New Beer Sunday (Week 799)

Have a good NBS. Another week of playing video games, and binge watching YouTube and not much else. Finally have my PC guitar setup completed with a MIDI foot controller and expression pedal. My Audio-Technica USB Condenser Mic, boom, and monitor headphone value pack will come in the mail tomorrow.

Prairie Stuf't. Fantastic Pastry stout. Solid head retention, minimal lacing/floaties on the glass. Aromas and flavors of big milk/dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, brown sugar, vanilla, cream, toffee, fudge, cookies, brownie batter, nuts, and dark/brown bread; with lighter notes of bourbon, oak, licorice, molasses, dark fruit, smoke, char, herbal, grass, and yeast earthiness. Mild booze in the aromas as it warms, but not overwhelming. Very mild herbal, grassy, roast, charred bitterness; and bourbon/oak tannin spiciness on the finish. Light-medium carbonation and very full body; very creamy/silky/velvety/bready malts; light slickness, sticky, chalky, and tannins in the mouthfeel. Lightly increasing lingering bitter dryness; no cloying/acrid/astringency. Dangerously smooth/soft sipping. Mild increasing warmth of 14.8%, with minimal lingering booze after the finish. Fantastic balance of super rich malts, vanilla, Oreo, and cocoa nib flavors; with light earthy hops and restrained fruity yeast. Not overly sweet/heavy from lingering dryness. Not a ton of barrel, but solid. Feels like a middle of the road Dawgs beer, with less barrel character. Certainly worth picking up again. 4.25


Cheers

 

Poured into a 13 ounce Teku glass not sure when it was canned, but thinking 3 weeks tops. Pours a very attractive hazy yellow orange with a solid finger sticky white head that leaves thin streaks of lace all over the sides of the glass, with nice retention. 4.75

Smell is blueberry, peach, papaya, apricot, and a little grapefruit rind. 4.25

Taste follows blueberry, papaya, peach, apricot, and just a little hit of grapefruit in the rather balanced finish. 4.5

Mouthfeel is bigger than average, a tad sticky not dry, soft gentle carbonation, and at 6.6% it drinks much bigger than the ABV. 4.5

Overall this is a very impressive NEIPA given to me by @mschrei . Thanks Matt this is a top notch beer. 4.5 Cheers all.

 

Good day BAs! And thanks @zid for starting us off! Today's New Beer Sunday sacrifice by my liver is




$ 9.49 (Including shipping)/14.9 oz can ($ 0.637/oz). Received 5/30/20 from Craftshack, San Diego, CA. Reviewed 6/14/20.
Marked on bottom of can “BEST BEFORE 20.08.22”. Stored at home at 42 degrees and served at 58 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter.
Appearance – 3.5.
First pour – Amber brown (SRM 18), clear.
Body – Black (SRM 40), opaque. When held to direct light, same.
Head – Large (Maximum seven cm, aggressive center pour), dark tan, high density, average retention, diminishing to an undulating five to seven mm crown fed by effervescence and a complete rocky cap. Some tiny pieces of lacing remain on the glass as the head retracts.
Lacing – Fair – Undulating narrow band of tiny bubbles, but at 10% ABV, we are pushing the limits of lacing anyway. See also above.
Aroma – 4 – Begins with the thick heavy smell of roasted malt eventually allowing a hint of coffee through. No hops, no yeast, no vanilla.
Flavor – 4 - The first swallow is bitter, the second much less so, and is the bitterness of coffee, not roasted malt. No alcohol (10% ABV, as marked on the label) taste or aroma. In fact, the comforting alcohol gastric warming of the typical RIS is missing; instead, we have the gastric pain of too-strong coffee – it makes it worth the cancer risk of OTC Zantac. No vanilla, no hops, no yeast. No diacetyl or dimethylsulfide.
Palate – 3.5 – Medium, silky, lively carbonation.
Final impression and summation 4. The aroma and taste are OK for a RIS, other than the painful bitterness I would have rated it at least 0.25 higher. This is more of a stout-flavored coffee than a coffee-flavored stout. One and thankfully done.

Rating 3.92, rDev -9%.

 

Beer advocate describes an American Wild Ale as such

“ Sometimes Belgian influenced, American Wild Ales are beers that are introduced to "wild" yeast or bacteria, such as Brettanomyces (Brettanomyces Bruxellensis, Brettanomyces Lambicus or Brettanomyces Anomolus), Pediococcus, or Lactobacillus. This introduction may occur from oak barrels that have been previously inoculated, pitching into the beer, or gained from various "sour mash" techniques. Regardless of the method, these yeast and/or bacteria leave a mark that should be noticeable to strong, and often contribute a sour and/or funky, wild note. Mixed-fermentation examples will display a range of aromatics, rather than a single dominant character. ”

Out of my comfort zone and willing to try new styles. Recommended by the lady behind the counter at CBC Plymouth , my new beer Sunday is

Guavaland by Mighty Squirrel

4.42/5 rDev -1.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

“ brewed with copious amounts of guava , guavaland balances sour goodness with the tart and sweet notes of guava fruit”

Can poured into a tulip

Big frothy soapy white foam , very good retention, settles to a frothy layer , good lacings over a hazy golden liquid

Aroma is tart , guava .

