New Beer Weekend #248

This pub was all that, in Village Called Hinton in the Hedges, fireplace & the whole nine yards

 

Really happy you enjoyed that one, man! I got into my last can of it earlier as well- Absolutely delivers

 

Very crushable!

 

Seventh Son Tuk Tuk. Rice lager. This smells and tastes dead on like a Sapporo, but it's better. Aromas and flavors of lemon, pear, apple, rice, cracker, white bread, herbal, floral, grass, wood, peppercorn, pine. Medium pine, herbal, spicy bitter finish. Medium high carb, light to medium body and crisp/clean/refreshing finish. Balanced bready grainy malt and sticky resinous hop mouthfeel. Lingering resin dryness with no hop astringency. Perfectly clean lager flavors with no yeasty notes. The best rice lager I've had? Might be sorachi ace hops. Perfectly balanced clean hop and malt flavors. 4.25/5


Cheers

 

That is literally one of my fantasies The closest I've come to the feeling was at Porter Brewing in Bend, OR. Hoping to make it to the old country one of these days, though! Cheers

 

Seventh Son Stone Fort. Amazing brown ale. Smells like English yeast. Aromas and flavors of big caramel, brown sugar, brown bread/crust, toast, toffee, milk chocolate, cocoa, roasted nuts, wood, pepper, pine, herbal, floral, grass, yeast earthiness. Light to medium pine, herbal, woody bitter finish. Medium carb and body. Balanced creamy bready malts and sticky hop mouthfeel. Lingering sticky hop drying with no acrid/astringent flavors. Very rich malt complexity and balanced noble hops. Top tier brown ale. 4.35/5


Cheers

 

Seventh Son baphomet tripel. Great beer. Aromas and flavors of big apricot, apple, banana, bubblegum, pear, peppercorn, clove, pine, candi sugar, white bread, herbal, floral, grass, yeast earthiness. Light to medium pine herbal bitter and spicy yeast finish. Medium carb and medium plus body. Balanced bready malt and sticky hop mouthfeel. Lingering resin dryness with no cloying/astringent. A well rounded tripel on yeast complexity and malt/hop balance. 4/5


Cheers

 

Seventh Son assistant manager golden ale. Great American blonde. Aromas and flavors of big lemon, white grapefruit, pear, apple, wood, peppercorn, pine, cracker, bread, herbal, floral, grass. Medium-high pine, woody, herbal, spicy bitter finish. Medium plus carb and light med body. Balanced grainy malt and sticky resinous hop mouthfeel. Lingering resin dryness and minimal hop astringency. A bit too hoppy for the style, but otherwise delicious. 4/5


Cheers

 

You're killing me. English ales were my gateway to good beer, and Old Peculier was one of my go-to beers back in the 90s and early 2000s. But as I commented on a @beergoot profile post yesterday, I haven't had one or even seen one in ages.

I drank a lot of good cask ale on my trips to England, but I never had Old Peculier. The very idea of cask Old Peculier is making my mouth water...

 

Three things I love: barrel-aged beers, smoked beers, and barleywine. Put 'em all together and you have a shot at something rare and wonderful. (AleSmith Decadence Maple Smoked Barleywine, from 2010 or 2011 or thereabouts, remains one of my treasured beer memories.)

So I was very pleased to learn that Black Raven collaborated with Hair of the Dog to create Hunter, a smoked barleywine aged in Woody Creek rye barrels.



The body is a dark, murky cola brown with red-orange highlights. The pour raises a sand-colored head of finely textured foam which doesn't last long and leaves almost no lacing. Nice legs, though.

The smell is a very pleasant combination of figs, prunes, whiskey, and toffee. There is also some molasses and vanilla. Underneath all that is a subtle smoky character. It's there, but you have to dig for it.

The taste follows the nose very well. Starts sweet with figs and prunes soaked in whiskey. As the beer warms, it opens up to offer treasures of dried cherries, roasted almonds, amaretto, toffee, and bitter orange. Tendrils of dark malt and rye spice drift through. All these flavors provide satisfying balance to the initial sweetness. Alcohol is present from the start and casts an obtrusive warmth over everything. The finish is a dry, mildly savory, and rather hot combination of spicy rye whiskey, fruit, molasses, and almonds. Smoke is there, but again, it takes some work to find it.

Hunter has a medium-heavy body lightened by delicate but satisfactory carbonation. Alcohol provides a numbing warmth.

Overall, this is a well-made barleywine with clear evidence of its Hair of the Dog barrel-aged pedigree. The notes of dried fruits and almonds are especially appealing with the rye whiskey character. The "smoked" aspect of the beer is disappointingly subtle, and takes a good amount of concentration to tease it out. If it were stronger, I'd be happy to track down another can. As it stands, I'm content to finish this one and be happy I got the chance to try it.

 

I remember being really excited about VooDoo stouts when they first came out. Black Magick from 2007(?) without labels was amazing.

And cheers to barleywine !

