New Beer Weekend #24

Happy New Year!

Stone Xocoveza


Appearance: Black, huge head.

Smell: Gingerbread/cinnamon, sweetness.

Taste: Mild sweetness, cinnamon, slight hot pepper hit, reminds me of a gingerbread cookie with a spicy chaser.

Overall: Nice holiday beer, ginger cookie flavor with some warming alcohol. I'll have to pick up some more for the coming cold months.

 

The winter of Black Lagers?

Firstly, Happy New Year to everybody. As I have been telling friends & family: 2021 has just gotta be better!

As Doc Brown warned Marty:



So, I recently visited my local Retail Beer Distributor to purchase a newly released Black Lager from Workhorse Brewery but it was not on the shelf. But a situation of serendipity occurred: I saw a six-pack of Sterling Pig Le Cochran Noir – Schwarzbier. I have been meaning to try this beer in the past but this was my first time I have seen this beer at a beer retailer. So no Workhorse beer (this time) but I was very happy to find this beer!

How this beer is discussed on the Sterling Pig website:

“The brew formerly known as “Pata Negra”, Sterling Pig’s Le Cochon Noir Schwarzbier is bold and robust. A medley of roasted malts gives this dark lager a flavor profile of chocolate and subtle notes of coffee. This combination of flavors makes for a remarkably smooth and satisfying product that is perfect for any season.”

https://sterlingpig.com/beer/pata-negra/

I am quite excited to try this beer!

Served in my Polish Pilsner glass:

Appearance:

A very dark brown, approaching black with a BIG khaki colored head.

Aroma:

A subtle roast malt aroma with mostly a hint of dark chocolate and to a lesser degree just a very tiny bit of coffee. This aroma is ‘saying’ to me: c’mon, take a sip.

Taste:

The flavor follows the nose but the flavors of dark chocolate and to a lesser degree coffee is more notable (but not in your face level). There is a low/moderate bitterness.

Mouthfeel:

Medium bodied with a smooth mouthfeel. There is absolutely no harshness or astringency here. An off-dry finish.

Overall:

This beer is very good! I very much enjoyed the flavor profile and mouthfeel of this beer. When I finished it I very much wanted a second.

A plus of this beer is what is not there. I have experienced in some craft brewed Schwarzbiers the brewers go too high on the roast aspect on these beers with the additional downside of some harshness on the mouthfeel. As with other beer styles the motto of “less is more” is beneficial here. This beer has high drinkability (or süffig as the Germans would express it).

Cheers to Sterling Pig for creating this beer!

@rotsaruch @KOP_Beer_OUtlet @RobH @BeerIsland @jts211

 

Seasick Crocodile, a spiced from Prairie, presents as a rose-orange can pour with a mere wisp of foam.
The aroma is of raspberry with a hint of nutmeg and allspice.
The flavor is fruit-first ( cranberries mostly) and slightly tart. The spices inform the flavor lightly.
The body is light and flavors persist in the finish.
I really like this sour.

 

Thank you for kicking things off with two new beers to start the year @SawDog505 !

After a several mile walk before the snow and rain, I'm hitting the first of a few new to me beers from a great Chicago brewery, Dovetail.

Dovetail Helles Lager



Can notes: 16 oz canned 10/27/20, poured into a .5 litter Dovetail Willi Becher Glass.

Appearance: Clear straw golden pour, nice eggshell white head bubbly and full, leaving clumpy lacing in it's wake. Full sustained carbonation throughout. This is a nice looking beer. 4.25

Aroma: Very nice malt lead, cracker, pepper, grain. Very fresh and bold. 4.5

Taste: Taste consistent with aroma in both depth and strength. Nice cracker pepper lead, salty, hops provides balance backing the rich malt flavors. Pleasurable. 4.25

Mouthfeel: Light to medium body, carbonation holds throughout. Slightly dry, nice easy drinking, clean crisp finish. 4.0

Overall: This is another solid offering by Dovetail, full of flavor and very enjoyable to savor. Looking forward to picking this up soon. 4.25

Maybe one more today, otherwise I'll see you tomorrow. Cheers!

 

I love that beer (though I've not had it in a couple of years), but the Stone upside down labels provoke a visceral reaction from me that is most decidedly NOT positive.

