New Beer Weekend #147

A good one from @sulldaddy Tox Brewing Gift Vienna Lager, 5.3% ABV; 4.22 overall





Pours an effervescent & slightly chill-hazed amber/copper with one finger of cream colored head. Some head retention & lacing

S: Toastyness, a little Brown Bread; great nose

T: Follows the nose, some dryness & brown sugar & woody hops up front. Toastyness, a touch of Toffee as this beer warms up, plus leafy & woody hops & a little dryness, Finishes cakey/toasty with woody hops

MF: Medium body, fairly firm carbonation, lovely balance

Great take on the style, very drinkable

 

Anniversary release at 3 Sheeps. Thank you for the gift pour Kevin @GrumpyGas !

3 Sheeps Hoppy Anniversary



Brewery Notes: East Coast style IPA brewed for their 11th (and previous) anniversary celebrations.

Appearance: Clear bronze base, medium carbonation, egg white head lingers a bit before holding a firm ring above the base. 4.0

Aroma: Caramel malt, lemon and citrus hops light in strength but pleasant. 3.5

Taste: Consistent with aroma, malt clear leader consistent with an Eastern IPA. Some dryness and hops bitterness comes out to play, but goes home in the rain. 3.75

Mouthfeel: Malt sweetness my primary take away, nice light and easy drinking, nominal carbonation, sweet finish. 3.25

Overall: This is a good Eastern IPA, hits the expected notes. Not necessarily my preferred IPA, but executed to style. 3.5

 

Probably one of the beers I've been most excited about (due to style)

Coniston - Bluebird Bitter (bottle conditioned)



Bottled on L24 304 (beats me what it means even after doing some light looking)

Poured into a willi becher glass at fridge temp

Pours a rich golden with a creamy off-white and fairly dense head. 4

Aroma is fairly hoppy, and full of hop spice, some lighter malts and might be more than that, but it's enough for me and quite delightful. 4

Hoppy moderate bitterness, light malts and some malty sweetness, perhaps light apricot and on the tart side. 3.75

Body is light, on the thinner side and the slightest but frothy with a bitter aftertaste. 3.75

Overall a bitter that met my expectations and will lament not having around all the time. 4

Thanks @Whyteboar!

 

Stonecloud Kissing Couple IPA with Citra & Mosaic hops, 7.0% ABV; 4.08 overall

With Citra & Mosaic Hops

Pours a hazed honey color with a finger of cream colored head. Average ish head retention & lacing

S: Mangoes, papaya, oranges & vanilla once warm

T: Green Melon, Lime, a little vanilla & orange cream, a kiss of pineapple as well up front. Orange creamsicle vibe, pineapple & a little green melon once this beer warms up. Finishes with pineapple acidity, lime & green melon

MF: Medium body, pretty firm carbonation, lovely balance

Easy to drink, started strong, but a little too acidic to love No pictures until I can figure out what's going on

 

We’re in Phoenix.

it is ….. warm (89 deg F at 6:35 pm).

Time for a beer! I muled (of course) a couple of beers that @Roguer sent me in NBS BIF #17. This first one is a longtime want that I yelped out loud when I pulled it from the (MASSIVE) box he sent me.





4.5/5 rDev +0.9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
Pours a beautiful hazy orange color with a creamy white head that provides significant lacing. Gorgeous beer. The nose is brimming with ripe oranges, mango, and papaya aromas. Wow.

Those notes are prominent on the taste, with the mango being the leader of the pack and a delicious leader it is. So juicy and smooth, especially with a bit of a creamy oat flavor at the back of the palate.

The mouthfeel is full and (surprisingly) a bit prickly. This is a magnificently executed single hop IPA featuring Citra that is more than worthy of its hype. Simply tree-men-dous.

 

The pics...

 

Hello, NBW Gang. I've been drinking IPAs all day and am craving something more malty. This is a Scottish Ale brewed by Ponysaurus Brewing in Durham, NC. The style seems to be prevalent in North Carolina, perhaps due to the early Scottish settlement of the colony (including my ancestors). Honestly, I wasn't expecting much and was pleasantly surprised by this ale's depth of flavor.