Taste is tart , guava . The tartness is present but not overbearing . The guava taste compliments the tartness

Low sudsing , good tartness , not in your face tart sharpness

Not a style I usually like ,but, this one I do pleasant refreshing , flavorful . Should have taken off points for the guava dominance

Good beer

18 mile bike ride this morning, enjoy the views from today and this week

 

Good morning, NBSers, and thanks to @zid for getting things started. 799!? Are we doing anything special for 800 next week? It's shaping up to be a picture perfect low humidity day here with a high in the low 70's. I'm hoping to enjoy some time outdoors as we don't get many days like this around here. This week was filled with more of the same routine I've developed since mid-March. It's been a pleasure to finally work with some fresh summer produce while cooking dinners. This was also a heavy week communicating with friends through virtual means. A small group of some of my closest friends have been skyping every other Friday with each other. I was skeptical at first, but it's been such a blast that I look forward to those days very much when they come around. On a slightly serious note, I did suffer a personal loss this week that has rippled throughout my home and taught me a lesson that I never thought I'd need to learn. Earlier this week I was bumbling through my normal morning routine, and took off a significant portion of my my ~15 year old mustache with one swipe of my trimmer. Much like a heavily fruited smoothie sour left in the trunk of a hot car, there was nothing that could be done to salvage it. They're starting to get used to it, but I was catching a lot of uncomfortable/inquisitive stares from my wife and dog, neither of whom had ever seen me without it. I've even startled myself a few times while walking past a mirror. I'm sure at some point we'll be reunited, but until then I'm enjoying being able to sip a beer without having to wipe away the remains of a prominent foam cap from my upper lip.

Speaking of which, this week's beer poured with a beautifully fluffy head and introduced me to a hop varietal that I hadn't spent much time thinking about up until now. Four Points Brewing in Charleroi, PA has been cranking out some very high quality IPA's(and other beers) for the last few months. I was most recently wowed by their 400 IPA which uses Vic Secret and Lotus. Second Phase is a DIPA that uses Lotus exclusively, and is in many ways an amped up version of 400. I generally try to avoid the term "juice bomb" in my reviews because it gets thrown around a lot and is rather nondescript, but it's fitting in this case. Everything from the aroma to the taste is a citrusy explosion. I'm happy I made the trip to pick up this DIPA that hits a lot of my sweet spots.


4.42/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Look - Poured into a craftmaster glass, Second Phase is a vibrant yellow/gold with a fluffy white head that billowed above the rim of the glass. There is no light penetrating this brew. It is opaque to the very edges of the vessel.
Smell - Undeniable grapefruit juice aroma with some dank, huge citrus.
Taste - Total juice bomb. Grapefruit, orange, and pineapple notes are big up front with juicy, only slightly bitter finish.
Feel - Soft and smooth with just a touch of hop burn.
Overall - Big, juicy, flavorful DIPA that hits all of the notes that I look for in a haze bomb. Four Points has been brewing some very high quality beers lately, and this one is no exception.

 

Let’s Collaborate!

Today’s beer is a collaboration project between Bitburger and Sierra Nevada with a brand name of Triple Hop’d Lager.

Below is how this beer is detailed on the Bitburger website:

“Our Bitburger & Sierra Nevada Triple Hop’d Lager is brewed from three hop varieties—Cascade from the Eifel region in Germany and Centennial and Chinook from the USA— to create a fruity hop taste that is in perfect balance with the beer’s slightly bitter flavor. Cascade from the Eifel region in Germany and Centennial and Chinook from the USA – and refined with the “Bitburger Siegelhopfen,” our own seal hops blend. Our collaboration brew is an exciting mix that combines a fruity hop taste with a balanced bitter-malty flavor.”

Well, this is indeed an interesting collaboration in that:

· The hops selection is a combination of American grown hops (Centennial and Chinook) and German hops (German grown Cascade & the Bitburger Siegelhopfen blend whatever that is)

· It is a Triple hopped beer (did they steal this idea from Miller Lite?)



I have homebrewed a lot with Centennial, Chinook and Cascade (American grown) hops but needless to say never with the Bitburger Siegelhopfen blend. It will be interesting to see how this combination of hops over their triple hop schedule taste.

