New Beer Weekend #38

He may not have them on hand, but he certainly travels with 'em!

 

Welcome to New Beer Sunday 841!

Was initially going to review two Lagers by a new to me brewery, but the Barleywine reviews from Saturday have inspired me to tackle at least one of three new to me beers I've been sitting on for quite sometime.

I learned about this one on these boards a little over a year ago, and picked up a four pack. Most here said this works best 1-2 + years out, so today is the day.

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot (2020)



Bottle Notes: 2020 Bigfoot, packaged 12/12/19 @ 19:35. 12 ounces,9.6% ABV. Barleywine-Style Ale. Bigfoot is a beast of a beer, brimming with bold, bittersweet malt flavor and heaps of whole-cone Pacific Northwest hops. First introduced in 1983, Bigfoot is a cult classic prized by beer collectors. Drink it fresh, or cellar it in a cool, dark place to taste as the flavors develop over time.

I cellared the four pack for nearly a year, refrigerated this bottle the past few months.

Appearance: Beautiful ruby burgundy colour. rich creamy light tan head lingers for quite some time, leaving a generous layer above the base. Excellent looking Barleywine. Light settlement at the end of the pour. 4.75

Aroma: Very sweet aroma, malt leads the way. Caramel and toffee. Red wine, citrus, pine and lemon backing. Nice. 4.0

Taste: Deviates from the aroma, balanced to slight bitterness. The hops really provide a nice balance, prefer this over a typical sweeter barleywine. Pine hops leads the way. Caramel shines with the malt. As it warms, the taste becomes broader. Getting raisins dates, figs and plums. Further in I get lemon and citrus. The hops keep all this sweetness in check the entire time. I'm assuming the age has mellowed aspects of this, now I'm really interested in trying a fresh one to see how the balance and tastes are impacted. Without a baseline to judge further, I am glad this turned out as it tastes now, 16 months in. 4.5

Mouthfeel: Medium, slightly creamy body. Faint carbonation lingers throughout. Lightly dry, slight bitterness over sweetness, very enjoyable drinking, nice clean finish. Drinks lighter ABV at first, than hits you as you finish. 4.25

Overall: This is an excellent barleywine, now I see what the hype is about. Great looking, multi-flavored balanced offering, pleasant throughout, more varied flavors at this warms. Will age the rest of this years vintage, and looking forward to trying one fresh to compare and contrast. Very glad I pulled this one today. 4.5

If I return later today, I have two Spiteful Barleywines, one Barrel Aged this fall, one standard but 5+ years cellared/refrigerated.

 

No explanation needed...I raise my glass with the rest of you. I meant to post this last evening and then life type distractions just started happening. I’m sure some of you can identify.

12 oz bottle, best by date of 6/6/21. Pours a clear golden color with a creamy white head.

Nose is citrus and floral hop notes. Not much malt or any serious sweetness noted.

Flavor begins with the hops up front, floral and spicy, with a touch of the evergreen. Mild malt presence plays in the background and offers a little balance. Clean finish, mild hop aftertaste.

Carbonated just like you would want for the style. Very smooth on the palate, and what I will admit is quite enjoyable.

A session worthy IPA, and readily available in a lot of places. Unless you straight up hate IPA, or have an aversion to New Belgium, there’s really not much to dislike about it.

 

We are living in a weird alternate universe where you can walk into bottle shops in Prague, Czech Republic, and there are Trillium, Tree House, and Toppling Goliath cans sitting in the fridges and on the shelves. I can't imagine this occurring without the pandemic. I have been doing my best to buy only local beers during the lockdown as I find it to be really important, but I made a few exceptions.
My first time having a Trillium PM Dawn stout, and this is pure jittering decadence, replaced my afternoon coffee, and was perfect with this beautiful spring day we are having. It is supposed to snow again next week, and I hesitated holding onto this until then, but I'm glad I opened it now and am enjoying it in the sun. Coconut in beers sometimes annoys me as I often find it drifts into artificial sun tan lotion vibes, but here it is done really well and maybe the coffee is smoothing it out with just a eyelash of lingering roasted acidity.

