New Beer Weekend #237

Have a good Sunday. Me and my wife came to brixx pizza after a passing out in a food coma from Cookout last night lol.

These breadsticks are basic but good.


Wicked weed milk and cookies. Pastry stout. 8.5%. Great head retention and spotty soapy lacing for the abv. Aromas of dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, vanilla, cream, cinnamon, light pine/herbal/woody hops. Taste of big dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, roasted nuts, dark bread, vanilla, wood, mint, peppercorn, pine, smoke, char, cinnamon. Medium pine, char, cinnamon/woody bitter finish. Medium carb and medium full body. Balanced creamy/silky/bready malt and sticky resinous hop/spice mouthfeel. Lingering resin drying with some charred astringency. Overall just way too bitter and astringent for a pastry stout, but has great malt complexity. 3.65/5


Cheers

 

Hope all you NFL fans are doing OK with this week's break. I haven't been watching this year, instead focusing on soccer and cycling. I'm so far behind on cycling that I'm still watching last year's Tour where they've made it to the Pyrenees and it seems like things are about to kick off. So, I'm not as focused as usual on my review today, but that doesn't take away from a really good beer, and my first from Bissell.

And I've begun to internalize just how long it will take me to get through the beer in my fridge at my slow pace, so it might be time for another later this afternoon.

Bissell Brothers Bravura
5.8% American Brown Ale



Pours medium brown with a two-finger tan head that holds up nicely.

Aromas of toasted bread, fresh brown bread, toffee, nougat, nut, and earthy.

On the palate, this keeps the malty/earthy notes that the nose preludes, with brown bread, toast, burnt caramel, and nuts all mixing with a dose of earthy hop bitterness that builds into the finish.

Medium-light body but with moderate carb that keeps it from feeling thin. Finishes slightly dry.

Overall, really good American Brown. At cellar temps, it opens up and is everything a brown should be.

 

Glad you’re Leafs’ won yesterday. I sat Skinner figuring on a loss or high score, and Matthews and Marner played great. My Hawks were good for seven seconds, downhill thereafter.

Welcome one and all to a somewhat slow New Beer Sunday #1041. Back to back stops at my two favorite Chicago breweries finds me at Spiteful Brewery. Devils are on though playing poorly, with the Grateful Dead channel on. Can’t beat that pairing

Seven new to me beers on tap, very rare, so may stop in tomorrow as well to keep the line moving. Going up the ABV ladder, with the first a hoodie beer for a pizza place, not sure if it’s a chain, favored by transplants.

Spiteful Pequod’s IPA

4.19/5 rDev +13.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25



2/2/25 - (Spiteful Taproom) (Chicago, IL) Draft Notes: $8 plus tax 16 oz draft, 4.5% ABV IPA.

Citra, Mosaic and Simcoe hops. Crisp and sessionable that packs a nice citrus punch without being overly bitter. Pairs great with pizza (obviously). Available only at our tap room and both Pequod’s locations.

Appearance: Draft served in a pint nonic glass yields a golden tan looks like unfiltered base, white creamy head leaves generous fine bright white lacing and cover over base. Streaky carbonation throughout. 4.25

Aroma: Light in strength, though digging the citrus, pine and tangerine. Nice blend. 4.0

Taste: Consistent with the aroma though full in strength. Sweet citrus and starburst like tangerine and pineapple plus the pine. Very nice for a session IPA. 4.25

Mouthfeel: Dry and bitter, though less do than Spiteful standards, are my first takes. Drinks even lighter than ABV, flavor exceeds most at this strength. Light but present carbonation adds to about a medium body feel. Bitter dry citrus finish. 4.25

Overall: This is a solid session IPA. Bitter and dry, packed with flavor, not alcohol. Nice light and easy beer that gives you (or at least me), what I enjoy most from an IPA and letting you get on with your day. Will be a nice opener for future taproom visits. 4.25

 

Amazing Italian meatballs at brixx for apps


Four Saints that's the way it gose. Aromas of big sour green apple, white grape, lacto funk. Taste of tart/sour green apple, white grape, lemon, wheat, light sea salt, herbal, grass, lacto funk. Medium tart/tangy finish. Medium plus carb and light body. Crisp clean refreshing finish. Balanced grainy malt and lactic acid in the mouthfeel. Minimal salinity or pucker factor. A very basic and not too acidic gose. Thoroughly enjoyed. 4/5


Cheers

 

Amazing Buffalo chicken and Mexican pizzas. I liked the Buffalo more even though it had celery on it.


