New Beer Weekend #180

Happy Sunday morning and the last day of 2023. Cheers to those on the other side of the planet who are in 2024.

Time for a breakfast beer.

Inside Friend - Bad Habit Brewing - St. Joseph, MN - APA - 4.9% ABV

I wasn't expecting much from this beer, but, I was blown away from the flavor of this beer. This is so well made and quite delicious. They made a great beer here.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/42984/684754/


4.33/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
From a 16 oz can, purchased at the brewery, dated Dec 23'

This is a very dank looking beer. Murky and hazy as all heck, this beer has a straw color to it. You're not going to see anything through it. The head is quite fluffy looking at 2 fingers, and white in color. Decent head retention, and there's some beautiful lacing on the glass.
I was getting a lot of citrus when pouring this beer. Up close the citrus parade continues with lots of orange aroma to this beer. The orange is mellowed out a bit by some vanilla, and a fruity blueberry note to the aroma. This is quite pleasing.
Taste - The flavors are like the nose. I get a lot of orange and that provides a nice citrus base. The bitterness of the citrus is balanced out by notes of blueberry and vanilla. There is some bitterness from the orange, and it does linger.
The body is actually somewhat soft, though not a lot. I wonder if they used oats in the beer?
This is damn good, and a well made beer. I am impressed.


Be back later for more. Cheers!!!

 

Good Sunday morning, thanks @MadMadMike for hosting the week.
May 2024 be healthy and joyous to all of you.
We are heading out to First Night Northampton tonight, 22 venues, 70 music acts, fireworks
all in walking distance downtown.
Todays offering is from Lawsons, this barrel aged, coffee added stout is quite good. You had better like coffee, as that elemnt is bold.
We are 30 minutes from wishing Team #1 in Taiwan a happy New Year, going to see them for Lunar New Year in about 4 weeks.

Cheers all

Fayston Maple Imperial Stout with Coffee - Aged in Whiskey Barrels

American Imperial Stout | 12.75% ABV
Lawson's Finest Liquids in Waitsfield, Vermont

Reviewed by SABERG from Massachusetts

4.21/5 rDev -6.2% | Average: 4.49
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
Poured from the 500 ml bottle into the test glass.
A - Dark chocolate color, gently carbonated, consistant mocha ring resides through the experience.
S - Coffee forward, with a bit of nutmeg, cinammon all related to the coffee, not adjuncts. Black pepper, dark chocolate.
T - Espresso, a bit of vanilla, roast malt, as the offering warms a bit of the whiskey thread comes through. That element has less nuance, just a nice whiskey snap you can dig out of the coffee.
M - Medium in body, texture is dry from start to finish, again think espresso palate experience. Again delightfully dry finish, with a solid coffee burp! Smooths out with a small temp increase
O - A very good stout, certainly coffee forward. With some time and rise in temperature the offering rounds out a bit.

 

I do have to admit, near the end,
90 minutes to experience. I felt the offering was too weighted toward the coffee.
Cheers

 

Well, here we are...the last day of 2023. For essentially all of my adult life my wife and I have hosted New Year's parties, but that stopped in 2020 and inertia has kicked in from there. Next year we'll have to get back to hosting, as I love being around people to ring in the new year, but this year it's going to be a quiet one. Doesn't mean I can't enjoy a new beer or two, though!

First up is Nasturtium, a Farmhouse Ale from Plan Bee brewery in Poughkeepsie, NY

3.91/5 rDev -4.2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Bottled October 8, 2019

This is a very light yellow beer with excellent clarity. Decent fizzy white head. Nice looking without standing out in any particular way, unlike the aroma, which bursts from the bottle and glass. I rarely can smell a beer as soon as I start pouring, but I could with this one. Loads of grassy funk with hints of lemon and oak.

I'm enjoying the taste of this quite a bit. Light funk (less than on the nose) with lemon zest and a really nice light pepper finish that, after researching what nasturtium flowers are, seems to be coming from those flowers. Very light and dry.

Overall, I'm well aware I have a Saison / Farmhouse style bias, so I'm not surprised I'm enjoying this as much as I am.