 

Wait, you drank your first Heady as a mystery beer? That's fantastic! Between this and my first Supplication as a mystery beer, those are two legends consumed blind this week. The mystery beer is always a highlight of the BIF rounds.

 

Good day BAS! Off with a cross post with WBAYDN - the first from the first box from @Rub_This_BBQ in NBS BIF #13 -




Hopulence from Wormtown. Received on 9/4/21 from @Rub_This_BBQ in NBW BIF #13. 16 oz can stored upside-down at home at 42 degrees. Reviewed 11/4/21. Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Bottom rim stamped “PKG ON 02/25/21”. Served at 46.9 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. Final temperature 55.4 degrees.
Appearance – 4.25.
First pour – Straw (SRM 3), hazy.
Body – Pale Gold (SRM 4), hazy and opaque. When rear-lite, same.
Head – Large (Maximum 6.3 cm, aggressive center pour), floral white, medium density, good retention, diminishing to a six to twelve mm crown fed by effervescence and a thick partial cap. Three-dimensional foam clouds remain above the crown. Second pour produces a high density 1.5 cm head.
Lacing – Good. Head retraction and volume reduction leaves irregular three-dimensional narrow bands of tiny to medium bubbles with occasional long narrow columns connecting to the next lower band.
Aroma – 3.5 – Weak piney resin and weaker grapefruit. No malt, no yeast.
Flavor – 4 – Begins markedly astringent with some grapefruit and pine resin. The astringency quickly gives way to some moderate old-fashioned bitterness. Some caramel malt is also evident, no yeast. No alcohol (8.5 % ABV, as marked on container) taste or aroma. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl.
Palate – 4 – Medium, watery, lively carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 4.25. Particularly good DIPA – I could suck these down all day – well, at least until I fell asleep which would probably be after three cans.
Rating 3.95, rDev -4.8%.

 

Today is the official share date for the NBW/NBS BIF 13. So, I'm going to start off with a beer that my sender @woemad kindly sentt me.

Riverkeeper IPA from River City Brewing - Spokane, WA - 6.5% ABV.

I live in the St. Cloud, MN Metro area. We have the mighty Mississippi river flowing right through us. It is the source for water in this area. I've fished in it - and have caught walleye, smallmouth bass, sunnies, and other fish in it. So, a beer that is all about protecting waterways is right up my alley. I am so digging this beer. I really love more of an old school IPA, and this is just that.

I am so honored to be your target @woemad . Thank you for this, and all the other beers you've sent me. I will be enjoying more today, on my day off work.

Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/34277/128048/

3.9/5 rDev +4.6%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

Pours a clear dark golden color. There's a 1 finger white head. I really like how the head looks, there's some nice tiny bubbles, and it looks fluffy. The retention is pretty good, and there's some nice lacing on my glass.
I'm getting a nice mango aroma from the nose here, I also get a bit of pine here as well.
Taste - The pine seems to be an up front flavor to me, and it lingers throughout. The mango hits on the back for me, and it's not as strong as the pine, but there. Both flavor profiles work together.
The body is very sticky. The hops really linger in my throat.
This is a very good old school West Coast IPA, and I like it.

 

Congratulations!

 

"And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad, so I had one more for dessert."
Thanks again to @woemad


pFriem Brewing - Pilsner - 4.9% ABV.

First ever beer from them, and I'm impressed. I really love this beer. It is so damn good.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/29573/93481/

4.27/5 rDev +6%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

This beer pours a very clear straw color. There's a 1 finger white and fluffy head. The head retention is damn good, and some lacing on the glass.
The nose is a very powerful combination of biscuit, malts, honey, and a hint of a wild funky yeast.
The taste is like the nose - a beautiful combination of malts, biscuit, and a very Belgian wild, funky, yeast flavor here.
This body is lighter, as expected, but it's also very crisp and clean.
This is damn good. You would not expect this much from a Pilsner, but it's there. Solid!