Fiddlin Fish How About Brown Trout? Aromas of caramel, brown sugar, chocolate, dark bread/crust, herbal, grass, pine, light coffee/char/dark fruit. Taste of caramel, brown sugar, chocolate, dark bread/crust, herbal, grass, pine, light coffee/char/dark fruit. Medium pine, herbal, charred, woody bitter finish. Medium carb and body. Balanced creamy bready malts and sticky resinous hop mouthfeel. Lingering resin dryness with minimal hop astringency. A great American style brown on malt complexity and adequate hopping. 4/5


Cheers

 

Second pour, another beer made for a restaurant, this time an unfiltered Czech Pilsner on behalf of Bub City. This is the first BA review, as I added this to the database before my arrival.

Intermission during the game on here, my nephew (senior in high school) is in the penalty box further away, no doubt with thoughts of shame.



Spiteful Bub’s Light Pils

3.79/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75



2/2/25 - (Spiteful Taproom) (Chicago, IL) Draft Notes: $8 plus tax 16 oz draft, 5.5% ABV IPA. This beer is made for our friends over at Bub City. Zuper Sazzer hops gives an American twist to a European style. Pairs well with smoked meats (obviously) and good times.

Appearance: Draft served in a pint nonic glass yields a bright yellow Hefe like unfiltered base, light but steady carbonation, and a bright white head leaving soapy spotty fine bright white lacing and thin cover over base. 3.75

Aroma: Strong and persistent Saaz hops start to finish, enjoying though would like more depth others in this style provide. 3.5

Taste: Consistent with the aroma Saaz and more Salazar. Enjoyable, light salt and pepper cracker backing. Nice! 4.0

Mouthfeel: Drinks lighter than ABV, light crispy body with faint gentle carbonation. Mildly dry and bitter overall, Saaz hops the star from start to finish. 3.75

Overall: This is a good Czech Pilsner, Spiteful Brewing style. Hops strong, more bitter and dry than many in the style plus unfiltered which I don’t see often. All that said I am I enjoying, would order again, but not necessarily a standout in their portfolio. 3.75

Have at least one more in me, if it’s a BA you’ll know it’s my last here.

 

The anticipation of Four Nations just keeps building for me @ChicagoJ and seeing the USA-Canada flags side by side made me think of it. It is gonna be such a special thing to watch and I bet the magic and energy will be palpable through the screen. Maybe we should plan a themed NBW you and I???

 

I'm going for a threefer this weekend to help people with their Super Bowl beer shopping; I grabbed a single I've been really wanting to try and I'm hoping to share later tonight and start the week of green...

 

Good Sunday afternoon, New Brew Samplers and commentators. I have two new local beers to review this afternoon and they come from opposite ends of the style spectrum. The first is a New England IPA, Eternal Recurrence, from Oakflower Brewing Company in Millington, NJ. It is brewed with wheat and oats and dry-hopped with Citra and Motueka.

It pours a hazy, dirty tangerine color with a big, creamy, bright white head and lots of sudsy lacing. A bright, strong nose featuring lemon, lime, grapefruit, white wine, and soft scents of oats. The initial taste, however, is dominated by dry wheat cracker. The citrus is dry and tart. There is almost no fruit sweetness. The Motueka seems to impart mostly white wine grape. The flavors are dry with significant hoppy bitterness throughout. This ale has a lite, crisp mouth feel with fairly lively carbonation, and it is an easy drinker at 6.8% ABV. Overall, a fine single IPA and I like the 12 oz. can format. It would be a very good summertime cooler.

4.09/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

Cheers!

 

This and final new to me selection today. Had either this vintage or one or a year prior with some friends here, but don’t like eating beers while with others, so this is my first shot rating. Recall liking but not sure about the hype, hopefully my expectations are exceeded.

Spiteful Malevolence - Chocolate Caliente

4.6/5 rDev +5.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75



2/2/25 - (Spiteful Taproom) (Chicago, IL) Draft Notes: $15 plus tax 10 oz draft, 14.0% ABV Barrel Aged Russian Imperial Stout aged for 20 months in Weller Bourbon Barrels. Brewed with Cinnamon, cocoa nibs, vanilla bean, and a blend of peppers. Our Spiteful ode to Mexican Hot Chocolate.

