice clear golden color with a slight head and lacing
A-Aroma has malt, rye, juniper, coriander, lemon peel and cardamom hints
T-The taste follows the nose with a nice malt, rye, juniper, coriander, lemon peels and cardamom flavor
M-A light bodied well carbonated beer
O-A good IPA