 

The start of a beautiful day. The pool has been opened up and will see some action later today.
My new beer for today is Father Nelson brewed by La Cumbre. It was bottled 4/1/21 and comes in at 10.6% ABV. I'll likely need a nap after I drink this bomber.
A dark gold color, a little haze. Small white head and some sticky lace.
Mostly citrus fruit aroma, a little pine. Background of sweet malt.
Taste of grapefruit, orange, and mango. Late pine. Caramel.
Nicely hopped. Alcohol not at all noticeable.

 

Another from @woemad . I am the first review of this.
NW Pale - The Hidden Mother Brewing - Spokane, WA - 5.38% ABV.
Interesting beer. I'm not a fan of the aroma. The flavor is good, however. I'm glad to have tried it. Thank you!!!!!!

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/57865/541462/

3.71/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

Pours a nice clear looking straw color. There's a beautiful 3 finger white and very fluffy head. I like the retention, and appearance. There's some lacing that lingers on my glass.
The nose, well, I'm not liking it. There's a weird aroma that isn't sitting well with me.
Taste - This is better than the aroma. There's a nice bit of pine from the hops here. There's some malt/biscuit flavors here. There's a bit of bitterness as well.
There's a bitter feeling here. Clean feeling.
Interesting beer. I'm not a fan of the aroma, but the flavor is good.

 

So we've seen a number of mystery beers here already from the BIF. I received three different tin-foil wrapped cans from @FBarber amongst his piles of midwestern goodies, and I will be tucking into one of those in just a moment.



But first... Frank tried to do me dirty! And he would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for that meddling (clumsy) adult! The smallest of the wrapped cans accidentally came unwrapped while I was unpacking the box, and his prank was revealed, unfortunately before it could come to fruition, for you see, in the can was not a beer, but a can of mango juice! Ha. He heard I wasn't super thrilled about the adjunct-heavy stuff that is so prevalent these days and thought he could do me a bamboozle. I fucking love it. I wish I hadn't fumbled the unpacking so badly because in addition to loving the spirit of it, I am genuinely curious what my assessment would have been. Ah, que lastima. But such is life.

So I shan't be digging into the mystery 'beer,' and I just got off work and am heading straight to bed after this, so I shan't be digging into the 'high abv' can, which really only leaves the one option. Like goldilocks I'll be taking the middle option.



Now I wasn't sure what to expect when I opened this, but for some reason, I was gonna guess... not this rich amber-honey nectar that sits in front of me. Capped with a finger or so of mostly-white head that settles into a buzz-cut and seems content to stay there.

Nose is a blend of citrus up front, with a borderline-wild kick, and a sweetness reminiscient of honey. I'll be honest, my first thought is to go out on a limb and guess braggot, but it's way to early to be making assertions, especially one as left-field as that. Spice and an almost floral/perfume note waft in as well. The spice and an earthiness really build as it warms, and it takes on an almost cinnamon-candy character.

Interesting. Some of that same yeastiness that has belgian characteristics of dense fruit and spice, and some honey warming aspect on the back of the mouth, but that could just be because I've no got honey on my mind after convincing myself early on that it could be a braggot. Some grainy malts emerge as it warms, and the fruity side of the yeastiness finishes into classic earthy hops, reminiscient of a hopped farmhouse or something similar.

Body is rich with bright carbonation and finishes kind of abruptly, while still lingering the fruity yeast and floral hops.



This is a really interesting one to do as a blind beer, and I thank you Frank for the challenge!
(now watch it be another can of actual juice or something... I tell you these BIFs are nothing but trickery and shenanigans!)

Whatever it ends up being, Thank you again Frank for your generosity, and again congratulations on the recent addition!

