New Beer Weekend #163

Labour Day weekend. Summer vacation is almost over and the kids are a few short days from returning to school. Grand! I will jump in this evening, sadly with a less than stellar beer.

This is Amber Ale, from a new-ish local to me brewery called Goldenfield. This is my second beer from this brewery that opened up back in April of ‘23. The first one was forgettable. This one is a little worse...



Pours a deep burnt orange with substantial head that forms quickly and dissipates rather slowly leaving a partial cover to the beer as it is consumed. There is minimal lacing.

A strong, sharp metallic note hits the nose as the beer is raised for that initial sniff. That metallic note persists and dominates as I work through the beer. There are some very mild sweet toasted grain hints in behind, but that metallic quality really forces them to the background.

The overall taste of the beer is rather bland. A bit of sweet malted grain, a whisper of some indistinct floral notes. The metallic nose makes picking up anything from the sip a difficulty. It is drinkable, but not very enjoyable.

The body is moderate, and slightly under carbonated to my taste.

As I wondered when having the Blonde Ale about a week ago, I wonder now how old this can is. There is no date. I wouldn’t doubt this is from the first batch back canned back in the spring, and just has not aged very well. It’s a new brewery, so I will give it another chance or two, but so far it falls into the lacklustre category.

Cheers!

 

Back home from a trip to Japan. I kind of had eight meals this Friday. Here's one of the beers I brought back -- I bought this one at the brewery Thursday night (their time).

Devilcraft - Floating Castle, DDH Hazy DIPA

330ml bottle served in a little dimpled mug. The only English-recognizable date on it is 2023-12, which I guess is a best by date. Label looks like it was printed on a home printer. "Small batch brewed - hand bottled"

Pours a hazy whitish orange, worrisomely little head, not much carbonation. Smell is lightly boozy, earthy pine bitterness, overripe mango or some mélange of tropical fruit.

Taste is stronger on the booze and really leans into the overripe tropical fruit mélange, a particular flavor stands out but I can't identify it specifically (papaya or passionfruit come to mind). Not much bitterness, really juicy. No, on second thought, there is a lot of bitterness, but it's up front and then kind of washed out by juiciness, though it's lurking in the background throughout.

Mouthfeel is thick, chewy, slightly on the still side. Overall, pretty good -- imperfect, but tasty and worthwhile.

 

Eight meals there even it is just half sounds awesome

 

Devilcraft - Patriot Crush

330ml bottle served in a snulip. Bought it at the brewery Thursday their time. Date is 2024-03, which I think is the best by date. "Small batch brewed - hand bottled"

Pours a hazy pale orange with a little head that mostly disappears pretty quickly, very light dusting exists, a very thin ring as well. Smell is bright tropical fruit juice, pineapple and mango.

Taste is lots of citrus rind, lots of ripe tropical fruit, strong fruit juice vibe but not too sweet, nice moderate pine bitterness.

Mouthfeel is medium to light, slight chalkiness. Overall, pretty nice beer.

It can be a pretty great place to eat, that's for sure

Friday, I had breakfast, lunch, and a light early dinner, got on a plane to fly home, was served something like lunch or dinner and then later breakfast on the plane, got home in time for lunch on Friday, and then had a late dinner. I got up somewhere around 35 hours ago. I think this beer is my closer.

 

Wow 7:07am and already on our second page? I love it and we have 3 days to rack up some serious pages.

Poured into a 13 oz Teku glass canned on 8/2/23. Pours a very attractive hazy yellow orange with a half finger sticky white head that leaves a wall of lace with excellent retention. 4.75

Aroma is mandarin, peach, mango, pineapple, papaya, honeydew, and apricot. 4.75

Taste follows mandarin, peach, pineapple, papaya, mango, honeydew, and apricot, amazing balance. 4.75

Mouthfeel is big, soft gentle almost creamy carbonation, not sticky or dry, and at 8.8% it has enormous flavor, but easy going down. 5

Overall I am loving this sauce. The discovery I made on Thursday, about Tewksbury Tree House being only 15 minutes from my final stop on Thursdays could be dangerous. Top shelf stuff, as I have come to expect. Enjoy the long weekend all. 4.75

 

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22/658412/
This is a new one from Unibroue.
A well done flavoured Witbier. Unibroue is good at these. A welcome addition.
Poured a 375ml can into a pint glass. A two finger fine white head on a cloudy apricot. The head diminishes to a thin layer that sticks around.
Apricot and wheat in the nose.
Apricot is apparent up front. Not much Witbier quality, more of a Fruit and Field beer.
Light body and carbonation.

 

Poured into a 13 oz Snulip glass bottled on 7/10/23. Pours near pitch black with a finger plus brown head that hangs out for ever leaving thick streaks of lace. 4.5

Aroma blueberry hits first, dark chocolate, vanilla bean, roasty coffee, woody oak, char, and sweet bourbon. 4.5

Taste follows blueberry but not over the top at all, dark chocolate, vanilla, coffee, char, oak, and bourbon. 4.5

Mouthfeel is above average, soft silky smooth carbonation, maybe a tad dry but it works as always, and at 11.2% a sipper that goes down quickly because of its complex flavors. 4.5

Overall this is really nice as I expected it to be and they didn’t allow the blueberries to completely take over. Excellent experience for me. 4.5

 

For Labor Day, how about a Chill Day

Firstly, Happy Labor Day weekend everybody!

I am pleased that for my Labor Day Weekend I have a 15-pack of Founders All Day Chill Day Session Cold IPA.

