New Beer Weekend #224

Good morning/day BAs! My new to me beer this lovely Sunday is a collaboration between Bottle Logic, and Weathered Souls - “Form Five”, a BBA Imperial Chocolate Stout:



Bottled in 2023. Poured at 55°. A recent Tavour purchase. Dark brown mixed bubbles sit atop a black body with ruby edges; poor cap retention; brief thin ring; thin legs at best on swirl. Nose is predominantly chocolate; some booze in the exhale; just a whiff of bourbon. Semi sweet chocolate; no bourbon to speak of; mild oak middle; Cocoa Puffs finish. Boozy bite on tip of tongue; mouth warmth from 14.3%; smooth silky feel; medium plus body; not adjuncty; light carbonation. Overall, there’s plenty of chocolate and a long hot boozy linger; wish it had more bourbon.

4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.25 | 4.0
Score: 4.03 rDev: -6.1%


A pretty ok BBA stout. More and more I find collabs don’t measure up…I’ve had much better Bottle Logic BBA Imperial Stouts. Cheers y’all!

 

Next beer up and it's one thanks to @Whyteboar from BIF #18

Black Note - Vanilla - Bells Brewing - Kalamazoo, MI - American Imperial Stout - 11.5%

This is a 2019 bottle. I am really liking the vanilla. It is so delicious. It hits toward the back, but it, along with the barrel, builds to a tasty finish. This is damn delicious and I am honored you sent it to me.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/287/425076/
4.5/5 rDev +1.8%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
From a 12oz bottle packaged on 11/19/2019

A bit of a hiss and smoke upon opening the bottle. This beer is pitch black while pouring, as expected. The head surprised me with such an old beer - 2 finger in size. The head is brown in color, and long lasting. There's just a bit of lacing on the glass.
The aroma is wow! There's just a huge vanilla hit that whacks my nose. This vanilla is mixed in with the bourbon barrel. I also get faint chocolate and coffee notes.
Taste - The flavor is somewhat muted right away with chocolate and coffee notes, but this changes fast. I get just a huge hit of vanilla and bourbon that just builds and builds. The vanilla and barrel flavors just linger in my throat.
This is a thick boy! So smooth and creamy feeling. There's really no burn here, and that surprises me a lot.
Rare for me to do the same number for every category, but the 4.5 straight across fits well with this delicious beer.

I will see if there's another in me today, but this will take awhile. Cheers!

 

Congrats on #4000!

 

Cloudy and cooler today. Watching Broncos/Ravens for now, then I'll need to start getting dinner ready. Daughter and grandsons coming over for dinner.
My new beer for today is Get a Thicker Skin from Anchorage Brewing Company, one of the selections from the Big Beer Box.
The beer is a hazy gold color. Big, fluffy white head which reduces quickly. Some very nice lacing.
Sweet fruity aroma, herbal hops.
I taste orange, tangerine, and a little peach. Mild hop bitterness. A bit like an orange creamsicle.
Soft, creamy mouthful.

 

Still, that sounds really good. We got Chocolate Vanilla Cherry Stout here.
Yeah, and a lot of actually good stuff too.

 

Drekker Igor's Horn Black IPA, 5.7% ABV. Pours black with a 5+ finger light-brown head that left lots of lacing. Aroma is roast malt, hops, spice, underlying sweetness. Flavor follows, quite bitter, no sweetness. Pine trees on the afterburp. Decent mouthfeel overall excellent.

4.08/5 rDev +2.3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Not a big fan of the bitterness, but tried hard not to let that influence my score, since that's typical of a Black IPA. I wouldn't normally even buy a Black IPA, but I made a resolution years ago to try every Drekker that comes to market here.

 

Look at the head on that one!

 

I started the pour aggressive, but had to back off. If I had a bigger glass I would have gotten more.

 

4,000! Congrats, Craig!

 

07/25/24. Poured into a 250ml straight-sided glass tumbler — closest thing I have to a stange!
Hazy lemon yellow with 1-finger foamy white head with good retention and lines of sticky lacing.
Light pale maltiness but mostly lemon and pepper aromas with soft fruity esters. Huge lemon-lime on retronasal.
Flavor is light and easy with lightly bready pale maltiness with lemon, light herbal, and pepper in the finish. Light fruity esters blend in. Pale malt and lemon pepper on the aftertaste.
Soft and easy to drink with light-medium body, moderate carbonation, and crisp lightly dry finish.
A delicious example of a kolsch — I would love to go to Koln and put it to the test!
A:4.5 / S:4.0 / T:4.0 / M:4.0 / O:4.0 / Total: 4.02

 

Another NBW day, another prize from the @TCgenny gift pack.
This is Hollow Ground, a 7.5% coffee stout from Wayward Lane Brewing featuring Guatemala Finca Las Moritas coffee, which translates to the farm of the Moritas. Pretty cool can art. I don't know if this is an insult or a compliment to them, but the art is Treehouse-esc.
Don't let my rDev fool you, there is only one other rating in the BA database and he (she) is only 0.2 points ahead of me.

