New Beer Weekend #20

Good evening, Weekenders. I haven't read any of the posts yet, so I have some catching up to do. Two things influenced my beer choice for today:

1. We are in a government-declared Shutdown 2.0, so I've renewed my meager efforts to support the small local guys, and
2. After a weekend of heavy beers in the BCBS online tasting, I am going to the other end of the scale with a lighter beer.

Waldmann Kölsch
ABV: 5.3%
IBU: 20



I've posted a number of times now about these guys, so I won't regale you again with the detail. Suffice it to say they are one of my favorite locals, both from their ethic and the very fine German-style beers they brew.

A kölsch might seem an odd choice for this time of the year, but it is hitting the spot for me this evening.

Hazy yellow gold, pale, with plenty of rising bubbles to a half inch white head, thick at first, but it doesn't last long. Sparse clumps of bubbles on the side of the glass is what passes for lacing.

Fruity aroma, perhaps even tropical fruit. Sourdough. Not too strong, but very nice.

The taste is fruity as well (sorry, "fruity" is the best I can do; if pushed, I might say vaguely pineapple), with a noticeable touch of bright hop bitterness hitting right away. The bitterness is moderate, carries through to the finish, but fades in the aftertaste. In addition to the fruit, I'm getting some grassy hay and a subtle sourdough bread. The finish is dry.

Feel is smooth, with a moderate body that is broken up a bit by the carbonation.

Overall, a nicely done, refreshing kölsch style beer from Waldmanns.

L: 3.5 | S: 4.0 | T: 4.0 | F: 3.75 | O: 3.75 | Rating: 3.90

 

A really enjoyable Black IPA by 67 Degrees Brewing of scenic Franklin Massachusetts.

Making its BA debut, Black IPA. I like simple names. Cheers.



4.1/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

A strong pour from a 16-oz. can produced a fat finger of beige creamy foam that slowly sinks and turns rocky. Opaque deep dark brown, almost black in color with sticky blotches of lacing.

IPA level hops greet the nose, citrus, herbal and piney with bready and roasted malt.

Semi-dry with average bitterness, roasted un-malted barley adds bitterness to the hops without being overpowering. The malt flavor is big with toasted, roasted and some burnt taste. The hop taste features citrus without being fruity.
The finish is long and drier with the malt and hop tastes slowly dropping off, bitterness climbs to above average. Peppery and spicy bitterness lingers on for a while.

Medium-light bodied with soft abundant carbonation. Alcohol is barely noticeable along with a slight astringency. Not quite smooth yet smoother than most BIPAs. Canned on 09/04/20.

 

Moving on something hoppy Barn Town Pulp Non Fiction, thanks @Orca_Whale!
4.19/5 rDev -4.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Thank you Orca_Whale for this
16 oz can poured into a teku

A- A hazy golden straw with a two finger white head.

S- Citrus, some stone fruits, pale malts, touch of wet grass, earthy.

T- Citrus, touch of orange juice, some tropical fruits, melons, earthy, some pale malts.

M- Smooth, medium body.

O- A tasty NEIPA, easy to drink.

Cheers!

 

One of my favorite breweries to visit when in Charleston, SC is Charles Towne Fermentory, on 17 as you drive towards downtown. Tonight’s new beer is Double Radio Burst (24 Month Barrel- Aged), an imperial stout blended from 5 different High Wire Distilling Whiskey and Rum Barrels:





At 57 degrees pours oily black with a wire thin ruby edge; incomplete reddish tan head notwithstanding aggressive pour; poor cap retention and thin ring at best; spots of lace upon agitation; heavy legs on swirl. Nose is rum, bourbon and prune juice; minimally boozy exhale. Chocolate, whiskey, plums, sugary raisins; rum is present but less pronounced than in the aroma; dark fruit and chocolate finish. Full minus body, light carbonation and a smooth velvety feel; some warmth from 13% abv; some dryness. Overall a dangerously easy drinking stout; it’s surprisingly not boozy/phenolic, but there is plenty of whiskey paired nicely with the chocolate base; and the rum (which can come across as heavy handed in other stouts) adds its own mitigated separate flavor component; with the dark fruit, it all comes off as very well balanced, multi-dimensional and a pleasure to drink. Another winner from CTF!

4.0 | 4.5 | 4.75 | 4.75 | 4.5

 

I liked "junior barleywine." I got it.

But yep ... nothing worse than typos after the edit window closes.

 

New-To-You, & you told us what you experienced. That's what counts! Hits the target, exactly.

