New Beer Weekend #20

@jkblr. @russpowell I also agree with you about the price and typically I'm not a cheap person. Just think there is so much beer that is almost just as enjoyable for cheaper
But what I really took from @jkblr post is working extra night shifts in a steel mill to pay for kids school. It is unbelievable the privileged entitled kids and adults i see at work every day.
You are a throwback to old school hardwork mentality. I sincerely wish I could buy you a beer,just not a 25 dollar one. We can make a better choice

 

Hello New Beer Imbibers! I have three new ones today. Two are IPAs, and one is a flavored imperial stout. I know, I know... such a unique lineup



A few weeks ago, I reviewed Kettlehead's The Agent IPA for NBW and was seriously impressed. I mean, I knew there was a good amount of hype out there for it, but it exceeded my lofty expectations. This one is a 7.8% NEIPA double dry-hopped with Galaxy and Enigma, which sounds extremely fun. Excited to dig in to it... let's go!

Pours a deep orange color with a "New England" amount of turbidity. Towering foamy head caps this one off, as you can see in the above image, and it leaves behind some soapy lace as it slowly sinks to a retentive half-finger of rocky suds. Pretty good legs, here, too. Very solid but kinda generic pour. It's kind of hard to talk about NEIPA appearance sometimes because they mostly look similar, but what're you gonna do?

The nose is pungent and intriguing, with forward white wine-like character with a bevy of tropical fruits and a light hint of grassiness and perhaps even some pine in there. It doesn't really feel as saturated as some other DDH stronger IPAs (sorry, I refuse to call something under 8% a DIPA, just a personal idiosyncrasy ). Light red berry notes, grapefruit, tangelo, and guava followed by some sticky candied orange notes. Perhaps a weird backing note of funky chive in there, too? I only notice it sometimes, though, so could just be a sensory trick.

Bright and punchy with a firm bitterness at its core, featuring flavors of tangerine, peach, and white wine grapes upfront. Light crackery malt in the mid-palate with some white grapefruit, tangelo, mango, and passion fruit. The bitter character here is really intense for a NEIPA, honestly... juicy and soft this is not. I almost get a spruce-like character from the hops in the finish. Bold and assertive, which I guess I didn't really expect. Pretty drinkable regardless of this fact, though. I think this is about on par with their Voice of Reason DIPA I reviewed a couple weeks ago as well. Perhaps a bit better, but the quality is in the same general ballpark. Really want more of The Agent, though...

Oh hey, I know sometimes people here like to know what I'm up to on the music side of things. If you didn't know I make music, then consider yourself informed now! I mainly use a modular synth I planned out and put together myself, and the stream I did last night was mostly hard techno. If you like the sound of that, check it out!



I'd skip to about 4:30 if I were you, a lot of the first few minutes was setting stuff up. Cheers and I'll be back soon...

 

Watching the New England Revolution in the eastern semifinal versus the Columbus Crew

Drinking The Nuclear Whim with the Fuse of a Mile by Bissell Brothers

4.35/5 rDev -0.5%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

Undated 16 oz can poured into a Bissell Brotehrs glass whilst watching the Rev’s playoff match versus the Crew

Two finger off white frothy foam cap , good retention , good lacings over a turbid amber liquid

Aroma is tropical fruits, mango, pineapple, hint of orange citrus

Taste is tropical fruits, hint of pine resin

Smooth, hop taste, gentle nibble, semi dry finish

Good beer

 

Got cans of Confluence’s anniversary beers that make a PB&J Black and Tan, thanks @Orca_Whale!


Anniversary Jam 4.11

16 oz can poured into a pint glass

A- A murky red with orange highlights and a two finger pink head. 4

S- A sweet strawberry jam with a mild tartness, some hibiscus. 4.25

T- Tart, strawberry, fairly jam like, some hibiscus, slightly earthy. 4

M- Smooth, light to medium body. 4

O- Delivers on being a strawberry jam beer. 4.25

Peanut Butter Party 4.05

16 oz can poured into a pint glass

A- A murky dark brown with a two finger light tan head. 3.75

S- Roasted peanuts, chocolate, some caramel and roasted malts. 4.25

T- Roasted peanuts, some chocolate, some roasted malts, slightly metallic. 4

M- Smooth, medium body. 4

O- A solid peanut porter, easy to drink. 4

Black and Tan 4.21

Mixed according the the cans, about 2/3 Anniversary Jam and 1/3 Peanut Butter Party

