New Beer Weekend #81

Bad Weather Calamity


Starting off yet another frigid Minnesota winter weekend with a local imperial stout from Bad Weather Brewing.

Appearance: Super black, huge brown head.

Smell: Molasses first, then dark chocolate notes and some apparent alcohol.

Taste: Starts out sweet, chocolate, dates, raisin. Pretty sweet throughout but not cloying. Balanced out with some coffee bitterness in the finish.

Overall: Picked up a 4 pack, never seen this in cans before, just at the taproom. I enjoyed this as I like my imperial stouts on the sweet side, but not diabetes-inducing sweet. I'll have to see if I can find some more of this one.

 

An atypical Dogfish Head beer

The mantra of Dogfish Head Brewery: Off-centered ales for off-centered people.

They like to put ‘interesting’ stuff into their beer and/or use ‘interesting’ processes.

A few weeks ago, I started a thread for a new beer they just came out with: Where the Wild Hops Are IPA. With this beer they are using “four wild-derived hop varieties that include Zappa, Amarillo, Comet and Sabro” and in addition they blend this beer with “a touch of barrel-aged wild ale that’s been aged for four years in French Oak barrels”.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/dogfish-head-releases-where-the-wild-hops-are.664613/

Yup, that is off-centered alright.

But today’s new beer that I will be discussing is Blue Hen Pilsner:

“Blue Hen Pilsner is a crisp and refreshing pilsner brewed with only four ingredients – water, hops, yeast, and Delaware-grown and malted barley. Giving a loving nod to our slight yet mighty home state, the label art features the Delaware state bird and a color palette similar to that of the Delaware state flag!”

https://www.dogfish.com/brewery/beer/blue-hen-pilsner

What!?!

No weird ingredients like pear juice, black limes, etc. or some other weird brewing process?

If you click on the above link you can watch a video where Sam Calagione waxes poetically about this ‘simple’ beer. One ingredient he mentions is the hops, this beer features Czech Saaz hops.

As you can read above, they use barley that is grown in Delaware and is malted in Delaware. A small, local brewery (Troubles End Brewing) uses Proximity Pilsner Malt to brew their Pilsner and I am willing to guess that Dogfish Head also uses Proximity Pilsner Malt as well. Proximity produces their Pilsner malt in Laurel, Delaware.

Let’s see if Dogfish Head can produce a tasty ‘simple’ beer.

Served in my Polish Pilsner glass:

Appearance:

Straw yellow with a BIG fluffy white head.

Aroma:

A combination of aromas from the hops: citrus (lemon-like) and some floral. There is a hint of sweet-ish Pilsner malt aroma as well.

Taste:

The flavor sorta follows the nose but at very much a diminished level; almost an insipid level of flavor. There is a low-medium bitterness.

Mouthfeel

Thin-medium body with a dry finish.

Overall

This beer is a mixed bag. I enjoyed the aroma aspects of this beer but the almost insipid level of flavor was disappointing for me.

Maybe Dogfish Head should just stick to brewing off-centered ales? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Cheers!

@RobH @rotsaruch @KOP_Beer_OUtlet

 

Hi Nbw’ers! Thanks for opening the tap @SawDog505

my new beer is a long sought after tick, Jjjuiceee Machine by Tree House Brewing

4.6/5 rDev +1.1%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5




Can that was Canned 1.4, opened 2.4, poured into a 2022 treehouse brewery customer appreciation stemmed goblet

Brewers Notes: Once upon a time wrap, in a galaxy very, very, very far away there lived a ruthless race of being known as the JJJUICEEE MACHINE!

Utilizing the highly original blend of hops in Juice Machine at maximum volume, we built a singularly plush base beer to absorb and perfectly perpetuate this onslaught of hops.

It tastes of gooey mango, mandarin orange Hi-Chews, and sticky tropical fruit enveloped by a familiar and proprietary Tree House yeast character.

Highly unique and distinctive, the Triple J Juice Machine hits a chord we have not previously struck. Cherish and enjoy this wonderful concoction!

Hazy orange liquid , one finger dense white town cap , good retention , spotty lacings, settles to a thin layer and ring

Aroma is mango, citrus

Taste is mango , orange citrus, more mango , juicy mango with tangerine, mandarin orange undertones

Smooth, hop taste, no bite, low sudsing , juicy , juicy, jjjuiceee

Good beer, recommended

 

Thanks for the kick-off @SawDog505. I'm hoping to try a few new beers this weekend, with at least a couple of them also being cellar pulls. As such, my first beer of the weekend, (and cross-posted in the Cellaruary thread) is a 2016 bottle of Rumpkin, from Avery Brewing. Not sure of the wisdom of a 17.5% beer at 9:30 in the morning (especially since I'm doing work emails), but what the hey, let's give it a go.

