New Beer Weekend #272

I am in South Dakota now, and this is on tap.

Front Line - A Homestead Brew - Valley Springs, SD - Vienna Lager- 5.7%

Wow, waves of malt hit my taste buds. This is delicious.

Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/52115/764674/

3.73/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
On tap at the brewery.

This beer has a nice amber color to it and it is mostly clear looking, with a slight haze. There's a white head to the beer.
Malts hit my nose, but are light. I do get some caramel hints touching my nose. Some biscuit also hits.
Wow, the malts hit in waves on my tastebuds. Lots of building caramel notes. Slight earthy, grassy flavor. Slight hop bitterness.
The beer feels fresh. It is smooth and full bodied.
Wow. This is delicious.

I may enjoy one more here before I head back home.

 

Oh boy do I have one for you today, NBW. I'll admit it: After the pour, it was so far from what I expected for a Marzen that I searched Untappd to see if the brewer had accidentally put the wrong label on their Brown ale. (And I have a can of the Brown, so I can compare next week.) It's quite a bit darker than it appears in the photo.

Despite my skeptical first look, I love this beer. My review doesn't do it justice at all. It blends three of my favorite styles (Marzen, Bock, Brown) and is just a pleasure to drink. And to top it all off, the brewers are the farmers that run the farm stand near me.

Lost Towns Brewing Lost-toberfest
6% Marzen



Pours the darkest amber with a two-finger off-white head that lingers.

Aromas of carmelized sugar, fresh-baked brown bread, and big floral notes from Cascade.

This one packs a punch. Big hit of carmalized grains, brown bread, toasted bread, slight biscuit/bread dough. By the middle of the sip, the hops start coming through with woody and earthy notes taking the edge off the malt characteristics and bringing them down to molasses and black bread. The finish is dry with earthy, woody, herbal bitterness that lasts long into the aftertaste.

Medium bodied with moderate and fine carb. The carb helps it feel a bit fuller bodied than it probably actually is.

This is the dark, bold side of Marzen. Huge malt throughout with complementary hops on the second half of the sip. It's one hell of a good pint and disappeared from my glass far too soon.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. No Harpoon beers in our area unfortunately. In past years I would be in Boston next month, but not this year. Appreciate it @jonphisher!

 

Hop Butcher for the World
Gyro! Gyro! Gyro!
Hazy Double IPA
4.07/5 rDev -1.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
8/27/2025. Poured into a Samuel Adams Perfect Pint.

A: Luminous hazy yellow with 2-finger frothy white head with good retention and copious craggy lacing.

S: Strange somewhat muted aroma with peach pit, earthy dank herbal weed note, lighter pineapple and orange.

T: Flavor more standard hazy ipa with soft peach, mango, apricot, pineapple, orange, and lemon with bitter pith citrus and dank finish. Bitterness at least moderate intensity.

M: Soft medium body with high carbonation and light dry finish.

O: Gyro! Gyro! Gyro! is a solid hazy IPA with hop character that is strong intensity and bitter but muddled. Worth a try but not above and beyond by any means.

 

Boulevard Strawberry Cask-aged Fruited Sour, 8% ABV. Pours medium-red with a slight head that left spotty lacing. Aroma is strawberry and wine. Taste follows, moderately tart, faintly sweet. Decent mouthfeel, overall excellent.

3.99/5 rDev -6.6%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Not a fan of wine BA beers, but tried to score it for what it is. The third beer in the 2025 Neapolitan Barrel-Aged Mix Pack. @russpowell @HoppingMadMonk

 

Final beer here before I start to head home.

Valley's Finest - A Homestead Brew- Valley Springs, SD - American Lager - 5.0%

Wow! So much flavor packed into a 5% package. Delicious.

Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/52115/586995/
4.28/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
On tap at the brewery

Slight murkiness to this golden colored beer. There's a bit of a white head from the tap that had decent retention. No lacing on the glass.
Woah! This beer is so floral. There's lots of grain in the aroma. There's a slight earthiness to the aroma.
There's a lot going on here. Bitterness up front. There's just a ton of malt character with biscuit and grain. There's is an earthy flavor that is somewhat grassy. Tons of floral flavors. The biggest surprise is a Belgian candi sugar finish. Did they use Belgian yeast?
The body is so good. Smooth, creamy feeling, full, sticky.
This is delicious. The best beer of my road trip.

I will see you all when I get back home for more.

 

4.09/5 rDev +0.2%

look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Poured from a 16 ounce can dated 9-3-25 into an IPA glass at 53 degrees.

Look- Pale gold, very hazy, frothy white head, above average head retention, average lacing.

Smell- Clementine, peach, pineapple, pith, mango, medium strength of scent.

Taste- Clementine, pith, peach, pineapple, medium strength of flavor.

Feel- Medium body, average carbonation, moderately mouth warming, moderately creamy, mildly bitter, mildly astringent, soft.

Overall- Pale gold and very hazy with above average head retention and average lacing. The nose was a pleasant mix of citrus and tropical aromatics. The flavor was more citrus predominant with the tropical flavors playing a backup role. The feel was as expected for the style with a slight amount of astringency. Overall this beer provided an enjoyable drinking experience.

 

I hunted this down last week and was blown away. Fresh hopped beers were not in abundance around here; maybe that added a bit more "piquance" to this?
I'm overall not impressed with New Trail, but they got it together this time. And a canning date of 9/16 was the cherry on the cake. Fresh indeed.

 

I am drinking another Fresh Hop IPA as I watch the Phillies - Dodgers playoff game. Hopefully this will bring good luck? At a minimum I get to drink another delicious beer!

Cheers!

 

You were 10 miles from my house!

 

Good evening NBW
Possibly my last new Oktoberfest of the year.

Sonder Oktoberfest

12oz can stamped OFESTTIME 07.09.25 poured into a mug at fridge temp 5.5% ABV per label. The beer pours bright copper tinted amber with khaki colored head. The head recedes to a thin cap and leaves spotty lacing. The aroma is mild with toasted malt and a bit of bread crust. The taste is bittersweet toasted malt with prominent earthy hop flavor and bitterness. The feel is thin to medium bodied with average carbonation and a mostly dry finish. Cleanly lagered. Overall, good beer, but really hop focused for an oktoberfest.

 

FWIW, we frequently use the term "green" here in the NW to describe fresh hop characteristics. I find it frankly gratifying to find someone outside the NW using the term.

Especially someone with so much brewing experience!

 

Greetings, New Beer People! This is not my first New Beer of the weekend, but it was the first I was able to review, so without further adieu...



Silver City Wet Hop IPA (2025 version, with fresh Centennial hops)

16-ounce can purchased at John's Marketplace in Beaverton, OR. Date stamp reads "CANNED ON 09/10/25". Enjoyed in a nonic half-pint glass.

Look:
The beer is a deep gold color with sunflower yellow highlights. The rich white foam shrinks to a sturdy collar and a skin shaped like Australia (I should've taken a picture), and leaves impressive lacing.

Smell:
The nose is old-school IPA, sticky with malt and adorned with resiny pine/floral bitterness. There's also a mouthwatering lemon-lime character.

Taste:
The flavor inverts the nose, with fresh Centennial citrus leading and semi-sweet malt a step behind. Impressive pine/floral bitterness joins these elements to give the beer a gin-and-tonic feel. Zesty! A bit of cool melon flavor joins the citrus in the finish as the malt and pine rumble along underneath.

Feel:
The body is on the heavy side of medium, with moderate carbonation and a tingly burn around the edges.

Overall:
The beer was not quite as old-school as the nose advertised. It had a good amount of fresh Centennial flavor with proper bitterness. The malt was not too sweet, but I think a lighter approach would have shown off the fresh hops to better advantage.