A- The porter is sitting nicely on top of the jam, color and slight blending look good held up the the light. 4

S- With the porter on top it is smelling more like the porter, but you do get a nice mix of the peanut butter, chocolate and a nice amount of strawberry jam. 4.25

T- Both beers come together wonderfully, the peanut butter and chocolate play very nice the jam and balance the earthiness in the jam while the jam help balance out the metallic flavors in the porter. 4.25

M- Smooth, medium body. 4

O- This two beers come together nicely to highlight the best in both beers and balance out each other’s minor flaws. Both together are better than either individually. 4.25


Cheers!

 

I am going to follow @jkblr today with his choice of brew, though I refrigerated it for 90 minutes from cellar before trying rather than warming up. I am also having it alongside this year's regular BCBS. I had a few sips of the regular to empty the bottle, but will first review the new beer, then compare it with the regular. Lastly I will compare notes with the previous review.

Next slide... Oops. I mean, on the beer!!

I thought I noticed maple from the pour of Special #4, though it was light. The color of liquid exiting the bottle seemed a tad lighter than the regular that I poured first. Both had heads that seemed to want to get to the edge of the glass, though regular BCBS seemed to hold on a little longer.

Sitting down to check out the nose, I first get more coffee than maple, but they seem to even out upon further analysis. There's a roasted malt chocolate note and with a deeper inhale some coconut cake - replete with moist, coconut liqueur infused layers. I don't get a direct influence from the barrels' spirit too much.

There seems to be a less sticky feel than I recall from regular BCBS, and it also seems to be less boozy. I'll see if I still think that on direct comparison. I had forgotten this was not a straight stout until I observed the feel. That said, I couldn't tell it was oatmeal, per se (could've been a milk stout for all I could tell).

A bit more dark chocolaty on the taste, with less distinction of coffee and maple. Maybe a little dark brown sugar up front, followed up by dark chocolate for a second, and a lightly sweetened coffee eking out the back end. Increased warmth brings a more maple to the chocolate's domain. There's a semi-dry finish that may be part of the oat's influence.



I loved the smell, and quite liked the taste. But how does it compare to my highest rated beer on this site?

There's more of a tang in the nose to the regular BCBS on the nose - maybe a little more dark fruit and raisin than brown sugar and coconut. It also hows a bit more revival of a creamy tan collar. The lack of additions is evident in the flavors having this aside the maple/coffee variant. There's a slick and more coating feel, and its roasted malt, dark fruit, light whiskey, and a hint of coconut taste is distinct from the maple/chocolate and coffee notes of Special #4.

The GF told me she liked Special #4 slightly better than regular BCBS (her tastings were blind). She thought I'd like the other one because she knows I generally don't like sweeter stouts compared to regular ones. Let me sample a little more...

I think I like these about equally, for different reasons. Yes, the Special #4 is sweeter, but like I found with Founders' Mackinac Fudge, it's not as sweet as I expected going in. Both breweries make solid beers, and I feel that their goals in these attempts might be for sweeter stouts, but not really "pastry" stouts.

Either way - regular wins looks, #4 wins smell, regular wins taste, and #4 wins feel. I think overall is a near wash, so I expect the ratings will end up about the same when I get down to it (including a re-review of regular BCBS.

I've gone on long enough to write about it, but I'm off to read the review of @jkblr and maybe check out last weeks BCBS tasting thread to see if I got Special #4 all wrong

 

Working extra is tough once you get older, doing it at a steel mill is beyond tough

 

Hell I put almost any barrel aged imperial stout up against them. KBS, Lags Willetized, Ozark BDCS. My experience with variants is minimal, I referring to the overpriced BCBS.

 

That's a strange combination of beer style and name. One would expect an "AAL" with that packaging. I wonder what they were going for.

FYI, that beer used to be called Winter White. The old packaging was nicer. I wonder if they changed it partially because people don't associate witbiers with winter beers.

For me it's a very bad fit. I would expect a "table beer" to be much, much lower than 6.8%. Sometimes it feels like Jack's Abby needs to maintain a certain reverence for older beer conventions, but with Springdale they take an "anything goes" approach. Too bad.

