New Beer Sunday (Week 779)

A-Pours a dark color with a slight head and lacing
A-Aroma has slight raspberry and chocolate hints
T-The taste follows the nose with a generous raspberry and chocolate flavor
M-A medium bodied decently carbonated beer
O-A good Imperial Stout

 

Happy Sunday, NBS crew! Opening this bottle from @Orca_Whale circa 2018 since I’m dying for some sour bacteria. I’ve been all hops and stouts lately. My body must be confused by the lack of strange bacterial intake.

Tagboard - Black Project
Gueuze - 5.5% abv
Vintage 2018
Score: 4.29 (+5.9% rDev)



Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/40377/397571/?ba=CanConPhilly#review

Synopsis:
This beer is wild. Literally and figuratively. The funk factor on this one is off the charts, with noticeable blue cheese, dirty sock, and rotting fruits/veggies hitting your palate like a marauding army. Given the spontaneous ferment and multiple barrels, I expect this and welcome it. Very little carb, and barely any head, which I’m not sure is by design. But even taken as a still beer, this is a pleasure to smell and drink. For extreme funk lovers only though, as evidenced by the multiple negative ratings! I dig it greatly. Thanks again Bill!

 

Thanks @cjgiant for this weeks great start to NBS. Will be back later on with a new brew.

Cheers!

 

So, I checked out a new Cidery in Houston this weekend. Low and behold they make two year round beers as well. Called City Orchard. They make a Belgian Pale Ale and a West Coast IPA.

The taproom is really cool, with a long bar interesting wood accents and a great patio outside.


First up is the Rule G. Belgian Pale Ale and 6% ABV.

Pours a clear dark orange color. A two finger white head forms and recedes quickly to nothing. No lace is left behind. When all said and done, looks closer to one of their ciders than a Pale Ale. Spicy and phenolic yeast with a touch of esters. Some citrus notes as well. Then a nice bready malt character takes over in the finish. Fairly simple overall, but well made. A medium body with effervescent carbonation and finishes dry. Really enjoyable to drink and a nice alternative if you want something besides cider. Overall score is 3.79 and full review below:



https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/58447/462335/?ba=champ103#review

Next up is Tin Lizard, a West Coast IPA at 6.7% ABV.

Pours with a slight chilled haze, that clears up once this warms. An orange/copper color. A densely packed two finger white head forms with good retention and plenty of lace. While not the most "complex" IPA I have had, very aromatic. Lots of C Hops with orange, citrus grapefruit, pine and resin. Flavor is much the same with a touch more caramel malt presents. A medium to full body, crisp carbonation. That is also smooth at the same time, and a very nice dry clean finish. An old school IPA and a good one. There are plenty of breweries in the Houston area that don't make them as well. Overall score is 4, review below:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/58447/462337/?ba=champ103#review



An my review of the Cidery/Brewery in Places:

I really enjoyed the ciders as well, maybe I'll do some reviews of those for NDS threads only.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/58447/?view=ratings&ba=champ103#review

Today, I will be opening a Sierra Nevada Hoppy Anniversary Ale and might visit a brewery or two to see what new they have on. Will report back later.

 

I like the way that sounds.

 

Somewhere in Pennsylvania:

"Fly, my pretties, fly!"

 

FWIW - I find that stuff to be almost undrinkable. (Cheers to @woodychandler for enjoying it though! - Thank God we all have different tastes.) BUT, the one time I had kvass made by a restaurant it was an entirely different thing than the packaged stuff and a fantastic drink for me.

 

Someone on this thread recently was trying the Three Philosophers varieties. I remember thinking it would be great to try them, but I never see any Ommegang out here. Then lo and behold, I found some Hennepin and the bourbon barrel Three Philosophers at my local store. Talk about serendipity!
I should note this beer didn't arrive in New Mexico from New York state. It was brewed and canned for Brewery Ommegang by Boulevard Brewing in Kansas City.
In a goblet the beer was a dark reddish brown color. There was a thin off-white head.
Nice aroma of bourbon, oak, vanilla, and dark fruit.
Bourbon, vanilla, caramel taste. Cherry.
Disappointingly thin mouthfeel.

 

Today’s new beer is from Cycle’s TBBW last March. I bought the Monday through Sunday set and I’m just getting around to drinking them...Today, appropriately enough, is “Sunday” (2019), a non barrel aged imperial (have no idea what the abv is) milk stout/S’mores offering:



Pours black with ruby edges at 53 degrees, with reddish brown head; fairly quick cap; quick thin ring; no lace; no legs.


Whipped marshmallow topping, chocolate nose.

Sweet Chocolate; roasted, toasted, burnt marshmallows; lite bitter char; S’mores aroma stronger than taste, with just a hint of sugary crackers; some dark fruit - plums, cherries as liquid warms from 53 degrees; burnt finish.

