New Beer Weekend #177

Good day BAs! @AzfromOz - thanks for starting this thread and thanks for giving Cantillon a boost - I never see it in my area or travels.


Today's New Breakfast Beer, thanks to @muchloveforhops3 in the BSBIF#1:



Life Volume 1 – from Breakside Brewery. Acquired from @muchloveforhops3 in BSBIF #1. Reviewed 09/12/23 (Review 3189). Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Undated bomber. Stored at 34 degrees at home. Served at 56.6 degrees F in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. The final temperature was 62.9 degrees F.
Appearance – 3.5
First pour – Medium Amber (SRM 12), clear.
Body – Brown (SRM 20), opaque. Under direct light, same. When rear-lite, ruby and nearly clear.
Head: Large (Maximum 5.2 cm, aggressive center pour), beige, high density, average retention, dropping to a 0.4 cm crown, and rocky complete cap.
Lacing – None.
Aroma – 4.5 – Strong toffee and a bit of caramel. No yeast, no malt, no alcohol (9.5 % ABV as marked on the label).
Flavor – 4.5 – Begins sweet but not cloying with distinct toffee (Think Heath bar). No yeast, no malt. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl. Weak gastric warming. No ethanol ever tasted.
Palate – 4 – Medium; weakly syrupy; soft carbonation. As it further warms, it seems to thin out a bit.
Final impression and summation: 4 (After deducting 0.25 point for undated personal container) Pretty good. Not too sweet and distinctly tasting of toffee. Too bad neither the bottle nor the website has any info beyond PR stuff. Still, I’d like to do a vertical on the whole series.
Rating 4.29, rDev -0.5%

Thanks Doug!

 

Good morning NBW
Still working nights, but I have new beers in the fridge so I'll share one.

Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Cocoa Porter

12oz undated bottle poured into a teku glass at fridge temp 8% ABV. The beer pours dense dark brown with medium brown colored head. The head recedes to a thin ring and island. Minimal lacing. The aroma is cocoa... The taste is semisweet cocoa with muted oak and mild bitterness. The mouthfeel is thin to medium bodied with average carbonation and a mostly dry finish. Overall, good, better as it warms.

Cheers all!

 

The next new style? Mexican Hot Chocolate Stout

Generally speaking I shy away from what I consider to be Pastry Stouts. My wife on the other hand enjoys drinking what craft breweries label as Mexican Hot Chocolate Stouts (or something similar). I wonder how long until the Brewers Association adds this sort of beer style to their guidelines list?

But what exactly ‘defines’ a beer to be a Mexican Hot Chocolate Stout? On a fairly simple level it is a beer that mimics the flavors of the Mexican Hot Chocolate drink. I personally have never had a Mexican Hot Chocolate drink but from my readings it is Hot Chocolate (with the associated chocolate flavor) but also with some spicing/flavoring added. For example, some cinnamon and hot peppers. From reading about a number of brands of Mexican Hot Chocolate Stouts it seems that some additions are:

· Cinnamon

· Nutmeg

· Cocoa (e.g., nibs)

· Vanilla

· Hot Peppers (e.g., Chile Peppers)

· Lactose

· Etc.

For today’s new beer it is a Mexican Hot Chocolate Beer but with more: also coffee added. It is Cape May Mexican Coffee Stout. A description from their website:

“Stout brewed with coffee and spices

ABV: 7.5%

IBU: 50

SRM: 35.0

Our Mexican Coffee Stout has a satisfyingly complex grain bill comprised of seven different malts, yielding a rich and layered profile with a silky-smooth mouthfeel and a firm cocoa-like bitterness. Conditioned on fresh locally-roasted Mexican Chiapas coffee, cinnamon, guajillo peppers, and vanilla, Mexican Coffee Stout lands perfectly balanced amongst the coffee, spice, and rich stout base.”

Will this be the sort of beer that I enjoy drinking?

Served in my Tulip beer glass:

Appearance:

A very dark brown approaching black color with a BIG deep tan colored head.

Aroma:

Wow! An enticing combination of coffee, cinnamon, vanilla, dark chocolate, etc. aromas.

Taste:

The flavor follows the nose with a combination of coffee, cinnamon, vanilla, dark chocolate and a very slight hint of heat from the guajillo peppers. A low/moderate bitterness.

Mouthfeel:

Lucious mouthfeel with an off-dry finish.

Overall:

This beer is excellent.

I gave a small pour of my beer to my wife blind. After a quick sniff she stated “smells like a Mexican Stout”. I replied yes. After taking a few sips I asked her what she thought about the beer. Her reply was “I give it a B+, it needs more spicing and vanilla”. It would seem that I favor subtlety in this beer while my wife would prefer a bit moar.

Cheers!