 

Good Sunday afternoon, New Beer Samplers and commentators. We just finished trimming the Christmas tree. This will be the first Christmas without either our son or daughter home, which is sad. Hopefully, this will be the last holiday season with travel restrictions!

I'm digging back into @jdell15's generous NBS BIF box from Arkansas, which included two bottles of Wild Ale from Rebel Kettle Brewing Company in Little Rock. This one, Berrily Bier, is conditioned on Arkansas blackberries. The pour is a pretty rose color with a thin, creamy, milk-white head. The nose doesn't overwhelm and is pleasing with the smells of Brett yeast, oak, and berry. Unlike the kettle sours that are now the rage, this is a true Wild Ale - very sour at first. As it warms the blackberry becomes more pronounced, as does the oak. It has a lite, crisp mouth feel with lively carbonation, and it drinks easily at 6.2% ABV. I enjoyed it.

3.95/5 rDev +0.3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

Jacob also sent me a sour from Rebel Kettle refermented with raspberries that I'll review on another Sunday. Thanks again!

I'll be back shortly with a locally-brewed IPA. Cheers, NBW!

 

One thing different about it is that it's inspired by pumpkin soup rather than pumpkin pie, which explains why it's not as sweet as a typical Pumpkin Ale.

 

G'afternoon NBW!
Been a while since I contributed to this thread, probably since it was New Beer Sunday. Well no time like the present, since I already posted on WBAYDN...


Angry Chair/ Untitled Art. Loaded French Toast Imperial Stout


Purchased at Maggie's Attic in Mount Dora, FL.
16 oz. Can, canning date of 11/03/20. Poured into a Snörkel glass.

Jet black body with little to no carbonation during the pour. So no real head to mention, not even around the rim. Just a few khaki hued bubbles around the edges, but even those didn't stay around.

The aroma on this leaves no doubt what you are in for! Tons of maple syrup and cinnamon! So, yeah this one should definitely taste pretty close to French toast.

First sip proves the aroma....maple syrup and cinnamon! As this one warms up, the cinnamon becomes so prominent up front it's almost too much to take. But after a bit the cinnamon is just up front and the maple syrup sweetness starts to mellow out the cinnamon sharpness. It definitely coats the tongue with that balance of heat and sweet and a light stout roastiness. That makes the 11% abv hidden well and a little dangerous.

Overall, this is a decent pastry style stout but I do think the flavors could have been a little subdued. Good for a dessert beer.

Cheers!

 

Here was my quote "I will recognize and acknowledge that the Bourbon County lineup is top shelf, but I can get 90-95% of the way there for less than half the price, in a better format, with Revolution, Lagunitas & Founder's."

I forgot to mention the BDCS that @russpowell so generously sent me last year or the closer to $1/1oz offerings from Firestone Walker and Jackie O's. I don't buy the absolute best bourbon or Scotch either and I'm ok with it. Goose Island makes excellent stouts, just not for my budget.

Thanks. It boggles my mind that we constantly have union jobs open with essentially free health care, no match required 401K company contributions and the ability to make $90K a year. We just ask for a high school diploma, clean drug test, and the ability to work hard if needed.

My son just finished his first semester of college. His friends are all going to Florida for a week on their parents dime. He is staying home to start work with a contractor to get some hands on education to supplement what he's learning at school. Workers are built, not born.

I'll get off my soapbox now. Enjoy a new beer and what's left of the weekend!

 

Brewing Projekt Hawaiian Shirt Party Tiki Sour, 9% ABV. Pours slightly hazy orange with a two-finger white head that left some lacing. Nose is mango and pineapple with coconut hiding in the background, taste follows, moderately sweet, slightly tart. Excellent mouthfeel if slightly over-carbonated. Overall excellent to near-outstanding.

4.17/5 rDev +7.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Productive day, replaced the light fixtures in two bathrooms, now only have three hanging ones left to do.

 

Some interesting things to comment on, but first...

Seems like we got a lot of similarities. I didn't get much berry in Special #4, though the raisin aspect of the dark fruit I mention about regular BCBS might fit that. I just didn't get that same note in the variant, personally. I really didn't get any bourbon barrel, but as I read it, it was in maple barrels that were bourbon barrels, so the maple would be the fresher, and presumably more forward, flavor from the barrels.

