New Beer Weekend #55

Czech it out – a threesome!

A new brewery opened up in Philly in 2020 with the interesting name of Human Robot. A couple of weeks ago I spoke to an employee at my local Retail Beer Distributor as to whether they carried beers from Human Robot and was disappointed to hear they didn’t. During a more recent visit a few days ago he saw me and said: “We just got some Human Robot beers in”. On a shelf near the cash register were five different beers from Human Robot in the four-pack/16 ounce can format. They were rather pricey but I said to myself: heck, let’s buy one. I decided to purchase a four-pack of Czech 10° - Czech style Pale Lager.

Below is how this beer is detailed on the Human Robot website:

“4.2% - Czech-Style Pale Lager - Beautiful bready malt balanced with a kiss of floral spice. Brewed lovingly with German Pils malt and a smidgen of sweet Munich then hopped with Bohemia’s gift to the world Saaz hops,”

It has been a while since I have conducted a side-by-side tasting and since I have two other Bohemian Pilsners (Czech Pale Lagers) in my refrigerator I figured I would do a three-way today. The two other Bohemian Pilsners are Sterling Pig Prague Hog and my homebrewed Bohemian Pilsner.

Served in my Polish Pilsner glasses:

Appearance:

Human Robot 10°: A medium golden color with a white head

Sterling Pig Prague Hog: Straw yellow colored with a white head

Jack’s BoPils: A deep burnished golden color with a three finger white head with excellent head retention throughout the entire drinking experience.

Aroma:

Human Robot 10°: There is a bready malt on the nose; that’s about it.

Sterling Pig Prague Hog: There is a notable and pleasant combination of hop aroma (herbal, spicy, and lemon-like) and rich malty aroma

Jack’s BoPils: A prominent combination of bready and spicy/herbal aromas.

Taste:

Human Robot 10°: The flavor very much follows the nose with a rich, bready malt flavor. There is a moderate bitterness.

Sterling Pig Prague Hog: The flavor follows the nose with notable hop flavors of herbal, spicy and lemon-like accompanied with a full, rich malty flavor of rustic white bread crust. There is a moderate bitterness.

Jack’s BoPils: The flavors follow the nose with notable flavors of bready and spicy/herbal. There is a firm bitterness.

Mouthfeel:

Human Robot 10°: This beer is medium bodied with an off-dry finish.

Sterling Pig Prague Hog: Ditto

Jack’s BoPils: Ditto.

Overall:

Human Robot 10°: This beer is sorta good but it lacks balance; too one dimensional with the malt aroma/flavor dominating the palate. This beer almost tastes more like a Vienna Lager vs. a Bohemian Pilsner (Czech Pale Lager). This beer would have benefitted from more flavor hopping.

Sterling Pig Prague Hog: This beer is a very good Bohemian Pilsner with flavors very well in balance between the complex hop flavors and the full, rich malt flavor.

Jack’s BoPils: This beer is also very good. A depth of bready malt flavor accompanied with a notable spicy/herbal flavor.

Cheers!

@rotsaruch @RobH @KOP_Beer_OUtlet @FBarber

 

Thanks for starting her up.

 

Good Morning, New Beer Weekend!
Late night + early morning. Here's a drive-by to start the weekend.
Science Reasons IPA from Henhouse.

Canned 06/17/21
Label states India Pale Ale w/ Galaxy, Sorachi Ace & Hallertau Blanc hops.
Fluffy white cap tops this slightly turbid straw hued brew. Very good retention, layered lacing.
Nose is lemon, grass, slightly sweet wet grain, and a generally mild tropical note.
Flavor has more going on. The citrus notes are lemon, lemongrass, peach, melon, and a grainy sweetness with undertones of blueberry. A very nuanced, slightly dry, white wine note is detectable near the end. Smooth ride.
Mouthfeel is spot on for style with good carb and a slightly drying finish.
Overall, a tasty, nuanced blend of hops delivered in a well executed IPA.
3.81/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

 

I had this beer late yesterday, but, hey, it was Saturday in Munich!

I was motivated to try this by the on-going online fruited kettle sour tasting.

Dogfish Head SeaQuench Ale
ABV: 4.9%
IBU: 10



The aroma is dominated by lime.

Hazy amber-orange topped by a 1 inch white head, thick, fluffy, and creamy. The head recedes fairly quickly, leaving sparse lacing. No head remnants at all after 15 minutes or so. The beer look is also hampered a bit by dark rather large floaties that settle to the bottom of the glass (I just poured, no attempt to decant).

