New Beer Weekend #138

I’m going for the rare NBW trifecta today because I need to clean up my beer fridges (yes, plural) and because I have a lot of good new beers to work through.

I know, first world beer nerd problems. This first beer is courtesy of my friend @woemad and NBS BIF #16. Let’s GOOOOOO!!!!!





4.29/5 rDev +6.5%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
Pours a brilliant gold-tinged yellow color that has the slightest smidge of hop haze and a delightful creamy white head that is Velcro to the glass. Gorgeous WCIPA.

The nose is the ubiquitous Citra/Mosaic hop bomb, with dank, juicy citrus aromas accompanied by the earthy, herbal notes associated with Simcoe hops. Lovely.

The taste is led by juicy ripe oranges, passion fruit, and lychee, with an earthy herbal flavor following with a bit of crackery malt. Delicious stuff.

The mouthfeel is medium, crisp, and crushingly dry. What a pleasure it is to drink this exceptionally well executed WCIPA.

 

I have a beer to drink while I pack some beer. Then I'm going to go out with the family for burgers and beer with a good friend. Happy Sunday, everyone.

This beer is provided by @Blogjackets: Jackie O's Iron Furnace, barleywine with brown sugar and maple syrup aged in bourbon barrels.

375ml bottle served in a curvy Fremont glass. Looks like it might be 2022 vintage, no other date info that I see.

Pours very dark -- dark molasses in color, with almost no head on the pour, although a thin ring eventually grows. With movement, there's a little bit of noticeable carbonation, very very fine and very slow. Looks thick. Can't tell if it's clear or cloudy, it's too dark. Smell is rich dates and toffee, hint of coffee and chocolate, definite maple sweetness.

Taste is strong on the date and maple side. Sweet, but not as sweet as some of Fremont's BA barleywines, despite the added maple and brown sugar. Some raisin, a little vanilla, some oakiness. Booziness is dangerously muted for a 12.7% abv beer.

Mouthfeel is thick, heavy, but not sticky or oppressive. Satisfying. Overall, this is very good.

 

This was not a great hit, in my opinion. Usually Machine House does a pretty good job, but I wasn't very impressed with it. Not terrible.

 

Was that meant to be a Belgian style table beer, or an English Mild?

 

Nice glass my friend!

 

The Saison from which all modern Saisons flow.

 

On to NB #2 from Modestman
C.O.A Mega DIPA
Poring a very hazy pale orange juice with a creamy white head. Many rings of sticky lacing.
Huge tropical notes on the nose:
Mango, passionfruit, papaya, peach, juicy orange, lightly sweet malts.
Taste follows with tropicals and stonefruits followed a perfect but unexpected pine and grapefruit rind bitterness. Well balanced.
Super soft in the mouth with fine prickly carb. Resinous but drying on the long fruity finish. Medium bodied and highly drinkable for the unnoticeable 8.5%.
Great NE style DIPA. The only thing that doesn't align is the brewery name...because they are not Modestly priced. Def worth a shot though if you want something you know will be really good and have 24 bucks to spend. Cheers!

 

Fifth street hooligans by citybuilt


4.27/5 rDev +2.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Brewers Notes: New England IPA Double dry hopped with Citra, El Dorado, Sabro, Callista, and Befuddlement hops.

16 oz chilled can received from @Whyteboar associated with a ninja strike in bif16, new brewery for me

Deep apricot orange haze bomb , two finger yellowish lathered foam cap, very good retention, recedes after five minutes to a mountain with thick solid lacings

aroma is citrus ,grapefruit, tropical fruits

Taste is is citrus grapefruit , pine , juicy tropical scone ou5 as the glass warms

Sudsy mouthfeel, nice hop bite,

Good beer, thanks @ whyteboar

 

I think English mild. Zero Belgian characteristics

 

Boulevard Churro Grande BA Imperial Brown Ale, 13.5% ABV; 3.36 overall

Pours an effervescent hazel/chestnut with a thin sand colored head. Some head retention & lacing

S: Cinnamon, a little vanilla, both fade rather quickly

T: Dry, a little raw barrel, a lot of cinnamon & vanilla, some boozey notes up front. More cinnamon, & vanilla in overabundance, a little taste of cola as this beer warms up, a touch of maple syrup too. Finishes with a little barrel warmth & just too much cinnamon & vanilla

MF: Pretty chewy, slight carbonation, warming

I wanted to like this more, but way too sweet & way more cinnamon than I would care for in a beer. Works fine as a dessert with some coffee, but not as a beer, a rare miss from these guys when it comes to BA offerings. If I have any more, I will sit on them for years

 

#2, I’m joining our friend @lordofthewiens in reviewing this beer this weekend The brewery EXCELS at the big stout game, so I’m looking forward to this one.





