New Beer Weekend #237

Have a good New Beer Weekend. I was up all night last night listening to music and I slept in to 3PM, we had to take Boat to the vet, he lost 1.5 lbs in 2 months. So he is going to be started on the same treatment as Steg had been on, to stop the GI trauma thats randomly popped up lately. Might make plans for a brew pub visit this weekend with my wife. We haven't done it since November. I have been slowly updating my brewery visit Untappd reviews to BA system and I will be over 10000 written reviews soon. Need to bump up those place review numbers too!


From @Ozzylizard Adelbert's Brewery Tripel B. Hazy/murky with great head retention. Aromas and flavors of big white grape, peach, pear, plum, apricot, red apple, berries, white wine, clove, black pepper, pine, honey, white sugar, wood, herbal, floral, grass, and yeast earthiness. Light banana/gum/toasted notes. Bit of booze in the aromas as it warms. Medium herbal/piney bitterness and peppery yeast spiciness on the finish. Medium-plus carbonation and body; balanced bready malt and sticky hop mouthfeel. Lingering resin drying with mild astringency. All around awesome for the style. Increasing warmth of 9.3% after the finish. A bit sweet/heavy, but all around well rounded on yeast complexity, great can conditioning over 2+ years. 4.1/5


Cheers

 

Hello New Beer Weekend!!!

Thanks to @MadMadMike for opening up the virtual bar once again. Time for my new beer, and I have to thank @CanConPhilly for this beer.


Bourbon Barrel Aged Bliss - Imprint Beer Company - Hatfield, PA - American Imperial Stout - 13.5%

This is one thick and heavy beer. Very rich in flavor and so damn smooth. I am really digging it a lot.

Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/50965/732064/#navigation

4.53/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5
From a 500ml bottle. 2024 release.

Nice hiss upon opening the bottle. There's a bit of smoke wafting out of the bottle. This is a very thick pouring beer, and pitch black in color. There was a 1/2 finger brown head that formed, but it dissipated almost immediately leaving no lacing on the glass.
The beer has a nice and pleasing aroma. I get a good hit of coconut. I also get notes of the coffee and vanilla. I get hints of the various nuts used in this beer. I also get a good hit of the bourbon barrels used to age this beer. Very rich aroma and quite deep.
I really get a smooth flavor profile off this beer. Tons of vanilla hit my throat as well as a good nutty hit up front. The back moves toward the coffee and coconut. There's a bourbon barrel finish to this beer with hints of oak and more vanilla.
This beer is thick as heck. So smooth and creamy feeling, though no lactose in it. Very full bodied. There's really no burn in this beer.
Wow, this is an impressive, and very tasty imperial stout. Quite impressive.

This is all for today, but I will return tomorrow for more new beers.

 

Starting off my weekend with an offering from More Brewing, this was in collaboration with Goose Island. Tusk and Feather is a double barrel barleywine aged 18 months then 10 months, both in Elijah Craig rye barrels.



Oh man this is intense. Lots of rye spice and oak come through combining to create a strong tobacco vibe. This spicy tingle suffuses through every aspect of this, as if I'm enjoying this in a walk in humidor. The charred caramel, dried fruit, boozy vanilla, pumpernickel bread, and more. Not quite as good as the GI version but this is quite a treat.

 

A ‘mystery’ beer

During a visit to Redbeard Brewery, the first beer I had (which leads to the ‘mystery’), was Adler ESB. I am a fan of English Ales including Bitter Ales. I will confess that it took me some time to make the ‘connection’ as regards the brand name “Adler” but it did eventually come to me. I discussed with the bartender: “Does Adler have something to do with Sherlock Holmes?”. With a wry smile he said: “Yes, it is named after Irene Adler which is a character from Sherlock Holmes story.” Then a lightbulb when off and I replied: “Yes, the Woman”. For you Sherlock Holmes fans:

“Adler is one of the most notable female characters in the Sherlock Holmes series, despite appearing in only one story. While not technically a criminal and bearing no malice towards Holmes, she outsmarts him and evades his traps. Sherlock Holmes refers to her afterwards respectfully as "the Woman".”

Well, back to the beer.

Served in a tulip glass:

Appearance:

Amber colored with a thin white head.

Aroma:

A faint amount of caramel/toffee with just very tiny hint of earthy hop aroma.

Taste:

The flavor is dominated with malt, mostly caramel/toffee but a bit of breadiness as well in the background. A low - medium bitterness.

Mouthfeel:

Medium bodied with an off-dry finish.

Overall:

I thought this beer was good. For my palate/preferences this beer would have benefited from more hop flavor to provide some balance to the overall flavor profile.

After drinking this beer, I followed up with 221B Baker Brown Ale. I found this beer to be an excellent English Brown Ale. During my conversation with the bartender, he informed me that all of the Redbeard beers brewed using English Ale yeast are named with a Sherlock Holmes reference.

Cheers!

 

Thank you @MadMadMike for a rare France kickoff to New Beer Weekend (with the newish NBW start time change to 1AM in France). And wish you progress on your quest to enter everything into BA @superspak . I have over 1000 to cut and paste from notes or in previous NBW/NBS threads, hope to complete in 2025 (and have dozens if not over 100 place reviews to enter).

Intended to hit a few places with yesterdays forecast of rain ending by early afternoon, but it kept going so I'm at home with this Chicago selection. Will hit the road at least once this weekend. This is a heavy hitting craft malt liquor (12% ABV) that I intended for the holiday tasting, but was too strong based on how I was feeling that day, and swapped it out.