Creamy lactose feel; medium body; moderate minus carbonation; no warmth from alcohol; dryish finish.

Overall, ok; sweet to the point of cloying, but the burnt aspects/linger distract from the sweet milk stout taste; barrel aging would have helped smooth flavors out?

4.25 | 4.0 | 4.25 | 4.0 | 4.0

 

Good morning BAs! I'm starting my NBS before noon today (oh noes)... I should have a few more in me, but I'm also going to be doing a long session of D&D with friends today. However, we play online so I may be able to sneak some shorter-than-usual reviews in when it's not my turn to blow shit up.



I figured this would be a good starting point. A nice, big imperial stout with maple syrup and coffee, clocking in at a healthy 8.5%.

ELSM pours a dark brown color, definitely not quite a total black but pretty close once it's all in my glass. A nice, khaki colored head sits stoically atop the inky depths, leaving behind some sticky-looking lace as it slowly fades to about a half-finger. Pretty good legs on this one, too. I'm into it so far.

The nose is slightly-buttery and heavy on the black "diner" coffee kind of feel. Smells like a stack of pancakes at a cheap (but good) breakfast place. The maple brings out some woodiness/tannins, but the roast balances everything out quite nicely. Slight notes of bitter chocolate in there too. Charred grains and some biscuit malt as well. Overall, this seems to have a temperament kinda between an oatmeal stout and a sweet stout, at least from what I can gather just smelling it.

Ooh, this is pretty good. Yeah it's a little sweet from the maple, but the body is well-defined and each sip transports me right to a hole-in-the-wall diner. Roasty coffee defines the mid-palate, where it melds in well with the oats and other grains. Bitter baker's chocolate and more chewy oats round out the finish. There's also a note of honey graham cracker and a flash of the ethanol, but this doesn't taste quite as strong as it is, honestly. A fun and tasty breakfast stout. Recommended.

 

Ridgeway Reindeer Droppings

No, this terribly named Christmas beer isn’t a brown ale. It’s marketed as an amber ale. It’s essentially a very strong bitter. (It’s 6% ABV) People here tend to think of English ales as malty expressions, and when US producers make their take on them, they frequently reinforce this by making a very malty ale. It feels like US producers are trying to differentiate those products from their APAs as much as possible. There’s quite a range to bitter though, and this “Christmas amber ale” is a case of showcasing the hoppy and herbal side of things.

It’s amber in color (accurately so rather than the reddish brown beers often tagged as such). Carbonation is light and the head is small. There’s a very forward and interesting herbal character to the beer. The ABV is too high. Make this beer 4%, put it in four packs, and it would not only be welcome but it would also be like nothing else on the market in my area. As it is, it was an enjoyable change of pace.

 

Happy Anniversary to your parents @cjgiant

Having this for the first time
Aroma was of roasted coffee and vanilla to me
Appearance was fairly dark but you could see through it
My first sip was very sweet and the vanilla like flavor was more toffee candy like
It’s pretty rich tasting roasted hazelnut and coffee and vanilla like
It may have been a wee thin but it was a full mouth feel. I had to remind myself I’m drinking an brown ale not an imperial stout as I don’t drink brown ales a lot so maybe it isn’t thin to you
Over all I think it makes a great dessert beer. I could see me drinking this over brunch

 

Mikkeller Covfefe


Pours onyx black with a fluffy, huge beige head atop.


Smells of an old school imperial stout with lots of burned malts, subtle toffee and bakers chocolate. This impression gets enhanced by sanut forward coffee aroma, giving even more depth to the toastiness in this.


Drinks smooth, silk and soft with a huge, complex body, which lets the beer stay on the palate for a long while.


Tastes of roasted coffee beans from the very beginning, together with some maple syrup and lighter pecans, adding beautifully to both other flavors. Turns a bit warmer then, without loosing its creamy smoothness, entangling the alcohol well into the coffee and profound malts. Finishes a little sweeter, heavier on the maple, highlighted by the nuts and a note of cinnamon, leaving back a long lasting aftertaste of roasty, bitter coffee.


This is bold, smooth, complex and very well working.

 

Ridgeway Bad Elf Dry Hop Ale

The Ridgeway elf series is unnecessarily confusing. If it was just a case of escalating ABV and body along with names of increasingly bad elves, it would be manageable, but they’ve muddied the waters too much. They’ve used the same label art and name with different variations of ABV and description. When I bought this beer, I thought it was new to me, but after opening it, I’m thinking it’s a beer I already featured in a past NBS thread. Looking back at it, it seems obvious, but there are so many name games with these beers that confusion was created. I’ll proceed regardless.

This beer is very similar to Reindeer Droppings in so many ways, but the defining herbal character of that previous beer is amped up to intense levels here. It’s intensely hoppy, but not in an American IPA way. This beer is pungent, green, leafy, and vegetal. It would benefit from some much needed elegance to make it more pleasurable, but it’s also an interesting oddball.