3.31/5 rDev -18.9%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 2.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3

Bottled August 17th, 2016.
As I watched the beer pour from bottle to glass, my first thought was "this is a very good looking beer". There was a vibrancy to the orange / brown color that I don't often see, and that I really liked. Unfortunately, in my eagerness to see if I could drum up some head on the pour, I forgot that this is 5.5 years old, and an aggressive pour may not be the best idea. While the pour did result in a finger or so of fizzy short-lived head, it also resulted in a significant amount of sediment bouncing around my glass like a bunch of 6 year old kids hopped up on Red Bull in a bouncy castle. Some people don't mind floaties....I'm not one of them. After suppressing my gag reflex, in an effort to be as fair as possible in rating this, I won't dock it too much for the floaties. It is still an attractive beer if you step back a few feet and un-focus your eyes like you had to do with one of those pictures from 20 years ago that looked like a bunch of dots until you saw them just right. Thus endeth the longest description I've ever given of a beer's appearance.

Aroma rolls out of the glass in waves, and is all pumpkin & spice. I'm not getting any rum barrel, but this still smells really good, especially given its age.

The taste is where this goes a bit sideways. The pumpkin takes the role of Grand Marshal in this parade, with plenty of spice riding along in the old convertible throwing cheap candy to the kids. If I were locking in on just those pumpkin and spice notes, I think I'd like this beer more. Unfortunately, there's an alcohol burn to it that plays the role of the local insurance agent who is also walking in this parade but adding no apparent value (i.e. he's not even throwing out candy, he's just walking with a banner advertising his business). I can't put a finger on it, but the beer is just lacking sufficient nuance. If you put this in a different shaped bottle and called it "Pumpkinschlager", or "Pumple Minze" you could sell cheap shots of this to college kids. It stays on the tongue for a long time in a vaguely unpleasant way.

Overall, glad to have tried it, but not my jam.

 

Similar experience as me with a bottle of their Rasberry Truffle or whatever it's called. I found it at a shop and was about 3 years old. I poured the entire bottle into my glass and at the end, this gigantic cake of sediment broke free from the bottom and just plopped into the glass. It really turned me off tbh and it looked really gross. I unfortunately, had to dump a $14 beer because I just couldn't drink it with the sludge floating around it

 

Thanks for starting this thread, @SawDog505. Glad you survived the storm, and glad that I don't have to put up with that stuff anymore.
I bought this beer for my wife. She liked it a lot and wanted me to try it. I'm happy she did that.
The beer is a hazy gold/orange color with just a hint of a head.
Aroma of syrup, fruit, and vanilla.
Taste of strawberry, maple syrup, and vanilla.
Mostly sweet, slight tartness.
A pleasant beer.

 

I almost tried this beer at the brewery last Sunday, but there were too many other good options. The look is brownish-black, with a four-centimeter light-brown foamy top, which quickly dissipates. The smell is like fresh chocolate chip pancakes. Brown sugar and rye are certainly strong in the aroma. The taste is light on maple, brown sugar, and malted rye. Which is how I like it. I like maple syrup, but it can overpower a beer if the flavor is too strong. This tastes more like a porter than a stout. The mouthfeel is highly-carbonated, syrupy, and sparkly. Stout champagne. Overall, this is a good beer. It is a nice beer to have in the morning.

 

I'm pushing myself to stay up this morning so I can sleep in until somewhere close to midnight tonight as we are aiming to do a sunrise snowshoe, and I needs my old man sleep!
In honour of a recent pizza-toppings tournament on the baseball blog that Terry and I both frequent, I will be dipping into a pizza-place collaboration that Stoup did.
00 Pilsner is NOT -- as I somehow assumed -- an allusion to the infamous British spy/playboy, but instead a reference to the preferred flour-variety used in pizza dough. That makes a tonne more sense for a pizza-place associated axis pilsner ('Italian' dry-hopped German-style pils). Sadly, I do not have any pizza with which to pair this pils (I'm slowly trying to re-introduce it after avoiding it for the better part of the last four or five years. Thanks, gout [word to Benny Franklin]). Ironically, Terry is also the only other review of this beer on the site. Great minds and all that...



The pour is a very light and clear pale gold. Good pile of wet white foam that recedes at a moderate pace leaving its markings along the glass-sides.