Poured from a 16 oz can dated 10/04/24 to a diagonally cut tumbler at 55F, 61F at the end of the session. This was a gift from another BA, it arrived cold in a styrofoam box with plenty of ice packs and refrigerated here. I force-warmed the can in a water bath.
The body appears opaque black but the pour stream is cola colored . A brown head was leaping out of the can when I popped it and the brown puffy head continued in the glass for a few minutes. It faded to a clingy ring with some surface islands. Tilting the glass temporarily posts “lace” with 100% coverage before falling back rather quickly.
There is a musty-coffee aroma, slightly sweet, but kind of great coffee grounds on a compost pile. I know that sounds bad but it's actually pretty enticing.
The coffee is prominent in the flavor. I’m arguing with myself about this dry/sweet/dry taste I am getting. I really don’t like sweet stouts, and I am not turned off by this, so I will say dryness wins,
The mouthfeel is quite light for the style, but it's possible giving it more body would sweeten it up which I would not like. The carbonation is light, but present.
A good flavored coffee stout if you don’t like sweetness or thick body.

 

Good Sunday afternoon, New Beer (Stout) Sippers and commentators. One of our locals, Twin Elephant Brewing Co., released a BA Imperial Stout called The Saddest Day on Halloween. It's conditioned on Tonga and Comoros Planifolia (vanilla beans). I haven't deduced the meaning of the name; Twin Elephant often uses music lyrics. But for Giants and Jets fans it makes sense to drink it on a Sunday.

Poured at 59°. It is a black, oily pour. The dark mocha head fizzled away almost immediately leaving a small ring. A big, fragrant nose featuring vanilla, caramel, freshly-brewed coffee, hazelnuts, and subtle but noticeable bourbon. The flavor is rich and decadent. Up front are big notes of ripe hazelnut, fresh, strong vanilla, and caramel. Although the bottle doesn't mention chocolate, I am tasting it. There is also a hint of acidic coffee and earthy char. The barrel notes are soft and compliment the other flavors. The alcohol level is very noticeable; it helps to let the Stout breathe in the glass. The mouth feel is thick and almost chewy with low carbonation. If anything, it drinks bigger than the 13% ABV.

I wish Twin Elephant had bottled it in a 750 or even 500 ML format. The bomber format is very pricey. Fortunately, given the low carbonation level I think I can seal it in a growler and it should hold up.

4.41/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

I hope everyone is enjoying his or her new beer this afternoon. As always, I am enjoying your reviews. Have a great week! Cheers, NBW!

 

@Beersnake your lovely opening and words are what prompted this beer tonight, and I got a new nephew yesterday, my sister had her second boy!! Hoping to meet the little nugget later this week once they’re settled back at home.

This beer is one of the few “cellared” beers I have left. I almost never have a chance to share beers like this and it is almost 7 years old now. So I’m saying fuck it, I’m enjoying a little pour than pouring out the rest. I don’t crave beers like this anymore or enjoy them much at all so I’m killing two birds with one stone; celebrating and clearing one of my last two bombers that I’ll never drink.

This beer was on the best stouts from every state list that was posted recently, it was on the same list last year. This bottle was $20 7 years ago, now they sell this each year in 500 mL bottles for $20, or more…how the times have changed. Here we go…I’m diving into the deep end.

Kane - A Night to End All Dawns (BBA Stout 12.4%)




Pours a still black, quite and thick pour, minimal to know carbonation left; little bit of head formed but really nothing at all other than a little wimpy ring, at six years I'm surprised I got what I did.

Nose is bourbon, mostly oak driven with some vanilla component followed by light chocolate.

Taste is very rich; at first it’s got some soy like character, followed up by very rich lingering chocolate that is brownie like; ends with oak tannin and light bourbon.

Mouthfeel is full; thick, not overly so, very low carbonation, slight bitterness with a little bit of warming in the chest.

Overall I’m glad with my decision to drink a sample to be able to contribute to this thread. That beer was doing nothing in fridge other than wasting space.

Have a great week everyone, see you in 5 days!!

 

Well time for another round and it is a bit lower than my last 2.

Pecan Brown - Dangerous Man Brewing - Maple Lake, MN - 5.5%

This beer delivers on its name - nice nutty flavor and a good brown ale.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30349/250188/
3.83/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 3.75
From a 12oz can with no date on it.

This beer pours as it name implies - brown. When I hold it to the light I get faint amber hues shining through. There's a 1 finger tan head to this beer that has good retention. There's some sticky looking lacing on the glass as the head dissipates.
The nose has a slightly nutty smell to it and a hint of roasted malt to it.
Taste - This beer has a malty character to it. Slightly roasted pecan flavor. Malty undertone to it.
Great body to this beer. Decent thickness for the ABV. Smooth feeling.
This is a beer that delivers on its name. Tasty and easy to drink.

This may be it for today. If so, see you all next weekend.

 

Half Brothers Laughing Taffy Grape/Marshmallow/Vanilla Fruited Sour, 5% ABV. Pours purple with a four-finger white head that left wispy lacing. Aroma is grape and marshmallow/vanilla. Flavor is light grape, faint marshmallow, faintly sweet, faintly tart. Decent mouthfeel, overall good.

3.78/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5

Disappointing. I've come to expect substantial sweetness and/or tartness in fruited sours. Guess I've gotten spoiled on Drekker, RAR, and Brewing Projekt sours. This doesn't taste bad per se, just blah.

 

Great review! I've only ever had it in a restaurant and didn't take notes so I've never reviewed. I wish Kane made it just a little easier to buy. A day or two at the brewery would be great. I'm not into the online lotteries.