New Beer Weekend #181

I had a whole thing I was going to write. I was going to talk about how a couple of weeks ago -- the last time I joined the thread -- I dipped into a big sweet boozy pastry stout from Hubbard's Cave, and today is the sequel. Turns out I didn't do that on NBS at all. I opened a new beer on just a random evening!!
Forgive me for I have sinned...



Hubbard's Cave - Hazelnut Coffee & Cakes

The pour is disappointing, if I'm being honest. It's dark dark dark brown, not quite as black-adjacent as the previous one I allude to above. The head is... I mean it fizzes up and then dissipates almost immediately leaving nothing much behind.

The nose is immediately and decidedly coffee. Both in terms of dark roasted coffee-imparting malts as well as a big dose of coffee adjunct, like a jar of instant crystals. The hazelnut comes through and acts as a nice bridge to soften some of the intensity of the coffee as well as this kind of unpleasant creamy note like fake instant/nondairy creamer. I get no maple on teh nose whatsoever.

The flavour starts off with a sweet little bulge from the hazelnut and coffee that has elements of milk chocolate in there. Then the next wave comes in an-THERE'S THE MAPLE!!! It's very very sweet and a decent wallop of maple. It's kind of overwhelming, tbh. To summarize: lots of coffee, a good touch of maple, and a TONNE of sweetness. Like, I'm now worried about the diabeetus levels of sweet. Finish does nothing to hide the sour note and a bit of burn from the alcohol.

Ultimately, this is boozy and sweet. I love maple. I like coffee. I like hazelnut. This is a great reminder for me that I just don't really enjoy these overly adjunctified and sweet pastry stouts.
*shrug*.


Cheers!

 

Happy NBS!

Having a very tasty Impy stout, on the low side of abv, though.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/32514/685938/

Cheers!

 

Surly Nitro Coffee Ale Porter, 5.5% ABV. Pours black with a half-finger beige head that left no lacing. Aroma is malt, coffee, and nitro. Taste follows, faintly sweet, slightly bitter. Nice nitro mouthfeel, overall excellent.

4.19/5 rDev +1.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Next beer in dryishuary. Watching the Pack struggling to beat the duh Bears.

 

Great Divide Laws BA Yeti Stout, 12.5% ABV; 4.17 Overall

Pours an effervescent ebony/mahogany with a pinky of caramel colored head. Average-ish head retention & lacing

S: Some Whiskey notes, dark chocolate, some roastyness

T: Follows the nose, barrel dryness, dark fruit & leafy hops up front. Dark chocolate, dark fruit, some charred grains& oakyness once this beer is warm, a little toasted coconut, leafy hops as well. Finishes with a touch of charred grain, peat, Baker's Chocolate, Vanilla & some dryness

MF: Chewy, low carbonation, warming . Thinned out a touch once closer to room temperature

Solid BA Imp Stout, but figured this would be much better. Regular sets a high bar & to me most of the variants are certainly no better than the OG or is it OY?

 

I have of couple of beers for NBS, the first of which is from @Roy_Hobbs from an NBS BIF a couple of years ago. I mentioned in one of the threads associated with that BIF that I loved wild ales with raspberries, so he slammed my porch with beers of that style, amongst others.

This is one of those and I am PUMPED to try this. Let’s GOOOOOO!!!





4.5/5 rDev +3.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
Pours a cloudy golden brown color with raspberry hues and a soapy white head that quickly dances away. The nose is funky and fruity, with the Brett and raspberries shining through, along with a nice pomegranate as well. Wow.

The taste is strikingly - dare I say puckeringly - tart, with loads of tart raspberries, pomegranate, and the lemon referenced on the bottle. If you don’t like exceedingly tart wild ales, this beer is not for you, but I do love the tartness, so this is perfect for me.

The mouthfeel is light and effervescent, on point for the style. This beer is a treasure, IMHO, and an excellent example of the style - but it is TART.

 

Good evening NBW
I'll drop this here for any interested.

Athletic Upside Dawn Golden

12oz can PACKED 11/18/2023 poured into a perfect pint glass at fridge temp 45 calories >0.5% ABV per label. The beer pours bright light golden yellow with nearly white head. The head recedes to a thin ring and single layer of bubbles. Minimal lacing. The aroma is mild with sweet pineapple and pear, plus a hint of citrus and pine. The taste is bittersweet pale wort with moderately bitter piney and earthy hop notes. The mouthfeel is thin bodied with average plus carbonation and a mostly dry finish. Overall, a reasonable facsimile of a golden ale. The bitter notes carry the beer quickly washing out the overly wort like malt component.

Cheers all!

 

Happy BAnniversary!

 

Sounds like it was still pretty good for having some years on it.