The initial taste hits with the tart salty lime, which mellows into the middle, finishing with a very pleasant crisp tartness. The lime flavor is, of course, dominant throughout. It is a natural lime flavor like fresh-squeezed limeade. The malts (wheat?) to provide a good backbone, keeping this beer well into "you're drinking a beer" territory (I make than comment with reference to fruit-punch-doesn't-taste-like-beer entries into the style).

The body is moderate-thin and crisp with nice dancing on the tongue.

Overall, I quite liked this beer. It is refreshing, tart but not puckering sour, drifting a bit toward Margaritaville with the lime and salt, but with the malt presence keeping it well within Beer Town. Not really a "session" beer for me, though. One at a time will do nicely.

L: 3.75 | S: 4.0 | T: 4.25 | F: 3.75 | O: 4.0 | Rating: 4.06

 

Back from a three mile hike with the dogs. It's good we started early because it was getting hot as we finished. A couple glasses of water, then on to some beer.
This is a Dunkel from Pug Ryan's Brewing Company, an average beer at best.
This beer is a mahogany color, with no head.
Not much aroma. Sweet malt, a little nutty.
Ditto the taste. Brown sugar, nutty.
Sweet in the mouth, drinks easily.

 

Thanks for kicking things off this morning @jkblr, sad Fall is almost here seeing all the Oktoberfest beers at the beer store yesterday.

I find similar results @JackHorzempa in terms of local hype breweries turning to higher priced standard beer styles and falling short in the rating scores, despite the more expensive price tag.

Hoping to rate SeaQuench tomorrow @MNAle , for here and the thread. Will venture out shortly. In the interim, I popped open the one beer I have the the weekend Sour tasting.

Firestone Walker Bretta Weisse



Bottle Notes: Batch #005, bottled 5/20/17, number of cases 5,000.4.7% ABV, 12.7 oz. Berliner Weisse Wheat Beer. Barrel Ratio: 100% French Oak. Maturation Time: 4-8 months. Titratable Acidity 7 g/L. Flora: Proprietary blend of Brettanomyces and Lactobacillus culures.

Imagine yourself in Berlin's Toergarten enjoying this refreshing Berliner Weisse inspired beer on a warm summer's day. Bretta Weisse honors the traditional beverage of the great Prussian capital, Berlin. Fredrick-the-Great was trained to brew it, and Napoleon's troops called it "The champagne of the North". Firm estery notes of stone and tropical fruit lead to Funky, yeasty, citrus aromas. Soft cereal and Oak flavors are enveloped by a firm acidity and tartness. the finish is dry and crisp; a thoroughly enjoyable beverage. At 4.7% ABV, One could imagine enjoying several Bretta Weisse's in the Tiergarten, or anywhere else. A sante!

Appearance: Single pour into a chalice. Golden orange clear base, heavy carbonation, light short white head dissipates almost instantly. 3.75

Aroma: Sweet, funky and tart lemon and grape, bold and inviting. 4.0

Taste: Consistent with the aroma. Very sweet, lightly tart acidic white wine, lemon. No wheat noted, no complexity beyond this. 3.5

Mouthfeel: Syrupy, medium body, dry, overall sweet but tart acidic taste helps balance, persistent carbonation, light easy drinking and clean finish. 4.0

Overall: This was an enjoyable Weisse offering, light and easy, somewhat one note taste. Didn't get much value out of the higher price tag ($13.99 + tax), would drink at a festival but not seek out at this price level. 3.5

Review powered by David Bowie's Sound and Vision, the first song played on today's 1977 flashback.

 

Back from vacation where I sampled quite a few beers…Lif alert in Bif #13 btw



Dylan’s Shoes by Treehouse

4.6/5 rDev +0.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Pint Glass poured into a IPA glass.

Black motor oil that produces a dense brown one finger foam cap , good retention, settles to a thin layer

Aroma is sweet milk chocolate

Taste is sweet milk chocolate , drinking a Hershey milk chocolate beer , cocoa, roast malts, sweet

Velvety smooth, silky. Syrupy

Delicious dessert beer

 

I’m hoping to add several beers this weekend. Im currently outside and just soaked myself in a water gun fight with our oldest. This felt like the perfect beer for the occasion, 2% and incredibly refreshing. It was new to the store I go to so I had to try it. The flowers are just exploding in the garden so I tried to add some color, damn sun flowers were all facing away. Oh well. I wasn’t sure which glass was appropriate but since it is Gaffel I went with the stange (or tubo ) @DiUr

Gaffel - Radler



This beer pours like a a cloudy watered down beer, which is what it is, so no surprise there. No real head or retention and none expected.

Aroma is very pleasant nice soft lemon flavors and some soft aromas of baked bread almost. It very much reminds me of an Arnold Palmer.

Taste is same as the nose, nothing overly sweet or glaring. Just well balanced lemon and beer.

