New Beer Weekend #122

Good morning BAs! Thanks @Roguer for opening this weekend! Although I've never had the brew you've opened with, I have had several from Les Trois Mousquetaires and found them to be excellent! Unfortunately, they don't migrate this far south!
For me, today's New Breakfast Beer isn't exactly New (I sucked down a couple of them in TX recently) but I just reviewed it today, so sorta new.



I'm a fanboy of Ranger Creek so whenever I can get there I pick up whatever they have that I haven't tried - since they extended their public operating hours that means more chances to stop by!

Texas Bourbon Barrel Series Wee Heavy from Ranger Creek. Purchased at the brewery, 31/10/22. $ 13.87 (Including tax)/4-pack 12 oz cans ($ 0.289/oz). Room temperature shelf at store, stored at 34 degrees at home. Reviewed 19/11/22. Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Undated can. Served at 50.0 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. The final temperature is 55.4 degrees.
Appearance – 4.
First pour – Deep Amber (SRM 15), clear.
Body – Ruby Brown (SRM 24), opaque. Light penetration at the edge and bottom is distinctly ruby and, when illuminated from the rear, reveals many tiny particles in suspension.
Head – Large (Maximum 4.2 cm, aggressive center pour), beige, high density, quickly diminishing to a 0.5 cm crown and rocky cap.
Lacing – None. At 11.9% ABV I really wasn’t expecting any.
Aroma – 3.5 – Malt. No hops, no yeast, no bourbon. Mildly sweet.
Flavor – 4 – Slightly bitter malt but tries to be sweet. No yeast, no hops. No ethanol (11.9 % ABV as marked on label) aroma or taste. Weak whiskey, not necessarily bourbon, appears on the aftertaste. Moderate gastric warming occurs. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl.
Palate – 3.5 – Medium, approaching creamy, soft but lively carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 3.5 (After deducting 0.25 points for unlabeled personal container.) Overall, drier than expected from a wee heavy and distinctly weak on the bourbon in the aroma department. Still, an interesting take on the style, easy drinking and doesn’t awaken my Islets of Langerhans into frenzied activity.
Rating 3.73, rDev -5.8%

 

Yesterday, had a few happy hour beers at Holler Brewing in Houston. I have not been particularly impressed with their new beers, especially since the new brewer and owner took over. This use to be my regular haunt, visiting multiple times in a week. One of my favorite bar pictures is sitting here, and there are at least three different head brewers from other breweries in town. All drinking Holler's excellent Dollar Pils. All in a row, you know a place makes a good product and is respected for their lagers when head brewers randomly congregate at the bar (they still make Dollar Pils but it is a shell of its former self).

Now I barely come once every two months, and almost none of the old regular crowd is here. After these two, I might be done all together...here we go.

First up is H-Town Abbey. 5.2% ABV, Belgian Pale Ale.


Pours a pale golden yellow color that is slightly hazy. A two finger white head forms with good retention and lace left behind.
Aroma is bubblegum phenols up front. Light grassy hops and grains. The phenols become a bit plastic like.
Taste wise, like the nose, up front is the bubblegum phenolic character. A touch of grassy hops and grains. Though an odd plastic and paint thinner like flavor. Weird phenols, esters, and solvents mingling here that I'm not a fan of.
A medium body with moderate carbonation. This is very muddled and not very well defined. Not something I'm wanting to come back to, let alone finish a pint.

Not a good example of a Belgian...anything. Plenty of off flavors, and/or mingling of several different components that I'm not a fan of. Not something I would recommend, and one of the lowest ratings I can remember giving for Holler.

Overall score is 2.8...Blah
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/45647/629450/?ba=champ103#lists


Next is Capture The Flag, 4.7% ABV, a "double dry hopped" German Pilsner.



Pours with a slight haze, a golden/yellow color. A two finger white head forms that recedes after a minute. Light lace is left behind.
Not as aromatic as I was expecting. Grassy and lemon like hops, but not particularly prominent. Some grainy malt character as well. Just kind of there.
Taste wise, there is a grassy and lemon rind like hoppy character again. Though becomes almost like lemon pledge after a while. A bit of grains, and a little astringent.
A light to medium body. Moderate carbonation that finishes pretty dry. Though an astringency and oily character keeps me from wanting to drink this more.