 

New Year's Eve. My wife and I will watch An Affair to Remember and When Harry Met Sally, and probably will be sound asleep at midnight.
My new beer for today is Peach Ring Sour Ale from Community Beer Works in Buffalo, NY. It looks like I'm on the same Beer Drop schedule as @Bitterbill, since he reviewed this beer eight days ago.
From Beer Drop.
The beer is copper-colored with a tiny head that dissipates quickly. No lace.
Peachy aroma, sweet.
Peach dominates the taste, sweet and tart.
Nicely tart, I can feel it in my salivary glands. Nice carbonation.
I could drink more of this.

 

Back again with one more before I walk over to Back Shed Brewing for their NYE party in a few hours.


Mango Axe Man - Surly Brewing - American IPA - 7.2% ABV

I was wondering how mango would work in this beer. I often get mango off the scent and taste of hops. There's tons of mango aroma in the beer. It looks pleasing, with a beautiful sticky white head.

The flavor is atrocious. There's not a lot of mango in the flavor, though what shows up is right away. After the mango fades, and fast, there's just a revolting bitterness to this beer. It's so bad that I'm seriously considering drain pouring this beer. Yeah, there should be bitterness in an IPA, and I love a bitter IPA, but this bitterness is just totally wrong. Yikes!

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/13014/308569/

2.56/5 rDev -36.3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 2 | feel: 2 | overall: 2
From a 16oz can canned on 11/17/23

Murky, dank, and hazy. Juicy looking straw colored pouring beer. A frothy and fluffy looking 2 finger white head tops off the beer. The head dissipates slowly and creates a sticky lacing on the glass.
Holy mango! You can get mango from the hops, and I'm sure there's some there, but the mango is off the charts in the aroma. Not getting anything else here. One dimensional, but expected from the name.
Taste - Well, there's mango in the flavor, but weak. Tons of bitterness that's not pleasing. Oh, this is a muddled mess, and not pleasing at all.
The unpleasing bitterness lingers in my throat. This really drops the feeling of this beer.
Yikes! This is a total mess. I am totally disappointed with this beer. I doubt it would be any better fresher. I do have 2 cans left, and will see if it's better aged.

I doubt the beer I have today will be any worse than this one. I'll see if I can choke it down. See you all later from Back Shed.

 

Got a couple inches of snow overnight. Nice! and there's the MN Vikings vs Green Bay Packers sportball fiesta today in downtown Minneapolis. It's a carnival on & off line! My drummer instinct sez wide point spread and a lot of bitter spilled.
Today's 1st and almost last beer of 2023, a moderately shitty year for me, is a really kick ass beer from a local brewery that does us all a favor. Bauhaus Zizkof Czech Style Pilsner. 5.2% ABV 45 IBU. It is outstanding.

4.17/5 rDev +0.2%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
16 oz can into a tall Pilsner glass.
L: SRM 2 Pours light caramel gold with a thin slightly soapy white head that recedes quickly to a thin skin, large steady carbonation bubbles, random light skeletal lacing.
S: Lightly bready, vinous hop notes, gently floral, a hint of apple skin.
T: Chipper spicy hops, pale sweet malts, a suggestion of sea salt, lime zest, light grains, moderately floral tasting, an extremely light touch of honey. It has a gently rich malty center with a bright hoppy finish that has a long zesty linger.
F: Crisp with a bright twang, medium-light bodied with a clean middle and a medium-fast fairly drying finish that lingers.
O: A Pilsner that really satisfies the thirst and taste buds. Crisp, bright, clean, and tangy. It is outstanding in its style. I would buy this again.

 

Enjoying the continuing weekend and last day of the year.

Tree House Brewing - Doubleganger



Poured from the can into a Spiegelau IPA glass. Double your fun 12/07/2023.

Peach orange with lemon and muted chestnut brown highlights. Not quite turbid, but a solid opaque color with some variations and a bit of mild shine as well. Creamed white three to four finger high tall head, with crowning and clinking thick lace.

Beating hop aroma, pungent with dank sweetness that hits with excellent smokey tones. Sweet wood and touches of faint hinting juiced fruit. Weed like with gummy fruit sensations hiding slightly.

