What beer are you drinking now? #1532

The Ale Apothecary • Strawberry La Tache

 

Happy Friday!
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Good morning BA, have a great Friday! Hope everyone is getting their new year's beer lined up. I made a moderate new beer haul yesterday afternoon, and will likely make another one on Christmas eve for good measure. Played Battelfield 4 last night until 3 AM. Was amazing.

Incredible American porter as usual. Flavors of milk/dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, toasted dark bread, and light smoke/charred malts; with some balancing herbal/spicy hop flavors. Moderate herbal/spicy hop and roast/char bitterness on the finish. Great creamy/silky medium body mouthfeel; some hop stickiness and chalky roast as well. Lightly increasing roasted dryness. Always amazing stuff. Pretty much the definition of the American porter style. This is a pretty fresh bottle. I like it even more near the end of the "Best By" range, so it is less hoppy/drying; and more rich, creamy, and malty. Still delicious regardless, though.


Incredible DIPA! I should buy this more often. Flavors of juicy grapefruit, tangerine, pineapple, peach, apricot, mango, lemon/orange peel, citrus rind, and pine hops; with light-moderate caramel/toasted bread malt balance; and herbal, floral, grassy hop earthiness. Good sized pine/citrus rind/spicy bitterness on the finish. Medium bodied; very sticky/resinous and fairly creamy/grainy balanced mouthfeel. Strong increasing resin dryness, with zero lingering hop astringency. Still highly impressed with this, even with the new higher ABV. This was originally one of the first IPAs way back 5-6 years ago to really blow me away, and I think it still just as impressive; even though my rating numbers have shifted overall to lower scores over time. I love C hops and Simcoe any day of the week.


Awesome spiced stout! Flavors of milk/dark chocolate, cocoa, cinnamon, raisin, nutmeg, vanilla, caramel, toasted dark bread, and brown sugar; with lighter notes of coffee, toffee, smoke, and charred grains. Moderate roast/char and piney/spicy hop bitterness on the finish. Medium bodied; balanced malt creaminess, chalky roast/spice, and hop stickiness in the mouthfeel. Light-moderate increasing dryness from bitterness; no astringency. I like this just about as much as the base beer for the most part. This feels less aggressively roasty/bitter; in favor of the spice and toffee/vanilla notes. More residual sweetness, which helps showcase more of the flavoring. A really spot on American style stout.


Found a pre-aged Abyss on the shelf yesterday, so I had to grab it. This is insane! Flavors of huge dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, molasses, caramel, toffee, cherry, licorice, vanilla, toasted dark bread, smoke, and charcoal; with underlying notes of oak, red wine, raisin, plum, fig, tobacco, bourbon, and peppery/piney hops. Moderate roast/char and piney/spicy hop bitterness on the finish; light touch of tannic wine and fruit tartness. Full bodied creamy, silky, slick mouthfeel; with a fair amount of sticky/chalky roast and hop notes. Increasing roast/char and bitter hop dryness. Zero acrid/astringent roast/char notes; but some lingering oak tannins. Dangerously smooth sipping. Just as mind blowing as it ever was for me, complexity and balance is simply off the charts. Apparently this is a shelf beer in Ohio, do they even drink beer down here?


Cheers

 

Morning BA! Off to do some snow tubing this morning with the family! I really enjoy Velvet Merlin, so it's no surprise that I am really enjoying this as well!

 

Drinking Lagunitas Sucks

 

Wake up sleepy heads, time to drink a big stout:



Hope to do some beer drinking and GA beer hunting today downtown. Cool and breezy forecast-perfect weather to look for new to me beers. Cheers from Savannah!

 

Local Coffee Porter, Cheers BA!

 

Vocation: Smash & Grab

Big pine, grapefruit, mango and passionfruit notes in this. Brewed about 70 miles from me, will be trying some more stuff by them in the future as its fresh, cheap and real easy to find.

 

home & unsupervised.

 

Breakfast brew . . . wheat is good for you.

Straight to Ale He Ain't Hefe



5% ABV

Score 3.71
appearance: 3.5 | aroma: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75

Hazy appearance of a lighter shade of gold. Attractive white cap that quickly dissipates.

An aroma of light citrus with clove, banana and wheat malt seasoned with a hint of spice.

Taste is simple but solid, straight down the middle of the road with a little tartness all the way. Banana and clove apparent on entry with wheat becoming stronger mid palate and prominent in the finish/aftertaste. There is little hop presence but enough there to balance the rest.

Light medium texture.

A good solid effort without any flashes or flourishes, just simple stuff that does it's job a bit better than average. Good flavor that should enjoy a wide appeal. Not the equal of a sophisticated German Hefe but relatively flawless and certainly nothing to complain about.

 

Excellent find on that Abyss

 

You forgot to "capitalize" the "w" on the threads title ...! Entire thread ruined!!!

 

Morning BA's and happy last Friday of 2016!

Yesterday was somewhat productive....I partially converted my laundry room into a fitness area with my Concept 2 rowing erg and weight bench etc....NY resolution is to drop about 15 lbs and get more fit by rowing daily! Beer gut is starting to get noticed - not a good thing!

I already worked out some....so, guess it is time to hydrate



I am not sure I am doing this fitness thing right....haha!



Around 8 am on my lake



last evening clouds / sky / ice on neighboring lake



lots of waterfowl out today

 

Mrs. Z is still sleeping; may as well start breakfast and enjoy another stout:



Pay no attention to the minor spillage, I've been so good lately

 

Cheers BA and have a nice day. I insist.






Don't ask. Bottoms up!

 

Cloudwater: Citra IPA
Last one until next summer.

 

E-X-C-E-L-L-E-N-T-!

This one is quite delicious.

 

...!

 

try'n to get it while the gettin' is good.