For being a dry hopped Pilsner, there really isn't much here in the hoppy characteristics. There is an astringency and oily lemon pledge quality, but not really any bitterness and what hop flavors are here are just simple. No real malt character to help either. A pretty sub standard attempt, and that is saying something as Holler use to be one of the best a making hoppy lagers, let alone Pilsners around town.

Overalls score is 3.11. Again, blah. I guess I can give this a C grade. Though whats the point of caring then?
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/45647/628663/?ba=champ103#lists

Its already a rainy gloomy day today. So I got some actual good beers, both local and otherwise. Will be drinking those and over at the WBAYDN thread with some music of coarse, later on

 

Two heads are better than one!?!



Well, the “two heads” for today’s beer is Dogfish Head & Rodenbach in their collaboratively brewed Crimson Cru.

There is an interesting story about the brewing ‘process’ for this beer:

“With more than 225 years of collective brewing experience, Delaware’s Dogfish Head Craft Brewery and Belgium’s Brouwerji Rodenbach join forces to release Crimson Cru, a 7.1% ABV blended red ale. Deep copper in color, Crimson Cru begins with Rodenbach’s world-renowned Grand Cru, a Flemish red-brown ale aged in oak casks, that made the overseas trek from Belgium to Delaware via tanker ship. After its cross-Atlantic journey, Rodenbach’s Grand Cru is artfully blended with a red ale from Dogfish Head that is infused with sumac and sweet orange peel and dry-hopped with Hallertau Blanc hops. The resulting beer is full-bodied and slightly warming with aromas of candied citrus, cherry, caramel and toffee, complemented by malty flavors of stewed fruits, plum, cherry, dried citrus and toffee.”

In the past my experiences with collaboratively brewed beers have been hit or miss. Sometimes the beers tasted like the collaboratively brewed beer benefitted from the joint effort and sometimes the beers tasted like the old saying “too many cooks spoil the broth”.

I wonder whether this collaboratively brewed beer will be a hit or will it be a miss. Let’s find out.

Served in my Petrus tulip glass:

Appearance:

Amber colored with a thin beige head which dissipated rather quickly.

Aroma:

I am picking up mostly fruity aromas with maybe a hint of sweet malt in the background.

Taste:

The fruit flavor is more expressive on the palate with cherry being the dominant flavor. There is also a subtle flavor of menthol/clove. A low-moderate bitterness.

Mouthfeel

Thin-medium body with a dry finish.

Overall

This beer is good – very good. It is most definitely not a miss but not exactly a hit either, somewhere in between.

Cheers!

@RobH @rotsaruch @KOP_Beer_OUtlet @TongoRad

 

Well, if they dry hopped with noble hops (which would be consistent with the German Pilsner beer style) those sorts of hops contribute little hop aroma. From an aroma/essential oils perspective they aren't very powerful. Not even in the ballpark with aroma hops like Citra, Mosaic, etc.

Cheers!

 

Yep, thats what they did, its all Noble. Though I can still remember Dollar Pils in its heyday being very aromatic with basically all Noble (different varieties of Noble anyway, I think both Hallertau and Saaz). Not particularly "complex" but just a great less is more hop quality that I always love. None of that is here.

 

Deschutes Jubel 2015

Appearance: Brown, murky, ok head that fades out pretty quickly.

Smell: Oxidized caramel, red wine fruitiness, some oddball vegetal note.

Taste: Very earthy, muted caramel sweetness, kind of a woody note, subdued red fruit, then a combined earthy and mild dark chocolate finish.

Overall: I saw this at Blue Max (Burnsville, MN) as I think they are clearing out all their cellared beers and thought I'd try it. I've never had it fresh, so this bottle is somewhere around 7 years old. It's hard to tell what's changed when I haven't had it fresh, but it does seem like this might be a bit past optimal drinking age. Flavors seem muted and muddled, not bad, but not great. It is pretty complex in trying to decipher these flavors, so I call it a worthy experiment.