 

You've got one heck of a brewery in your neck of the woods there. I will be back again.

 

Good evening folks. Some good stuff posted so far. I'm hoping my choice for the night is in that camp.

Quickish trip to the pool store today to straighten out some things on our spa. Nothing major...just understanding the chemistry a bit better. The control panel stopped working on a three week old unit on Thursday but they had a person here Friday and he had the foresight to rob a panel from a floor model and voila problem solved.

So...our victim this evening:



With my Portuguese hot peppers as the backdrop... Cave Bear from Great North Aleworks and home brewers. Apparently this beer was brewed a couple of times (2017 and 2021 by what I can figure) but both were brewed with gold medalist home brewers - neither named @JackHorzempa It is an 11.4% English Barleywine. Purchased from Just Better Beer who are sadly closing up.

Beautiful on the pour - kind of a strong tea/deep amber color with a half inch of tight tan foam. The foam falls to a pretty ample cap with a thick ring. Excellent cling to the glass. Very slightly hazy.

It smells of malt. Brown bread. Toffee and brown sugar. Lightly sweet. There's some alcohol apparent and a very slightly citrus/pine hoppiness on the nose. I don't get much in the dark fruit arena but I think I'm OK with that. It's a "drink me" smell for sure.

The taste pretty well follows along. Lots of bready malt, toffee and brown sugary sweetness. It's actually fairly hoppy - moreso than the smell suggests. A late kick of bitterness with a fairly noticeable grapefruit and pine flavor. Nothing I'd call out as fruity. It is a tad bit hot on the alcohol. A nice earthiness on the finish.

The feel is a bit north of medium and it's silky smooth until the alcohol and hoppy notes provide a bit of a sting.

OK...this was a flyer - random grab. Barleywine in a can? Sacrilege? Well, not so much. Other than the noticeable alcohol this is a pretty solid example of the style. I like that the hop notes offset the sweetness a bit. Right around the 3.9 mark here.

 

Speculoos cookie butter toasted coconut and vanilla beer.
....cloudy burnt orange appearance
...medium light carbonation with a slightly thin body
...aroma is definitely butter cookie batter along with some toasted coconut, vanilla and a spice i just can't label.
...taste somewhat sweet,batter,odd bitterness, coconut and some bread.
...overall it delivers what it advertised but its an odd one. Another interesting beer that may never have actually needed to happen

 

Good evening denizens of NBW! Tonight I have one that I technically tried before, but it was years ago and I had shared it with 4 other people at stout appreciation night. Not sure why I never picked up another to drink myself.
So today I did.

The pour is black, blacker than stout black. The head reaches about 1 1/2” for the first pour, dark brown and lots of lacing. (Considerably darker than it looks in the photo)
The taste is rather one dimensional, but it is quite the dimension. Cocoa and coffee, leather and charred wood with a bitter finish that I assume is from the roasted malts. Really a nice, additive and adjunct free imperial stout.
The feel is viscous, not chewy, just enough body to remind me to sip this. It seems to go well with the flavors.
OA, it’s a better imperial stout than most in my opinion, I may need to make this one of my annual purchases.
Cheers my friends!

 

Firestone Walker Oaktoberfest Oak Aged Lager, 5.2% ABV; 4.17 overall

Pours a very effervescent gold with 2+ fingers of frothy ivory colored head. Below average head retention & lacing

S: Rich breadyness, floral & grassy hops

T: Follows the nose, certainly picking up some dryness & bitterness from the oak barrels up front. Grassyness & breadyness dominate as this beer warms up, some woody bitterness & trace amount of citrus, plus dryness. Finishes dry, with bready & grassy notes

MF: Medium body, fairly firm carbonation. Carbonation becomes creamier as this warms up, pretty good balance, skews slightly bitter for the style

Great drinkability, I would pull the trigger on this again