 

Greetings all,.
A kind welcome to 2021 and good fortune to everyone. My elder neighbors had guests over Christmas and they now have Covid. It's touch and go. This stuff isn't so hard, it's called discipline.
This is Wiseman Conceited Genius 2.0. This Winston-Salem brewery is making some fine beers and they fly perfectly below the radar. This New England style IPA is properly hazy and has a nose redolent of old peaches and lime. This is a good beer which is very fruity, quite dry, and still like a breakfast drink with a kick. It's 6.1% and easy to drink. It's the peaches and citrus completely drying out on the palate that makes me want a beer. I want a west coast IPA sometime today. I don't want to be dismissive about this beer, it really is tasty, just for one. Gorgeous head, beautiful lacing, well made, but still not my style of drinking beer. I liken this type of beer to be an anomaly just as time passes by. I vow to try the range of Wiseman beers and will report back.
Anyway, here we ae sitting roundly in a new year. Good God let this year be better for all of us!
Here is a missive from my niece's husbands dad, an Anglican priest in Canterbury. Also, this Mark Knopfler requiem is my choice for today I am an Anglophile after all.

 

Happy New Year everyone! I'm getting things started right off the bat here with a new Trillium - Barrel Aged Spice Cake imperial stout brewed with almond, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg.

When I first saw this release I wasn't overly thrilled about it since I'm usually not a huge fan of a lot of cinnamon and spices in beer, I have had some good Trillium stouts with cinnamon in them though, and I'm usually a big fan of their Barrel Aged beers and stouts in general. It's been a little while since I've had a sweeter flavored stout from them. The last Barrel Aged beer I had from Trillium was the BA Double Pot & Kettle which I thought was excellent, and not too sweet with only an addition of vanilla. I figured this would be a good one to have in the winter around the holiday, and with the barrel aging it should be on the sweeter decadent side which I tend to enjoy. 15.8% abv, this is a hefty one, one of the biggest beers they've made and the highest abv from them that I've had so far.

This beer pours a deep dark black with maroon red highlights around the edges, and a medium sized frothy light brown foam head that sticks around the glass with decent retention.

The aroma on this is amazing as soon as it's poured. It smells like a rich dense liquid cake, which I guess is what they were going for. Huge sweet layers of fruitcake, spice cake, cinnamon raisin buns, rich, sweet, luxurious, decadent, not too spicy, on the sweeter side, chocolate notes, roast malt, mapley caramel, baked toffee, dark raisin fruits, some nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, vanilla, almond, oaky barrel, bourbon sweetness, pastry, dessert-like, really great.

The taste is a little more bold with the spice additions right now, emphasizing fresh zesty ginger, sweet cinnamon, ground nutmeg, blending beautifully in a rich sweet decadent liquid raisin fruit spice cake flavored stout, luxurious dark chocolate, creamy vanilla, toasty almond, dark dried raisiny fruits, roast malt, coffee, marzipan, cinnamon buns, mapley caramel, baked toffee, molasses, bourbon barrel, French toast aftertaste flavors, no booze detected, extremely smooth and tasty.

Mouthfeel is medium plus bodied, fairly thick, viscous, dense, creamy smooth with moderate low carbonation.

The way the spices are used to refresh and cut down the sweet richness in here is almost making this a little too easy drinking for me, given the high abv. When taking sips, instead of having a heavy richness to work through, it feels easy going down with the refreshing ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg in it. This beer is drinking better than I anticipated, a little sweet on the dessert side, remaining extra drinkable and refreshing through the moderate use of wintery spices. They truly captured the aroma and taste of a spice cake in this stout. Overall a really great barrel aged spice cake imperial stout. Cheers everyone, and happy long NBW!

 

New Year’s Day should include a New Beer...and a special one at that - BCB’s “Special #4 Stout”:



An oatmeal stout aged in Bourbon Barrels with coffee and maple...



Bottled 9/10/20. Poured at 56 degrees; black with ruby see-through body; tan fizzy head; poor cap retention; thin ring initially; spots of lace and medium legs on swirl. Nose is fresh brewed coffee, like in a little coffee shop behind Flagler Street, downtown Miami, and bourbon; some boozy bourbon on exhale; no maple detected. Tasty mild roast coffee up front followed by dark chocolate; semi sweet maple syrup hiding in the middle; dark fruit/berries as beer warms; espresso with bittersweet dark chocolate drizzle ending. Creamy, velvety smooth feel; full minus body; moderate minus carbonation; some mouth warmth from 13.4% abv; dry oaky barrel finish. Overall, a wonderful imperial coffee stout; more coffee, imo, than BCB’s last two coffee stouts; not much maple (which is fine by me) allows the coffee, base, and barrel notes to fuse seamlessly; well balanced and not boozy; not mind blowing, but an excellent BBA Coffee Stout; I can’t stop sipping - like a mocha coffee with bourbon and without all the sugar...this year’s sleeper?

