New Beer Weekend #103

Received via NBS BIF #13 from @JayORear.
Poured brown with tints of red, the beige head grew to about 1 cm and settled to a thin film leaving no lacing.
Aroma had red wine vinegar and, oddly, red wine (I mean, how do they get both of those aromas to come through?)
The taste, wow. Oak, funky red wine vinegar and, at the edges, dry red wine. Faint but unmistakable. The flavors play off each other in every sip.
The feel is medium with very active carbonation. Fits well with the flavors.
Thanks Jay, this was amazing!

 

#2 is a BBA version of a beer I really enjoyed from my local. Let’s see how the variant stacks up to the base beer (which I rated 4.35).







4.25/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
by ovaltine from Indiana

This big ol’ BBA barleywine pours a rich brown color with some hazy residue in the body and a sudsy light tan head that isn’t interested in sticking around. The nose features an abundance of toffee aromas, some stone fruit, and a substantial boozy note.

The toffee is forward on the taste, and the stone fruit is a nice tangy flavor that wages war with the boozy barrel notes, but succumbs at the end of the taste - there’s a LOT of warming alcohol at the back of the palate.

The mouthfeel is full and fitting the gravitas of this beer. I just wish the booze was a little more restrained - I usually sit on these big BBA beers, but I drank this one relatively fresh. It could probably use a little time to mellow and find its legs.

 

Magnanimous Brewing Brecher Bier Helles

From Tampa, appeared in the cooler at a beer store here in the swamp.
Checks out in all categories:
Looks fine, pleasant bready aroma.
Tastes great with peppery noble hops. Maybe only lacking the mineral note I often get from Helles lagers. Crisp and drinkable.
I'd love to get this by the liter.
4.11/5 rDev +4.6%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

 

I love to see someone else that beer nerds out about planning their beer week to sync up with the NBW thread. I’d like to say I manage it, but it truthfully manages me.

And I will add that it thrilled me to see you start the thread this weekend - I’d like to get back to “dedicated” thread starters that set the theme for the weekend. You and @lordofthewiens did an exceptional job with that, and I think that would help elevate this thread.

 

So you up next week @ovaltine

 

Wow, I’m impressed you held onto it that long! A world-class sour, for sure. I usually try to drink it with a medium-rare steak when I have a bottle.

 

Beer #2 before getting the kids hoses down for the night.

Brasserie du Bas Canada Guerre et Paix. Imperial stout with vanilla, Cocoa and coffee.



Pours a deep, thick black/brown with a dark brown head that dissipates quickly.

Despite the age on this beer, the add-junks are in fine form aroma-wise. Coffee up front with vanilla and chocolate following closely.

Taste follows closely. The coffee still tastes fresh despite the 2+ years of age in this bottle. Vanilla and sweet milk chocolate are strong. A nice malty character undergirds it all.

The beer is full bodied. Not syrupy in any way. Nice.

Im very impressed how this held up. Of course, I like my add-junk stouts more subtle than obnoxious. Good stuff!

 

Well fellow beer friends you all kept me busy and on my phone way more than I like to be while I I was over my Dad's with the fam today. I'm glad to finally join you with a beer instead of just beer talk. My brother in law has this beer in his fridge quite often and he is a beer nerd/lover like us; so I trust that if its in his fridge it must be at least decent. There are so many big brewery beers I haven't tried and this is one of them. I keep telling myself I'll try more beers like this and I feel like I should, anyway off we go...

Cerveza Pacifico Clara



Crystal clear, super light straw in color, a nice white head with minimal retention.

Minimal nose; just some light malt graininess with a hint of something sweet, verging on fresh corn but not really certain here.

Taste comes of as grainy, slightly Frosted Flakes like, like as if you removed all that sugar coating; minor hops on the finish and I even feel like I even pick up just the slightest hint of toasted malt as well.

Very nice mouthfeel to this beer for me; incredibly light and drinkable. It goes down like water and is very refreshing. As the nose suggests there is a slight sweetness but it dries out very nicely on the finish and doesn’t linger; also low bitterness on the finish.

I have to say I'm enjoying this beer quite a bit; it drinks very nicely and is very well balanced. A very good beer to refresh with on a hot day. This beer is definitely best drank cold; as it warms some of the smoothness of the the body dissipates as the sweetness shows a little more. Glad to have tried this one, incredibly drinkable and quick to disappear from the glass.

Have you tried this one @Whyteboar? I'm gonna try and grab another mexican brewed beer again soon.

 

Happy Birthday. Your reviews are singular and excellent. We live in the same city and should meet, maybe at Sticks and Stones. I have crawled that corner for 50+ years. Watch out, I'm full of stories and other stuff.

 

Good evening folks. Fetched groceries, ate Indian food for lunch, and pigs in a blanket for supper...holy middle school lunch lady, Batman...(but I'm thinking that is showing my age).

Happy Birthday @superspak - enjoying your travels and reviews.

So tonight's pour brings us:



A new to me brewery who's web page appears to be a work in progress, so I know nothing about the brewery or the beer. Pivotal Brewing (Bristol, RI) The Whistle - a self-proclaimed Italian pilsner, so it falls as a German Pilsner here once I add it. Let's get to it.

