New Beer Weekend #151

Went to one of my favorite breweries in Houston this afternoon. I don't get to this side of town often, but always enjoy a stop at True Anomaly. They have a bit of a space theme going on, it is Houston after all. Some of the owners were former NASA employees, and they seem to do the Space City theme better than anyone else around. As should be expected ha.

First up is:

Charlie, American Brown Ale, 5.5% ABV.



Pours a dark ruby brown color. A two finger beige head forms with good retention and plenty of lace left behind once if finally recedes.
Aroma of Chocolate malts up front, toasted and baked bread. The nose is very simple, but spot on for the style, and I'm enjoying it.
Taste wise, all the malty characteristics you would want for the style. Toasted and baked bread, chocolate malty flavors. Just enough sweetness, but doesn't become cloying in any way. There is a light leafy, earthy bitterness in the finish that is just enough to balance.
A medium to full body. Crisp carbonation at first, but becomes much smoother as this breaths. The right amount of chewiness is added to the body because of the malts. Which all leads to this being really easy and enjoyable to drink and come back to.

A spot on, old school brown ale. I hope True Anomaly continues to make this, and it becomes more widely available. Far to few of the style out there anymore, let alone really good ones. Well done.

Overall score is 4.09, sold A- for me.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/55586/515542/?ba=champ103#lists

Second up:

Skylab, American IPA, 7.2% ABV



Pours with a slight haze, a golden/yellow color. That clears up after a minute. A white head forms with good retention and lace.
The aroma is big fruity hops. That is the show here, citrus, pineapple, melon . Pungent and aromatic.
Taste wise, like the nose, big fruity and juicy/sweet hops. Citrus, pineapple, melon. The fruity sweetness all mingles for kind of a generic fruit punch. Maybe just a hint of bitterness, but this could be stronger and help balance a little IMO.
A medium body with moderate carbonation. I would like a bit drier and crisper bite. Though, overall, still an enjoyable modern take on an IPA.

You can't really put this in the NEIPA category. Though its a "tweener" as these things go. Something that can certainly stand out on its own, especially if you like the fruit profile. Though with these modern hops, that seems to always runs together too much for me, and I can't really pick that out the best. I would say Yellow Rose is the original kind of "tweener" for this style in Texas. And while this is a good option in that sense, I'll style gravitate towards Yellow Rose more often. This is coming off a little more negative than I was expecting. Its definitely good and well made, as is everything from this brewery, if not my favorite modern fruity IPA.

Overall score is 3.7, B bordering on a B+ for me.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/55586/515542/?ba=champ103#lists


I grabbed a bottle of their Wild Bloom Saison, if I open later today I'll be reviewing that as well. Otherwise, it might wait till next weeks NBW.

 

Half Acre '22 Vanilla Benthic (Imperial Stout w/ toasted coconut and Madagascar vanilla aged in bourbon barrels). Per the brewery: Barrel-aged stout with toasted coconut and coffee. Euphoric cake batter, turtle-neck around a stone hearth after a voracious day sliding down diamonds, biiig smooth silk, Colorado brownie, mega-vanilla bourbon stout exulted by technical brewing practice. Infusing this ocean-inspired stout through Orchid derivative Madascar vanilla beans elevates every end of its reality. It’s your birthday. Chocolate cake, ‘Nilla frosting.
This recipe is blend of select barrels:
Elijah Craig bourbon aged 9 months
Willet bourbon aged 9 months
Eagle Rare bourbon aged 10 months
Woodford Reserve bourbon aged 10 months
Woodford Double Oaked aged 16 months
Bardstown bourbon aged 16 months
Pinhook bourbon aged 16 months

The Benthic series is always outstanding. I'm very excited to try this one, as vanilla is one of my favorite adjuncts.
Pours pitch black with a finger of reddish mocha head that dissipated quickly. Motor oil in the glass. 4.5

Aroma is decadent and complex. Each whiff brings something different. Big vanilla frosting, nondescript fruitiness from the vanilla bean, bourbon-soaked vanilla bean, brownie batter, dark chocolate, coconut macaroon, fig, plum, some tobacco, roasted malt, caramel, oak tannin, vanillin from the barrel, bourbon spirit. 4.5