Mouthfeel is very light, pleasant moderate carbonation, and goes down like water. Super refreshing stuff, it has just enough acidity from the lemon.

I really liked this beer a lot, I don’t enjoy day drinking much but this is perfect for it at 2%. It is so balanced all around and incredibly drinkable and refreshing. I may grab a four pack while they’re still new!

 

Greeting weekenders. Coming to you live from one of my favorite spots - Liberty, ME - on the last leg of our vacation, sitting beside Cargill Pond. Absolute quiet. We are now on our own. The sprout has gone home with parental units, so the missus and I are totally unsupervised. Finally...

So when in Liberty...



Lovely Lake St. George Brewery and food from Chef on the Run food truck...far cry from the "roach coaches" of my past. Brisket, beans, great fries. The wife had wings and I am not a huge wing fan, but they were damned tasty and crisp.

The beer is Asylum DIPA on tap. (The wife has Uncommon Wit in her glass). The Imperial nee DIPA looks as it should, rich golden color and very clear. Modest head, but a persistent one.

The aroma is quite strong - clearly grapefruit, bit notes of resinous pine, a fairly strong malt bready smell. More or less a straightforward amped up old school IPA smell.

The taste is big. Big citrus notes supported by a slight earthy note and clean malt taste. It is only slightly sweet. On repeated sips, the resinous hop notes emerge and eventually take charge, but you get that citrus fruit smack upside the head on every sip, so you get an alternation like a pendulum swing with citrus heavy on one side and the piney resin thing on the other end of the arc. Eventually finishing up the citrus re-emerges with an oil or peel sting with a nice level.of bitterness and slightly sweet residual flavor.

It is fairly light on the feel...maybe medium bodied. Pleasant tingly aftertaste that lingers quite a while.

Overall, it is a very good example of an old school IPA in my opinion. I will gladly have another at some point this week. It looks like this needs to be added to the database, but I'm feeling 3.8 to 4.0 here. Man, if you are ever up here this is a worthy stop - good beer, good food, easy to get to yet off the beaten path. Highly recommend a visit.

 

Hey all you NBW people! I bought a another variety pack this week, this one from Zero Gravity.
First up is the heavy hitter of the box, Madonna an 8% ABV, 90 IBU double IPA that uses Pilsner malt and wheat, hops are Citra Motueka and El Dorado.
No word as to whether the name is a Christian thing or a 63 year old pop star thing.

4.27/5 rDev +4.1%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Poured from a 12oz can packaged on 7/14/21 to a Nonic at fridge temp.
Nice bright hazy gold body. Off-white head is about 2.5" and laces nicely as I drink.
The aroma is the best quality of this beer. Very peach, hint of melon, background of cinnamon??? or some kind of sweet complimentary spice.
Taste is similar, but with the alcohol as a background. Don't get me wrong, the alcohol sensation is about right for an 8% beer. Finish is medium dry after the sweet mid thrill.
This beer is slightly creamy, but not tongue coating. Carbonation is appropriate and there is a hint of hop oil texture.
Overall a really good beer. An its nice to see an 8% in the 12oz format.

 

Guess I'll add this to the NBW thread as well. Cross post from the Online Tasting "Fruited Kettle Sours"

True Anomaly's Beryl. Fruited Raspberry+Red Current Sour. 5.6% ABV.


Edit: Ha cool, the Mods already updated this from retired to Rotating, thanks

Pours a cloudy reddish/pink color. A white head forms, and rises to about two fingers. That recedes quickly to a small ring and minimal lace.
Berry fruit puree in the nose. Jam like, and thats about it. A refreshing fruity nose but not particularly unique or engaging.
Taste wise, all that raspberry jam and fruitiness up front and center. Then becomes an acid bomb lingering. Not much here, and the acidic bite kind of gets in the way for me.
A light to medium body, Chewy and well carbonated. Though a bit scratchy and filmy on the tongue. I'm not necessarily looking to come back to this one, but not hard to drink.

Its OK, I haven't been a big fan of these fruited kettle sours lately, and this is a good example why. Jammy fruits up front, and just filmy acidity lingering, and nothing else, which I'm not the biggest fan of. Love True Anomaly but, this isn't doing it for me.

Overall score is 3.34, B- for me.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/55586/476239/?ba=champ103#review

Got some North Coast Old Rasputin, aged in Rye Whiskey Barrels for later. I'm looking forward to that, as I love all things North Coast. Don't know if I'm going to open it today or tomorrow though, kind of depends on how much day drinking I do today

 

Good afternoon, NBWers. I drank mostly new-to-me beers last weekend while I was camping, but I didn't review or post them because I had no internet access in the Olympic mountains. Today, I'm struggling with my recalcitrant back, but I was able to change my wife's oil (not a euphemism), though I'm mostly watching her pack the kitchen in preparation for our impending remodel. So I'm sitting on the couch, trying Quattuor from Ex Novo for the first time.