Beautiful pour of crystal clear golden liquid with the fluffy white head that falls kinda in stages to a soapy cap and sturdy ring, quite substantial lacing. Microbubbles rise through the liquid, feeding that cap.

The smell seems right on target. Slightly sweet malt and Noble hops, faintly lemon and a tad bit of spiciness. The hops are wonderfully herbal, maybe a bit of straw or grassiness. The lemon peeks through, and the herbal note puts me in mind of Early Grey tea a bit. Bergamot notes wouldn't be unheard of in Noble hops, but it is interesting.

The taste is very clean with an excellent balance. It opens slightly sweet and malty, but the lemon and spiciness are not far behind. There's a nice level of bitterness that helps counteract everything, but it is outlingered by the mild spicy peppery notes. A good job was done with the hops here. Not overbearing but a definite impact - there's a lot of herb garden flavors going on and a slightly building black pepper note. Very, very mild mineral tang in the aftertaste. I can't detect any DMS, which wouldn't necessarily be a flaw if it existed.

Feel tends towards the border of light and medium. Slightly drying, suitably bitter, crisp enough and clean.

Not to delve into the style argument, in my opinion the so-called Italian pilsner tend to be a little sweeter and the hops are somewhat more fragrant, more herbal than spicy. if I get the gist of it, this style is pretty much a dry hopped German pilsner so that makes sense to me.

Whatever... This is an excellent beer from a new to me brewery where I can't find much intel and i never heard of before today. It's a half hour easy drive from my house, so I'm thinking field trip. If they can pull off this style, I'm wondering what else they can do. And if it is this good in the can, draft has to be amazing. Really a solid, enjoyable brew - landing in the 4.0 - 4.25 range.

 

That’s when I started in this thread, with @cavedave and @utopiajane as hosts.

That’s a pretty high bar. Yet you and @lordofthewiens met that challenge, IMHO, and I really appreciate your contributions to this thread over the years.

 

Given how my schedule is next week, that may actually work well.

And it will be a howitzer of a start. IJS.

 

Me and Julia are at garage tavern. They made us pay a cover charge if we weren't members which was weird. There is a good cover band playing. Anyways the food is going to be dope.

I got a highland peachful. A decent fruit wheat. Muted Aromas of fresh peaches. Taste of peaches, wheat, cracker, toast, herbal, wood, grass, pepper, pine, and yeast earthiness. Moderate pine, herbal, rind bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation and body. Balanced grainy malts and sticky/resinous hops. Long resin drying finish with mild astringency. Very drinkable. Mild warmth of 5.2%. For 15 ibu this is definitely way too bitter feeling. Just tastes like a really bitter American wheat beer. The peach presence leaves much to be desired, but I don't hate it. 3.43


Cheers

 

Let's continue the night with another Nelson DIPA, shall we? And from another small NH brewery, to boot!



First of all, greatest beer name I've seen in a while. However, epic fail with the paragraph signs that were subbed in for the pi symbol (π) in those formulae for the volume of a cone and the uh... whatever the A is (thought it was area but iirc the formula for surface area of a cone is a bit more complicated than that). If you're gonna be nerds, sauv your font problems before you make a beer label with symbols/special Unicode characters. See what I did there? *dodges tomatoes*

Alright, so this is a 7.8% DIPA by Kettlehead, who are kinda hit-or-miss, but whose hit rate has slightly improved over the past year or so, by my recollection. I also always enjoy sipping on The Agent, their "flagship" NEIPA, and I do have some faith that they can pull off the Nelson thing correctly. The pour is pretty damn nice, and somewhat similar to the Modestman one I wrote about earlier. Lacing is a little less thick/chunky but the hue and general consistency seems to me at least mostly-similar.

Nose is more in-line with what I expect and want from Nelson, but it's also maybe a bit maltier smelling as well. That could actually help push some of the characterful elements of Nelson, though, now that I think of it. Some balance was lacking in the Modestman IPA, if you recall what I wrote about hop-burn (perceived or real) in that one, so I'm thinking that likely won't be a problem here. Big papaya and guava with some light notes of florals and honeydew melon, backed up by the ripe mango and intense gooseberry element NS gives off when utilized well. Perfumey white grape-like elements come out more as it acclimates to room temp. Yum.

Flavor profile is deeeefinitely more well-balanced. Almost giving me a Golden Promise vibe or something; lightly sweet and definitely a bit deeper than the "generic NEIPA" malt bill I'm used to, but of course I could also be imagining that. Still nice and juicy (one of the biggest things I want from a good NS IPA!) with strong flavors of ripe guava, mango flesh, and melon along with light spice and minerality/white wine-ish tropical vibes. Chewy and filling; not a quick drinker, but a good sipper with a lingering aftertaste of vibrant sticky mango once again, coating the palate with hoppy goodness. I enjoy this one for sure. It's still not in the upper echelon of IPAs that have done well by Nelson, but I would say it is quite a good effort and worth a drink or two.

Cheers guys!