Drum roll please!!!!!

Served in my Polish Pilsner glass:

Appearance:

Hazy golden colored with a 3 finger white head. This beer has good head retention.

Aroma:

Yes, there is indeed a fruity hop aroma albeit of a more subdued level and there is even a hint of floral as well. Not a whole lot in terms of malt aroma.

Taste:

The flavor follows the nose with fruity flavor and just a little bit of floral. There is a bit more malt flavor as compared to the nose; reminds me of two-row pale malt.

Mouthfeel:

A medium body with an off-dry finish.

Overall:

I enjoyed drinking this beer; it is pretty darn good.

Patrik (@Crusader), if somebody were to give me this beer blind in all likelihood I would guess the beer to be an APA.

I want to give a ‘shout out’ to Michael (@TongoRad) and Chris (@zid) for their posts which encouraged me to purchase this beer despite the fact it was no longer a ‘spring chicken’ (this beer is now over 5 months old).

Cheers!

@KOP_Beer_OUtlet @rotsaruch @RobH @boddhitree @premierpro @deanzaZZR

 

Today’s first new beer is Post Ride Snack, a session IPA from Maine Beer Co. Appropriately, this has immediately followed a 21 mile bike ride across the hills of the Harbor Hill Moraine.
This hazy, golden-amber bottle pour hosts a 2 cm foam cap and an earthy hop aroma. The flavor is rich with pine and some grapefruit. The brew is light-bodied, relatively flavorful.

 

I will be discussing a new beer.

Maybe Olde English 800!?!

Or even better, two bottles of Olde English 800:

 

Doh! The photo of Bitburger Triple Hop'D Lager that I forgot to add to post #7 above:

 

Good to see that I'm not completely off base with my taste impressions . My thinking here is that there's probably a myriad of APAs being brewed with the same or similar American C-hops out there for anyone who enjoyed this beer (which seems to have been a good number of people). Just as long as one stays away from ones that lean heavy on the caramel malts they should provide a similar enough experience.

 

And in today's day & age that is quite easy. Having a notable portion of the grain bill being caramel malt was pretty popular 10+ years ago but most US craft breweries today tend to not use much caramel malt for Pale Ales (APA, IPA,...). Some breweries just use base malts these days (e.g., 100% two-row pale malt).

Cheers!

 

Free Will Barrel-Aged Flowers: Dandelion Saison

Happy Sunday, BAs. Thanks to @zid for the excellent start and to all the former custodians of this thread.

Today’s new beer pours clear gold and is highly effervescent, with two-plus fingers of rocky, white head that has decent retention and leaves solid lacing.

It has a lovely aroma of light pear, lemon, peach and clear wood, with a little skunky, funky weediness behind.

The taste is dellicately sweet up front with the same light fruitiness from the nose — joined quickly by the wood, funk and what I assume is a dandelion weed quality. Fairly strong bitterness helps balance out a dry, almost puckering finish.

Just a hint of heft and some tight carbonation in the understated mouthfeel suit this saison nicely.

This is another excellent brew from one of the more underrated beer makers. Maybe their middle-of-the-road IPAs give them a bad rap? Free Will’s stouts, sours and pilsner are upper tier.

 

Thanks, @zid for getting us started.
Another hot and sunny day expected here. We typically cool off at night, so my morning dog walks are quite pleasant. It will be warm at 10 am and hot at noon, so afternoon activities will be in the shade or in the pool.
I drank a lot of Clown Shoes when I lived in Maine, here in New Mexico not as much. I found this one lurking in the cooler of my beer store and grabbed it. A Fistful of Unidragon is their Russian Imperial Stout aged in bourbon barrels, clocking in at 12.5% ABV.
Black in color, small tan head, wisps of lace.
Aroma of chocolate and coffee.
Dark chocolate taste, espresso. Late hit of bourbon.
A nice beer, without the marshmallow, oreos, etc that get put into stouts now.

 

Poured into a 16 oz Nordic pint glass. Pours a very attractive hazy yellow with a finger sticky white head that leaves thin streaks of lace, with solid retention. 4.25

Smell is ripe melon, peach, passionfruit, and apricot. 4.25

Taste follows honey dew, peach, passionfruit, and apricot. 4.25

Mouthfeel is above medium, maybe a tad sticky but not dry, soft gentle carbonation, and at 7.5 % extremely easy drinking. 4.5

Overall would purchase this again in a heart beat. Nice stuff . 4.25

 

You do more before noon than the Army.

 

Only if it's a 40 .....

 

Would two bottles be an 80!?!

Cheers!

 

We could make it an AMLNBS!!!!!

That's "All Malt Liquor New Beer Sunday" for everyone playing along at home.