Very enjoyable palate. Mid rush of juiced fruit, and more so of ju jube candies, soft and chewy with a pliable dense mouthfeel. Gummy fruit mixing with earth and dank flavors particularly on the finish. Excellent mild astringency and that slowly builds with nice hop warmth and herbs.

Unexpected palate, was expecting more of an earthy explosion, but the candy gummy fruit flavor on this is a real treat with the dank delicious mix.

look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5 | BA generated score: 4.41

Cheers!

 

Maplewood - Black Seed

16oz can served in a snulip. Dated 04/04/2023. Got it from the ever-generous @FBarber in a face-to-face meet-up in his neck of the woods.

Pours black with a smallish brown head which, fascinatingly, disappears leaving a smooth surface and is then replaced with a small dark ring that emerges from active carbonation at rest. Smell is chocolate, coffee, vanilla, a little char, and a lot of booze. Some molasses.

Taste has many of the same notes in a completely different configuration. Molasses is more primary, a little cola, booze is a bigger note, way more bitterness associated with the coffee and chocolate flavors than I would have expected.

Mouthfeel is surprisingly thin (should read: not as thick as expected), little bit of grittiness. Overall, quite nice beer. Thanks, Frank!

 

I'll stick with Plan Bee for my second beer. This one is Savage, a wild ale aged in oak on foraged wild raspberries.


3.64/5 rDev -11.9%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.5
Bottled in 2019

Solid looking beer with a nice golden color and nice clarity. Minimal head but a persistent spotty cap. The aroma is pleasant, but underwhelming. You have to get very close to it and take a deep whiff before you smell anything. Once you do get that close, there's a really nice subtle raspberry and some light funk.

The first word that came to mind with my first sip was "herbal". There's plenty of earthy funk with light raspberry in the background. While this was aged in oak, I'm not picking up any. Light and refreshing, this beer gives off organic vibes. It wont' take me long to finish this.

 

Remedy BA Grond Imperial Stout, 13% ABV. Pours black with a 1.5 finger medium-brown head that left some lacing. Nose is chocolate/cacao, coffee, and roasty malt. Taste is light chocolate, roast malt, and strong coffee, slightly sweet, moderately bitter. Bourbon is in the background, overshadowed by the coffee. Decent enough mouthfeel, overall outstanding. Tastes pretty much like the non-BA Grond since the bourbon is not very evident, but still a solid coffee stout.

4.4/5 rDev +4.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

First beer I've been able to have in a few days, and a good choice.

 

Good New Year's Eve Sunday, New Beer Sippers and commentators. Since we have company coming for dinner I should keep it lite but I'm happy to see 2023 pass into the rear view mirror! So I'm starting my celebration with a BA American Imperial Stout, Gmork, from Forest @ Main Brewing in Ambler, Penna. I bought a few bottles at the brewery on Friday. This is a very fine, simple, BA Stout. No gimmicky adjuncts here.

Poured at 62°. The color is almost ink black with a half finger of frothy, medium mocha head that disappeared quickly leaving a modest film of lacing inside the glass. Bourbon dominates the nose but it's joined by dark chocolate, burnt coffee, leather, tobacco, toffee, brown sugar, and just a hint of dark fruit. The barrel influence is less dramatic in the taste; the bourbon compliments the rich chocolate, espresso, and toffee/caramel. There is also a touch of dry, bitter char which keeps the Stout from being sweet. Initially, it was overtly boozy but that diminished as the Stout settled in the glass. While the mouth feel isn't as thick and chewy as I'd hoped, it's nonetheless silky smooth. Once the initial alcohol burn dissipated, it drank like its 11% ABV. Overall, BBA Gmork is a very fine, basic, barrel aged Imperial Stout. It's flavorful and a pleasure to drink. I'm looking forward to drinking the Double Barrel variant.

4.35/5 rDev +0.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

I'll be back shortly with an IPA chaser. New Year's Cheers, NBW!

 

Outa St Louie its Perennial Pils. A hoppy Pils. 5% Took pic b4 a bit more yeast from the can went in. It's actually a bit straw with all the goodies. Goin' down EZ. Great to be here!