 

4.39/5 rDev -5%

look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Poured from a 750ml bottle dated 10-22 into a teku glass.

Look- Pale gold, very hazy, white sudsy head that dissipates quickly, below average head retention and lacing.

Smell- Nectarine, oak, funk, medium strength of scent.

Taste- Nectarine, oak, lemongrass, funk, moderately sweet, highly sour, moderately acidic, high strength of flavor.

Feel- Medium body, slightly above average carbonation, highly dry finish, highly sour, moderately sweet, moderately acidic, flavor lingers on palate.

Overall- Very complex and interesting drinking experience.

 

Southern tier frosted sugar cookies. Hope everyone that was effected survived the snow
...cloudy amber appearance with a thin but lasting head
..medium bodied with light carbonation but it all created a nice feel.
..aroma is sugar cookie dough, icing and I get a tiny amount of grain and cereal in the background.
..taste is similar to aroma but much stronger,almost like perfume. Its like a holiday Christmas cookie candle, but in a beer bottle.
...overall,they made a beer that for the most part mimics a cookie which is impressive. Not saying its a good thing though as it does taste like a holiday candle.

 

Dear Lord. I decided to look this place up. That menu looks insanely delicious.

 

#2 is a big stout from Transient that I’ve been eyeballing in my beer fridge for almost two years. Time to fix that.





4.43/5 rDev +1.4%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5
Pours pure black with a head that is almost as dark as the body of the beer - and a head that disappears faster than I can pour with an aggressive pour. I have never seen that before with any beer I’ve poured. And I’ve poured a LOT of beers.

The nose features lots of milk chocolate, vanilla, and boozy barrel aromas courtesy of the Elijah Craig, Blis Maple, and Blantons barrels, plus a bit of oak. Very nice.

The macadamia nuts make an appearance on the taste, with a nutty flavor that accompanies the oak notes mid-palate, but the stars of this beer as expected are the milk chocolate and vanilla flavors up front and the bourbon barrels at the back of the palate that linger as a nice warming note.

The mouthfeel is creamy and decadent, maybe just a bit softer than expected for a 16.5% ABV beer. Another big bruiser of a stout from Transient that’s done really well, IMHO.

 

Aagghhh!!! I just survived a day at the Great Wolf Lodge Niagara indoor water park. My wife and I had a the great idea of getting a night here for the kids as a part of their Christmas present. It isn’t the worst place in the world, but I’m not much of an amusement park kind of guy. The kids loved today though. We had a VR snowball fight which was more fun than I want to admit. A first VR experience for all of us. The water slides were good. The food… meh. The beer? Let’s see:



This is Great Wolf IPA. I’m guessing it is contract brewed for the resort. This was a draft pour and the lady who poured it had no extra info for me.

Copper gold with limited head that recedes to a light ring around the compostable cup’s edge.

The aroma leads with stale hops. There is a sweet note as well and some light piney scents that peak through from time to time.

The taste follows fairly closely. Some stale hop notes and unwanted sweetness. There is a bitter earwax quality through the finish that I don’t mind.

Body is nice and full with a long finish.

This isn’t terrible. It just tastes a little long in the tooth. I like the bitterness, even if it is a little earwax-y.

If I have another, I think I’ll try the lager or amber. We shall see…

 

Really enjoyed your post. It's hard to assign scores at times, and I had trouble with this particular rating with two factors I had not encountered before, namely the near complete stillness of the pour / mouthfeel absent of any carbonation, and the almost red wine dominance of the tasting.

I enjoyed the beer, thought it is special, and very glad to have had the opportunity to enjoy since it will likely be my only with the brewery closed. It's ironic that I am sensitive to heavy carbonation, but did miss it with this offering.

I also wondered if my ratings would be impacted with shared / traded beers as to spare the giver's feelings seeing all the BIF and other posts over the years. I've tried to be fair and honest and believe I have done so to the best of my ability including this selection. I'd say the primary change I would have like to have experienced with this one was the fact I wasn't able to pick out any of the bottle note flavors, and really had a one note flavor profile. That said I enjoyed the beer from start to finish, but I was looking forward to the smoked grains in particular. Perhaps refrigerating vs. cellaring adversely impacted the development, and for that I am to blame.

Cheers!

 

Well, as usually happens in this area we got a little snow that switched to rain and switched back. The morning should be fun as the temp is dropping quite a bit, but we only got an inch or two of snow. Cleaned the cars and walkway but didn't bother with the driveway since we all have AWD and it's gonna monsoon rain on Tuesday. Didn't seem worth the fuel, effort, or freezing my butt off.

