New Beer Weekend #132

Choking down my 1st home brewed beer, using a reused Founders bottle and Lagunitas mason jar glass, a session IPA that checks in at a paltry 3.7% if I did it correctly. I was surprised how it turned out, decent color and clarity, nice frothy head left a nicely laced glass, aroma was mildly "citrus like". Flavor was mostly just bitter. I've had worse beers than this........a b-day gift from my beautiful sisters-in-law!

 

The phrase, "I find myself more often embraced in the grip of reminiscence", as a nod to aging, stopped me in my tracks. It is so true. That was a quality essay/short story delivered for free.

 

Are you seeing many foeder fermented lagers in your area?

I remember reading about foeder fermented lagers a couple/few years ago but I have not seen many (any?) at my local beer retailers. I am wondering whether this is still much of a 'thing' these days.

I would think that proper maintenance of a foeder for a beer which needs to be cleanly fermented (e.g., a lager) would be a challenging task.

Cheers!

 

Congratulations on your first home brewed beer @ZebulonXZogg ! Looks a lot better than that weather on Griswold Lake. Hope you enjoyed the process and come back with more offerings!

 

Congratulations!

And with continuing practice your homebrewed beers will get better and better and...

Cheers to you!

 

Happy Birthday

 

Didn't have a chance to pick up any Duvel yet, but here's something wonderful from HORAL's latest member.

4.39/5 rDev +6.6%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

Bottled March 2021, enjoyed January 28th, 2023. Poured from a capped-and-corked 750mL bottle into my Drie de Fonteinen tumbler.

Clear orange peel liquid supports an active papaya whip fist, receding to a rouse-able fine cap. Even soapy lacing; superior retention.

Malt, fruit, and funk compliment one another in the nose. Floral, barnyard, and blackberry with a hint of acidity.

Sweet core with crackery malt, rock sugar, and lots of fruit. This quickly is surrounded by a puckering tartness and a complex lasting funk. Finishes dry and bright with the blackberry emerging in the aftertaste beneath a wave of Brett. notes (pepper, alpine cheese, wild mushrooms,etc.).

Medium-light bodied, creamy, yet fairly crisp. ABV reasonably well concealed. Full carbonation.

Wonderful wild expression.

 

I haven’t seen really any in a while; Tonewood does a yearly or so pale one and they did a czech amber in foeders back in the fall. Other than that I haven’t really seen many advertised as of late.

 

You’re braver than I am. Our son bought me a Mr Beer kit 7 or 8 years ago, and I brewed an amber ale, going so far as to buy bottles and a capper and brewed enough for a 12-pack.

After the beer was “ready,” Mrs O insisted on having the first drink. She was an inveterate Miller Lite fan at that time, and said that anything I suggested for her to try in the “craft” world of beers “tastes like Beck’s,” including a really good APA from Indeed Brewing Company out of Minneapolis (Day Tripper) that nearly started a fight at a craft beer show in Mankato MN.

She took a drink of my home brew and announced, “This is good - tastes like beer,” which was the first indication that it was NOT good, and indeed it was terrible - it tasted like watery barley sludge.

The rest of the 12-pack was unceremoniously drain poured, and my brewing career was thankfully over, with the lesson learned that some of us are beer producers and some of us are beer consumers.

I am most definitely the latter.

 

I have a couple of beers this evening from the Extreme Beer Box: BIG STOUTS (2023) to share, the first an RIS with persimmon from a brewery from Brazil. Big thanks to @Todd for putting this magnificent event together.

I’m so excited to dig into this box, I could cry.





4.35/5 rDev +5.6%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
Pours a dark cola brown that settles as black with mahogany brown on the edges and the most luxurious, creamy light tan head that laces the glass beautifully.

Roasty char notes lead on the nose, with rich caramel notes, and some stonefruit/apricot notes (persimmon?) for good measure.

The roasty char and caramel flavors are forward on the taste, along with a bit of smoke, with the stone fruit flavors providing a refreshing balance to the gravitas this big beer wears well.

The mouthfeel is full and verges on creamy. I wish I had a second pint of this to enjoy.

 

Single Hill - Overstory Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout aged in Westland Distillery American Single Malt barrels

500ml bottle served in a curvy Fremont glass. Bottled November 2021. Bottle number 208 (or maybe 203).

Pours dark, almost black, with a fairly small dark tan head. Moderate amount of very fine head. Smell is lots of roast, some coffee, maybe a bit of char. Make that a lot of coffee.