@KOP_Beer_OUtlet @rotsaruch @RobH

 

Hey now, you can keep your Christmas during summer

 

That came to my mind too! So very weird at the time it seared into my brain.

 

Wet hay and musty cobwebs. Barnyard notes.
If non beer drinkers read that they must think we’re all, well, off our collective rockers to say that we *enjoy* those flavors.

Excellent description @AzfromOz - again!

 

Along with this version:

 

A few weeks ago a reviewed Tilquin's Oude Gueuze here. Part of my description of the aroma:

"A musty basement like funk and earthiness rounds everything out. Almost like hay in a basement ha."

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/25923/70745/?ba=champ103#lists

And I absolutely loved it Just like I did @AzfromOz review of Cantion.

Anyway, I have a review for a local porter coming up...

 

Opened a local breweries porter this late morning/early afternoon.

Equal Parts Nocturna Porter, 7.8% ABV



Pours a dark black color, nearly opaque. A dense tan head rises to over two fingers. Retention lasts forever and lacing for days.
Aroma is toasted malts and baked bread. With chocolate covered cherries and berries. A surprising amount of darker fruits, but not complaining. It all works well.
Taste wise, toasted malts, caramelized sugars. Baked bread and chocolate covered dark fruits again. The chocolate character becomes a littler bitter, which I like, along with a substantial sweetness.
A full body that is well carbonated. The crisp carbonation at first, becomes ultra smooth as this breaths. Perfectly chewy and weighty. A very nice porter, and the high ABV for the style doesn't get in the way.

This isn't advertised as a "Imperial Porter" but the ABV boarders on that for me. I would like this to be a bit less in ABV (I just looked this up on their website, they do call it an Imperial Porter there, but not on the can), but that is just me. Overall a nice example of the style, that has a unique darker fruit character than most, without being over done in that regard.

Overall score is 4.04, an A- for me. Equal Parts is always solid.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/44383/580493/?ba=champ103#lists

Also, baked some wings while watching my Fighting Illini take on Tennessee in some college basketball.

 

Think I saw that and was thinking the same thoughts about what I wrote earlier- but this time it was the “musty cobwebs” that really stuck out for me.
Cheers to weird and delicious!

 

Next time we're visiting the major city a little north of Lincoln, I'll have to be on the lookout for their beers. Either that or maybe we'll make a little day trip to seek out the old office building.

 

Poured into a 12 oz open mouth holiday glass. Pours a very attractive hazy yellow with a half finger sticky white head that leaves thin streaks of lace with solid retention. 4.25

Aroma is peach, passionfruit, mandarin, blueberry, white grapes, apricot, and a some grapefruit rind. 4.25

Taste follows peach, passionfruit, mandarin, blueberry, white grapes, apricot, and grapefruit.4.25

Mouthfeel is above arerage, maybe a little dry, soft gentle carbonation, and at 8% it has big flavor but easy going down. 4.25

Overall this one has a lot going on and I enjoyed it. A little more bitter than most in this style these days. 4.25

 

First go at the Ellon, Scotland brew!
Canned November 28, making it 10 days brewery to me. Daaaaamn.,

500 mL blue & silver tall boy dumped into a tumbler in Toulouse, France. Chizzy chickaboom spooch oozes up out an orange sud.
Good floral stank zips in the nose. Dunka funknip too.
Taste booms cascades of hops that follows itself to lychees and grapefruits mating.
Mouth is aggressive, and the carbonation is deserved.
Overall - Man! This is so much better a beer than anything else in its class.
What’s not to like here?

 

Toppling Goliath Brewing Kentucky Brunch Brand Stout. 2023. At the brewery. Perfect black color. I didn't see much foam, other than a brown ring. The smell is a perfect blend of maple, coffee, chocolate, and bourbon. The taste is strong with maple. Almost too strong. Chocolate follows, with coffee, bourbon, and vanilla. It is very sweet. The mouthfeel is thick, smooth, lucious, and full. Very nice. Overall, this is a wonderful beer, but there is too much maple flavor for it to be one of my favorite beers.

 

I picked up the Samuel Adams mix pack, primarily for the Old Fezziwig, but I was also looking forward to Samuel Adam's take on the Cold IPA



3.68/5 rDev +1.9%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
The look is a clear golden color, with a white head that quickly settles to a ring of foam around the rim of the glass. The smell is of grains and grassy hops. The taste is good, with a mild hop forward flavor and a pleasant bitterness. Not a lot of depth, but enjoyable. The feel is right on the money, just enough carbonation to spread the taste and smell, without having too much bite. Overall, I liked this beer, exciting, no, satisfying, yes. If this beer were available in 6 or 12 packs, I'd buy again. As I finished this review, I checked the ABV and saw that it was 6.2%, I expected 5%, so bonus points for that