Nose starts out as soon as I pop the tab on the can. Floral is the first impression, and while it calms down fairly quickly upon pouring, it does not yield fully. Fruitier as that initial blush fades, and I keep coming back to the colour green, but more in a synesthetic way rather than when I usually think of it in reference to hops, when I mean it more in terms of vinousness or apples/grapes. So it's not those, but it's still Ruby Rhod greenn. Clean malts underneath.

Malt strike first this time... grainy/crackery drifting more into the doughy breadiness that seems appropriate for the tie-in. The hops are bold without overwhelming, and present more of the fruitiness than the more floral nose. This gives way to a spicy earthiness that lingers harmoniously.

I like it. I've been exploring more of the hoppier lagers and reds and the like so as not to be bamboozled into yet another hazy/fruity IPA and have been enjoying it. This is no exception. Not that I would expect any different from a brewery that I have come to really trust and enjoy in Stoup.

Cheers, hope y'all are also enjoying something tasty and staying safe and warm in this wild world!!

 

Bourbon Barrel Aged Tunguska Stout from Brew Kettle



This 12 month barrel aged version of their Russian Imperial stout comes in at 11.5%. Interestingly, the beer is only .1% more than the base stout.

The body is motor oil black and has neither head nor lacing at any point. Carbonation is absent. It’s like drinking a glass of night.

The nose is an inviting mix of bourbon and chocolate, with the latter evident upon study.

The taste inverts the nose attributes with the chocolate moving forward and adding a dark fruit element. The barrel is present, but does not dominate.

Mouthfeel is stout level and the bourbon does not reach cloying that many barrel aged stouts do (and often a welcome presence).

A nice addition to the Brew Kettle lineup and I hope they make this one again. I’ll note that the slight increase in price over the base is acceptable given the aging process, but the minimal boost in ABV was surprising. The brewery is local and I hope to catch this one on tap. Cheers!

 

@LesDewitt4beer had me excited to try this beer. The look is emotional sunset yellow-orange. Golden. Pristine. The smell is strong with tropical fruits. Malty. Sweet. King's Hawaiian bread. The taste is very 3 Floydsian. I recognize it immediately. Tropical fruit, with their signature euphoric bitterness. The mouthfeel is creamy, with medium carbonation, and that tornado/lightning mouth punch that 3 Floyds Brewing owns. I love 3 Floyds Brewing. They have their own table in Valhalla, where IPAs flow endlessly. This is an example why.

 

Where are you snowshoeing? And two please post some pics tomorrow if you remember. Would love to see the scenery.

 

This is already a low ABV beer but maybe you could mix it with something to make a Lemon based Radler?

Cheers!

 

Bummer.

I always have Vodka on hand; cheap stuff (Banker's Club) that I use to fill up airlocks when homebrewing.

Cheers!

P.S. I am not a regular Vodka drinker but I would certainly make an exception here if I had a bottle of Schneeeule - Flora Speziaal which I needed to kill off!

 

Hello New Beer Weekend!!!

I'm a bit earlier in here than I've been lately. I've been battling a cold, and I'm finally on the tail end of it, and I need a good beer. Sadly, at work lately, we have been having some mediocre samples at best. So Now that I'm off till Monday morning, it's time for a good beer, and I believe that @woemad sent this to me when I was his target in a previous BIF.


Dark Star - Imperial Oatmeal Stout - Fremont Brewing - Seattle, WA - 8% ABV.

Yeah, this is damn good. A bit lacking in the aroma, but it's also been in my fridge for a long time. At least the flavor isn't lacking. Chocolate, and coffee are the main flavors. Malts, and a nice bitterness, that lingers on the back side. This is good, and I'm glad to have had the honor of trying it. Thank you!!!!

Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/20680/65266/

3.92/5 rDev -3.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
by Victory_Sabre1973 from Minnesota

This beer pours pitch black. The head, on a not aggressive pour, comes out to 3 finger. It is brown and very long lasting. The bubbles of the head are small. There's a good deal of lacing on the glass.
The nose isn't too strong here. I do get a faint hint of a dark chocolate, and a hint of coffee.
Taste - I get a good amount of dark chocolate up front. There's coffee notes that hit as well up front, but more on the back. There's a bit of malt in the flavor, as well. There's a bitterness that hits in this beer that lingers on the back side.
Soft mouth feel, from the oats. Thick and creamy, and full bodied.
This is one solid, and delicious beer. I do recommend it.


I may be back later with another. Not sure yet.

 

I’ll be on the look out for this one.