3.79/5 rDev -2.8%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
16 oz can best by 04/06/24 into a tall Pilsner glass.
L: SRM 2 Pours light straw pale yellow with steady carbonation bubbles, a thin rounded white head that moves quickly to an even skin, light random spotty lacing.
S: Pale bready malts, very light grains, apple skin, sour berries.
T: Moderately sharp lemon, white grape, grassy yeast, lime zest, tart apple, has a green aftertaste and is gently sour in the long lingering finish. Flavors are not deep.
F: Crisp, light bodied feel (for 5% ABV) with a fast and quite drying medium-long finish. Retains carbo and crisp feel to final sip. Linger is very lightly chalky.
O: A curiously dry Pilsner. In fact, Saison & IPL lovers could like this as it has a slightly complex fruit arrangement, is slightly unbalanced, is light on its feet, and is dry, yet it drinks quite well. It remains good in its style.

 

Breaking the rules here a bit (okay, a lot) but not sure I’ll be able to review this after it’s consumed tonight, even though I’m sharing it.
It’s just the one beer that I have every year for this fire- and it’s one of the few beers that has Blis Bourbon Aged Maple Syrup barrels as its aging container.

It’s by no means CBS, and it’s not meant to be. I suspect that they are aiming higher.
And just so you know-

This will be the bonfire- I’ll be taking off the yew greens before lighting, they are there for rain and snow protection. (I start building this in October)
It’s going to be a great evening! I’ll report all the new ones tomorrow.
Cheers, and Happy New Years Eve!

 

Yep, looks like it. Sometimes I have to switch out a beer on Beer Drop because I had it before and didn't enjoy it but in general, I have liked their boxes.

Prost and Happy New Year!

 

I was going to hit up fridge clearing duty, but it didn't sit right to have my last beer of 2023 be a probably lackluster macro. So, change of plans...

I'd been avoiding this one as I'm not a fan of big hop bitterness, but with my palate adjusting slightly through a summer of drinking Jack's Abby pale lagers, I figured now is the time.

SN Celebration



Pours an amber/orange with a two-finger off-white head that lingers a bit and leaves a thick coating.

Big hop aromas are obvious from the start with pine preeminent along with floral and earthy notes. There is also a surprising (to me) amount of malt sweetness coming through.

The taste is far more balanced than I expected, though it does still lean more bitter than I prefer. Malt sweetness comes through first as brown bread with honey and slight caramel, then the hops make themselves known with a piney, resinous bitterness. There's a slight citrus character as well, but for me it is overwhelmed by the lingering pine throughout a bitter finish and aftertaste. As it warms, a caramel sweetness comes through near the finish to lend a foil to all that pine bitterness.

Medium-light bodied with some soft carb that results in a pleasant feel.

Overall, this is more enjoyable than I expected and I can see why those who love WCIPAs rave about this beer every fall. It might not make it into my regular rotation, but I definitely won't shy away from it again.

I hope every enjoys their NYE celebrations (or sleep)!

 

Palate cleanser. It's great when a brewery makes a simple, one-hop IPA. Pirate Plank Walk is a Citra IPA brewed by Magnify. Part of the proceeds of the sales support Seton Hall University's (the Pirates) sports programs. My graduate degree is from the Hall and I'm happy to support this beer. I just wish the men's hoops team were more consistent, LOL!

It pours a turbid, tangerine-apricot color with a huge, frothy, bright white cap and lots of thick, soapy lacing. Classic Citra hop smell: lemon, lime, grapefruit, and a whiff of peach. Wow, for a simple recipe this is well-done! The Citra hops provide the classic notes of tart lemon and grapefruit balanced against peach and ripe melon sweetness. There is just enough sweet malt base to support the fruit. Super easy drinking. The mouth feel is lite and crisp with pleasant carbonation and it's almost crushable at 6.5% ABV. Overall, it's great to see a brewery like Magnify brew a simple, Citra-only ale for an excellent cause. Hazard Zet Forward!

4.18/5 rDev +2%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

I hope our former BA friend @SammyJaxxx, a proud Seton Hall alum, is enjoying this beer!

Happy 2024 to all BAs and their families!!!!