Off Color Beer For Dealing With Your Family



4.31/5 rDev +10.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

1/31/25 - (Can - Home) (Chicago, IL) Can Notes: Purchased November 27, 2024 at Beer on the Wall Park Ridge for $3.98 including tax. Refrigerated upon returning home before opening this evening. 16 oz,, no can date but distributed earlier in the week I purchased. 12.0% ABV Malt Liquor. Malts: Pils, Vienna, Roasted Barley. Hops: Nugget, Tardif de Bourgongne. Secret ingredients Amber Candi Syrup, Sugar. High Gravity. Brewed and canned by Off Color Brewing, Chicago, Illinois.

Appearance: Poured just over half the can into a shaker pint glass, yielding a crystal clear tan beige base and creamy egg white head that leaves nominal lacing but a nice creamy cover. Faint sustained carbonation after the initial pour burst. Looks nice. 4.0

Aroma: Malt and barley front and center, with strawberries and fresh French baguette adding a nice touch. 4.25

Taste: Consistent with the aroma, but dialed to eleven/ Malt and barley like a jackhammer to the taste buds and roof of my mouth. Nice red wine, cherry and strawberry complementary flavoring, guessing the Candy Syrup is the source. Let this warm a bit, and either I'm just getting used to it, or it improved with the proper temperature, as I am settled in and enjoying vs. my initial bitter beer face. 4.25

Mouthfeel: Drinks strong from Go!, as expected with the high ABV. Sweet malt flavors and candy offset by bitterness and a good hop balance, but still sweet as expected though within style expectations. Gentle carbonation, medium to full body, sugar adds depth and a bit of stickiness. Cherry malt baguette finish. 4.5

Overall: If my first sip was my experience, then no. But once this breathed, I grew accustomed, the shift toward room temperature made this a very enjoyable experience. I am not a fan of many malt heavy styles, but appreciate a good Malt Liquor, and this definitely rates highly for me. Candy perhaps making the heavy malt more accommodating to my hop preferred palate, but I would buy these in the future, and hope it returns for future holiday seasons or anytime. I love you Off Color! 4.25

See you tomorrow, likely starting at Revolution's Taproom. Cheers!

 

Sip, Sip, Cheers…to steal a quote from this can…

Nice to be back here doing what we love here; sharing our beer experiences with one another. All of my upcoming beers come courtesy of @Resistance88 who sent me an awesome little box, can’t wait to try them in the coming weekends.

Amber ales/lagers are what taught me years ago that some beer was different and unique to what was mostly available. I got three in this box and here is the first I’m trying…what a great color scheme and can too.

Pizza Port - Chronic Ale (4.8%)



Pours a slightly cloudy light amber; bubbly off-white collapsing head; thin film cap laden with little bubbles.

Nose has some sweet and husk like character; the sweet hints at apricot for me; light spicy hop note with lightly toasted doughy bread.

Taste is pleasantly dominated by biscuity lightly toasted malt; same light little fruitiness with a touch of spicy hop.

Body is light to medium; soft and smooth on the palate, English ale like; even in carb, on that nice lower and creamy side of the spectrum; that sweetness really dries out and there is a nice low but noticeable bitterness.

Awesome beer that I’m really glad to have tried; it’s an American amber with a cool little bit of English character, to me at least. Thanks for sharing this one @Resistance88.

————

Hope to be back tomorrow to share some more; have a great night everyone.

 

My first time trying Double Sunshine! Very similar to OG Sip of Sunshine but much more intense flavor and aroma.

I've been wanting to try this beer for 10 years now ever since receiving Sip of Sunshine in my first beer trade.

It does not disappoint! Thankful to finally be able to try this one out fresh!

Cheers!

 

Interesting sounding brew. Thanks for getting us started!

 

Cheers to @Blogjackets for this Wolly Pig Farm Brewery Keller Pils. 4.9% ABV' 4.07 overall

Pours a slightly hazed straw color with a thumb of eggshell colored head. Fairly effervescent through out, I drank some in a regular glass, but most in a Keller Glass, Very good head retention & sheets of lacing

S: Grassy, grainy, floral/perfumy notes

T: Sweet grain, dryness, grassyness up front. Bready sweetness, some grainy, a little grassy notes & dryness as this beer warms a little bit of woody hops. Finishes dry, fairly sweet with some woody bitterness

MF: Light/medium body, restrained carbonation, skews a little sweet for the style

Drinks easy, doesn't quite take me all the way back to Germany, I need a little more bitterness

 

This is with him taking breaks. I strive to hit 8K before I croak

 

Fat Head's Head Hunter Double Dry Hopped IPA, 7.5% ABV; 4.4 overall

Cheers @Blogjackets

Pours an effervescent gold/honey color with 2 fingers of eggshell colored head. Insane lacing & very good head retention

S: Some dankness, a little tropical fruit, fades a bit once warmed up, melons sneak in late

T: Follows the nose, some dryness, green melon up front, some grapefruit. Citrus & pine assert themselves along some dryness, green melon, guava & dryness as this beer warms up. Finishes with plenty pine, some pine needles, green melon, plenty of dryness & a kiss off white grape

MF: Medium body, restrained carbonation, great balance

Drinks easy considering how aggressive the hops come through