4.35/5 rDev +2.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
Pours onyx black with a sudsy dark tan head that is SIZZLING and fades in seconds. The nose is heavy on the booze from the barrel, with significant milk chocolate and vanilla notes as well.

The milk chocolate and vanilla are forward on the taste, with the booze from the barrel lurking in the background like a gangster on the prowl. Really delicious stuff.

The mouthfeel is rich and substantial, as expected. Prairie’s big stout game is world class, and this beer illustrates their prowess in that space.

 

Hey NBWers
Back with another Kettlehead beer called The Agent, it's their flagship beer
It's a NEIPA clocking in at 7%ABV This is the 5th beer I've had from them so far and they all have been very good. I've shared them with my son and he is of the same opinion. It's a solid brewery



Poured from a can dated 2/13/23
Pours cloudy grapefruit color yellow, thick appearing. Big fluffily white head that stands above the glass. Dissipates to a white thick cap and soapy lacing.
Aroma is a bit faint but it is citrus like, sweet orange. peach and bread, It's a bit earthy
Taste is sweet but not real sweet, citrus but not real tart, it's a nice blend. there is some bread / yeast notes all be it faint. It has a bit of a spicey.taste.
Mouthfeel is pretty soft. medium carbonation and a hint of stickiness. There is a low prickly feel toward the finish. It finishes slightly dry and sticky although one doesn't overwhelm the other.
Overall it's a nicely balanced beer. aroma, taste and mouthfeel are not overpowering. Its a nice easy drinking IPA and kind of 0n the low ABV side. Checks all the boxes for a good NEIPA

4.25/ 4/ 4.25 / 4/ 4/ 4.12/ rDev -1.4%

 

Glad you liked it. One of the best WCIPAs brewed semi-locally, but it doesn't get a ton of love. The founder of Trickster was a former keg washer at Ska Brewing that decided to open a brewery in north Idaho, but didn't really know what he was doing, so for their first couple of years, the brewery's product was massively uneven in terms of quality. Then he hired a professional brewer who brought order out of chaos, but a fair amount of damage to their reputation was kinda done at that point. First impressions are awfully important (also, their location is a bit off the beaten path).

This beer used to be known as Juice Box, but then it won some sort of IPA competition that raised it's profile enough to be noticed by an entity with a similarly named product and lawyers became involved, so it then became J-Box. I have a t-shirt with the former label art before the name change.

 

Last one, this was sent to me by my company for my birthday as part of a box of WCIPA’s (Stone, Firestone, Lagunitas).

You know you’re doing something right as a beer nerd when your company is sending you beer. IJS.



4.1/5 rDev +7%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Pours a golden color with a sudsy white head that lingers a bit and provides moderate lacing. The nose is very floral, with a bit of pine.

The taste features the floral hops primarily with a bit of resiny pine, and a smidge of biscuity malt. The very definition of “easy drinker.”

The mouthfeel is medium and on the dryer side, per the WCIPA style. This is a nice “fridge IPA” that I’d gladly revisit.

 

I must be in a video clip rant this weekend…Your ONYX comment made me think of this…



I will be back with a shade of black beer soon…

 

Happy Sunday beer friends...I hope you all had as filling as a day as us here. Always a long long day when we spring forward, we tried to keep busy all day in hopes of crashing "on time" tonight...spent most of the morning hanging in the pine barrens, hike and a wildlife refuge we visit a lot. Tonight's one and only beer comes from @snaotheus …

Wayfinder - Gravity Drop (Baltic Porter 9%)



Pours the darkest of browns; backlit brings nice clarity, light brown head lingers for a few then dissipates to a thin ring around the glass.

Nose is rich in chocolate, some char, with a woody spice character and some graham cracker.

Taste is big on rich chocolate like the nose, this may sound weird but there is definitely something coconut like showing itself, finishes with a woody tannin aftertaste and roast.

Medium body but somewhat thin, very smooth; bitter char on the finish…this thing goes down very easy for its abv. The abv was slightly noticeable at first but as I drank it all but disappeared. This is a dangerous one if you don’t know it’s 9%.

Thanks for sending my way Ryan, you forced me to visit a style I don't seek out; it was neat to see how different this one and the Heater Allen one were. This was rich and chocolate all the way and I remember the Heater Allen one leaning heavy into sweeter malt and stone fruit; abv difference of 1.5%.

Have a great week everyone, see you next weekend!

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

Hike shot....



The forest slowly coming back to life…skunk cabbage...



@kemoarps took this one just for you, from the wildlife refuge...American Kestrel…

 

Good Sunday evening, all. One jewel of a late winter or early spring day here before we get some sort of storm early in the week. Rapid changes and marginally predictable weather I guess keeps things interesting.