 

Happy Sunday all! I have a few new beers for the weekend. To start things off ahead of lunch is a new IPA brewed by Trillium called Franklin Park, which is a well known attraction in the greater Boston area. Part of their Emerald Necklace series, this IPA is hopped with both Simcoe and Amarillo, and also utilizes flaked triticale from Maine which is interesting.

Pint can dated 03/25/21 pours a cloudy hazy opaque yellow orange gold with a creamy frothy white foam head that lasts with decent retention.

Smells like fresh stone fruits, peach, apricot, some lemony candied citrus, orange, grapefruit, tropical melon, with slightly dank resinous floral earthy herbal notes.

Taste follows with fresh zested citrus, orange, grapefruit, lemon, lime, some peach, apricot, papaya, cantaloupe melon, hint of tropical pineapple, very mild bready spicy malt, with slightly dank resinous earthy floral pine.

Feels medium plus bodied, creamy with smooth moderate carbonation.

Overall a real nice IPA hopped with Simcoe and Amarillo. The flavor isn't hugely popping like some other aromatic hops, the flavors here are somewhat soft and subtle, and enjoyable when dug into deep enough. It's going great with the Mexican lunch which has arrived now too. Cheers all! I should be back soon with some more.

 

Good afternoon NBS/NBW and thanks @JackHorzempa for hosting this weekend.
Todays offering is a delightful drink from Germany. The brewers do advertise this as
"a rare German regional specialty: golden pale: Floral aroma: Dry finish"
It hits every one of the descriptions. I quite enjoyed this.
Cheers

Original

Altbier | 5.1% ABV

Brauerei Pinkus Mueller
Münster, Germany

3.9/5 rDev +5.4% | Average: 3.7
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Poured from an undated 11.2 oz bottle into the test glass
A - Lovely honey yellow, excellent clarity, Gently cabonated, with a quick to exit loose froth.
S - Notes of biscuit, honey graham, cut grass with a slight orange peel touch.
T - All the notes from the aromatic with lemongrass instead of orange.
M - Soft water, delightful texture, semi sweet start then a quick move to center with just a nudge from the hops.
Lovely linger honey, lemongrass refreshing. Lite on the palate.
O - A very nice change, well designed and executed, I understand the listing is Alt, so color may be an issue for some.
Really nice on a hot day I bet.

 

oh dear.
So I think it's safe to say I am not aiming to get cicerone certified anytime soon, because I latched onto that initial honey-like impression and would not let go despite mounting evidence that it was NOT, in fact, the father. or however the Jerry Springer joke could be worked to fit better (side note: it still blows my mind that he was the MAYOR of Cincinnati. What a world, huh?)



So the real beverage I was working on was not some braggot, or honey-related anything (though that reminds me... I've been meaning to ask you about the story you told me was behind the Harold's beer... BM me! [@FBarber])... but instead an Imperial Brown Rye Kolsch. Well, no wonder I didn't guess it right! But that still doesn't excuse just how far off the mark I truly was, ha.
Moonship, from Black Horizon (at least I got the glassware right!), is billed as an Imperial Brown Rye Kolsch.
Well, shit, at least I was right about one thing... he wasn't going to go easy on me with the blind guess!

I suppose the honey that I fixated on could be attributed to the caramel of the brown, with just enough of the spice from the rye to make it feel exotic. The spice, obviously, is attributable to the rye, and the fruity/yeast descriptor I give does sound reminiscient of the BA-listing for the kolsch style's fruity/grape-y malts.
This was a trip, man. Thank you for challenging my analytical brain, and stumping me like the end of The Giving Tree!

Cheers!

 

The Local Morrissey from my friend Jeff at Post & Beam in Peterborough NH.

Labeled as a mixed-berry sour.

Pours cherry red/purple with a thick pink foam head.

Nice tangy berry nose.

Tastes like a Berliner. Tart berry flavors and a quick drying finish.

Lucky this is 4.5% because it is, as they say, crushable and I chugged this down.

 

That's pretty awesome! I'm from Boston and I was just drinking one of those on Friday night ha. Cheers!