 

Happy NBS, one and all!
As always, I hope everyone is doing well today and in general. It is weird weather here today. Last night dumping snow and today is drizzly and gray.

Once again this weekend, my life has been super beer-centric over the last couple of days without my conciously trying to arrange it that way (although I suppose that's kind of a lie). Yesterday I got to go to a conference about hops held here in Montreal and see a talk given by Stan Hieronymus. It was really interesting and enormously informative. I don't homebrew much hoppy stuff as a general rule, and so I worried that it wouldn't be terribly applicable and might be over my head. Boy was I wrong (although parts were definitely beyond my grasp haha). Even though it seemed a little more geared towards the hazy crowd, it was really fascinating.

A lot of the talk focused on pairing hops and the interactions that they have with one another going so far as to even alter one another. He talked us through studies where brewers had actually "faked" certain hops by putting together combos that would result in similar ratios of aromatic compounds in the final beer. Really worthwhile and I'm glad I heard about it in time to go. Then, my old lady was out of town so I got home and promptly brewed an old ale (barely any hops) while blasting music and watching the snow come down like mad. Not a bad Saturday at all...

(Not my picture)
Today is Sunday, though, and as a follow-up to the talk, I just so happen to have some fresh, new, local IPAs that I've been eager to try after a decently long stint of dark beers over the last couple weeks as I try to drink my cellar down. The first today is a single hop Sabro NEIPA from Mille-Îles. These guys really have a surprising knack for hoppy stuff despite mainly focusing on middle-of-the-road beers that are decent but nothing to write home about. I've heard great things about this one, but you never can tell with local beers of this style as I feel like more and more people hype them up without just cause. God I'm becoming a grumpy old man before my very eyes.... Anyway, Sabro intrigues me and I've had at least one tasty beer made with it. It was also one of the hops mentioned yesterday that exhibits widely varying characteristics depending on when and how it is used.

It pours relatively hazy golden-orangeish with a small, frothy head that settles to a rouseable little cap, confetti lacing. The nose, holy cow! Huge guava, tropical Bubbilicious, clementines and melon nose right off the bat. Before I'm even done pouring it, bright, twangy, unique, tropical. Tickles my sinuses! The flavor is a little more bitter than the nose, but still with plenty of fruity character. Guava, oranges (pith and all), dried coconut (husk and all), light herbal green bite at the finish; lingering, fairly complex, aromatic aftertaste. It has a soft and creamy mouthfeel but still with a pretty crisp snap to the dryness/bittering. They say on the can they carbonate it lighter to accentuate that, but you can tell that it has that fluffy feel on its own as well. The odd coco-y flavor the hop brings also contributes on this count. Nails it.

This is an extremely nice little beer that is the best showcase of Sabro I've yet had the pleasure of trying. It is very good on its own and would be good with most any hop I think, but here they manage to do that rare thing that certain Brewer's can do where they seem to get all the hop to come across in all its expression, weirdness and all. This is a very interesting hop. Even moreso here than when I've tried it before. Really the only thing that kept the beer from being straight 4.5s is the character needing a little oomph in some way that I don't know how you could do it and have it remain a single hop beer. Very, very nice. I'm glad I grabbed a couple cans of it!

I hope to be back in a while with another.

Santé!

 

Or?

@TheDoctor

 

Cafe de olla
..solid black
..light carbonation with an above average body. Has a slight oily feel along g with a creamy sensation that coats the tongue and lingers
...aroma is bourbon upfront followed by burnt sugar,brown sugar,creme brulee, boozy mocha liqueur
...taste is bourbon,dry wood, coffee, burnt sugar,roasted malt and a slight sour taste that took away from it a bit
..overall it was outstanding,above average even if I didn't totally fall in love with it

 

Ok, this is it, the new Sunday norm to stretch out from my beer rut. So Duchesse De Bourgogne, my first effort outside of Lindemans.

Ok, it’s a Flemish Red, the pour has about zero head, but effervescent, you could hear it, color mid brown, you can’t see thru the glass, but certainly not dense.

Nose, faint vinegar, over ripe fruit a bit of funk.

Tast, tart fruit, maybe cherries, a bit of funk, the slight vinegar on the nose I can’t find drinking this. I get tart fruit that’s nicely carbonated.

I’m a about a virgin on these styles, but the more I try the more I really like them, I dig the funky hard fruit taste that’s over aged, past it’s prime. It’s not overly sweet, but the tart finish cuts the initial sip. Only slightly acidic, I was expecting more, but them again I can drink vinegar and love it.

It’s been a hell of a long time and I’m not that experienced here, but going on my faulty memory it seems similar to New Glarus Oud Bruin which I loved.

Either way a thumbs up, I’d easily buy this one again. I’d say maybe 4.5 give or take. A well hidden 6% abv.

 

Any jumping?

 

More'n a little