Taste is a vanilla/chocolate/coconut bomb with a significant barrel presence. The chocolate cake and vanilla frosting description from the brewery is pretty spot on. Bourbon vanilla bean ice cream, vanilla frosting, rich and dense chocolate cake, Mounds bar, some coconut macaroon, dark chocolate, charred oak tannin, slight plum, crème brulee, roasted malt, vanillin, smooth bourbon spirit. 4.75

Full body. Thick and dense. Silky, sticky, oily, sticky. Sweet, but the drying barrel character balances it out a bit. The body of this is impressive given how long the components are aged for. 4.75

This is an absolute treat to have. Extremely complex. Each smell and sip brings something different to the table. A lot of barrel aged pastry stouts don't have the barrel character to hold up to the sweet adjuncts, but that's never the case with the Benthic series. Fantastic stuff. 4.5
Overall: 4.63

 

Very glad it is a year rounder here

 

Another founders cellar treasure for me

Founders - Barrel Runner



Bottled 5.29.18

Poured at fridge temp into a tulip glass

Pours a burnt sepia/murky copper with a thin light sandy colored head. 3.75

Barrel and boozy nose up front. Some mild tropical fruitiness, and fermented pineapple. 4

Fermented tropical fruits follow from aroma, some boozy burn, and remnant hop bitterness. 4

Body is surprisingly carbonated for 5+ years old. Some lingering bitterness, and alcohol bite. 3.75

Overall, a surprising and interesting rum BA IPA that broadened my vision of what an IPA can be, and the fermented tropicals were actually very nice. 4

Thanks for this @Whyteboar!

 

Ommegang Frozen World Double Cold IPA, 8.0% ABV; 3.69 overall

Pours an effervescent and bright straw/ gold with a pinky of pearl colored head. Below average head retention lacing

S: Floral & grassy hops, some peach once warm

T: Follows the nose, additionally, there is green melon & a little dryness, plus white grapes up front. More green melon, hints of tangerine & pear as this beer warms up. Finishes with green melon, a little golden pear & dryness

MF: Medium body, firm carbonation, pretty good balance

ABV is well hidden, good for the Cold IPA style, but not one I would pull the trigger on again

 

Stone Downunderstruck
9% IPA

Poured from a twelve ounce can packaged on 4-12-23, the body pours a mostly clear, pale orange with a nice fluffy white head. Good lacing throughout the tasting.

Bitterness is front and center, and that's okay in my book, and it is sharp at first blush but quickly recedes as a malty push enters, softens the finish, balances the bitterness, and masks the ABV. Post swallow the bitterness nicely lingers.

The nose was hard for me to characterize. Pine, a bit of peach, and light pineapple.

Mouthfeel is good and very good carbonation.

Overall a very good beer that hits hard.

 

Glad you liked it! It was a fairly polarizing beer but every time I drank one I thought that it was a great beer. Cheers!

 

House Lager by Tree House


3.81/5 rDev -2.6%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

Brewers Notes: House Lager is an American Light Lager made entirely with flaked corn and malt from our friends at Thrall Family Malt in north-central Connecticut. This style demands flawless brewing execution-there are no fruits or adjuncts to hide behind-and it is a proud example of our brewing attunement at Tree House. You can taste the difference from familiar industrial homogeneity. Light, characterful, and easy to drink, House Lager carries notes of grain, sweet corn, and hints of lemon propelled by a crispy body.

Ranked #4 on BA for the style, my first review of this style

Chilled can poured into a tall glass on a hot day

Clear yellow liquid , one finger white foam, active carbonation streams

Aroma is sweet corn, grassy , malts

Taste is light,slightly sweet , corn, grains, malts

Very Light mouthfeel ,sudsy, clean, crisp

Nice beer, I played 90 minutes of soccer today . Hot day , you want a light beer such as this on days like today

 

Good Sunday afternoon, New Beer Samplers and commentators. I feel fortunate to have many fine breweries in the immediate area. One of them is Untied Brewing in New Providence, NJ. Untied does a lot of things well. It has 3-4 Lagers available at any time, which is impressive. They do a fine job with Stouts and big Belgian beers, and their Imperial Pumpkin Ale is a fixture on my Thanksgiving table. But I'm a sucker for their New England IPAs. I think they are the most consistent NEIPA brewer in this part of the state. Broken Spaces is a new one, released this week. And it's right in my wheelhouse.

