Authentic Bavarian Hefe-Weizen

Posted by Nick Sabia / at 11:33 PM / / 0 comments

Ayinger Bräu-Weisse

     

    So basically when i picked up my Autumn Tumbler at the packie, i wanted to grab a pint of something new. I was a little limited on time and this Hefeweizen caught my eye. I've never had one before, plus i've been on the search for the Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock for a while, so i wanted to try one of their products. Plus at like $4.50 i can't really complain.

Presentation:  The graphic design on this guy is pretty... average. Not really a mood setter, it just makes me think of Germany; A very old Germany. It's literally a boring version of a Sierra Nevada label with the landscape and all. However, The pour was a little more satisfying. I used some cheapo pilsner glass i found in my cupboard which yielded a moderate head. It was thin in short time but stayed creamy the whole time i drank it. The color was a hazy yellow; cloudy and almost translucent.                        

Smell:  Resembles the smell of those dried banana slices you find in trail mixes. I could detect a slight spiciness and maybe a little nutty note.

Taste:

Dominant Flavor:  Nothing really that interesting. Simple yeasty bread flavor, the good kind of simple. A tiny bit of banana that is also present in the smell. It also has a pretty small to medium overall body; nothing overpowering.

Crispness:  Actually a present factor in this brew. It starts crisp and ends crisp, ending at just the right time. The carbonation is ridiculous just to watch, and it fits body well.

Aftertaste:  Very smooth and had no real flavor at all, just slides over the palette and down your throat.

Overall Bitterness:  Glazes over the tongue, not overwhelming. Goes well with the overall flavor. This brew shouldn't pain the brew drinker that is afraid of a little bitter bite.

Drinkability:  The biggest feeling i get about a beer is that it's an entertainment beer. It's light, flavorful, and extremely drinkable. You can gulp it and get pretty much the same experience a sipping on it. It's also very refreshing and one of the best factors is that it doesn't need to warm up to have all of it's flavor potential. It's nice to find a beer that holds it's flavor when it's chilled. Average ABV at 5.10%, no big deal at all.

Overall:  I was a little skeptical at fist but this brew does hold it's own. It feels to me like the craft brew drinker's light beer. I get the feeling i should be drinking this in a german pub, eating peanuts, and watching soccer game or some other beloved european sport ( I have no clue what German's watch in their pubs) It's got everything you want, and it's extremely drinkable. I don't see myself buying it in the near future but i enjoyed it and i might try myself some more Hefeweizen's. ( [cough] SN Kellerweis [cough] )

Rating: 7.3/10.0


Follow @Bobmomento

Taste of Autumn

Posted by Nick Sabia / at 1:49 AM / / 0 comments

Sierra Nevada Tumbler Autumn Brown Ale

     

     After I saw the back-cover spread on the August issue of Yankee Brew News, I knew what i was gonna pick up on my next trip to the packie. When the package and grocery store seasonals are comprised of american attempts of Oktoberfest Märzen's, This is a welcome change.

Presentation:  I have to admit, Sierra Nevada makes some damn good labels for their beer. Like all their bottles, this one features a themed landscape. Just look at it, it speaks for itself; brew drinker's eye candy. Sierra Nevada understands the importance of setting the mood, which is a big factor for me. As for pouring, this time a took a room temperature stein instead of a chilled one; It pours a brownish-red with an unexpectedly small head, almost non-existant.                           

Smell: Definitely one of my favorite smelling brews; Real complex and interesting. If i had to pin it down id say it smells like freshly baked bread, and oddly enough, fresh cut wood. Even better it's a welcome smell, and ties together that whole "fall" theme.

Taste:

Dominant Flavor: Smokey and robust taste, hints of brown suger and tasty malt. Quite creamy at the same time. Ideal sweetness for a beer of this body, being about a heavy medium. You can tell its an Autumn brew, with or without the awesome label.

Crispness: I really don't know how to start describing the crispness. The taste is so intricate you almost ignore it. All i can say is that it's quite drinkable at the right temperature.

Aftertaste: Holy Shit! This beer follows up with THE BEST AFTER TASTE i've had to date. It tastes like brown suger, a slight taste of apples, perfect sweetness, and it sticks around for so long. You'll take a sip, put down your glass, and a minute later, crave that brown suger and go for another gulp.

Overall Bitterness: Really minimal and quite hidden. Possibly hidden behind that apple taste but not positive. Little bitter in beginning of aftertaste but it balances out that the sweetness.