Tonight's volunteer:



Jacks Abby French Toast Framinghammer - this is the non- barrel aged variety. The brewery blurb says it is a big Baltic Porter that might remind you of an Imperisl stout with noticeable sweetness, balanced by roasted malt and hop bitterness paired with flavors of French toast. Yada yada...the can says Baltic Porter with vanilla, cinnamon and maple syrup. I'm hot and cold on some of the Framinghammer variants so let's see how this one rolls.

Pours very dark, nearly black, with a quarter inch or so of khaki foam that falls to a very thin ring and an island. The foam ring and the liquid cling nicely to the glass.

The smell is strongly tilted to the maple side of the equation at first. There's significant vanilla sweetness and just enough cinnamon to notice. Underneath that is the familiar base Framinghammer - roasted malt, a little coffee, some char, a bit of chocolate.

The taste follows along but it is superbly integrated - it's as if you taste everything all at once but quite clearly in terms of the individual flavors. Much less maple in the taste than the smell suggests. There's a hop bitterness mid taste that cleans up the French toast bit and let's the base beer come through. Cinnamon wafts in in the aromatic aftertaste. It peaks with all the flavors hitting heavy, the bitterness comes in, then it kind of ramps down to a very pleasant aftertaste of French toast and base Framinghammer with just enough cinnamon to round things out. It is a tad sweet. As the main flavors fade out there seems to be a tiny bit of licorice sneaking in.

Feel is deceptively light for a Baltic Porter with extra stuff. Drinks way to easy for a 9% light heavyweight. Nice warmth. I'm diggin' the lingering aftertaste - it's pretty fun as the beer unravels itself. Carbonation is not lively.

Overall, this is a very enjoyable riff on one of our staples. I believe there is a BA variant in bottles but I don't recall seeing it around, although I'll start looking a bit harder. I'm in the 4.25 region on the score-o-meter. Well done.

 

Great Notion - Mellifluous #3, smoothie sour with apricot, peach, banana, passionfruit, and tangerine.

16oz can served in a curvey pint glass. Date is hard to read, but might be 12.14.23.t My brother in law gave it to me.

Pours thick orange yellow -- after the fairly large head dissipates, it looks quite a bit like orange juice. Smell is banana, mango, something a bit funky, maybe a hint of kettle sour.

Taste is juicy. Mango and orange primarily. Tart, feels moderately lively, Tartness really enhances the juicy aspect.

Mouthfeel is thick, not quite pulpy. Overall, it's a pretty good slushy sour.

As I just said in WBAYDN, my Alaskan math teacher friend is supposed to be having a heart transplant surgery right now, if all is going well (for him, not the donor). His daughters are at my house playing with my kids right now. I think they're handling this better than I am.

Assuming all goes well, he'll be home in about three weeks (though there's another three months after that where he's not supposed to be left alone at all).

 

Coast to coast smoke: Round 2

Round 2 is from the opposite coast and comes from Alaskan via Washington. I had this once 10+ years ago and I have wanted to try it again for years. I asked @snaotheus to help me out and he went above and beyond in the process. He not only sent some amazing beers but also 2 of these bottles, mind blown.

A cold windy and dreary wet Sunday night, this beer should be do the trick.

Alaskan - Smoked Porter (6.5%)



Nice chestnut dark brown while pouring, darker in glass; lightly browned head bubbly on top but cohesive and dense elsewhere, good retention.

Nose initial impression is rich is smoke; bright and lightly pungent; leather, as it warms there is bittersweet dark chocolate, and some raisin character.

Taste is a beautiful ride…smoke is first to greet the tastebuds, starts off as a lighter colored porter but is quickly followed up by very rich dark and toasted malt, bittersweet dark chocolate, burnt toast, nice roast presence, leathery, lightly acrid on the finish…great aftertaste combo of roast and smoke.

Medium body, drying, light and clean with low end moderate bitterness.

A pleasure to drink this classic beer again, but really, for the first time. I will savor each sip tonight and the next bottle whenever it is opened. Thank you for the opportunity Ryan, I really appreciate it; delicious stuff.

 

Hardywood gingerbread porter.
...solid black appearance with minimal head.
... light carbonation with with about a medium body. Has a slight slick oily feel.
...aroma is not too strong but theres black coffee, espresso beans,roasted malt, coffee liquor with a bit of gingerbread cookies.
..taste has a mild sweetness along with some dry coffee bitterness. Ginger is stronger than in the aroma which comes off like ginger cookies.
...overall its not the best of their holiday beer but its still a great dessert beer

 

Thoughts to you Ryan, your friend, and both your families.

 

Having a Happy Camper IPA I received via trade from @beergoot

My description::

Pours more cloudy and darker amber than a typical IPA. Head was everso white and caressed sides of glass fading to a good amount of lacing. Nose was very hop forward, kind of piney. Taste was more malt forward though, which was off to me. Saving grace was the bitterness on back end.