It pours a cloudy, iced tea color with a modest, ecru-colored cap and minimal lacing. The aroma is malty with caramel sweetness and whiffs of tobacco smoke and peat. The taste is more than I expected. It has nice notes of chocolate malt, along with caramel, black cherry, and earthy peat. It's not the most flavorful Wee Heavy I've had but it has good depth of flavor. I have no complaints about the mouth feel. It's creamy with appropriate carbonation and this batch is 7.2% ABV which gives it lots of substance.

3.88/5 rDev +4.3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

I think this is it for me this weekend as we have long drive home tomorrow. Cheers, NBW!

 

#2 is also from @Roguer and the same brewery. I am definitely a NEBCO fan.





4.27/5 rDev +1.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
Pours a dark cola color and settles as black in the glass with a dense dark tan head. The nose includes a nice amount of rich cocoa, along with roasty char notes and a bit of stone fruit.

The taste is amped up, with that rich cocoa and roasty char syncing nicely with the dark cherry flavor to present a really flavorful imperial stout that improves as it warms.

The mouthfeel is a bit thinner than I’d like to see with a beer of this magnitude. Still a very nice representation of the style that I’d gladly revisit again and again.

 

Royal hug pilsner
....light pale gold,orange appearance.
....slightly thin body with above average carbonation.
.....aroma is cooked grains, toast, bread, malt and earthy.
....taste is mildly bitter which lingers,grains,cereal, earthy hops.
...overall a really well beer.

 

Cheers to @sulldaddy for this BIF 17 Brew

Outer Light Brewing Co. 2022 Bourbon Barrel Aged Pitch & Roll Imperial Stout, 8.8% ABV; 3.67 overall

Pours an effervescent ebony with a pinky of mocha colored head. Traces of head retention & lacing

S: Plenty of coffee, faint barrel notes, a touch of cola once warm

T: Plenty of barrel, coffee, leafy hops, Baker's Chocolate & a touch caramel up front. Boozy coffee notes with raw oakyness as this beer warms up, Finishes with raw barrel & watered down coffee with a little vanilla

MF: Medium body, moderate carbonation, warming, but the body starts thinning out once warm

Had potential, but the body just fell apart; flavors petered out as well. Just needed more barrel & body

 

Pete's Amazing Amburana Black Lager

11.9% Schwarzbier
Hopping Frog

Poured from a tap at the HF tasting room, the beer pours a medium brown and has a good initial head and minor lacing throughout. Carbonation was good and mouthfeel heavy but not too heavy.

The Amburana wood adds strong aroma and tasting notes of cola, cherry, and vanilla to the Schwarzbier’s malty base. The ABV is well masked. The body is much heavier than most schwarzbiers I have sampled.

Brewed with Pete of Pete's Wicked Ales, this schwarzbier is smooth and easy drinking despite its high ABV.

 

Hello again my friends! I hope your weekend is going well. We made it to Hugo, Colorado today for a visit with my MIL. I brought beer from the Springs as there is no brewery within 40 miles of Hugo and precious little craft beer in general.

So, Midnight on the Run.
The pour was, well, a challenge. It began spouting foam the moment I popped the tab up. Over a minute it carbonated out of the can. I had to move it to the bathroom of the hotel room to try and contain the foam.
When things finally settled down I had a dark (and I mean dark) chocolate color pour with a brown head.
My wife tells me that it smells like chocolate. My nose doesn’t smell so well right now, stupid Covid.
The taste is chocolate, front, middle and swallow. This beer is all about the chocolate. I’m certain that there are nuances involved but I just get chocolate.
The feel is curious as there was no carbonation left, or at least none noticeable. So it drank flat, but because it was so much chocolate it kinda worked.
I might be tempted to try it again, just to see if I can get a non geyser version.
If you like chocolate stout, definitely try this one. If you don’t like chocolate stout, stay very far away.
Cheers all!

 

Annoyingly enough, that was the sole ESB that I could find here. I am glad it was a good one.
I used to see ESB beers around here all the time but lately they have become scarce. My loss, it’s a style I really enjoy.

