New Beer Weekend #129

Lupulin Brewing Lateralus Chocolate Malt Imperial Stout, 11% ABV. Pours black with a one-finger medium-brown head that left no lacing. Nose is light chocolate. Taste is moderately strong chocolate and vanilla, moderate sweetness is shaded by stronger bitterness. Excellent mouthfeel, overall excellent. They must not have been going for pastry stout here, since this is too bitter for that. All of the Lateralus variants I've tried are like that, must be the base beer, With half the bitterness this would be much better.

3.93/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

Nice sunny 18F winter day. Watching NFL games, grilled burgers for lunch, having cheeseburger soup for supper before we watch the Packers beat the Lions. Looking like it's too much to ask for the Vikings to lose to da' Bears. Just can't cheer for the Vikings.

 

Black Ops by Brooklyn Brewery
11.5% Stout aged in Four Roses Bourbon

Pored from a pint can, the color is a dark brown-black. Good initial head and solid lacing.

Bourbon, cocoa and vanilla on the nose.

Taste follows nose and there was more oak and vanilla than I like, but this drawback to me might be the saving grace to others. YMMV. I’m not the biggest Four Roses fan, so there’s a fair warning. I found the bourbon not be as forward as noted in reviews. Perhaps due to the year (2022).

Carbonation moderate and creamy mouthfeel.

Worth a try for RIS fans. I’m not sure I’d try one again given the choices available in the burgeoning bourbon barrel stout market.

 

Good afternoon NBS#933/nbw and thank @JackHorzempa for hosting this week.
Big hike this morning has the dog all tired out.
Went to Great Awakening Brewing in Westfield Ma (40 minutes south) yesterday for the first time.
Tap offerings had a nice diversity, this bottle offering was in the take away section, An Irish Whiskey barrel stout. Cliff notes, avoids being tho sweet

Cheers all

Luck of the Iris

American Imperial Stout | 9.7% ABV
Great Awakening Brewing in Westfield, Massachusetts

Reviewed by SABERG from Massachusetts

4.06/5 rDev 0% | Average: 4.06
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Poured from the 2022 release into the test glass
A - Very dark brown color, steady carbonation feeds an inner ring, mocha colored, long lasting.
S - Caramel, raisan, brown sugar, a bit of black pepper. The Irish Whiskey aging is well executed, not weighted toward the boozy side, avoiding the usual traps.
T - Brownies soaked in whiskey, I like it. Fudgy, wilth caramel, bakers chocolate, black pepper, and a hint of toffee.
M - Hefty, a bit slick while deftly avoiding being cloying, A boozy exhale finishes every sip. Finish is pleasantly dry
O - A first for me, from them, and wont be the last. Solid Imperial stout base, and a well executed barrel treatment.

 

I got one of those thermometers for Christmas BTW. Real nice.

 

Good afternoon NBW
I decided to modify my dry January to start on the 6th to allow me to drink up some Christmas leftovers. The plan is to make it to Jkblr Jr's 21st birthday in early February. We'll see. For now, NA beer

Guinness 0
14.9 ounce nitro widget can stamped L22286E005 poured into a tulip pint glass at fridge temp >0.5% ABV per label. The beer pours identical to a Guinness Draught with a slow cascade of tight khaki colored head eventually filling the glass with opaque black liquid. The aroma is that familiar charred, dark chocolate roasted malt. The taste is lightly bittersweet with more unfermented caramel wort poking through the dark chocolate notes. Mildly bitter. The mouthfeel is a bit watery from the lack of alcohol and the nitro. Otherwise, it's thin bodied with the expected nitro feel and a mostly dry finish. Overall, one of the best NA beers I've tried, which is surprising as I don't care for Guinness Draught.

Multiple reviews mention the underlying sweetness, but to me it's less distracting in this NA beer than most. Not sure if I'll pick up another new to me NA for next week or not. Cheers all!

 

Back from the park with the kids. Prepping the ingredients for my wife to make her butternut squash cannelloni, and enjoying this one:

Beat Culture Colada Racing Imperial Coffee Stout. This is one of many beers that have lost themselves in my overgrown cellar and fridge. Canned in August of 2020. You’d never know it was that old.



Pours a deep cola brown with ample cappuccino head that dissipates to almost nothing in a couple minutes.

Bold sweet coffee jumps out at the nose (think coffee ice cream). Some milk chocolate is there as well. A little vanilla is sneaking around as well I think.

Taste follows. Sweetened coffee up front. A little bitter roasted notes sit in behind. Some chocolate trailing behind. Not in any way boozy (10.3%).