It has a classic New England look: opaque, bright tangerine with a full finger of cap of creamy, egg-white foam and lots of sudsy lacing. Fragrant fruit on the nose including pineapple, tangerine, and ripe melon, along with soft floral hops. The tried and true combination of Citra and Mosaic hops provides abundant notes of lemon, cantaloupe, and hints of red berry. In addition, I'm tasting some tart grapefruit. I'm not familiar with X14 hops but there is definitely an earthy, piny, slightly herbal taste that nicely balances the citrus and stone fruit. There is moderate, clean bitterness throughout. Its mouth feel is great! Soft and pillowy with pleasant carbonation; it has really nice viscosity but isn't too heavy at 6.8% ABV. It's a very nice beer!

4.28/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

 

To be honest, I gave up NBW a long time ago. There was a time when I was active each week in NBS, but I gave it up. After the very nice shout-out from @jonphisher this week, I thought I'd break my losing streak and join the thread for a change.

This beer is MacKroken Flower by L Bilboquet out of Quebec Canada... a microbrasserie. @Coronaeus

I bought a 4 pack yesterday. The price label in the store had the beer name spelled incorrectly... and that's always a good sign for me. I don't know what a MacKroken flower is. I assume a thistle, but when I search for MacKroken on the web, all I get is the beer. Is this because Google assumes this is what I want based on my history, or because the name is gibberish? I love thistles. The date on the bottom is EMB 15/02/2022. I assume this means canned in Feb last year (and obviously not a fresh beer), but I don't know what EMB stands for. Acronym finder on the web has "every man's battle" as a possibility, but that's not French enough. I like how it states "extra strong beer" on the label in addition to Scotch ale. That would be an ESB. Oh wait.

This beer is made with wildflower honey and wheat malt.

It's a pretty brown color - not as dark as the picture above suggests, but quite dark at glass volumes. The highlights fade to a nice amber... and I mean genuine amber, not oddly calling a dark brown beer "amber."

Turns out, this is beer for folks with a sweet tooth. It feels like it had very low attenuation. This beer tastes like cooked sugar water to me. This beer is ranked #58 in the Scotch ale category on BA. I am sure that others can find a lot to like here and talk about dark fruits, molasses, bread, honey, and the like... but to me this is dominated by sugar. Having said that, it is still certainly drinkable for me, and I had no trouble enjoying it for what it is.

The brewer states that this beer is their most awarded beer and they have multiple World Beer Awards badges on the label. I can totally see this beer as a favorite in such competitions. It feels like the embodiment of a style guide idea of a beer but then amplified (distorted?) to 10. It's tough to say how much a beer like that is a caricature or "spot on." Eye of the beholder perhaps. I can't say how much age is a factor. Cheers all.

 

EMB is for ‘embouteillé,’ or ‘bottled.’ I’ve noticed this before on some Québec beers, whether bottled or canned.

I wish I could help you with ‘MacKrocken Flower…’

 

2nd up today, Copperhead was a surprise to me. It's labeled an amber ale, but its pretty much a copper ale and the name really makes sense now. This beer is named after one of the few poisonous snakes we have here in CT. In all my years here in the woods I've never seen one but I understand they are extremely hard to spot due to their coloring and habit of hanging in leaf debris.
This is brewed by Tox Brewing, but not at their facility, they brewed and canned it at 12 Percent. It rings in at 5.8%. Tox has a certain can art style and this follows that theme. The artist chose to illustrate the snake as a multi-headed Medusa-like beast holding their mascot a poisonous dart frog in its tale (I did not turn the can far enough in the photos to show the frog).

4.26/5 rDev +6.2%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
Poured from a 16oz can stamped 03/18/23 to a Nonic at fridge temp.
This beer closely resembles a root beer float. Puffy tan head fighting the rim of the glass, check. Dark brown body with bubbles, check. Head fades within minutes but laces well throughout the session, check.
The aroma is strong on the malt as expected.
The taste is also heavy on the malt, burnt caramel, rye bread. Happily for me it is not overly sweet. Despite the strong malt hops can be tasted on the back end, drying everything out.
The mouthfeel is medium to light.
This is surprisingly good.

 

Thanks. I was hoping you’d help out on that.