Try Keuka Brewing's version , to see if that's really true.

Still got a couple of Mashing Pumpkins in the fridge, so might have to find a Curmudgeon , or similar, to mix with one of em. Thanks for the idea.

I do like coconut , but I found it a struggle to finish it (x4). As you like that, if you find it, consider Fiddlehead's Hodad , & Beer Tree's Lost Coconuts , both of which I enjoyed considerably more than DBC.

Ok, 1st new beer of the weekend , Beer Tree's Wander The Forest , a 7.9% NEIPA, with Galaxy & Mosaic, a collaboration with All Who Wander (Manlius, NY) . Wanted Into The Forest (Galaxy + Michigan Copper) , but apparently I was too early, & it wasn't out yet., (I get their weekly emails)
Not disappointed . Still prefer ITF , but this is good enough to forget that for now.

L: Moderately hazy golden orange, w/ >1 finger of creamy off-white head. Fresh squeezed tangerine juice, minus pulp, plus head.
S: Peach, pineapple juice, orange, mango, and some light bready malt. A bit of peach pit , after the head fades.
T: Candied mango & pineapple, orange rind, with moderate drying bitterness & a hint of lime zest, that come in late, and linger awhile.
F: Medium, smooth, with a slight syrupy coating left on the tongue. No noticeable alcohol, except a bit of internal warming after awhile. Initially creamy, with very,very,very fine carbonation bite on the latter third.
Overall, another good juicy NEIPA. We're in a good place when this is just "the usual". Enjoyable, & easy-drinking - almost gone before I even noticed.

4.26/5 rDev -0.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/51814/455697/?ba=mikeinportc#navigation

 

I like junior barleywine as a descriptor, could be quite appropriate, maybe as a junior old ale might be ??

 

Just got off the late shift and jumped into a new-to-me Scotch Ale:


Bell's Christmas Ale • Scotch Ale • 7.5% ABV • 10/20/2020 born-on date

Short version: Not great. In fact, not good.

I hate to rip Bell's because I do enjoy many of their beers, but this one tastes much like most of the other American versions of this style, which is not malty at all. Or what malty flavor you get is burnt malt that's super earthy and almost medicinal. Very disappointing but I run into this over and over with Scotch Ales. Maybe it's me?

Official review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/287/311505/?ba=Premo88#review
3.45 (-11.5% rDev)

This bottle is No. 1 of a six-pack, so hopefully it will improve as I work through them. If so, I'll happily adjust my review and scores. But even as this beer warms up, it's not showing much potential.

I think I'll pour a dram of it's stronger country mate and give it a chance to near room temperature. It's super earthy, so it has the potential to make a whisky taste like concentrate sugar syrup, but it's a risk I'm willing to take.

Hope your weekends are rolling along!

Cheers!

 

I add my encouragement, and gotta say that you won't regret doing it.

 

Delirium Tremens

From a 16oz can:

Appearance: Clear gold, big head.

Smell: Yeasty, bready, some sweetness.

Taste: Mild sweetness to start, fruity--apple and slight grape. Medium body, but light feel for its ABV.

Overall: Another classic that I'm finally getting around to trying. Unfortunately it doesn't quite hit the mark for me. I don't get much "Belgian" character to it, it just tastes like a lighter bodied malt liquor to me, especially with the apple and grape flavors. Some sort of spiciness from the yeast would give it more character to my taste buds.

 

Good day BAs! Off to the NBS portion of NBW. Just out of curiosity (and for the more anal than I crowd) has anyone been tracking the volume of posts since we switched from NBS to (the more inclusive) NBW format? I'd be interested to see how the numbers of posts have grown. Today's New Breakfast Beer is:




Komas Baltic Porter from Browar Fortuna. Purchased 11/10/20 for $ 4.23 (Including tax) for 16.9 oz bottle ($ 0.250/oz) from State Line Liquors in Elkton, MD. Reviewed 12/6/20.
Marked “Lot Number 29/10/19/1” on back label. On room temperature shelf at store and stored at home at 42 degrees. Served at 50 degrees (Per instructions on bottle 50 -53.6 degrees) in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. Final temperature 55.2 degrees.
Appearance – 3.5.
First pour – Deep amber (SRM 15), clear.
Body – Ruby brown (SRM 24), opaque. When held to direct light, barely penetrates but distinct ruby where it does.
Head – Average (Maximum 3.5 cm, aggressive center pour), buff, high density, short retention, rapidly diminishing to a two to three mm crown, and a thin partial cap. Second pour produces an eight mm fizzy head.
Lacing – None, but 9% ABV seems to be the breakpoint between lacing and no lacing.
Aroma – 4 – Moderate roasted malt with a bit of sweetness, no hops, no yeast. Definitely weakens rapidly.
Flavor – 4.25 – Begins with marked roasted malt, lightly bitter, no hops, no yeast followed by a graininess and a hint of coffee. The bitterness quickly ameliorates and leaves a bit of sweetness on the tongue. No alcohol (9 % ABV, as marked on container) taste or aroma although a mild gastric warming does occur. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl.
Palate – 4 – Medium, a bit thinner than creamy, soft but lively carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 4 Decent flavor and taste, however it seems a bit thin on the palate for the flavor. This has an aging scale, up to 18 months on the back label, ranging from fresh and roasted to dry and complex. Good price point.
Rating 4.05, rDev -1.9%.