This is full bodied.

This is a great, sweet breakfast stout. I can’t believe how well it held up considering how long it was ‘lost.’ Cheers!!

 

I couldn’t think of a more perfect beer glass and can pairing, glass courtesy of @FBarber and beer courtesy of @NorsemanOne, seriously this can and this glass were meant for each other...

Bohemian Brewery - Dortmunder Export Lager



Pours a mostly clear yellowish gold, head is very soapy looking and disappears quite fast; no lacing and no head by mid glass.

The nose is quite nice; fresh baked bread and floral, something faintly sweet as it warms up.

Taste is big on bread at first, gives way to a grain husk bite with some hints of light honey on the finish. Unfortunately the grain husk bite sticks around very long in the after taste.

Medium body, really smooth carbonation, dry and clean; lingering tannin like bitterness on the finish, detracts from the beer.

I like a lot of aspects of this beer, the nose is beautiful; the breadiness is awesome only thing I’m not a fan of is that grain/husk thing its got going on. Overall still a very decent beer that I’m glad to have tried.

 

Man do I love parks, I wish there was one on every corner; the one guaranteed way to get the kiddos entertained and tired.

You seem to be quite the cook @Coronaeus I wouldn't mind coming home to butternut squash cannelloni one of these days...

 

Good Sunday afternoon, New Beer Samplers and commentators. We spent a chunk of the day packing for our trip to North Carolina later this week for our daughter's wedding. This will be wedding #2 in the past 3 months - both in the Chapel Hill area. Mrs. Mac has been working hard dealing with the logistics of hosting a wedding 500 miles away. While this is exciting we'll be glad when it's over and we return home to our fairly simple, regimented life, LOL.

Today's first new-to-me beer comes from here in the Garden State, IPA No. 2 from Eight & Sand Beer Co. in Woodbury, NJ (across the Delaware River from Philadelphia). It's a simple but effective American IPA brewed with the tried and true hop bill of Citra and Mosaic. This is my first offering from the brewery and I was impress by the average rating. Basically sessionable, it would be a really good IPA to pound at the Shore. My only point of contention is that the brewery describes it as a New England IPA, which I think is a bit of a stretch.

It pours a hazy, honey-orange color with a half finger of creamy, milk-white head and minimal lacing. The aroma is pleasing with notes of peach, honeydew, lemon, and cream. Its taste is bright with a nice balance of vanilla, peach, ripe melon, tropical fruit, and more tart, acidic lemon and grapefruit with just a hint of bubblegum. While not overtly bitter there is decent bite at the finish. The brewer has effectively used the tried and true hop bill of Citra and Mosaic. It's simple but effective. The mouth feel is lite and crisp with fairly lively carbonation, and the 6.2% ABV allows for very easy drinking. A second pour is not an issue.

4.07/5 rDev -0.7%

look: 3.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

I'll be back with another review shortly. Cheers!

 

We are pretty lucky. We have a park and a good sized library right across the street from us. The park leads into walking trails that run for about 4-5Km. For much of it, if you closed your ears, you’d never know you were in the city. We are also a 20 second walk to the subway. Best of both worlds.

My wife is allergic to tomato of all things. I love Italian food. Problem…

We have searched high and low for good pasta recipes that don’t incorporate tomato. This is a regular in our arsenal. We make a ricotta and spinach filled cannelloni and bake it with a sauce made from butternut squash, garlic and rosemary roasted in olive oil. It’s puréed with a tiny bit of cream. It’s really quite good with a little parmigiano grated over top. Now, if only we could get the kids to eat it….

 

That's actually hard to answer. Before they expanded production and distribution they would release cans at the brewery on Saturdays and it would sell out almost immediately (just like Other Half). That required for me a 1.5 hour drive on a Saturday morning to arrive by 8:30 AM to get a ticket. There was (and I think still is) a really good bottle share for several hours. Then, they would queue you up at 11:30 and you'd buy your beer. It was super fresh and delicious. Once they increased production and distribution I could buy cans locally but they weren't dated and were ridiculously expensive ($25-27 a pack). I wouldn't pay that much for undated cans so I stopped buying Equilibrium. Maybe I wasn't alone because I noticed a reduction in the store price to $20-22. I'll say this: when fresh, Equilibrium's IPAs are outstanding! And the Stouts are usually very good, as well. But I question how fresh the cans are when shipped across the country.