---

On the price, @russpowell, @HoppingMadMonk, and @MNAle - the first "review" I got of this from a BA was along the lines of "This is really good, just not $25 good." I didn't pay close attention, and I figured he had gotten hold of a more rare variant than Special #4, which seems fairly widely available (in a BCBS-relative sense). I was surprised to see the price.

I paused at first, then decided to buy a few, though I would've bought a few more if it were not priced double BCBS (a beer which I also started limiting purchases due to price). I might buy it again an its price for a special occasion, but I do not think it's twice the beer of BCBS, let alone some "near equivalents" others have talked about.

---

Speaking of, I had mentioned Founders' Maple Mackinac Fudge (MMF) in my review, so I grabbed one to compare with the Special #4. Thank goodness I have a GF to split these with, or there'd be no chance of doing all these comparisons. So, a hopefully short comparison (I had about 2-3oz of Special #4 left, which was definitely at/near room temp):

Founders MMF has better head and better overall look. More chocolate with some maple in MMF versus #4's more distinct notes of coffee and maple. To me, the coffee comes through in flavor more in MMF, and while the sweetness levels are about equal, they present at different times in the taste; it sneaks in later in MMF and is more forward in #4 - with #4 ending up a little drier and lighter.

I BA-rated MMF a 4.73 and Special #4 a 4.75, so splitting hairs on these. The GF liked Founders' beer better by a little, and she found it sweeter. I would agree with her if the last impression is what she is keying on.

Well, this was fun for me, even if I bored y'all to death with one man's analyses (with one woman's opinions). Cheers!!

 

Quite far from an AAL, superb European malt expression, with what I feel is a deeper dive into the water treatment needed to be authentic.
Cheers

 

All right, I admit it, I'd be a sucker for this marketing, especiailly if I generally enjoyed the brewery's offerings. Pretty cool trade/BIF inclusion, to be sure.

 

Alright, let's get into the heavier hitters...



Been a hot minute since I've had a new Finback IPA. For a while there it was like three new ones a week, but nothing lasts forever I suppose. This is a big ol' 10%er dry-hopped with *takes deep breath* Idaho 7, Cryo Idaho 7, Cashmere, Cryo Cashmere, and Meridian. Weird idea, and I'm not sure what to expect with this one to be honest. I've had mixed experiences with Cryo versions of hops I'm already familiar with, and I guess I'm kinda familiar with I7, but Cashmere is another beast entirely, and Meridian is also kind of uncommonly used. Guess I'll just jump in and see what's going on with this, since my expectations are tough to nail down.

Pour is a beautiful light-amber/orange color (more vibrant than it looks in my image, for some reason) with a big cap of foam that builds up to three or so fingers before sinking down to a solid finger with excellent legs and consistent sheets of foam lingering in the glass. Top notch appearance, for sure.

The nose is definitely something else. Tons of melon, apricot, coconut, woody spice (cedar-like, almost), and dank pine resin with some undertones of papaya and grapefruit. Really unusual, but I guess using two complex/intriguing modern hops in both their regular and Cryo forms and topping that off with another unusual hop varietal will do that. I will say it does feel pretty cohesive, though. It's not really overly "fruity" or anything, but there is some tropical backbone to it. I honestly get a lot of tannic notes (both I7 and Cashmere can have woody elements, for what it's worth) here, with a soft spice and an almost earthy vibe. I'm... not really sure how I feel upon first impression, but perhaps it'll become apparent on the palate.

First sip is aggressive and very strong. Finback doesn't usually pull punches with their bigger IPAs, and this one is no slouch. It's a sipper, and a fun one, at that... at least, I think. It's got a ton going on. I get honeydew melon, peach, plum, papaya, pineapple-in-heavy-syrup, and mango in terms of fruit components, and the mid-palate lends some nice tannic and tea-like structure to the proceedings along with a hefty malt backbone that feels pretty sweet yet balanced. Coconut, more pineapple, and more mango in the transition to the finish... very dense and intimidating stuff honestly. The Cashmere is throwing out a lot of fresh citrus peel here, too, which works in an unusual way with the coconut/creamy notes it also sometimes embodies. Tangy but sweet and heady in a satisfying way, I guess is how I'd describe it. Firm but short-acting bitterness. Good, semi-slick finish. A sipper, like I said, but definitely enjoyable.