New Beer Weekend #137

NB #3 today. 3 down one to go. I think I can do it but the last one #4 is a doozy.
Recently acquirable and very enjoyable Belleflower Brewing Portland ME (yep another Portland brewery! What a town for beer)
Wild Winds DIPA
Hop burnout is real when you're doing DIPAs all day. Fortunately I've been leaving plenty of space between beers with water as well. Now I just finished a plate of my BBQ ribs and chicken and my palate is cleansed with the hickory smoke of bbq. Quite the opposite of hoppy hop hops...
Pouring a very hazy pale yellow with a snow white head that recedes quickly to a thin cap. There is a ton of lacing.
Aroma is a bit more muted than I expected. Wisps of grapefruit, lemon and orange with just a faint of fruit on the back.
Taste is straight out citrus- mainly grapefruit with touches of orange, lemon and lime.
Feel is medium, unexpectedly dry and quite bitter. Mostly citrus pith and just a touch of pine. Its lacking any malt sweetness but is in no way soft. Actually quite aggressive in its tingly carb and dominating dry bitter. Not alot of balance here.
I cant help but think straight up grapefruit juice. It's not terrible just rather one dimensional. I mean hop burnout could be contributing but I'm thinking no just due to the muted Aroma. So this has to be the most dissapointing brew I've had from Belleflower so far. And the 3rd runner up in today's NB Sunday quarter.
Brewed cleanly and not bad but not a repeat for me unfortunately.
Cheers!

 

Is your avatar picture when this statue was new??

 

Starting tonight with one of two new offerings from the wizard of Albany, VT.
First up:
gösts

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/47666/643669/



500 ml. bottle
Brewed Oct. 2021.
Bottled Aug. 2022.
Released early last week.

Gentle to moderate pour yields a 5/4 inch pure white head over a quite bright golden body with sticky lacing.

Nose of slight smoke and citrus with a bit of floral aromas as well.

Taste has flavors of citrus (grapefruit, slight lemon/lime) and just a tad smoke.
Quite delicious!

Feel wonderfully fills the mouth as in all of Vasili's offerings; near perfection!

Overall, find some before it's gone and you won't be disappointed!

Cheers!

 

I hope you got some tasty Greek Food to make up for that dud

 

Ok I lied, time told me to open a new beer instead of the Old Rasputin I was gonna open…one of the last beers from @snaotheus, a style I have only had one or twice. I wondered how this would’ve held up after over a year, cause of my inexperience with this style, but time wasn’t an enemy to this beer, it’s damn tasty.

Heater Allen - Sandy Paws (Baltic Porter 7.5%)



Poured deep dark brown with beautiful ruby highlights and clarity, not much staying power on the head but that could be the age.

Not much on the nose; a generic malty richness some dark fruit skin bitterness, and a mild fruity sweetness.

Taste is a rich caramelized malt character, molasses mixed with maple, cherry skin like bite and a woody tannic aftertaste.

Medium body and very smooth, there is a residual sweetness; astringent little bitterness on the finish.

This is a pretty tasty beer, I don’t have much experience with this style but definitely enjoyed drinking it. Thanks Ryan.

 

The Brown Note.....

 

Hello New Beer Weekend!!!

Late to the party yet again, that being said, I'll jump straight to my beer

Magnus - Double Barrel - Melvin Brewing - Eureka, MO - English Barleywine - 15% ABV

This is one heck of a beer. So much flavor going on in here. Amazing feeling to it. It's a winner.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/57465/560252/

4.49/5 rDev +2.5%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.5
Upon opening the bottle there was a bit of smoke. The pour looks quite dark, almost black. In the glass it also looks almost black. When held up to the light, there's the faintest hint of amber showing through. The head came to 2 finger, and tan colored. The head dissipated rapidly, considering that it's 15%, it's not surprising. No lacing on the glass.
Deep notes of plum, raisin, fig, caramel and toffee. There's a boozy aroma from the alcohol, and the barrels used in aging the beer.
Flavor - for a fraction of a second, this beer is very mellow. The mellowness fades right away to get raisin, plum, fig, caramel, toffee flavors. I am also getting some flavors that I really can't put to words, because I would guess that they're from the cognac barrel, and I've never had cognac. I do like that flavor, though.
This is a thick beer. Very full bodied. Very smooth feeling. There is a burn from the alcohol, but it is so faint, and on the way back. The burn is just slightly warming, than harsh.
This is an amazing beer, and so glad I bought it when on vacation.


Considering the ABV, I'm likely done for this NBW. Cheers all.