Appearance: Draft served in a 10 or 12 oz. snifter. Near pitch black base, mildly dark tan head clings to the rim like folks on a tilt-a-whirl. Standard Imperial Stout Appearance. 4.25

Aroma: Served at 40 F, so let this sit for 20 minutes, yielding a spicy cinnamon and fresh vanilla beans as the two co-stars. Strength full, persistent, and enjoyable. Getting light bourbon before the tasting, hope more emerges as this continues to warm. 4.25

Taste: Even fuller than the strong aroma, and broader, with a nice smooth Weller Barrel coming into play, definitely wait 30 minutes for proper emergence. Nice smooth whiskey, have always loved Weller, plays an equal role at proper temperature to the cinnamon and vanilla which have held on strong and well over four years in the keg. Peppers light to mild, No off flavors. Excellent blend at this stage. 4.75

Mouthfeel: Creamy full body, sweet with offsetting peppers providing a nice balance. Weller barrels glorious, cinnamon held on like this is brand new, vanilla a bit more mellow but at proper strength, at least to my liking. Excellent cinnamon bourbon finish, like what I’d imagine a fireball shot to be if I ever took the jump. 4.75

Overall: This is a world class imperial desert stout. Everything held on great over four years. Actually enjoying a lot more than the memory of a solid but not excellent stout enjoyed fresh with friends years ago. Order with confidence, let it warm and savor at a leisurely pace. Outstanding! 4.75

What a great day to cap off a great visit to Spiteful. Look forward to catching up with everything after a long nap.

 

I forgot about this one in the back of the fridge. It's now at four months since canning, but the time has done good things. I had one before Christmas and wasn't too impressed. This one, though, is much closer to the hefeweizen mark than the first pour. Maybe just needed some more conditioning time?

They had some fun with this one on the small-batch line: open fermented, krausened, and can conditioned.

Jack's Abby Weizen Haus
5.0% Hefeweizen



Pours a hazy yellow-orange with a huge white pillowed head.

Aromas of banana, bubble gum, slight clove, slight grapefruit.

The taste is a pleasant mix of banana, bread dough, citrus (mostly sweet, just a hint of pith), bubble gum, slight clove again, and vanilla sweetness. A little more sweetness in the middle of the sip, but otherwise it is fairly uniform throughout. At the end of the finish some hop bitterness cleanses the palate.

Medium-light body with extremely fine and active carb make for a creamy feel that coats the mouth.

Overall, a good take on the Hefeweizen style. I'd prefer a little more oomph on the palate, but that might just be the cold weather talking. This would be exquisite on a hot summer day.

 

Next up is a new variant of S'mores Borg, a Pastry Stout from Twin Elephant Brewing Co. It is brewed with chocolate, vanilla beans, marshmallow, and graham cracker and is intended to simulate - you guessed it - s'mores. This variant is not itself barrel-aged but is blended with another bourbon barrel-aged Stout (I asked at the brewery but they wouldn't name it). I had a draught pour at the brewery on Thursday and really liked it so I bought cans. Compared to the draught version, however, the canned one is a little disappointing. There are subtle differences in the taste but the real distinction is the mouth feel. It was much more viscous from the tap. So my overall rating is lower than it would have been but higher than if just based on what I poured from the can.

The color is between walnut and very dark cola and it sports a big, foamy light mocha-colored-cap and lacing that dissipated quickly. A huge nose featuring fudge, coconut, vanilla, marshmallow, and graham cracker. The flavors are big and bold. Just like the original version it does a fine job simulating s'mores. The chocolate is rich and sweet and blends well with the marshmallow, vanilla bean, and graham cracker. There are also some very nice dark fruit notes, which I always enjoy. The carbonation level is moderate and the 11.6% ABV is well-hidden. Overall, while I like this barrel blend variant of S'mores Borg a lot, I was really impressed by the draught pour.

4.34/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Have a great week, everyone. Cheers, NBW!

 

Happy Sunday Bodacious Beer Imbibers!