Taste is still leaning into heavy bitter coffee, but now it's got a bit of a dark chocolate and maybe a little bit of a milk chocolate note to it as well. Char isn't quite the right word, maybe dark toasted wood? Not that that's a nuance I've experienced specifically but it's somewhere between charred wood and fresh sawn wood. A bit of booze if I look for it, surprisingly not much in the way of sweetness. What's there is slightly vanilla and maple.

Mouthfeel is somewhere between medium and thick. Not sticky. Maybe just a hint of grittiness. Overall, this is a nice beer.

 

@AzfromOz you are the Henry James of BA.

 

Here's a back-of-fridge lurker that I've neglected long enough!

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/47666/611644/



500 ml. bottle.
Brewed Jan. 2021.
Bottled Sept. 2021.

Moderate pour yields a nearly one inch creamy white head over a slightly hazy, light golden body with sticky lacing. A thin head remains for the duration with sheeting lacing from each swirl and sip.
Beautiful!

Nose of citrus (lemon), earthiness, and slight funky oak.

Taste mirrors nose and is slightly tart with a tiny bit of grapefruit sweetness just before the crisp finish.
Wow!

Very nice mouthfeel (as expected from all of Vasili's offerings.)

Overall, another gem from the wizard of Albany, VT.

Cheers!!

 

Did you try restarting?

 

Brilliant!

 

#2, the brewery describes this beer as a peanut butter cup without the pesky brown wrappers.

Sign me the fliggity flock up because I absolutely LOVE peanut butter cups.





4.5/5 rDev +4.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
Pours black with mahogany brown tinges on the the edges and a rich, creamy tan head that literally clings to the glass. What a beautiful stout this is.

The nose is led by creamy peanut butter and rich milk chocolate aromas. For a beer described as a peanut butter cup without the pesky brown wrapper, that is what you get on the nose, and it is magnificent.

The taste is also all about the peanut butter and milk chocolate, but what distinguishes this beer from many of the pastry stouts out there is that it’s not cloying in any way on my palate - balance is critical to this big stout and it delivers.

The mouthfeel is rich and peanut butter cuppery, perfect for this pastry stout. I could drink this until it came out my ears.

 

Car radiators, soldering computer parts, what's next?? aviation repairs? boats?...Is there anything @snaotheus can't do?

 

Apparently I can't own stuff that just works?

 

@AzfromOz - awesome kickoff to this weekends thread. Thank you! And @woemad - happy birthday. As one who is decently north of that half century mark, the comment about reminiscence was particularly timely. I have found myself doing a lot of that lately both in terms of my 42 year career and life in general. The good outweighs, that's for sure.

The Borg cube that is the Extreme Beer Box keeps saying resistance is futile, but we had tacos tonight, so a big old stout wasn't going to work.

In the glass:



A random find. The Veil Classic Golden Kolsch Ale - and it says right on the can it is an instant classic... @jonphisher that's a category not yet discussed in the classics thread!

Pours crystal clear golden yellow until the last bit which clouds things up some. A lively white head that is constantly replenished by the bubbles from the etching on the bottom of the SA classic pint.

The smell is quite crackery, bready, and maybe a touch yeasty. There's some nice lemony citrus brightness, floral/herbal hoppy goodness, and just a touch of white grape.

The taste is very clean. Soft malts leaning toward cracker, a fairly strong lemon that is pretty fruity versus peel. Hops are more herbal than floral in the taste. Just a tiny bit of white wine grape must. Fairly assertive bitterness. A touch of peppery spice on the finish. This is all good, but I am also getting a touch of oxidation. The beer was canned in 11/22, in the cooler at the store.

The feel is a bit heavier than I've come to expect from the style.

Well, it seems like it's all there in terms of the style characteristics. The flavors and aromas hit the mark, but the slight presence of oxidation is a definite distraction. It's a canned beer, so package permeability shouldn't be an issue. I can only assume it's from a high level of oxygen at the time of canning. I've not had a beer from The Veil before, so I'm inclined to cut some slack here and say this is a 3.8 or so Kolsch style beer on the merits and think the oxidation is just an unfortunate happenstance.

 

What I know is that I have truly lived and I have a fine memory. I remember true experience quite well and the regret basket is well overshadowed by the "the soft glow" basket. I wish that I had not been such a slow learner. Time is a charm and a devil. Cheers from The Piedmont of North Carolina....

