New Beer Weekend #103

Bacon chili loaded fries and beer cheese pretzel. Oh hell yea.


White street kolsch. Amazing had retention and soapy lacing. Very good. Muted Aromas of fruit, grain, and grassy hops. Flavors of lemon, pear, apple, cracker, toast, wood, peppercorn, pine, herbal, grass, and yeasty earthiness. Moderate herbal/pine bitterness. Medium carbonation and body, fairly crisp/clean/refreshing finish. Balanced bready/ grainy malt and sticky/resinous hops. Drying bitter resins with minimal astringency. This is very true to style but just a little too bitter/resinous. 3.91


Cheers

 

Roughtail Goblin Noggin' Hazy TIPA with Cashmere, Citra & Mosaic ( in copious amounts according to the can ). 10.25% ABV; 4.57 overall

Pours a very hazed honey color with 3 fingers of ( more aggressive pour than I planed on ) fluffy cream colored head. Stellar head retention & lacing, some particles

S: Tropical fruits & cattyness. good nose; just doesn't match the rest of this beer's awesomeness

T: Follows the nose, dryness, vanilla, green melon & oranges up front, some passion fruit as well, some peach notes & a little pineapple. Booze presence as this warms, however it blends great with pineapple, passion fruit, lime, pine & a little dryness. Finishes a with a little boozey pineapple, cattyness, passion fruit, & woody dryness/pine

MF: Medium body, creamy carbonation, warming& lovely balance

Much to love here, ABV does show in the taste & mouthfeel a little,

 

I enjoyed my time, too.

 

Poured into a 16 Snulip glass not sure when it was canned. Pours an attractive hazy yellow with a half finger sticky white head that leaves thin lines of lace, with pretty good retention. 4.25

Aroma peach, mango, passionfruit, apricot, and some grapefruit rind. 4

Taste follows peach, passionfruit, mango, apricot, and a little grapefruit overall very well balanced. 4

Mouthfeel is medium, fairly soft carbonation, maybe a little dry, and at 6.5% it drinks slightly bigger. 4

Overall this is rock solid, not memorable but still a nice experience. 4 Thanks Craig for getting us going this weekend. Cheers all.

 

King sue double dry hopped by toppling goliath

4.5/5 rDev -0.9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5



Can poured into a plastic hotel glass

Frothy white one finger foam cap over an orange juice liquid , settles to a pencil thick layer, lacings after each sip

Aroma is orange juice , whiff of drank

Taste is orange juice , citrusy , slight dank taste on the finish

Smooth with a gentle hib nibble

Delicious beer

 

Poured into a 16 oz Snulip glass not sure when it was canned. Pours a dark brown with a finger dark tan head that leaves some thin streaks of lace, with some nice retention. 4.25

Aroma is gram cracker, toffee, cocoa nibs, and maybe a little marshmallow. 3.75

Taste follows gram cracker, toffee, cocoa, and a whiff of marshmallow. 3.5

Mouthfeel is a tad thin, gentle carbonation, not sticky or dry, and at 5.7% it drinks like that. 3.5

Overall this is ok. Not terrible, but slightly underwhelming. 3.5

 

Some much-needed rain last night, sunny today. Walked the dogs before the heat really set in, then brunch at "The Toad."
I am drinking their summer beer, Wilderness Wheat, and it's just OK.
A hazy gold color. Thick, white, long-lasting head.
Sweet, fruity aroma and taste.
Medium-bodied.

 

Good to have you back.

 

I have not, but if I see it on the shelves I will now pick one or more up!

 

Jay, I looked at that for consuming so many times but it never seemed to be the right time. Very glad I finally pulled it out, the subtle red wine pushed this over the top! Maybe that’s why I waited so long- every stout we’ve had at SAN that was aged in wine barrels really didn’t work for us. But here it’s perfect.
Thanks again for getting me to try something I probably wouldn’t have otherwise!

 

First one for me today, going deep in the cellar for something sent to me in late 2020 for the lead up for NBS BIF #12.
Sent to me by the one and only @ovaltine whose beer prowess is so amazing he can get fresh Tree House stouts in Indiana.
Poured deep dark, not exactly black but darn near. The head was as dark a brown as I have seen on a beer, the one knock was the head didn’t stay long.
The aroma, mostly I just get vague impressions of aromas as I foolishly didn’t wear a respirator when working with some nasty chemicals. Every once in a while I get more, and those are treats! This one gets me coffee and roasted malts and bourbon and vanilla. Mostly coffee, but wow it’s all in there.
The taste followed, coffee leads and filled the spectrum at first, only swallowing allowed the roasted malts and bourbon (bourbon soaked Madagascar vanilla beans, who knew?) and the vanilla sneaks in last. I enjoyed every sip and it was gone too soon.
The feel was excellent for the sipping nature of this beer, soft almost, counters the nearly bitter coffee presence.
OA, thoroughly enjoyed this beer and now I want to go to the brewery for a vacation. Sadly, my partner said no. If I wanted to stay married that is.
Thanks Michael!

 

Finishing off my TH IPAs. I'd love to start hitting the stouts I bought, but the weather is too nice and I always seem to start with a cheese plate on the side. Anyways---Freshspun, the only IPA I have left that I have never had until now.

4.11/5 rDev -5.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

Poured from a 16oz can stamped THE JUICE IS LOOSE 06/17/22 to a Nonic glass at fridge temp.
There is a very opaque apricot body sitting below a 1.5 inch white head that fades to a lasting ⅛” layer. Lacing is heavy, almost a full bubble coat on every glass tilt.
The aroma is tropical but rather subtle for all the hype on the can.
Taste is quite fruity in the front with some hop bite on the finish. Honestly, at this point I feel like I have to try some TH juice bombs together, they are all tasting the same to me. There is only a hint that this is an 8.4% ABV.
The mouthfeel, as with most TH juicers, is thick and coating.
Another good tropical from Tree House, but at this point I feel like I have to try some TH juice bombs together, they are starting to tasting the same to me. I wonder if the brewer could identify five of them in a blind tasting.