Going big today...
Melange

From the can.
Pretty. Deepest brown attainable before black. Assertive foam at first, khaki in hue, tapers off quickly to a thin film. So for style, decent retention with lite lacing.
Nose carries a mild medley of spice notes, including cinnamon, but they are smooth in the nose. Some boozy warmth ushers in more subtle sweet notes: cocoa, caramel, toffee and a hint of char.
Flavor follows the nose faithfully. Again, the cinnamon is lite and the flavors really wash back and forth. At times the barrel note is firm and warm in its presentation. Then the malt notes smooth out in a mildly sweet presentation that also makes room for some barrel char. Cocoa and subtle toffee chime in too.
Mouthfeel is chewy, warm, and finishes a bit oily.
Pretty solid.
3.79/5 rDev -10.2%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

 

Alright, I snuck out today and lucked out finding a single of this beer I wanted to try...perhaps to help you with your Super Bowl beer purchases. I just set up the green floodlights out front to light up our house green all week, let's hope it works.

I'd been wanting to try this but didn't necessarily want a whole six pack in the middle of winter, and without trying first. So in the name of beer science...

Sam Adams - American Light (AAL 4.2%)



Pours brilliant bright and crystal clear light gold; the head is pure white, settles quite fast but not as fast as some; light film persists but swirling brings back nice head again.

Nose is quite nice, it’s a very lively aroma for the style; hits the light sweetness in the form of some white bread, but there is touch of something more, a very light toast quality to it, hops are there light mix of floral and herbaceous.

Taste is what you’d expect for an AAL, but it’s nicely balanced; again lightly sweet but with a little extra something from the malt; almost like fresh milled malt; there is a light hop character; mostly herbaceous to me.

Body is really nice; light, perhaps a touch watered down but not overly sweet, and it really dries out pretty nice; carbonation is lightly effervescent and smooth; very light bitterness, it says very low IBUs but it comes off a bit more noticeable to me.

As someone who enjoys AAL I like this beer and will probably grab a six pack when the time is right, aka warmer weather.

If you enjoy the style try this one, it’s quite good. This is much better than the usually suspects IMO, I only grabbed a single, the six pack was $9.99.

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I wish you all a good week and hope to see you all back next weekend.

@JackHorzempa I know we've talked AAL before so here are my thoughts on this one; I'm not sure if there is adjunct in it but whether there is or not it certainly fits the style well.

 

No BA page or official review but this one smacks. Thoughts below.


shar picture

Mahogany Hall, a doppelbock by Fait la Force Brewing in Nashville. Pours a beautiful dark red with some foam into a deep tulip. Aroma is rich malt and some dark fruits but still crisp. Flavor is similar, some nutty dark malts but a lot of really refreshing soft lager flavors including some light plum and dark grains. Not very bitter but finishes smooth and ever so crisp. Mouthfeel is quintessential German lager, bright and vaguely bitter. Overall lovely drinkable stuff, it's so easy to put down for the 7.8% which is insanity. Barrique is the only brewery to top this bock's drinkability to flavor ratio.

 

I just visited the review for this beer (including your review) and the most recent review posted (about 10 minutes ago) has a review value of 1.5. It is always ‘intriguing’ how folks can have such varying opinions. A situation of notably different palates?

Cheers!

 

Could be, hard to tell; to style is another possible rating…you know me, I’ll describe it best I can and only put a number cause I’m forced to if I want to share the review.

The style will always suffer rating wise, then again if Hill Farmstead brewed one who knows; it’d probably get all 5s…

 

Single Hill - Percussive Maintenance, DDH WC IPA @ 8.1%

16oz can served in a snulip. Canned 21 Jan. Bought it yesterday at Chuck's Hop Shop Seward Park.

Pours clear amber, medium sized head that settles into a half centimeter and sticks around thanks to a healthy amount of sustaining carbonation. Smell is powerfully aromatic, pine and citrus and honeysuckle and ripe tropical fruit. Maybe a little bit boozy.

Taste is pine resin, honey sweetness, grapefruit rind. Strong bitter finish. Booze is noticeable, but not unsettling.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied, smooth, surprisingly crisp. Overall, really nice WC IPA, I might call it an Imperial IPA.

 

Was really excited to try this one. Super light and easy drinking lager from the masters at 3 Floyds. Reasonably priced too. Definitely get the corn grits in the aroma. There in the flavor too but also get some sweet, bready malts and light lemon and grass flavors. Crisp carbonation. This is one I won’t mind having around for a lighter option. Cheers!!