 

Ok and now #2 for the evening...this is a new to me beer and brewery from New Jersey: Czig Meister...they were around here a while back but then disappeared, well I guess they're around again. They're unique to me in the sense that they have several flagships that are not IPAs; two of which I bought this oatmeal stout and a kölsch...apparently we both had the same style on the mind @LeRose. Had I seen your post first I would've cracked that one, but I guess I shouldn't worry I don't think cans have legs so it should just stay put in the fridge...

Czig Meister - The Blacksmith (5.5% Oatmeal Stout)



Not much for looks on this one, a dark dark brown, head is light brown but really no retention or anything to speak of.

Nose big hit of char, burnt bread like in quality; dark roast coffee, one that you know is gonna have that burnt bitterness on the finish...

Taste is a high % dark chocolate with earthy undertones; the finish is like a light a shot of espresso...the aftertaste is strong and lingering; so char like in nature it almost reminds me of a campfire.

Light in body; the oatmeal is evident in the silky smooth feel it leaves on the tongue; clean drinking beer with a very burnt/roast driven bitterness that lingers for a while with the aftertaste.

Looks aside this is an awesome beer...if you are a fan of bitter and dark this beer is for you.

I'm now looking even more forward to that kölsch from them tomorrow.

------------------

When this fake winter finally comes to an end and spring is in their air I will post a gaffel to that thread @LeRose. My hopes are now that so many beers have been discussed we start to get some more drinking/buying these beers. I purchased one that was mentioned to have later this week sometime...

 

What's going on here? I didn't send you that beer!

 

I know it was such a long streak but I’m weaning off @snaotheus beers, it’s not good to quit them cold turkey...




oh and PS...I drank the E9 helles this past week, was to lazy to post or review but it was quite delicious

 

It is harder to nail those lower ABV homebrews, especially when starting out. Make sure to make a yeast starter if you do this again. My 2 cents

 

You got that right

 

Toppling Goliath Brewing Fire, Skulls, and Money. The new IIPA version. Brewed a few hours ago. Only available to me due to the infinite generosity and connections of @azuelke. The original is one of my favorite beers. Served in a beautiful new Central Waters Brewing 25th anniversary glass. The look is murky, soupy, hazy, beautiful yellow-orange, with thick foam. Nice lacing on the glass. The smell is incredible. When I opened the can outside, tropical fruit flavors exploded. A chop to the solar plexus. Banana, orange, peach, mango, and pineapple. The taste is incredibly juicy. Super potent and intense flavors of orange, mango, lime, lemon, and pineapple. Absolutely amazing. The mouthfeel is pillowy soft, smooth, fruit juice. Medium carbonation. Just delightful. I remember the taste of the original Fire, Skulls, and Money. It was phenomenal. This beer is different. It is better. This may be my favorite IIPA of all time.

 

My one take home beer from visiting these guys today; New Province Brewing's Diamond Lore DIPA, 8.5% ABV; 4.16 overall

Pours a very hazy gold/honey color with one finger of cream colored head. Great lacing & pretty head retention

S: Green melon, citrus, fades a bit as this warms up

T: Tangerine, pineapple, green melon, mango & dryness up front. Grapefruit & Tangerine, plus a little dryness as this beer warms up, some passionfruit too. Finishes dry with tangerine & grapefruit & a little green melon

MF: Medium body, restrained carbonation, nice balance

Drinks great, this fills a nice niche for their portfolio. I hope this becomes a year-rounder

Go over to WBAYDN if you want to know the story on this Plaque

 

Hopefully that makes it down here

 

Hawkmoth Brewing's 21.5. This a blend of 21 & 22. Honestly, I liked this better than either. To be fair this is the only one I tried in the bottle. Clocks in at 11% ABV

Pretty much everything these guys are doing now are wilds & sours. but I believe this is the best style peg

Pours an effervescent cola color with a sliver of tan head. Some head retention, zero lacing

S: Dark fruits, chocolate & red wine barrel, figs; great nose!

T: Dryness, figs, chocolate, dark cherry, oak, dried plum & a touch of Chai Tea up front. Figs, vanilla, leather & oak as this beer opens up, plus more dried plum, a touch of salt & a touch of Dark Chocolate. Finishes with oaky dryness, a touch of booze as well, figs & dark cherry to boot & again a touch of salt, plus a little leafy hop & tea

MF: Fairly chewy, low carbonation, warming

This is a sipper, super complex & not exactly light on ABV. These guys are our State Superstars for Wilds & Sours. If you told me this came from somewhere in the Ardennes, I would believe you

 

Revolution makes such great beers. That one sounds like a great one.

 

I have the same exact glass. Glad to see one of it's brethren appears to be getting put to good use.