4.5 | 4.5 | 4.75 | 4.5 | 4.5
Score: 4.6 rDev +4.1%

 

Who needs to have their "mind blown"?

As long as the beer puts a smile on my face, well then I declare 'success' here!

Cheers to beers!

 

Best you all in 2021,
Enjoying this lovely "Old Timey APA" (thier own words) I love the texture and the choice of malts, not full of crystal, pilsner, wheat, and oat that make up so much of what is now the IPA world. This adds a reminicent feel for me of first wave Pale Ale from those so many years ago. Thanks to our friends at Honest Weight.

Postcards From Seth

Pale Ale - American | 4% ABV

Honest Weight Artisan Beer
Orange, Massachusetts

4.1/5 rDev +0.2% | Average: 4.09
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Poured from 16 oz can into the test glass.
A - Pour yields a lovely 1.5" frothy off white cap, Burnt caramel color, with a slight haze.
S - Orange peel, pine, unsulphured pineapple, nice bready element as well.
T - Candied orange, lovely conifer, spruce tips? Excellent malt expression, a bit of sweet brown sugar as well.
M - Medium in body, runs in a narrow (refined) band, with a lovely semi sweet finish, caramel and pinelinger
O - A really good APA, I love the throw back, think amped up English Pale Ale, this would be an excellent Cask candidate.

 

Good afternoon and Happy New Year NBW! Starting with Firestone Walker XXIV, this year is beer is 27% Velvet Merkin, 26% Stickee Monkey, 16% Parabola, 16% Smoked Imperial Walkers Reserve, 11% Bravo and 4% Tequila Barrel Helldorado. Side note going into the review, Velvet Merkin is one of the lowest rated barrel aged beer I’ve reviewed from Firestone Walker and it is definitely heavy on the Velvet Merkin but I really like what the other beers are being to this.
4.43/5 rDev +2.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

12 oz bottle poured into a tulip

A- Dark brown with a small mocha head.

S- Bakers chocolate, figs, dark fruits, caramel, vanilla, oak, some bourbon.

T- Figs, dark fruits, dark chocolate, slightly smoky, earthy, oak, bourbon, vanilla.

M- Smooth, full body.

O- Another great anniversary beer from Firestone Walker. The bigger beers in this help balance the Velvet Merkin nicely.

Cheers!

 

Didn’t the last NBW end, like, 11 minutes ago??? That’s one of the benefits of approaching 60 years of age - time is now in a slingshot and constantly being launched forward.

I have a couple of beers today, the first courtesy of @Roy_Hobbs in NBW BIF #12. He sent me a veritable plethora of saisons and lambics that were all excellent (or better) and this is no exception.





4.35/5 rDev +3.6%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

This pours a murky grape color with a foamy light purple head. My first thought after the pour was, “That looks like a glass of Welch’s Grape Juice!” Note: I love Welch’s grape juice.

The nose is tart and funky with the wild blueberries on top, and those notes translate perfectly to the taste - the funk and the tart blueberry flavors complement each other magnificently.

The mouthfeel is effervescent and a bit dry. An excellent example of the style, and a double bonus if you like blueberries, which I do.

 

3 Sheep's Impulse Control DDH hazy IPA w African Queen hops

 

Starting dry January ...enjoyed this beer last night

Darkness by Surly



4.68/5 rDev +3.8%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75

Bottled 9.18.20, opened 12.31.20

Bomber poured into a stemmed Schilling chalice . The bomber black wax coating is amazing with a “ ponytail” in the back.

Two finger dense brown foam cap , good retention after five minutes, good lacings which settles to a solid layer over a deep, dense dark cola liquid. Second pour was more akin to brown motor oil

Aroma is chocolate, molasses, licorice, char, whiff of smoky peat

Taste is roasted malts , char, dark chocolate , molasses

Mouthfeel is thick , velvety smooth , the char taste is mild and nicely coats the tongue . Abv is invisible under this luxurious coating



Great beer, repeatable



@SawDog505 after reading your reviews , i grabbed a 4 pack of Kettlehead s brewing between the lines. Delicious milkshake ipa that my niece subsequently polished off 3/4 of the buy. Good place, thanks