750ml capped bottle served in a snulip. 2018 bottle (I guess that's when their fourth anniversary was?)

Pours a fairly clear honey gold with a small head and not a lot of carbonation. Smell is peachy and dry, a little hay, a little wood.

Taste is more funk, definitely some of the peach coming through, surprising amount of woodiness, not a ton of tartness but it's there. After looking at the label, I would say white wine is noticeable in the flavor as well.

Mouthfeel is medium and smooth. Overall, solid beer.

 

Thanks to @jdell15 from the last can can bif

Old man joy ... cheers all

4.38/5 rDev +2.8%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

L: pours like clean oil and deep black in the class with a nice tan head
S: no booze strong coffee and bittersweet chocolate
T: follows burnt toast and roasty goodnews and chocolate on the Finnish

M: average carb + mouthfeel sliky

O: a killer beer and really enjoyed sipping it! Beers like this is why I love BiF as you get to try beers that are amazing and not in your area

 

My second new-to-me beer this weekend:

Humble Forager Coastal Sunshine V14
ABV: 6.0%
IBU: NA



The aroma is all fruit. I can detect peach, a mix of tropical fruit aromas.

The look is, to be frank, ugly. Opaque murky ripe pineapple juice browish-yellow, with a head that disappears so fast it was completely gone by the time I put down the camera. Too opaque to tell if there is any carbonation within, but there are sparse tiny bubbles poking up around the edge and quickly disappearing. The color is, as I wrote, murky but that is only the beginning. There are large light-colored lumps held in suspension by the apparently thick body. There is no lacing, but it does leave a bit of fruit-juice pulp residue on the side of the glass as I drink. If I saw a companion at the bar drinking this, I might ask what he is having, but only to avoid it when I order. Ugly.

The taste does redeem the look. Nicely tart and sweet, but not overly so on either one. It is pretty much a hard fruit smoothie. There is very little in the flavor that tells you this is a beer. Taking it for what it is, I am enjoying it. Plenty of fruit flavors intermixed. Some peach, but not as obvious as in the aroma. Tropical fruits abound. Since I've never experienced Thai Mangosteen, I have to describe the flavor with fruits I have experienced. It is vaguely pineapple with a bit of melon. I also pick up the promised strawberry, but just a touch. As I wrote, very nice and enjoyable. The beer is fruity-tart throughout, no bitterness, a bit sweet with the tartness lingering in the finish and aftertaste, offsetting the sweetness.

The body is moderately thick (but not as thick as the appearance/suspension hinted).

Overall, a very very good fruit smoothie sour. Even so, this is not something I would ordinarily reach for when wanting a beer. Quintessentially, a beer than does not taste like a beer.

L: 1.0 | S: 3.75 | T: 4.25 | F: 4.0 | O: 4.0 | Rating: 3.86

 

3rd beer from my Zero Gravity variety pack. I skipped talking about the Cone Head I had in between my last posting because I know I've had that beer before, but I see no record of it in my reviews.
Anyways, I'm on to Little Wolf, A 4.7% Pale Ale.

3.75/5 rDev -2.8%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

Poured from a 12oz can packaged 7/1/21 to a Nonic at fridge temp.
Body is medium to dark gold, slightly hazy with a 1" puffy head that fades rather fast. Medium to light lacing ensues.
The aroma is pretty malty. There is a hint of darker roasted malt despite the body color.
Up front the malt persists, only in the absolute finish do the hops kick in and dry things out.
Carbonation helps with the heavy malt flavor and the overall body comes off as medium light.
Overall, a little too malt forward for me for a Pale Ale, but no off flavors, nothing else to complain about. A little more balance and this would be great.

 

This weekend I’m trying to get through my back log of Fruited Kettle “Sours”, taste wise I do tend to enjoy these but many are just not even close to beer. Giving Imprint Schmoojee Morello Cherry Puffsicle Colada a try. I wouldn’t call this a beer, it’s pretty much a fruit smoothie and overall a tasty beverage.

4.2/5 rDev -1.6%
look: 3 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

16 oz can poured into an oversized wine glass

A- An opaque dark pink with a small pink head. Looks like a smoothie.

S- Sweet cherry hard candies, hints of pineapple.

T- Sweet cherry hard candies, coconut, some pineapple.

M- Smooth, creamy, full body.

O- As a fruit smoothie this is really good, just not a coming across as a beer.

Cheers!