The storing scale:

 

I'm just getting caught up this week, so I'm not sure if this has been mentioned yet. Forgive me if it has, but I think last week's lower than usual numbers had to do with the competing BCBS tasting. I know for me personally, it took up most of my weekend drinking. It also took me most of the week to recover from all that deliciousness.

I love seeing @Roguer's mise en place, and hearing about yours sounds fantastic. Just the fact that you're making a bagna cauda makes me very happy. When I was young(I'm 40 now, for perspective), my grandmother was a member of an Italian women's auxiliary club that was open every Sunday for spaghetti dinners. There are a lot of trash spaghetti dinners around here that basically pour runny tomato sauce on top of over boiled noodles and call it a day, but this was legit slow cooked bolognese married to the pasta. I'd kill for the recipe, but I'm pretty sure it died with the women that ran the show. Anyway, once a year they would do a big bagna cauda night. The smell when you got out of the car in the parking lot was unmistakable. At that age I couldn't appreciate it, but now I love it. I have vague memories of being around my family as they slurped down bowls of bagna cauda and the men drank cheap lagers from 8oz. glasses for a quarter a beer. It's one of those memories that I wish I could go back and relive with the appreciation I've gained over the decades.

 

My memory may be faulty, but back when I was just a lurker who used this site for reviews of prospective beer purchases only, I think there was a time when Delirium Tremens was the no. 1 rated beer on this site. I hope this isn't a senior moment of a fake memory. Maybe another old timer can confirm this or deny it? I apologize to you and all if this is completely wrong.

 

Good morning, new beer fans, it's nice to be finally joining you. I hope that the past week has been good to everyone. The weather here has finally taken a decidedly wintry turn. While I'm not excited for the shoveling and forcing my pups to go out in the snow, I am excited to dig into some cold weather beers. I don't know that my first offering is that exactly, but it was a nice sipper last night while finishing up the first season of Fargo.

Cellar Works Brewing is located about 35 minutes northeast of Pittsburgh in Sarver, but it has been one that evaded my attention until now despite it being quite close to where my parents live. Most recently they've garnered a lot of attention for their Fruitwhip line of of heavily fruited sours that are always instant sellouts. Way back in 2019 though, they won a silver medal at GABF for this wild ale. I was surprised to find that I had to add this beer to the database as it's the one that has actually won them medals, but so it goes.

The base for St. Eldritch is a Belgian dubbel called Saint Sophia, that is then aged for over a year in Cabernet Suavignon barrels with Brettanomyces. It is then bottle conditioned for an additional four months. I only recently had my first wine barrel aged beer, but that one was a port. I was excited to see what St. Eldritch had to offer, so let's get to the review.

The color was a mahogany brown with some deep red hues and was quite cloudy. It was topped with a one inch tan head with even less maroon hues that dissipated gradually until leaving a delicate layer atop the liquid. The aroma was heavenly. I could detect clove, cinnamon, and a slight black pepper quality. Funky red grapes were in the next layer of smells, along with some wood notes. I don't know if it was oak or cedar(which Cab Sav is known for), but it added a nice earthiness. The wine barrel was already offering a lot to this ale. The taste was not nearly as aggressive as I expected from the smell. Some dark fruit was noticeable, but it was a distinctly wine heavy red grape flavor that was the most prominent. A host of supporting characters that were present on the nose emerged to play with that primary flavor. There was a nice black pepper/spice bite to it, while the tartness was kept in check. It had a nice dry finish. The tannins were not enough to make it cat tongue dry, but only the essence of Cabernet lingered and that was brief. It had a medium body with less carbonation than I had anticipated. Overall, a very complex and interesting wild ale.

4.33/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25