New Beer Sunday (Week 800)

Slow day so far in NBS-land.

I'm enjoying it though!

2nd of the day is like the first - from Wild Mind.

Wild Mind Artisan Ales Spontané: Passion Noix De Coco American Wild Ale
ABV: 6.2%
IBU: NA



Capped and corked 750ml bottle.

Aroma is fairly strongly tropical fruits, and not much else. Not even a hint of any tartness to come, in fact, it seems a bit sweet, which I expect is pretty much false advertising!

Only a slight haze is evident in the otherwise clear yellow-gold color, with very sparsely dispersed bubbles rising from time to time to a headless surface. What head there used to be was short, white, and fizzy, soft-drink like, and disappeared in the couple of seconds it took me to set the bottle down and snap a picture.

The flavor is nicely tart, pretty mildly so for a sour, but very flavorful. There are the fruits as promised in the smell, a nice mix of tropical fruit flavors, stone fruit, berry-like flavors and pineapple along with an apple-like taste and just enough coconut to know it is there. It is quite delicious, and the tartness/sourness is not overdone and provides a good balance. (Looking at the brewer's notes about this beer; IDK what a passion fruit tastes or smells like, and IDK where I'm getting things like peach and apple. Oh, well...)

Mouthfeel is dominated by the tartness. The body is relatively thin and otherwise flat.

Overall, I liked this. The tropical fruit flavors are excellent, complemented by the coconut, with a crisp/tart finish.


L: 3.5 | S: 4.0 | T: 4.25 | F: 3.75 | O: 4.0 | Rating: 4.05

 

Good afternoon NBS and thanks @Shanex for the start today.
To all you dads, enjoy the day. But more importantly (continue to) do good. Spoke with my Dad
this morning, heard from #2 son, made beer. A good day.
Todays offering is a gift from our friends at Provisions, a smoked Helles Lager from Brooklyn.
The sweetnees is in direct competion with the smoked aspect. Not quite convinced on this one
Be well

Helles Kitchen

Kings County Brewers Collective (KCBC)
Smoke Beer | 4.5% ABV

3.94/5 rDev +2.9% | Average: 3.83
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Poured from a 16 oz can dated 04/09/20 into the test glass.
A - Beautiful clarity, lovely lazy lager carbonation cant hide. Starts with a thin and then dissapearing cap of white.
S - Sweet malt, a touch of smoked malt in there, equally a nice grassy hop aromatic, a kiss of lemon verbana.
T - Flavors center on the hops, again a hint of lemon verbana, smoked cheese, some biscuit and a lovely consistent malt thread.
M - Sweet start, a bit flabby for a sub 5%, the feel has some oily texture that makes me pause. A bit more carbonation maybe.
O - Glad to have tried this and will seek it out again.

 

Poured into a 13 oz Teku glass not sure when it was canned. Pours a hazy dark yellow with a 2 finger sticky white head that leaves a thin wall of lace as it slowly settles. 4.75

Smell coconut, vanilla, pineapple, mango, and some apricot. 4.5

Taste follows coconut, pineapple, mango, some vanilla, and a apricot finish a little bitterness but really nice. 4.25

Mouthfeel is bigger than normal, soft carbonation, a tad sticky not dry, and at 7.7% ABV really easy drinking. 4.5.

Overall I am a fan of lactose NEDIPAs and I like this hop combination. Well done and thanks @mschrei for another winner from Phase Three. 4.5

 

I remember it being solid in the late 90s

 

405 Brewing Co.'s Freelance Whale, 12.0% ABV, 3.74 overall


It says it's a blend Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout & BBA Barley Wine, so I'm calling it a Strong ale...

Pours an effervescent mahogany with rapidly falling tan head. No head retention, traces of lacing

S: Dark fruit, not much else

T: Raisins, sour cherry, a little dryness up front. Sour cherry, fig, woody dryness & a little leafy hop surface as this warms. Finishes very dry with sweeter cherry notes, plus choke cherry & a touch of oak

MF: Medium body, slight carbonation

Not a bad offering, but wanting more Bourbon barrel. Not living up to price or expectations

 

Hey NBSers! Up first today (and I have a bunch; woo for having tomorrow off!) is Civil Society's Fresh IPA. As usual with this brewery, however, I have no actual idea how "fresh" it truly is because they don't can date. Boooo. I was assured by the staff at the store I purchased it, however, that it is definitely, at most, a few weeks old.

Pours a nice looking orange color with some golden highlights and a fine collar of shimmering bone-white suds. It's not a particularly big head, but it's solid enough. Good lace and legs, with a semi-clouded surface covered in closely-packed micro-bubbles. Doesn't really look very NEIPA-ish, but I also don't know quite what they were going for with this one, which led me to do a bit of research.

This was brewed with Citra and Columbus, which is a fun combination of fruity and floral/pine-y. Distinct mango and tangerine right upfront with some strong grapefruit peel and grassy suggestions as well. A little chive-like element mixing with the grassy/greenness for sure. Smells much more like a WC IPA than a lot of NEIPAs I've had, and the appearance, though quite cloudy, just doesn't have quite the same "uniform" haziness that a lot of NEIPAs have. Combined with the slightly deeper-than-expected color, this is really reminding me much more of an "old-school" type IPA.

Flavor profile is a little raw and, honestly, somewhat rustic. Semi-chewy graininess with a middle of strongly-bitter hops that become a little juicier and more well-balanced in the transition to the finish right before the chive note comes back. Huh, it's definitely not bad, but I think I expected something a bit different. Flavors of passion fruit, earthy spice, white pepper, tangerine, and mango with a backend of soft wheatiness. Sometimes leans crisp but, more often than not, finishes fuller bodied than it seems like it should. I don't think I'd grab this one again. Space Bunnies remains my favorite CS beer I've been able to acquire in MA.