 

Yeah, maybe differing variety(s) were used for Dollar Pils in the past. The quality of the hops also come into play. There are a number of craft breweries in my area who are very particular about the source of their noble hops and they have contracts in place to buy them directly from a hop farmer in Germany - Ludwig Locher in Southern Bavaria.

The process of dry hopping can be impactful as well. Some brewers will add dry hops while fermentation is still happening. A motivation could be to have some biotransformation effects. But dry hopping while fermenting is sub-optimum in that the CO2 outgassing will 'scrub out' hop aromas. Maybe the new brewer added most of the dry hops for the first addition while it was fermenting and a smaller portion towards the end (i.e., the double dry hopping)?

Whatever the deal it is a shame that Holler Brewing has stepped backwards. The head brewer really is a difference maker. Analogous to when the Chef of your favorite fine dining restaurant leaves.

Cheers!

 

Good info, I always appreciate these contributions.

 

Good morning folks, wintery conditions here. I'm looking forward to a brisk hike with the family this afternoon to help shake the chill.

Had a late night/early morning finishing up The Fifth Season trilogy with this gem from @arizcards to keep me company






Oh man where to start with this. Two beer styles, 3 barrels, 4 extra additions...all in 1 can! There is so much going on I don't know where to start. Everything comes in waves and each sip seems to be different. Chocolate and cherries are both prominent, I also get plenty of cinnamon, toffee, and grape-y spirits. There are hints of raisin, vanilla, and graham cracker. Amazingly enough, this works really well. So glad I got to try this.

 

Well, I finally made it!

I've been eying my 3,000th review on this site for a while now, but given the slowing rate of my reviewing (for various reasons), it took me a while to get here. I figured I'd review a beer from a brewery that was one I leaned on for a good part of my early beer journey. This beer is not fully theirs, however; as @JackHorzempa explained above, Crimson Cru is a collaboration between Dogfish Head and Rodenbach.

I haven' yet read the details of his review, but peeked that he found the beer what I'll call middling. I admit, I wasn't a huge fan of the last collaboration between these two, and I'm only expecting a little more out of this one, but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised given my couched expectations.


The head on both glasses poured appeared nicely enough, but shied from populating the dance floor surface of the beer fairly quickly, gathering in a medium thin line around the outskirts of the room. A ruby hue skews the light brown ale to the rusty side, with the color providing more light blockage than any particulates to my eyes.

Nose to me is a mix of slightly tart fruit pie warming on the counter with a midsummer flowers wafting in from the open window. The pie is nearing the point of welcoming a slice, as its aroma is a tad faded. There's an undertone of earthy bitterness as well.

Opening taste is a dance of bitterness and cherry tartness, with bitterness taking the lead. The two partners aren't professionals, though, and there are a couple toes that are getting stepped upon. A wash of tiny bubbles taps the herbal bitterness on the shoulder to cut in. This allows a light, earthy, toasted beer to come through. Bitter herb lingers nearby, looking for a new partner. Watered down citrus enters, spicing things up a bit, but she is no tart, playing coyly in the tangy range and carefully not promising anything more at this time.

As the beer warms up, the flavors intermingle a little better, but the bitterness is just a bit of a brute today. That and the muted sour/tart accents have this acting almost like a winter warmer or herbal/spice winter brew, oddly enough. Wondering if it'll grow on me as I adjust my expectations towards that end

---

Looking back, I see Jack got more fruit than I did - I was getting more bitterness in the nose, but we both seemed to key in on the herbal-to spicy notes of mint/menthol and cloves (although I didn't specify these, Jack's thoughts definitely fits my perception).

Last note: the GF said is was just ok and kinda bland, though she notes she just finished off some leftover Thai food. Happy Thanksgiving week, US-based BAs!

 

Craig, did you buy a six-pack? Maybe drinking some of these beers at a later date will create differing impressions?

I bought two bottles of Crimson Cru as part of a mix-a-six so I have one more bottle to go but I am pretty sure that will be the last bottle of Crimson Cru that I will be drinking.

Cheers!

 

We’re in the Aruba airport for the flight home, so time for some lunch and a new beer. Since the last time we were here (November 2016), the beers available on the island have grown in quantity and quality exponentially.