Drinkability: Little too heavy for a meal but a great "relaxation" brew; It has a pretty moderate ABV at 5.5%. Great beer to share with a few buddies. Slight warning though, dont get one of these guys too cold, real hard to get down, gets quite heavy, and it loses a lot of flavor. My suggestion is to let it sit out for about an hour to an hour and a half to get to room temp.

Overall: Sierra Nevada hasn't failed me yet and this one is no different. They created a robust, unique, seasonal that i feel like i'll be waiting for when next fall comes around. It's a fantastic brew, well balanced and well flavored in all the spectrums. If your local packie has it, i'd definitely recommend picking up a six.

Rating: 8.3/10.0


Follow @Bobmomento

Spaten's Own Hefeweizen

Posted by Nick Gardner / at 3:41 AM / / 0 comments

Okay to start off the weekend I'll be putting up one of two reviews. This morning I bring you Spaten's Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse, said by Spaten to be a brew with "a refreshing taste sensation of a special sort. Now before I go any further my pictures I had for this were deleted or misplaced sometime in the past few days so my apologies for the absence of photos as of the 20th, I have another pint of the brew and will post pictures during my second review I have lined up. These little guys come cheaply at $2.50 for one pint and 9 fl oz so I went for two.

Appearance: The bottle comes off as a standard pinter with the looks of a budgeted champagne bottle. It has gold foil surrounding the neck with a unbranded dull gold bottle cap. The body label has minimal markings aside from the portrait of a proud old monk looking man staring at an empty stein with a hop pouch and keys bordered with the beer's name. The brew once poured keeps a white beige head on top of a pure golden wheat body. This body is imbued with a cloudy mist in it as the style is known for, has a hint of crispness tainted in there somewhere and despite being owned by Spaten it looks nothing like one of their products.

Smell: Apparent wheaty overtone with a bit of malt and some hops at the lower end of the spectrum. Some olding bananas are also apparent in here if you really needed to put a name on it but it's subtle. A very mellow and enjoyable aroma this turned out to be.

Taste:

-Hoppiness: The zesty hops will shows it's character midway through a sip and linger into the end of the aftertaste trying to compete with the malt with the edge going to these regal hops. A bit exciting but nothing distasteful here.

-Flavors: A bit of orange zest is what I got immediately from this brew, that and a good deal of wheat. The meddling malt ties in halfway through and holds its ground with the bready and caramel traits in it. In the end the tastes will turn into a nice crisp dry yeast malt. Tons of carbonation here to keep this guy fresh for a bit in the glassware.

-Presence: The light to semi medium body of this handcrafted brew will through both crisp malting and hops at your taste buds with the enjoyable hops for a change taking the edge in the battle of balance. They remain with you without a dysfunctional bitterness found in lighter beers of the sorts.

Gardner Factor: This brew for sure is to be enjoyed with any meal small or large or even by itself. The absence of a large impacting alcoholic taste will be sure to excite those who are used to the light clear bottled beers of North America especially with the more regal taste. It feels like a summer time beer that can drunk anytime if so desired. Some pros for me is that it would be a pleasure knocking a few of these bottles down with nothing but good light tastes where ever I might be. There's no cons from me on this one folks.

-Overall: A good brew with no apparent cons, just make sure the bottles you pick up haven't been sitting forever in that package store. This one is definitely a must for everyone for all seasons.

-Rating: 8.9/10.0 - Great

A Spaten Year Around Staple

Posted by Nick Gardner / at 3:29 AM / / 0 comments

-Spaten Oktoberfest Ur-Märzen-

Oktoberfest, one of the biggest staples in a beer company especially one coming from Munich. Turns out this one is the world's first Oktoberfest brew from 1872. Coming from a guy who just had finished off his first Optimator 6 pack a while back I had high hopes for this beer when I got a hold of a bottle.

Appearance: The bottle design comes off as a festive yet reserved and proud container of brew. A traditional blue and checkered patterned design underlays both the neck and body. Traditonal Spaten markers are followed through on this guy and doesn't disappoint the uniformity committee here. Once poured it presents a dark golden copper body with a heavy head on its shoulders. It was a bit lighter than expected but showed a clean crispness through the glass. The head held longer than expected as one pour and I found the foam lofting for around 20-25minutes. Other than that the bottle design itself makes me think of medieval days past but that's me ahaha.

Smell: This was probably the hardest to nail down for me on this review. It gave me a quick sense of a borderline skunky if you keep inhaling for a bit but other than that I could only obtain quick shots of toasted bread, a little malt and some extra light chocolate. This one was definitely not for smelling but drinking, so no deductions here really.

