New Beer Weekend #136

New Belgium Oh, Sweetie Gingerbread Tart Porter


If you like porters then this one may not be for you. If you like tart beers then you may like this. An interesting combination that I haven't seen before. On the can it says "Island-Inspired Porter blended with foeder-aged dark sour ale, ginger, black pepper, clove, & natural flavors". The added flavors overpowers any type of porter flavors initially, but as it warms the porter does start to come through slightly. 7% ABV. Being in Hawaii I'm not sure how the islands inspired it other than the beer label.

 

Odd sides brewing bourbon ba oatmeal cookie stout



4.34/5 rDev +0.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

Can received from @Whyteboar in bif16

Brewers Notes: A dark, rich Imperial Stout aged in Bourbon barrels with the taste of delicious oatmeal cookies smooth notes of whiskey

Abv 11.15%

Chilled can poured into an oversized tree house snifter , pitch black motor oil, one finger brown tight foam reduces to a ring with no lacings

Aroma is bourbon, oatmeal cookies, cinnamon

Taste is oatmeal cookie, oats, hint of cinnamon , you get the cinnamon flavor without the heat, oak, bourbon on the finish

Thick, lush mouthfeel, syrupy,low sudsing, boozy without the heat

Good beer

 

Thanks for kicking off the weekend @NorsemanOne !

Also a friendly reminder New Beer Sunday #940, scheduled for tomorrow, will mark the 18th Anniversary of New Beer Sunday which began on February 27, 2005!

I have two Illinois new to me beers at home after being away, so need to go shopping for more next week. This selection was brewed in Chicago, not exactly sure where (contract brewed @ Great Central vs. on site at Maplewood).

I don’t recall few if any other reviewers of Maplewood (or GCBC) beers in NBW/NBS during the four years I’ve participated, but both are very good breweries. Maplewood is among the top sellers of beer among City of Chicago Breweries, behind Lagunitas, Revolution, Half Acre, Goose Island Fulton/Clybourn, and possibly Off Color.

Maplewood Over Fire Island

Initial Partial Pour


Full Pour after second attempt, letting the dust settle on the first 60% to settle.


Can Notes: Single 16 oz can purchased for $4.25 with at room temperature at Beer on the Wall on 1/20/23, refrigerated since purchase. Canned 12/21/22 13:56:20. Can stamp Smoke on the Porter. B554

Smoked Porter, 6.5% ABV. Ale brewed with smoked maple wood malt. Brewer by Maplewood Brewing Company, Chicago, Illinois. (The absence of “and canned” indicates this likely was brewed and canned at Great Central Brewing Company).

Appearance: Main pours and then second top off pour into a nonic pint glass. Wonderful cascading of carbonated bubbles as they are consumed over the base over a few minutes, leaving a full creamy head cover and soapy lacing in its wake. The base dark brown to black, clear when held to light. 4.5

Aroma: Wonderful smoke malt aroma, sausage and bacon on the grill, backed by a robust malt, any sweetness curb-stomped by the dominance of the smoke. 4.25

Taste: Consistent with the aroma, except there is much more balance in terms of the play between the wonderful smoked malt which retains the grilled breakfast meat but allows the milk chocolate unroasted malt flavors to balance out. Hershey's milk chocolate with smoked sausage in your mouth sensation. May sound off, but try it and you will likely love it if you like these two flavor sensations. Also getting a light to mild roast coffee taste as well. 4.5

Mouthfeel: Medium to full rich, creamy decadent body, smoke leads for sure, with malt sweetness peaking its head up periodically for air. Lightly dry, more smokey than bitter. Drinks easy in terms of abv, strong in terms of smokiness, which lingers wonderfully on the finish. 4.75

Overall: I love this style and flavor set, so if you do as well I highly recommend. Will conceded this is not for everyone, but fans of smoked beer should run out to grab some. Hope to find more soon or during their next release. Another excellent offering from Maplewood, and possibly their great contract brewer. 4.5

Love this beer, hope the suburban based Polish themed beer as we head toward Pulaski Day planned for tomorrow is as equally delicious! Til then, Cheers!

 

That's a serious hike. Is it proximal to any trails? I know they had big plans to expand the system when we lived there.

 

3.68/5 rDev -12.6%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Poured from a 12 ounce bottle into a snifter.

Look- Black, frothy light brown head, plentiful visible particulate at edges, opaque, above average head retention, average lacing.

Smell- Cacao, bourbon, coffee, toasted oats, medium strength of scent.

Taste- Bourbon, cacao, toasted oats, coffee, watery flavor that falls off quickly, weak strength of flavor.