4.04/5 rDev +0.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
Pours a golden yellow color with a bit of suspended haze and a sudsy white head that grips the glass. Tropical citrus aromas dominate the nose, especially mango and passion fruit, and there some pine as well.

The mango and passion fruit lead the tast, and there’s enough resiny pine to impart a nice, lingering bitterness. The mouthfeel is medium and very dry, fitting the WCDIPA style.

This is an easy drinking, flavorful WCDIPA that I’d gladly revisit.

 

Not only did I buy a 6-pack, so did the GF. As I stated, I'll look to have some of them as lighter pseudo-winter warmer over the winter; but yeah, I'll also likely have the opportunity to see if/how the beer evolves over a bit of time. I'd hope that maybe the hop bitterness would lighten up a bit and let the other notes come out more.

 

(Cross posted from the NA Beers thread.)

I had the Untitled Art NA Italian Style Pilsner today and really enjoyed it. The biggest 'plus' that it has going for it is that the aroma has a definite pilsner malt character to it, and that makes it seem closer to the real thing. The flavor almost follows that, but the extra taste of unfermented wort kind of blunts it. I can't say that the hops are authentic because all I get is some unrecognizable bitterness in the taste, although a bit of hoppiness is in the aroma.

I don't know what is typical for can dating by this brewery, but here it is in mid-November and the can carries a Best By date of 12/14/23! That sounds too optimistic for a light-flavored beer style to last that long and still be good. But, relative to other NA beers, I consider this one to be a 4.25 rating. (It's a pricey beer at $16 + tax and dep for a 6-pack but maybe it's worth it.)

 

After digging out from 3 ft of snow (yes, 3 feet!) I figured I'd crack this open.

Prennial Artisan Ales Abraxas. Bottle date: 10/23/17.



Pours a deep copper with a 1/2" tan head, which quickly fades. Minimal lacing.
On the nose: cinnamon, chocolate, hot pepper, vanilla, caramelly as it warms.
Tastes of cinnamon, peppers, chocolate, roasty, vanilla which is stronger on the nose than the palate.
Has a full body, light carbonation. Thick & oily finish.
As expected with a 5 year old high ABV stout, it has little head and minimal lacing. Apart from that, this is a very good stout.

 

I stopped by my local shop to get some cider for the Mrs. and a good bottle of single malt to take to a small get together with some friends tonight when the owner of the shop (who knows my tastes) told me he just got a beer in that I had to try. Well, twist my arm.....

This is Oerbier Special Reserva 2019 (bottled in 2022), a Flanders Oud Bruin aged in oak barrels from De Dolle Brouwers

4.46/5 rDev -1.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.5
Reddish brown appearance with a small amount of short-lived off-white head. Some light makes it through around the edges, but not much. Lots going on on the nose. At first there's a heavy dose / perception of acidity, Once the nose adjusts, additional aromas emerge, including red wine and faint fig.

Taste is less acidic than I anticipated. It's there, but not at all in your face (although my palate has long since adjusted to this type of thing...my wife would undoubtedly make a face if she sipped this). I'm having a ton of trouble picking out individual flavors. There's definitely some barrel there, but it's incredibly smooth and well rounded. Not remotely harsh. There is a depth of flavor that just works. I'm particularly struck by the mouthfeel. I don't recall giving any beer a 5 in any attribute (feel free to criticize me for that), but this one is getting it for the mouthfeel. It's full bodied, smooth and creamy,

The owner thought I'd likely be back to buy more, and he's not wrong. This beer is outstanding. I would highly recommend picking a bottle or two up if you are lucky enough to come across it.

 

Digging out but with no place to go? And probably more snow to come too.

Good choice of a beer for a wintry day like this. (I'm relieved that I have only 9 inches of the stuff, but more is scheduled to come off Lake Michigan this afternoon and overnight. )

 

Coach Dunkel

5.25% dunkelweizen by Schnitz e Brewery

Poured from tap at the brewery. Dark brown body with a good head. Excellent lacing during the tasting.

Tasty malt nose with light bubblegum aroma. Taste follows nose and adds chocolate notes. A mild bitterness nicely balanced the malt.

Good carbonation and a creamy mouthfeel make this one an easy drinker.