Taste:

-Hoppiness: Not even apparent in anything but the lasting effects after a gulp. It'll stick with you for a bit but it isn't all that volatile either. Doesn't ruin the flavors and won't be found out in the open. Again with this brew it was a harder taste to figure out that seemed not worth the time to really analyze.

-Flavors: Another factor that hid in the dark as well, it gave me short and small senses of some caramel with a low to medium crispness. The malt seemed to team with the hops in the aftertaste and when taken from the glass. It wasn't chewy at all but had a dark bread flavor as well as a hint of the toffee tied in towards the end.

-Presence: It won't hit you like a lighter hoppy beer nor a dark lager or dobbelbock would. It's hard to figure this beer out in general but it'll give you a neutral, I'm sitting on the fence, kinda deal between the flavors tied in with each other with it leaning towards the malty bread taste. Only thing is it wish not impress you when it sits in the mouth, you can only really appreciate it when the aftertaste rears its head.

Gardner Factor: Well it's a tough beer, some definite drinkability to the guy but again it's not a lasting experiencing that's anything to write home about. I'd most likely choose this beer if I was out doing some rec in the sun or needed a light beer with a full meal. It's not a beer to make a time for but instead have it ready when you need it. At 5.9% it's not the lightest weight on the block but I could see downing quite a few, maybe say 4, without too much hassle as the taste won't be having you halfway through. Some Pros is that it's a fairly decent all around brew with some complexity if you look into it and has the drinkability for just about anyone who wants to step up from the ugly light drinking crowd. Some cons would be the twisted flavors making it hard to decipher and the constant lingering hops in the aftertaste that seem to last longer than they really should.

-Overall: An average brew with a good versatility for whatever your needs be. Spaten did a decent job and I hope to have a couple more in the future but not before their others, it's just not as enjoyable as it could be with its flavors.

-Rating: 7.6/10.0 - OK

The Classic Bahston Brew

Posted by Nick Sabia / at 6:08 PM / / 0 comments

Look at that smirk.

Samuel Adams Boston Lager

     

     Believe it or not, only up until recently did i try the Boston Lager. For some odd reason I didn't get even a sip of any of The Boston Beer Company's fine brews during my freshman year at MassArt. So in some sort of effort to redeem my "Bahston Cred" I'm reviewing Samuel Adam's esteemed brew.

Presentation:  First off im going to geek out on the package design. The bottle glorifies Sam, with his classic smirk (What the hell is he doing with his right hand?) along with his title "Brewer - Patriot" and "Colonial Style" motifs. I wouldn't be too embarrassed to say it throws off that Early American/ Historical vibe from the get go.

     ..... Oh yeah almost forgot, the beer; I poured it into a 12oz frosted glass mug (probably a little too cold, but i let it warm up) It poured easily enough, a lot of cream colored foam that minimized shortly, and the beer itself had a "Pale Orange-Yellow" shade to it. Average Opacity, could see through, but not cloudy at all.                        

Unusually huge head, I didn't drink it like this,
glass was too cold and had to warm up

Smell:  The scent is pretty mellow; you don't get punched in face with any malt. It smells like bread for the most part and maybe a hint of lemon zest. Pretty basic as far as lagers go, but it doesn't subtract anything from the experience.

Taste:

Dominant Flavor:  The taste follows excellently from the smell; it tastes exactly how you think it would after getting a whiff.  The creamy foam comes in first, slight toffee/carmel taste to it and it's followed by the same buttery bread notes with that hint of lemon. As it got warmer it did get a little bit maltier, and the toffee/caramel flavor came out a bit, but it was a little hard to track.

Crispness:  I think the crispness of this beer is one of its star factors. It's not too crisp, you dont get the sense your drinking a light beer, it washes over your palette and down your throat with ease but you still get that robust depth. Perfect Crispness Equilibrium.

Aftertaste:  Nothing too interesting, but definitely not boring either. Hops shine through after the bread notes, and merge with the lemon zest, so your not overwhelmed by hops, but your still satisfied.

Overall Bitterness: Like the rest of this lager, the bitterness was average, in a good way of course. Not too much, not too little, balanced the flavor and gave a little bite to the finish.