Feel- Between thin and medium body, average carbonation, mildly mouth warming, mildly creamy, low bitterness.

Overall- Black with visible particulate at the edges and above average head retention. Bouquet consisted of cacao, bourbon, coffee and toasted oats, but was low medium in strength. The flavor profile followed similar to the nose, but was very weak/watery and fell off extremely quickly. Feel was much thinner than expected and may have contributed to the quickly vanishing flavors. Overall this is one of the rare examples where the non barrel aged version was better than the barrel aged release.

 

Hey What's going on!?

Well I have been insanely busy of late, but regardless do partake in an odd new beer on occasion for sure.

Here's what's new for our latest hero.

Sláva Ukrayíni!



Poured from the bottle into a pokal style glass.

Dark orange with hints of dark golden brown color. Flirts even with red and has a nice light fine carbonation through the body. Creamy white head, simply makes a two finger top and eventually settles to a pretty thick collared puck and lip for a good appearance.

Sweet aroma a bit but quite nice. Chewy sensing malt, a bit of light coriander like notes and faint orange sensations. A bit of sugarized honey but not as sweet, but comes off with a hint of syrup like sensations.

Palate just gets the job done. Good chewy malt body that is creamy and even a little bit cake and bready tasting. Mild touches of orange like fruit and sugars, a bit of sucrose and syrup like finish but a touch of even almost minty like hop bitterness on the finish. Really dig this creamy almost vanilla flavor and texture as well, and just a faint touch of honey.

Kind of pushes a bit of a sweet button but manages a good wit experience. Memorable too for a witbier.


look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4 | Final BA Score: 3.93/5

Cheers!!

 

Preseason baseball on the radio and I look up to see snow outside and we actually got about an inch of super light fluff on the ground. We were in shirtsleeves not too long ago...

So I had planned another Czech dark lager but it will need to wait. The wife grabbed this one since it has Cara Cara oranges and she eats them like crazy, but she didn't like this here beer:



Tripping Animals/450 North Miami Slushie XXL, a self-proclaimed smoothie style sour ale with banana, passionfruit, apricot, Cara Cara orange. No date on the can, but kept cold. The 450 North logo is quite prominent amidst the cuteness, so it took a minute to figure out it is a collab brew with Tripping Animals being the primary partner.

Pours a dirty, kinda chunky yellow orange color and the picture makes it look MUCH better... yikes. A layer of foamy bubbles forms and actually lasts. Lots of sticking to the glass, but mainly the pulp floating to the top.

I smell everything it claims to have except the banana. Nice and fruity, mostly orange and passionfruit, then apricot and slightly tart, no beer, and somebody hid the banana.

This tastes like a straight up smoothie. The absent banana emerges and it seems to carry the other flavors, which are assertive and easily identified if you want to dissect things. Tartness from the fruits, but fairly mild and probably tempered by the banana.

It's not as thick as the pour would suggest. There's a nice tart tingle and a bit of rind-like bitterness but just a tad.

Well...I don't know about this one. Usually I can find some smidgen of beer in these things, but this one is straight up fruit smoothie. It's very tasty and I like it just fine. It's more of a pseudobeer than others of its ilk, but it's around a 3.8 - 4.0, so I guess to be consistent that's where I'll land it. Big flavors combined quite nicely, but I wish it retained a little beerdentity. Thumbs down for look and a tick down for smell, big ups on flavor and overall pleasant drinking.

 

I am a BIG Maplewood fan, and we get their stuff here in South Bend, so I’ll be looking for that one. Thanks for the detailed review.

 

I’m cooking a pork tenderloin on the Weber which requires my full Old Guy attention, so one and done for me tonight. This was part of the “Hearted” mix pack, of which Two Hearted is BY FAR the best of bunch so far. Let’s see where this cold IPA lands.





4.04/5 rDev +4.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
Pours a translucent yellow color with a dense white head that laces the glass oh so well. Beautiful beer. The nose has tangerine, pine, and a bit of lemon, and maybe a smidge of crackery malt.

Tangerine and lemon are forward on the taste, with a nice pine note and the aforementioned crackery malt guiding this clean, crisp cold IPA into a smooth finish.

This is a nice, easy drinking IPA that I’m glad I tried, but it’s probably like my fourteenth favorite IPA from Bell’s. So I’ve got THAT going for me.

 

Clausthaler Original NA Lager. Pours clear golden with a one-finger white head that left some lacing. Nose is malty, taste follows, slightly sweet, faintly bitter. Excellent mouthfeel, overall excellent. One of the better NAs I've had.