 

They can't all be 10s. I have sent plenty of beer I was sure is the real deal & saw different opinions from others. I am usually a fan of less coffee & more barrel. But sometimes these beers just don't age great in cans.

 

That is a style that shines on Cask

 

Hugo, huh lived there 4.5 years & never heard of that ville.


Edit, driven through a few times, memory is slipping

 

Good morning all Advocates,
waiting for an afternoon outing that will end at the counter of a pub, my new (for me) beer this weekend is from a Swedish microbrewery born as a tattoo studio whose partners had a beer brewed with their own recipe, the beer arrived to Mikkel of Mikkeller who proposed to make a Double Ipa in collaboration (the well-known Crooked Moon Double IPA) and since then they have started a real line.

Crooked Moon Brewing (Helsingborg, SVE) - PHANTASMA - Double India Pale Ale (9%).

This is a 9% Double Ipa and I really appreciate that the hops used are indicated on the label: Golden Promise, Strata, Huell Melon, Citra, Phantasm Power (concentrated powder derived from Sauvignon Blanc grape skins grown in New Zealand which allows brewers to add high levels of important thiol precursors to the wort, which in turn are an important group of beer soluble compounds found in hops and grapes, which give beer powerful tropical flavours).
33 cl can (€5.44), on the bottom: "Lot #1 - Best before: 09/07/2024".
As soon as it is uncorked, notes of tropical and summer fruit (pineapple, peach) followed by sweeter malt notes.
When poured, it produces abundant foam, which in this case means "perfect", and with a good consistency, it never disappears on its own.
The colour is amber tending to orange and is rather veiled, even if not really "hazy".
In the mouth, medium/full bodied beer with a carbonation at the height that facilitates drinking: lively, not excessive.
The taste is an explosion of fresh fruit (mango, melon, peach, plum, a touch of coconut) and citrus fruits (blood orange, grapefruit). There is also a malty note with hints of caramel and honey but it is totally overwhelmed by the fruity taste.
Dry finish, not particularly intense, but manages to clean up both the tongue and the palate very well, leaving only a slight taste of orange peel in the throat.
Alcohol content masked very well.
Personally I'm not a big drinker of Double Ipa, but I found this truly remarkable in terms of shape and explosiveness of taste and balance.
Notion of merit to the perfect carbonation, which if more extinguished would have contributed to making the drink heavier and also to the freshness of the fruity taste and the speed with which it is dried without being intrusive.

Here is my rating with which I entered it into the database:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/65435/654584/?ba=Jack_14#lists








Have a nice Sunday !
Slàinte !
Cheers !

 

And... Back again with the Mother's Day entry to NBW.




Double Stack from Great Notion. 16 fl oz can from @snaotheus in NBW BIF 17. Reviewed 14/05/23 (Review 3101). Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Top rim of can stamped “STICKY STACKS 03.06.23”. Stored at 34 degrees at home. Served at 46.2 degrees F in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. The final temperature was 54.5 degrees F.
Appearance – 4.25
First pour – Amber Brown (SRM 18), clear.
Body – Black (SRM 40), opaque. Under direct light, same. When rear lite, opaque with light penetration at the edges – ruby.
Head: Average (Maximum 1.1 cm, aggressive center pour), tan, high density, quickly diminishing, reducing to a 0.2 cm crown constantly renewed by carbonation, and a thin partial cap.
Lacing – Poor. Thin line of near-microscopic bubbles.
Aroma – 4.5 – When the tab is popped, instant aroma of coffee and maple syrup! Weak roasted malt, no hops, no yeast. No ethanol (11 % ABV as marked on the label).
Flavor – 3.5 – Moderately bitter coffee with maple syrup flavor as backing. Bitterness enhanced by the char flavor. No malt, no yeast, no hops. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl. Slight gastric warming.
Palate – 4 – Medium; watery short of syrupy/creamy; soft carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 4 Without the char bitterness, I would have rated the flavor 4.5; for my taste buds, the char nearly ruined the maple/coffee combo. Otherwise, this is a very good coffee stout. And that “natural flavor and caramel color” screams “Unnecessary crap added”.
Rating 3.94, rDev -12.4%