 

I'm doing my first dry January in an effort to lose some pounds. So this week I am reviewing an Athletic Brewing NA beer.
Although the can and the website don't say it, I interpret this beer to be a Vienna Lager (Mexican reference, Vienna and Munich malts, Noble hops).
Despite my diet, I paired this with some fresh-made Guacamole and store-bought chips.

Poured from a 12oz can stamped CANNE ON 10/07/22 to a Nonic at fridge temperature, but allowed to warm during a long session.
The body is a medium copper (despite the name) and quite clear with tiny nucleation visible in the glass. An off white puffy ½” head diminishes to a single bubble layer, but laces nicely.
The aroma is a very mild hint of malt.
The taste is more prominently malty with some and there is a spicy hint of the noble hops in a semi-dry finish. Obviously, there is no sense of alcohol.
Mouthfeel is light, thin really, as is the carbonation with very small bubbles sensed.
Overall, okay, but I wonder if I am alcohol-beer biased.

 

Sounds like a pretty good place to live.

Very interesting about the cooking with no tomato, I don't think I've ever met anyone allergic to tomato, that is pretty wild but pretty neat to see how you've adapted it to Italian food without it.

 

Kettlehead has hit the market here in RI. Guess this will be a Kettlehead kind of day.
First up: Sidetrail DIPA a collab between Kettlehead and Trillium.
Pour is a very hazy orange/gold. Huge creamy head that hangs around for quite a bit. Tons of lacing as well.
Smell is huge peach, passionfruit, sweet orange, pineapple.
Taste follows with the stonefruit, tropicals and some pine and rind bitterness to finish it off.
Medium/heavy body. The feel isn't as soft as I expected. Solid snappy carb throughout. Good but to me not great brew. My previous KH experience ( my first) was better.

 

Another fine beer compliments of @Roy_Hobbs, Fox Farm Witch Meadow, BA Imperial Stout, batch 5, 2022, 16% abv, poured half and capped the second for tomorrow, pours pitch black, unable to generate head but nice ruddy ring at the edge of the glass decorates this nicely, a swirl pushes the viscous beer up sticking to the glass, aroma of sweet cocoa, oak, taste is rich and sweet chocolate, deep charred malts, booze, very warming with heat at high levels, thick chewy feel. Exceptional beer, thanks Ross

 

@BigIronH is a connoisseur of Kettle Sours and he sent me some fine ones from Arvon Brewing Co. in the recent BIF. This one is Bobbing for Dunks, which simulates apple cider and cinnamon donuts. In retrospect I wish I had reviewed this before some of the others as it's a decidedly autumnal beer. I don't buy Kettle Sours much but when they're done right they are a fun beverage to drink.

It pours a murky, orange-brown with almost no head or lacing. Lots of freshly cut apples on the nose, along with a dusting of cinnamon. The taste is spot-on: like apple cider and a cinnamon donut. I like that it's not overly sweet and the apple has a nice tartness. In fact, there is a bit of a bite as though the cider were turning. Kind of an applejack quality. The mouth feel is thick and creamy with an appropriate level of carbonation, and the 5% ABV is barely noticeable. Really well done!

4.32/5 rDev -0.5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Cheers, NBW!

 

I might be cheating a little bit because I had a Founders Nemesis a number of years ago (2009?) before they received a C&D letter over the use of the beer's name. I'm unsure if they discontinued it then or renamed it, but I don't recall ever having its replacement if there was one. I'm also unsure if this is the same recipe as back then, but it's the same name. (Back then I think they called it a Wheatwine, but the label on this iteration says it is in the Barleywine style.) The only thing I recall of the first version is that it was the first beer that I really, really liked and then they go and discontinue it, or at least I have no memory of it again. (Barrel-aged beers were hard to get back then which may be why I didn't have any replacement.)

This one says it was bottled in March, 2021, but I just picked it up yesterday at my local beer store ($7.99 a 4-pack, wow!) A re-release or a re-distribution by the distributor because it wasn't selling? I don't know, but I'll take a bargain when I see one.

The beer tastes more like a barleywine than a wheatwine, and I'll call it an American Barleywine rather than English because the hops are noticeable, so I think it is a different recipe from the 2009 version. The barrel character is a little stronger than the bourbon, and I'd prefer it the other way around, but it's a very good beer. I think it's worthy of a 4.25 rating.

 

Visited the taproom for the first time last night . . . everything on draft was outstanding, and I left with a 4-pack of Fluctuation, which is incredible when fresh. The undated cans bug the shit out of me, but I reckon if I'm buying at the taproom they've got to be relatively fresh.