 

Back to something new

Kiitos - Creamsicle Ale



Canned 2.20.23

Pours a pale and cloudy tangerine with a loose head that fades within 30 seconds.

Bright orange aroma that is perfectly sweet and a hint of lactose as well. Leaves a pleasant small tartness on the end

Taste follows, clear and fresh orange, creamy, sweet

Very light and sharp carbonated body, emphasis on the light body

Great cream ale that matches the description exactly, would buy again, and reminds me of Mother Earth Cali Creamin Creamsicle minus the noticeable vanilla in that brew

 

Here's a change of pace from Vasili: a fruit beer!

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/47666/643672/



500 ml. bottle.
Brewed March 2022.
Bottled Nov 2022.
Released early last week.

Gentle to moderate pour yields a nearly one inch very light pink head
over a dark pink, almost red (maybe magenta?) head with sticky lacing.

Very fruity nose of raspberry and cherry, with a bit less cherry.

Taste mirrors nose closely with a fairly robust sourness, but still very tasty indeed.

Very nice mouthfeel and well carbonated.

Overall, yet another Wunderkammer offering to be on the lookout for!

Cheers!

 

In the words of the Chewy St. Bernard... Hey BA...the peanut buttah box is here...



From the Extreme Stout box, Great Notion Peanut Brother. It's a 9-ish percent Sweet/Milk Stout with cocoa nibs, peanuts, milk sugar.

It pours heavy looking, very thick looking and pretty much black. Brown bubbly head doesn't live line. Does end up with a ring and a little raft of small bubbles.

Yeah...it's a peanut butter cup in a glass. Roasted malts, but mainly peanuts, sweet chocolate, sweetness that's marshmallow-like.

It's carrying a ton of flavor, mainly peanut butter, sweet chocolate or chocolate sweetened by the lactose. There's roast malt but it isn't the star. I can detect the alcohol on this one - not exactly hot, but not particularly hidden, either. It's a reasonably balanced set of fairly intense flavors and the brewer nailed the intent in spades. The sweetness to me says marshmallow. So...Fluffernutter peanut butter cup?

It is smooth, slick, barely carbonated, but somehow it doesn't coat or become cloying. No doubt it's sweet, but there's just a bit of stickiness on the lips. I get a bit of an odd aftertaste from the peanut butter.

It is what it is. It is a very good, nicely executed dessert beer. It is well made, and surprisingly balanced. I'm still not feeling that peanut butter is my jam in these stouts, though. It's in the 4.3 territory, but I can't say I'd rush out to buy another one.

 

4.07/5 rDev +1%

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

Poured from a 375ml undated bottle into a tulip glass.

Look- Pale straw, moderately hazy, no visible particulate, sudsy white head, extremely below average lacing, below average head retention.

Smell- Floral, oak, brett, lemon zest, between weak and medium strength of scent.

Taste- Peach, lemon, oak, white grapes, passion fruit, sour, medium strength of flavor.

Feel- Between thin and medium body, average carbonation, mildly mouth coating, moderately dry finish, sour.

Overall- Pale straw in color with moderate haze and below average lacing and head retention. Bouquet was floral, oak, brett and lemon zest with between weak and medium strength. Flavors were peach, lemon, oak, white grape and passion fruit with medium strength and an abundance of sourness. Feel was moderately dry at finish with between thin and medium body. Overall this was an enjoyable beer that deviated from my normal style choices. The one consisted I find with this brewery is that the pricing far exceeds the quality.

 

Sierra Nevada Juicy Little Thing Hazy IPA - Is the juice worth the squeeze?! I saw a pack of this recently that was canned in December so I passed but today I came across a pack canned on 02/02. I'm leery of buying six packs of beers I've never had before but I haven't seen any singles, SN is solid and I like HLT and hazies in general, so taking a chance.

Pours a hazy darker yellow with a generous head. Smell is the usual, tropical fruit forward. Taste is nice and as advertised, picking up some guava, mango and grapefruit. But here's the interesting thing: I feel like I'm getting some of this from the yeast vs the hops, as there is a not so subtle yeasty thing going on here...but not in a bad way. I checked their website and yep, they specifically call this out and are using a specialized yeast. The 6.5% is well-hidden and it drinks very smoothly and not too sweet, a perfect amount of bitterness/dryness to balance it out.

Is this beer good? Absolutely, one of the better hazies I have had in a while. Is it that much different than HLT? Eh, not really. But I'll gladly be working through the rest of the beers in the coming weeks. And according to the package this is the first beer of a Hazy IPA rotating series and looking forward to the next one in May (although like Troegs' rotating hazies I have a feeling that most of the beers are going to be pretty similar but hey, you never know). Budmo!