 

Man, I have some catching up to do!
So yesterday I had 3 “new” (I had tried them at a SAN at some point but never sat down and really drank a bottle)
First up was the 2016 “One-Hitter” series Wesified Imperial Stout.

It was a bit past its prime, but I still managed to drink it all. Hate to waste beer!
The coffee and roasted malts seem to have separated and the whisky just clumsily held them together in a hot mess of what they normally taste like. The feel was slick and towards the end, chunky. Not a stellar finish.

The next was a 2019 (why I didn’t have ‘17 or’18 I don’t know)

This one was stellar. Good pour, excellent head retention, the flavors were all getting along nicely and the harshness from the roasted malts went the way of the IBU and aged out. Super smooth and rich and deep and very delicious. I had one left and am giving it to a friend.
The third (and final for stouterday) was the one that got me on this slow motion vertical anyway:
The 2020 version.

This one did not seem to hold up as well as the’19. I mean, the flavors are present and actually pretty good, if I hadn’t had the 19 earlier I wouldn’t have known anything was off. Took me a while to figure it out as I said, the malt and coffee and whiskey and hops were all playing well together but I was getting something else: lactose! This was drinking like a milk stout!
Seriously caused me to wonder if I had gone past my limit. How does a lactose feel (and I am pretty sure I tasted it too) get in a Whiskey Barrel Aged Coffee Stout?
Anyway, as @Blogjackets stated over in the Imperial Stout Appreciation thread, if you still have the 2020, you might want to drink them sooner than later.
Same goes for the 2019 but for completely different reasons.
Cheers all, I will be back soon with today’s beer.

 

I laughed a bit when I say your review that said you have one more. I said out loud. 'nope, I had it'

 

I realized that I still had 2 cans left from last Fall's NBS BIF (#16?). @BigIronH hit me hard! So I'm in the home stretch: His Dudeness, an Imperial White Stout from Central Waters Brewing Co. We get some limited distro from Central Waters but I've never seen this interesting brew. And I have to say I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.

It pours a cloudy, copper-orange color with more than a finger of foamy, ecru-colored head that dissipated quickly leaving a thin film of lacing. The smell is primarily caramel and nutty char. The taste follows the nose. The caramel and vanilla is big but the sweetness is balance by bitter coffee grounds and burnt nuts. I'm also tasting some milk chocolate. I'm impressed by the balance. Its mouth feel is moderately thick and creamy with lite carbonation and it's surprisingly potent at 8.5% ABV. Overall, His Dudeness could be gimmicky but I think it all comes together.

3.93/5 rDev +3.1%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Thank you, Harley! This one was worth the wait. Have a great week, everyone!

 

Stopped by (right next door) after Wild West Collab Fest

Kiitos - Tropical Haze IPA



Canned: no canning date, but it's new as far as I can tell as of 4.13.23

Poured at fridge temp into a willi glass

Pours hazy and light orange juice/pineapple juice color with a thin white head. 4

Mostly sweet and tropical aroma, soft tropical ripeness on the backend. 4

Tropical but bitter hops, rindy pineapple and slight acidity. 3.75

Light and fairly forgettable. Sharp but diminishing carbo. 3.5

Overall a nice tropical IPA id try again. 3.75

 

Greetings all from the great northwest where we have clear air with temps in the low 80s. The only thing coming out way from Canada is broadcast coverage of the Canadian Open.

This weekend we have A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' from Lagunitas.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/220/49789/

It's better than I expected as a hopped up wheat ale.

Until next time

 

Howdy NBS.
Gorgeous day for a change here. The lawns done, Trees trimmed all that stuff. Here I go with pool issues again. After having to install a new pump everything seemed fine. Now it looks like I have a leak and I have no idea where it is.
Beer time though with my first beer from 3 Sheep's provided by @beergoot
Pours a slightly hazy pale yellow with a bright white head that is short-lived and no lacing.
Grain and corn on the nose. My first thought was semolina for some reason. A touch of lemon and some granny Smith apple.
Taste follows with lemon, apple, a little tart, finishing on the light body with corn and grain, dry and thirst quenching, highly drinkable.
Nice brew. Really one to have at a BBQ or summer party. Not as bold as I would have liked. Honestly I would take SN Summerfest over this but who said either was bad?
Cheers!