 

Always love your flowers @mactrail

 

It's been a dust storm week, where the Organ Mountains disappear behind a cloud of dust. Cloudy and showers expected for today.
My new beer for today is Southern Drawl, a pilsner from Great Raft Brewing. I enjoyed it.
Clear gold color. Big white head that reduces quickly. Some lace.
Sweet floral aroma, a little citrus.
Aroma of white bread, light citrus, kiss of hops.
Crisp mouthfeel.

 

Nice find Jack. If there is a city one should be able to find good cask ale, it should be NYC. Cask Marque certified I see, also a good sign. Cheers!

 

My wife and I shared this one last night. Well, shared is a little misleading. After the first pours shown, she commandeered the rest of the bottle for her glass….



This is À la dernière lune from Messorem Bracitorium of Montréal, my favourite maker of stouts in the city. It’s a blend of imperial stouts aged 12 months in rye whisky barrels and 24 months in bourbon barrels. 100% add-junk free! It’s been residing in my cold cellar for a couple years.

The beer pours a thick, deep, dark black-brown with a very slight head that develops once the pour finishes.

The aroma scream whisky barrels lots of spicy rye and sweet bourbon notes. A little roasted grain peaks out just to be noticed.

The flavour is far more mellow than the aroma would have one believe. The barrels are present, but well integrated, not the scream expected, but neither a whisper. Right in the middle. The dark malts emerge better as a result making for an enjoyable sip.

Nice moderate to full body. In no way syrupy. Quite drinkable for the 11.9% ABV, and as my wife’s indulgence would suggest.

Nice beer, not hurt at all by aging, from one of the best breweries in the country.


Cheers all!

 

I had to do some projects this morning. I am now done and can relax. Might as well do so with this new beer.

Stjordal - Hammerheart Brewing - Ely, MN - Smoked Beer - 8.3% (7% in the listing here - I will submit an update)

Wow. This brewery really just makes good beer. I am so enjoying the smoky flavors in it. The smoke was not hitting my nose right away after I poured it, but did a couple of minutes later as I was writing the review. I am happy with this beer, and honored to be drinking it.

Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/31326/325866/

4.29/5 rDev +0.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
From a 16oz can with no date on it.

This is a somewhat of a murky looking beer. The color is hard to describe. I would say it's a burnt orange color. The head of this beer is quite interesting looking. It is has such small bubbles overall, and it looks like it's very soft. It is 1 finger and slightly off white colored. The retention is quite good and there's a bit of lacing on the glass as the head dissipates.
When I was pouring the beer I was getting a bread aroma hitting my nose. Up close it is intensified. It is very full of yeast aromas and a ton of grain/bread malt aromas. There's a slightly fruity aroma to this beer. At first I wasn't getting any smoke aroma. As I keep hitting the beer with my nose, the smoke does come into play, and it has a nice campfire smell, but light. I am also getting a hint of peat aroma with the smoke, which is pleasing.
The flavor up front is a bit funky. It has fruity notes to it - slightly herbal also. There's a bit of grassy flavor in this part of the beer. The backside is where the smoke comes into play. The smoke is a campfire smoke flavor. I also get a hint of peat in the flavor. There's a bit of a bread flavor in here. The smoke does linger on my taste buds, and is finished off with a slight hit of bitterness.
The body is quite full feeling. Very smooth feeling. The feeling of the smoke does linger in my throat as well as does the bitterness.
I am very happy to be drinking this beer. Very impressive how they got so much flavor into it.


I will be having at least one more today. Be back later.

 

Just checked out of the hotel. I got a couple hours of sleep. We are at somewhere in particular brewing.


I got a somewhere in particular orange hippo. Aromas and flavors of big tangerine, melon, red apple, pear, wheat, cracker, toasted bread, herbal, floral, grass, light pepper/pine, yeast earthiness. Light pine, herbal, spicy bitterness and slight fruit tartness on the finish. Medium carb and light to medium body. Balanced creamy bready malts and sticky hop mouthfeel. Lingering hop dryness with no astringency. Fairly crisp clean refreshing finish. Not as juicy on tangerine as I hoped but very flavorful base wheat beer with yeast flavor that is clean and enjoyable. 3.9


Cheers

 

I found a couple of new beers to me, from Drowned Lands Brewing.

Firs up is Ploughshare, an Altbier at 4.8% ABV.



Pours with a decent amount of chilled haze, that clears up. A copper/orange color. With a dense white head forms with retention and lacing for days.
A big malty aroma. With bread crust and some darker fruits mixed in there.
Taste wise. like the nose, the malty flavor is up front and center. Bread crust, toffee, light honey, brown sugar. There is some dark fruits of cherries and figs mingling in there as well.
A medium body with crisp carbonation. This could finish a little drier for my tastes, but the malts give this a heft and drinks bigger than the ABV suggests. Which is a good thing for me, and all around enjoyable to drink and come back to.

This is well done. I haven't had a lot of "authentic" Altbier's but most of the American versions I have had seem to really lack in any kind of character, especially nuance with the malts. Here the malt character is really well done. I like it.

Score is 4 across the board. B+ bordering on an A-
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/58867/535072/?ba=champ103#lists

I have their Dopplebock I'll probably open and review later this afternoon.