 

Dude, you’re killing me! The beers you have been posting are all really tasty looking. Then you confirm it. Oh well, glad you are enjoying your time in Europe!
Cheers!

 

Howdy folks, back atcha today on the porch with a few new-to-me beers. This first one is... uh, not fresh. I really should have checked the date before grabbing it, but I'd never seen it around before so I made the (incorrect) assumption it would be recently-canned. It is from February. So, I will keep that in mind while drinking it! Perhaps I can try to suss out if it would have been good when fresh? Also, the fact that I have decided to continue to make this post means that it was not a complete drain pour, so that's something.



This is Eft by Tox Brewing, who seem to be well-liked overall. I've only ever had their Fugu IPA before this and it was, well, fine. Eft is a 7% IPA dry-hopped with Amarillo, which sounds hilariously simple by 2022 standards, but sometimes simplicity can really be impressive. As I mentioned, this is like 5 months old right now, so probably not gonna be awesome but, whatever. The show must go on!

Pour is pretty good. Soapy head of bone-white foam sits atop a translucent but not overly-hazy beer with a pallid orange color, and the lace show is really consistent and indicative of an impressive hopping rate. It shows some tiers as I take my first few sips and I'm immediately struck by the feeling that this was probably a really good beer at a few weeks old. Hell, I bet even in late May (3 months post-canning) this was pretty damn solid. Let's see if my inkling becomes even more apparent with a closer look (well, smell).

Light florals and hints of tangerine and grapefruit hit my nose immediately, though I start to notice that even these seem to have their own kind of expiration date. The smell of this beer really quickly starts fading to very little once poured and allowed time to "open up." Not surprising for an older IPA, but it really does quickly start to smell like "old beer." Man, that's a bummer, because for a second I thought that maybe this was like some kind of Sierra Nevada-esque "still good after half a year somehow" feat achieved by a much smaller brewing outfit. Does not seem that this will come to pass, however. But, we shall take some sips and try to imagine what it may have been like in its prime, I think!

Tangelo and light grassiness with a bit of mango and grapefruit rind... okay, actually a bit tastier than expected, even with the time spent losing its precious (and volatile) hop aromatics seemingly very quickly. I mean, it's still kinda "dish soap"-esque once totally poured, and yeah it does taste old and even feels like it's batting at a higher ABV than it really is (and it's pretty dry, so I do wonder if it's at all possible this picked up some decimal points in ABV due to sliiiiight refermentation? Doubtful but who knows?), but this is just making me come to the undeniable conclusion that this beer probably kicked ass back in late Feb/early March. I will have to look out for this one when it is next released. Hope that isn't next February, though, because I am intrigued! Not bad, and there is something to be said for feeling that way about a 5 month old NE-ish IPA in today's day and age. I've had undrinkable trash even 6 weeks post-canning so yeah.

I will have two more, and for once, they're not all IPAs! Coming up, I will present an imperial fruited sour that I have high expectations for due to the brewery's other similar offerings, and a stupid imperial stout by Omnipollo that I fully expect to be diabetes-inducing.

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On the Gundam model front, I just finished the Strike Freedom Gundam HG last night. I like to call these types of mobile suits the "peacocks" of the Gundam universe because of their showy and over-the-top "plumage" (which are usually wings and other backpack-type accoutrements that in-canon tend to be space-travel-assistance, but which really come across as "look how dramatic I am!" most of the time)...






(pre-build pic; I like to take these for posterity and to prove that I didn't just buy an action figure; I made that thing above from nothing but tiny plastic pieces and sheer patience)

In a bit, I'm gonna start one of my maaaaaany new kits, the Domtropen. I like chunkier suits and weird-looking ones because it gets boring to make "normal" MSes all the time, and this fits the bill... plus, no ridiculous wing directions that take hours to meticulously and redundantly build!



I'm sure I'll post with some pics of how it's coming along with my next few entries. Sorry for all the pics, hope it doesn't bother anyone! CHEERS!!

 

Someday you’ll have to try Temptation, which is aged in Chardonnay barrels. No one does it like Russian River.

 

Welcome one and all to New Beer Sunday #907!

As promised, a second European Pilsner, again not from Pilsen but instead by way of Belgium.

Brasserie De La Senne Zenne Pils



Bottle Notes: Bottled 2/28/22, Best By 11/28/22. Purchased room temperature for $5.49 with tax at Beer on the Wall, refrigerated after purchase. 33 CL, 11.6 oz, 4.9% ABV. Made in Brussels, Belgium. Organic, unfiltered craft beer. Ingredients: Water, Malted Barley, Hops, Yeast. Store in a cool, dark place. Enjoy its freshness. Do not age this beer.

Appearance: Multiple pours into a small cylinder glass. Light clear straw color base, heavy carbonation sustained throughout. Rich creamy bright white head leaves soapy lacing and a consistent cover over the base. 4.0

Aroma: Nice traditional pilsner aroma, cracker bread leads, salty pepper backed. Nobel hops shinning through. 4.25

Taste: Consistent with aroma, salty cracker leads (salt manageable for my palate, likely lighter for the reader), light pepper and grassy backing. Nice. 4.25

Mouthfeel: Light, crisp, clean and refreshing. Lightly dry and bitter, hops work well. Very easy drinking, perfect for a Summer afternoon. 4.5

Overall: This is a very good pilsner, traditional, refreshing, wish the bottle was bigger (or I had more). Pricy but worth it for the occasional pour, would love to try fresh in Brussels. 4.25