In the glass is a huge improvement versus last night's BA extreme stout offering:



Revolution Brewing Dark Mode - a 13.8% BBA Imperial Sweet/Milk stout.

The beer pours cola colored, but it looks pretty black in the glass. About a quarter inch of tan, tight head that falls to a ring and an island. No lacing or cling. For such a big beer, the visual impression is that it pours thin.

The nose is actually delicate. A bit of sweetness, a whiff of chocolate that is on the sweet/milk chocolate side. There's some caramel or maybe brown sugar, a good dose of bourbon. While not a strong aroma, it is extremely well integrated. I don't think anything particularly stands out, yet everything is identifiable. Oh...the stout shows up too with a pleasant roast malt.

The taste opens with a just right sweetness, chocolate, and a fairly hefty slug of bourbon flavor. I still find the chocolate leaning toward the milk chocolate or semi-sweet ilk. There's a bit of brown sugar leaning to molasses taste. Roast malt breadiness develops. Theres a little cola and rootbeer component that comes and goes. All the components morph into this well-integrated kind of chocolatey coffee creamy mildly sweet latte kind of taste that is delicious. As that all fades, just a bit of bitterness pops that is soon replaced by a lightly spicy licorice.

The feel I think is actually fairly light. It's not exactly watery, but it isn't heavy either. The huge ABV is deceptively lurking in the background, revealing itself as a pleasing warmth. There's some residual lightly lip-smacking sweetness. It's pretty clean for the flavor load - the taste hits with some building intensity but it morphs and fades quickly, leaving a light aftertaste highlighted by the licorice-like aromatic.

This is a well-constructed, harmonious beer with a pleasant flavor. It is not overly sweet - it is enjoyably sweet and the other flavors are allowed to play openly. It all melds together. Compared to the Odell Barreled Treasure from yesterdsys adventure, I would call this beer matured. This will easily land in the 4.3 to 4.5 range. Dark Mode and the Black Daruma are the winners so far in the BA stout box for me.

 

Time for the final round of new beer for today. The one I reviewed wasn't what I was planning on reviewing. I had planned on this new beer:

Consider Yourself Hugged - Prairie Artisan Ales.

The problem with this beer is I sat on it too long, and the coffee turned to pepper. I think it would be a 4.25-4-5 fresh. I did finish it, but it was tough.

Here is my final new beer of today:

Guardians of The Beam - Klockow Brewing - Grand Rapids, MN - American Imperial Stout - 11.2% ABV

I will start off by saying, I love the flavor, but, there's a but...

The but is that the brewery hypes up that wild rice is used in this beer. I get none of it. I do not get it in the aroma or flavor. If a brewery hypes up the flavor, you'd think it would be in the beer. I had to vastly reduce what I'd normally give for it because of that. It's delicious, but if you're looking for a star of the show (according to the can), you're out of luck.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/51689/467787/

3.38/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5
Poured from a can purchased in Baxter.
This beer pours a very dark brown color. Even when held up to the light, nothing shines through. There's not too much of a head in this beer, 1 finger, light brown , and it isn't long lasting. There's no lacing on the glass.
The nose has a slight boozy note to it. I do get maple in this beer from the barrels used to age it. Not getting any of the wild rice. I know it's not the strongest aroma, but it seems MIA, and since it's a star of the beer, I have to give a lower mark on the aroma.
Flavor is a bit boozy. There's waves of maple that show up here in this beer. I get notes of bourbon with the caramel like flavors that come from it. The one thing I'm not getting, and maybe I'm wrong, is the wild rice. I'm guessing the bourbon and maple from the barrels covered that flavor up. I'm giving the taste a low mark for that, not because it's not tasty, but because a star of the show in the flavor department is missing.
The body does seem a bit light for the ABV, but is in the ball park for brown ale.
This beer is tough for me. I like the flavor, a lot. It is delicious. On the other hand, a big star that is showcased on the can is MIA from this beer. I have to reduce the marks for it.

This is it for the NBS/NBW thread. Cheers all.

 

Good evening denizens of NBS!
Tonight I had the second one from the Extreme Stouts box, the PB Fusion

I really think some people taste some flavors more powerfully than others and for me, peanut butter and cinnamon are those flavors.
In this case, the peanut butter trumped everything else that was there. I think it gave me some vanilla flavor a little while which was likely the coconut. No chocolate, no coffee, precious little stout. But hey, if I didn’t try to force it into a beer box of expectations, I rather enjoyed it. Just wouldn’t go buy a 4 pack.
Anyway, 2 down, lots more to go. Cheers!