Below is what Founders has to say about this beer on their website:

“All Day Chill Day

Session Cold IPA

ABV: 4.8%

IBUs:40

Availability: Sep-Dec

Everybody chill. All Day Chill Day is a refreshingly crisp Cold IPA brewed with an assemblage of hops for a subtle yet flavorful punch of pineapple, floral and lemon notes. Throw out your to-do lists and let the pleasant dryness and moderate bitterness from the cold fermentation process ground you in the moment – where good friends and good hangs are more important than anything you had to do anyway.”

Hmm, as a homebrewer the above kinda leaves me hanging, wanting to know more brewing details.

Luckily for me there is a video which provides more details:

Hops: Chinook and Centennial for kettle hopping and for dry hopping – Simcoe & Amarillo.

Malt: Pilsner Malt

Yeast: Lager yeast with fermentation cooler than typically used to ferment an IPA; my guess is they fermented around 60 °F.



Enough jibber jabber, let’s drink!

Served in my Spiegelau glass:

Appearance:

Straw yellow color with a three finger white head which dissipates quickly.

Aroma:

I am picking up aromas of herbal, earthy, and a hint of floral.

Taste:

The flavor follows the nose with flavors of herbal, earthy and just a subtle hint of floral. There is a firm bitterness.

As the beer warms/opens up I find the flavor is improved vs. the first sip(s).

Mouthfeel:

Light – Medium bodied with a dry finish.

Overall:

I think this beer is very good. It has the quality of great drinkability!

I did not pick up any tropical (i.e., pineapple) or citrus (e.g., lemon) in this beer. A situation of hop crop variability? Regardless, a tasty drinking experience.

And the fact I was able to purchase 15 cans for 20 bucks makes this beer even more of a winner!!

@KOP_Beer_OUtlet @rotsaruch @RobH

 

The label of that beer is in English. Is it typical for Japanese breweries to label their beers in English (vs. Japanese)?

Cheers!

 

The Weather Gods have smiled upon those of us in the Northeast for this Labor Day weekend, and I for one intend to enjoy plenty of outdoor time and new beer.

Up first is Brett Saison from Levity Brewing Company in Indiana, PA. I swore when I brought this up to NH from home that I'd remember who sent it to me, but now I'm not 100% positive. @adrock314 my money is on you, although it could be @Ozzylizard.

According to the bottle "Our 2018 Brett Saison features a blend of beers aged in oak on three strains of Brettanomyces yeast. Sitting in barrels from 12-24 months yielded an exceptionally dry yet complex beer.

Brewed in 2018 then bottled a couple years later. Appearance is a vibrant light orange with a small amount of fizzy short-lived head. Aroma is wonderful. I can be hit or miss on brett, but this has a wonderful light funk, subtle oak and faint lemongrass that just works.

Brett is more pronounced on the tongue, but still maintains enough restraint so as to not overpower. The result is a really nice balance of funk, wood, and (and this is what I love about saisons) some flavors that defy description but taste great. Slightly under carbonated, light and easy drinking.

Overall, very enjoyable.

 

Oh, I’m not lacking new (to me) beer, far from it- but I have so much beer in my cellar that I feel I should drink the stuff I’ve had before during the week and save the new stuff for the weekend.
That stated, I *did* have 3 new beers yesterday during lunch with a friend. We went to Greyline Brewery and I had their Windmill Cookie Brown, their Porter and Fade, their Irish dry stout on nitro. Which is the only one I took a photo of:

The cookie beer was a subtly sweet and spiced brown that was just flavored enough to give the impression of the titular cookie but not overpowering the malt flavor. Fairly well done gimmick beer.
The Porter was, using Founder’s words, “Dark and Sexy” - this was well roasted malts in layers with morning blend coffee and really dark chocolate. I may need to try a side by side of those two.
About then, a young woman sat down outside for her IPA looking beer and sandwich and very quickly got back up and started dancing a very curious dance. To my embarrassment it took me 30 seconds to realize that she was fending off flying insects of some sort. (To my defense, the table next to hers was not reacting at all)
She came inside to finish her meal, show over.
The stout was beautiful to look at (as nitrogen carbonated stouts so frequently are) and ticked the boxes for the style but not more. A very good option for St. Patrick’s day when you want liters of beer.
The beer I had last night was a 2019 Bell’s Double Cream sweet stout. It wasn’t meant to be aged; I stuck them in with my supply of Expedition Stouts and lost track of them. Ah well, today is a new day, and new beer awaits!

 

That sums up my experience with saisons- I like them fine, I just don’t know how to define what I am tasting!

 

Yes, Saisons can indeed have a breadth of differing flavors especially if the beers include spicing and mixed fermentations (e.g., Brett).

My preferences are for Saison beers which solely feature the flavors from Saison yeast strains:

“A pleasant combination of esters (e.g., fruity flavors) and phenols (spicy flavors)”

https://www.morebeer.com/articles/Saison_Beer

I have my annual batch of Saison fermenting in my fermenter at the moment and I find the aromas escaping from the airlock to be quite enticing.

Cheers to Saisons!

 

Dave, did you pick up any dried dark fruit flavors in this beer? This is a flavor nuance that I enjoy in Baltic Porters.

Cheers!

 

Foam, Dead Flowers NEIPA, 6.2% - Cheers!



-Look: beautiful hazy yellow of pure pineapple juice.
-Aroma: mild pineapple, ripe plums, slight grapefruit.
-Taste: pineapple juice, plums, mild grapefruit.
-Feel: soft and round, tight but slippery.
-Overall: very good, really enjoyed this!

 

Foam, Built to Spill NEIPA, 8% - Cheers!



-Look: beautiful hazy deep yellow with a clumpy white cap.
-Aroma: pineapple, tangerine, mild grapefruit.
-Taste: pineapple, mild tangerine, grapefruit zest.
-Feel: soft and round, mildly astringent, goes fast.
-Overall: so delicious, this is really worth trying!