 

Alright well after sleep comes beer, right? I didn't realize how low I've been keeping my fridge stock until I went to ponder what to open this afternoon and realized that I didn't really need to do too much ponderin'! Ultimately the main pondering I had to do was whether to walk over to the beer store and restock the supplies so that I could wait to open this one when my wife is home (she loves honeybees and tasty stouts), or just say 'fuck it she can have some of the next one.'
I obviously opted for the latter.


(I had to stage a photo with our own little burgeoning* coffee plant)

Old Schoolhouse Brewing - Melipona

The pour is a lovely deep dark brown that's within a town or two of bordering on black, but it's not there. Soft little head is medium brown and leaves sheets of lacing as I drink. I must say I really appreciate good head.

The nose on this one is lovely and gains depth as I sit with it. Initial impressions are a warm woody coffee note with the idea of bakers chocolate dancing behind it. Dark malts fill in all the cracks and never completely commit all the way to like burnt levels, but again, they're within the neighbourhood.
As I sit with it, it's not so much that new layers/flavours emerge so much so that that simple floorplan laid out above peels away to reveal depth and nuance that wasn't readily apparent at first blush. The coffee, in particular, gains in richness and complexity and opens up with the little bit of vanilla that finally comes through to a slightly fudgier form of the touch of chocolate that lays beneath. The vanilla, speaking of which, is not so much prominent as it just kind of lends a rich sweetness to things that helps transform the more prominent flavours in the ways I describe above. I get none of the cinnamon listed, unless that contributed to the initial woody form of the coffee's first impression.

The flavour opens with bitter coffee beans. It's less rich and complex than the aroma, at least at first blush. It's still enjoyable, if you're into coffee stouts (probably not your cup of tea, as it were, Terry @BBThunderbolt), but it doesn't excite tehh senses the way the aroma did. Burnt malts back up the dark coffee lead-in, and the vanilla makes an appearance to give it some of that missing richness and offer a nice sweet counterbalance to the bitter coffee. The vanilla kind of fades as I get deeper into the glass (or maybe it's more accurate to state that the coffee continues to builds and kind of overwhelms the vanilla presence). I still am not really getting any cinnamon. Finish comes in stubbornly bitter, and lingers leaving an indent on the middle of the tongue where it sits.
It's not high-ABV like a BA stout would be (though the fact that we're at a point in beer where 8.5% isn't really that high at all is a noticeable evolution from when I started getting into the hobby!), but it still forces you to slow down and sip as it's just a big heavy rich coffee bomb.

Overall I enjoy this. I'd go so far as to say I enjoy it quite a bit. I'd hoped for a little more vanilla, and maybe maintaining some of that depth and complexity from the aroma over to the taste, but it's good overall, if you like coffee. It always feels like damning with faint praise when I say the best part of a beer is it's aroma, but it really doesn't need to be a slight, and that's certainly the case here.

Cheers!!

 

Its a different statue, not proud but I have several hidden around the garden

 

I fail to see the problem!

 

Teddys doesn't have a problem with all the statues either

 

Cypress consigliere espresso and lemon stout
...murky cola brown appearance
... Light carbonation with a body thats a little thin for the style
...aroma is coffee grinds, roasted malt, black coffee coffee beans.
...taste is mild black coffee, coffee grinds,bitter dry bakers chocolate. Long lasting bitter aftertaste.

 

Amongst quite a few new beers this weekend, here's the first one I've gotten to sit down and ignore other humans to write my thoughts. Pocket Dimension, a saison with cherries from Varietal.

500ml bottle served in a little Georgetown sample glass. I don't see a date on it.

Pours clear, surprisingly purple in color, with an initial rush of carbonation that settles into very nearly zero head. There's a tiny bit of active carbonation. Smell is tart cherry and sweet grape juice. There's a tiny bit of earthy/oakiness.

Taste is almost soda-like, again with a combination of cherry and grape. Little tiny bit of the funk is there if you look for it. Tartness saves it from being too much like a soda.

Mouthfeel is medium to light, surprisingly effervescent. Overall...it's a tasty beverage, would benefit from dialing down the fruit and dialing up some of the earthiness and tartness.

In other news...I have a dishwasher again.

 

Sensational food

recommend Lyra and Roister in Chicago

 

Glad this outstanding rye stout has made it to Ohio and other Revolution distribution states, and will continue in future years.

We’ve had this available in the 4 X 16 oz format locally until this new six pack release, with either can size manageable in terms of alcohol. Love that Rev cranks out outstanding rye offerings! I have a six pack I still need to crack open.