 

Same here, but I also didn't really know squat about beer in those days.

 

Any guess on why they 'backing off' the beer? Is it not selling well?

Cheers!

 

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there! I'm currently working on a relaxing afternoon project, putting a succulent topiary together and repotting some overgrown ones. Later on there are some porterhouse steaks that I'm just dying to introduce to a hot grill.

Here's a fine accompaniment for until then:

Bahnhof Pineus, their gose filtered over pine needles.

What a wonderfully odd yet refreshing beer; as sophisticated as it is easy to drink. You'd think these components would all work against one another: fruity (apricot preserves and Meyer lemon), tart and salty, earthy and almost medicinal evergreen. But that tug of war never comes close to getting out of control: first of all, nothing here is overdone, but secondly and perhaps more importantly, each element seems to come in succession rather than all at once. The pine is especially prominent on the finish while the fruit leads things off. Combine that finish with just the right slap of tart salinity immediately beforehand, and it's a curiously effective invitation to take another sip.

As I am about to finish off the can I have finally landed on what seemed so familiar to me this whole time: it's very reminiscent of a highball I make with Fernet Branca, orange juice and tonic, fruity sharp and complex.

Overall I had very high expectations for this beer. It's gentler and fruitier than I had hoped, so may not have met them, but still is a quite worthy and unique in its own right. High A- (4.35).

 

Happy Father's Day to all BA Dads and Dads of BAs! Our son and daughter live out of state but I enjoyed speaking with them. I'm very proud of both of them!

Mrs. Mac always takes me brewery-hopping on the Saturday of Father's Day weekend. She does the all the driving and I do most of the drinking. Yesterday's plan was to go up to Orange County, NY to one of my favorite breweries, Rushing Duck. On the way I decided to stop at The Drowned Lands in Warwick, NY, which has generated a lot of interest on the Northeast thread since it opened. The tasting room is still under construction but I wanted to buy some cans (more on that later). Friday night, I noticed on Facebook that another brewery, Tin Barn, had just opened a couple miles north of Drowned Lands in Sugar Loaf, NY, so I decided to stop there, as well. And I'm very glad I did. It's obviously a well-capitalized enterprise with a large and impressive brewing facility and lots of outdoor seating. They were cooking up some mean barbeque outside. The staff were really friendly. And the beer was outstanding! I had a pour of Day Dreamer, a very good NEIPA, and bought cans of Cumulus, a DIPA. I believe this was the first can release.

Cumulus is hopped with Citra, Belma, and Barbe Rouge hops, which add some red berry notes to the Citra. It's a great idea although the tart lemon dominates more than I'd prefer. The mouth feel is killer: creamy and viscous with an 8.2% ABV. This beer is very good! If they could notch up the red berry it would be exceptional.

Tin Barn is located about 10 minutes from Rushing Duck. It's a great spot and I'm looking forward to regular visits! I'll be back shortly with a sour IPA from Drowned Lands. Cheers, NBS!

 

My buddy Davey was brewing in Portland in the early 90s. Whenever I would visit and hang out with him and the other brewers that's the beer they would drink. I thought it was excellent for an AAL then, and really showed its hops. Hopefully things haven't changed all that much in the intervening years.

 

Monotone Mosaic, a mosaic single IPA from Tonewood brewing.

L: Pours a hazy yellow color with a thin white head that fades quickly. 4/5
S: Citrus and pine on the nose with hints of grass. 4/5
T: Lemon is the most dominant flavor. A bit of grass and pine come through as well. 4/5
F: Medium carbonation with a fluffy mouthfeel.4.25/5
O: A good lemony IPA. Tonewood has been a favorite of mine lately. 4/5 for a BA generated 4.03/5

 

Yeah, not selling well unfortunately. Though I would almost always get it at the closest Kroger to me, and the canned on date was always within a month. Which is very fresh IMO. So either that particular Kroger sold a lot of it, or they knew how much to purchase to keep it rotating fresh.

 

Second new pour today is a beer I technically had a few decades ago, and have never rated. Inspired by a recent thread here, I grabbed a $9.99 twelve pack ($11.11 all in) for Moosehead Lager, the beer we named our softball team after.



There is no bottle date on either the twelve pack package or individual bottles. Poured as shown above, here is the rest of the review:

Appearance: Clear straw colour pour, mild carbonation, light white head recedes quickly leaving fine bubbly lacing. 3.75

Aroma: Nice sharp malt aroma, bread cracker and pepper, bold and pleasant. 4.0

Taste: Lighter than the aroma would lead, light bread, salt crackers. 3.0

Mouthfeel: Fine carbonation bubbles last throughout the pour, medium body, easy clean crisp finish. 3.75

Overall: Overall this is a good lager, nice pour for a warm Summer day. 3.5.

 

the last bit once all the way up to room temp had some nice Apple Brandy notes

 

How well are other locally produced Pilsners selling? Is this a case that Pilsners just aren't popular in your area?

Cheers!

 

I use to drink a lot of that in college, before I got into Goose Island and Bells. It was a little different than the rest of the macro stuff everyone else was drinking. Had one "relatively" recently, and its certainly still not bad IMO.

 

Holler's two best sellers are Dollar Pils and Czech My Phone. German and Bohemian respectfully, and both are great. Great Heights has a solid pils, but their Kolsh is their best seller, and they do a ton of NEIPA and pastry stout styles as well. So don't think its a trend, just maybe that particular beer ran its coarse. Maybe it has more to do with Saint Arnold loosing sales to tap room breweries than anything...like a lot of the bigger regional breweries, Sierra Nevada, Stone, etc? While Saint Arnold is not on their level yet, they could be feeling a bit of that same squeeze?