Drinkability: This is definitely the go-to beer when you cant find any craft brews. It's just under 5% abv so im sure you could put down a few and still be able to enjoy it. It's a medium bodied beer, and i think that's what it does best. The feeling i get from this isn't much Boston to be completely honest. If by Boston you mean the historial district, colonial landmarks, or the Quincy Market area, then yes it's Boston. It's more of the "I Wish I Was In Boston" Lager, but i wont hold any of that against The Boston Brewing Company

Overall: The Boston Brewing Company, in both my opinion and Nick's, Is the best commercial, grocery-store, brand; Easily accesible and affordable at the same time. The Boston Lager is their Flagship Brew, and honestly they should keep it that way. I don't see myself buying another 6 of Boston Lager for a while, but i definitely see me buying more Sam Adams products. If your looking to get into beer drinking and want a quality lager to try, go with the Boston Lager.

Rating: 7.0/10.0


Follow @Bobmomento

To the Mead Hall

Posted by Nick Gardner / at 3:19 AM / / 0 comments

Well as my fellow Brew Buddy stated I'm Nick Gardner acting as co-blogger here to bring you the reviews you want of some of the more foreign brews as well as some of the local brews you can drive 2 minutes to get. I really want to get as much information as possible in here and as Nick Sabia said I will as well be bringing a minimum of 2-3 pictures per pour and bottle.

Here's how my reviews will go:

Appearance/Display: How the beer is presented in the bottle, out of the bottle and any aesthetics in-between

Smell: What the brew will come off as when you get one, can't drink without whiffing it a few times

Taste: As Nick said this is subjective especially with tastebuds. I'll keep my taste broken down in 3 tiers: 1-Hoppiness: How does the amount of hops affect enjoyment 2-Basic Flavors: What will you be tasting during and after a sip 3-Presence: How the beer tastes in term of balance of ingredients and flavors per gulp

Gardner Factor: Here I'll add in my subjective thoughts, as does Nick, about when, where, and how to drink your brew as well as some pro/cons of the beer

Overall: A quick rap up of the beer in hand and a rating from 0.0 to 10.0

To follow up on the other Nick's post I'll add in some quick info about myself and will continue to in later posts. I'm currently a college student studying Criminal Justice-Law Enforcement Management at University of New Haven in New Haven, CT.

I hope to have my first archived review by the end of tomorrow of one of my favorite IPAs so stay tuned.

Email Nick or I at NickBrosBR@Gmail.com with any questions, thoughts and comments

Side Note there will be a monthly special review from me on different heavy liquors

This Month's: Romana Black Sambuca

Welcome Brew Drinker!

Posted by Nick Sabia / at 1:32 AM / / 0 comments

     
     Like every proper blog, i think this one deserves an introduction, and at its base, this blog is an true enjoyment of beer. My co-blogger Nick and I decided it was time we took our beer stories and opinions to the web where we can document our travels. We are both big fans of Beer Advocate and always consults the Alström brothers as well as the BA members before a purchase. The problem is BA has a limited reviewing system and we hope to create a more dynamic system here at NBBR. Here's how the reviews will go down.

Presentation:   As a student of the arts, appearance and package design are a big factor. Its the look of the product that catches your eye and leads to a purchase.

Smell:   Big part of the overall experience, ill usually stick my nose up to a longneck before i take a sip.

Taste:   This is obviously the biggest factor, and the most subjective. Thats why in this category ill break "Taste" down into "Dominant Flavor", "Crispness" (Big factor to a lot of brew drinkers), "Aftertaste", and "Overall Bitterness".

Drinkability:   Here ill focus on how drinkable it is, if its a beer for a meal, or a meal of a beer. Also ill focus on overall feeling, which is extremely subjective, but i feel every beer i drink invokes an emotion.

Overall:    Lastly i'll focus on my final notions, not try to get too "Beer Snobby" about it, and add in a rating out of 10.

     Oh and most importantly photos . Nick and i both agree pictures are important to reviews so the minimum ill post is one bottle image and one poured image. If i'm out the worst quality ill post is a 5mp cell phone pic but ill always try for higher Megapixels or a DSLR. Maybe even a few videos will make it on here.

     Okay all formal reviewing stuff aside,  I know It's confusing having two Nick's reviewing interchangeably, but to make things clearer I'm Nick Sabia. (Nick Gardner, My "Brew Buddy" Will likely post a intro of his own after mine; If your wondering which of the two of us reviewed just check the sig at the bottom of the post.) I'm a college student, studying Film/Video at The Massachusetts College of Art and Design, In Boston, Mass. That's mainly where i discovered the wonders of beer to be honest. I'll probably post more bio stuff in later posts and start up on my first review post. If you have any questions or just wanna hit me up, You can follow me on twitter or email me and Nick at NickBrosBR@Gmail.com . Hopefully i'll have our first review up within the next day.

Follow @Bobmomento