4.08/5 rDev +38.8%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Almost done with dry-February, and here are some takeaways; still not an alcoholic, drinking is what has been seriously aggravating my arthritis/gout but not my AFib, lost a couple of pounds, and if/when I have to quit drinking I still don't think I'll bother with NA beers, though some have been decent. When I start back on Wednesday, I'll probably limit myself to one or two strong ones a week (days apart), with a couple of weak ones and some NAs too. I need to slowly drink down my high-ABV cellar, and replace it with mostly lower-ABV options.

 

Today a nuclear reaction 92,022,000 miles away tried to destroy all life on the place we all call home by hurling all types of radiation, from across the electromagnetic spectrum. Yet our little ball of water and rock staved off destruction for yet another day, against all odds in the vast harshness of space. You see; life itself, millions and millions of years ago started producing this thing called oxygen that rose up and up and created the ozone layer that blocks most of that nasty UV that would render most life obsolete pretty quickly...oh and let us not forget the churning iron at our chore that creates an invisible magnetic forcefield deflecting all those charged particle this reaction throws at us and creating one of the worlds natural wonders, only seen at our earth's poles...oh and our little blanket of CO2 that keeps us warm in the frigid temperatures of the vacuum of space.

Just a long roundabout way to say we're all lucky to be here, wherever here is, and here right now enjoying such a simple thing as beer...tonight my simple pleasure comes in the form of a dark lager that comes from a place called New Hampshire. It's this small little spot on earht located in the Norther Hemisphere, apparently this little place makes some pretty good lager so obviously I had to try this beer when I saw it, especially when I saw our friend @FBarber gave it an overall 5...

Schilling - Cerne Pivo (Czech Dark Lager 5.3%)



Pours the darkest of browns, heck I'm just gonna say black but the edges of the glass do disagree; a vigorous pour yields a mountain of creamy light brown froth that slowly settles to an opaque layer of the same creamy brown.

The nose on this beer is quite nice; it is light and balanced...it has a wafer like quality to it, it carries some minor toast and bread crust like characteristics, a very light roast and some pleasant touch of hops on the finish, to me they verge on having a slight woodsy like character.

The taste is very rich and again incredibly balanced; toasted rustic bread character with a little more pronounced roast than the nose led me to believe, the finish has a minor hint of black licorice...mid sip, towards the end, there is an incredible unsweetened chocolate like richness, that lingers into the aftertaste with the roast.

Light body, but full, creamy and smooth, soft frothy carbonation with moderate roast bitterness on the finish...this goes down incredibly easy, incredibly clean on the finish.

This is one of the best Czech style dark lagers I think I've had. I feel like I always am a little more harsh on breweries with high reputation but for this beer it 100% meets a very high standard. The feel is so perfect and the taste is so rich yet balanced and smooth, nothing is in your face, it is all in perfect balance. Highly recommend this beer.

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Oh PS that nuclear reaction that would render all life obsolete is the same thing the makes all life possible…imagine that friends.

May put on my own warm little layer and go for a night walk on what seems to be our last somewhat colder day in the 10 day forecast but I plan to be back later tonight, with a Michigan beer from our friend @Whyteboar. See you all then, hopefully your enjoying your night on our little ball of water and rock as much as I am. Cheers!

 

Natural State Beer Co. Pilsner Pale Lager, 5.5% ABV; 4.25 overall

Pours an effervescent gold with one finger of eggshell colored head. Decent head retention & lacing

S: Breadyness, perfumy hops, lovely nose

T: Breadyness, grainyness, a touch of soapyness. plus herbal bitterness & dryness up front. Grainy notes, soapy & lemon hops, plus dryness as this beer warms, just a little bready sweetness as well. Finishes dry, with pronounced herbal bitterness & just a touch of lemon

MF: Medium body, fairly firm carbonation. good balance

Great drinkability, classic presentation

 

I was thinking as much, just didn't pick up what you were putting down

 

Alright, walk complete, and now we open beer from a place called Michigan. This was sent to me courtesy of @Whyteboar.

Archival Brewing - Strict Observance (Belgian dubbel 5.5%)



Pour very dark ruby brown, fizzy looking head, recedes quickly but leaves a nice little ring of dirty white

The nose is very bubble gum like to me, intensely so; could smell while pouring…spices and floral smell, potpourri like.

The taste brings a surprise of rich malt and some dark fruit; the flavors noted in the nose pop up in aftertaste but not nearly as strong as I would’ve thought.

Medium body, slightly thin but with a nice finish, little bit of nut skin like bitterness, decently drying on the tongue.

A fun beer to explore for me, thank you for sending Craig. See you all tomorrow some time.

 

Here's a link to that day. I'm still searching for the thread.

https://web.archive.org/web/20050227012810/http://www.beeradvocate.com:80/