New Belgium

The way I heard the story behind this beer is that Eric was a lowly junior brewer at New Belgium and this was his Longshot moment (a la Sam Adams). This was relayed to me by someone who claims to have heard it first hand while on tour in Fort Collins, so make of that what you will. What I do know for a fact is that this beer is an ale aged on wood for "up to three years" and fermented with peach juice. All of that sounds great... but not all of that comes through in the end.

I picked up this bottle of New Belgium's Biere de Mars back when the Lips of Faith series first hit shelves earlier this year. I've been wanting to drink this for quite some time but never really got around to it. Well, the time has finally come, I've set aside a couple hours and I'm determined to show this bomber who's boss. Pouring this beer into my New Belgium goblet was a little underwhelming, there isn't much head and this beer isn't terribly pungent. The Biere de Mars smells a bit like a soapy Belgian pale, a little zesty with a bit of spice. Overall though, this beer wreaks of mediocrity... but I mean that in a good way.

Extra Special Bitter is a style of beer that I don't particularly care for. In most cases, it seems like the ESB label is a license for brewers to pack a ton of bitter hops into a darker beer without bothering with any of the things that make an IPA tolerable. There's usually no citrusy sweet crispness, just dry hops and hearty grains. The ESBs that I do like tend to be those that back a little mildly toasted malt into the mix. Anything you can do to tone down the hops is greatly appreciated. I'm torn on where exactly New Belgium's 2° Below falls...

I like Beglian Dubbels, Tripels and Quadrupels. These beers rank pretty high on my scale of favorite beers. Strong ales with sour yeast flavors are truly a work of art. I've been waiting anxiously to try New Belgium's Abbey Ale for quite some time. I finally got around to picking up a bottle of this Dubbel style and I was a bit surprised with what was inside... My first impression of New Belgium's Abbey Ale was that it was more spicy than I liked and it didn't mask it's 7% ABV well enough to be a smooth drinking beer. These aren't show stopping flaws, but they prevent this beer from being a great Dubbel.

New Belgium's Frambozen is quite a bit different than I'd expected. I've drank enough fruit flavored beer that I've come to expect certain things from them. Namely, fruitiness... now, of course you'd expect a peach beer to taste a bit peachy right? Sure. What ends up happening more of time is it'll be more peachy and less like beer. There seems to be very fine line between balance and overbearing when it comes to fruit beers. New Belgium managed to get this beer just right. It's a Raspberry Brown Ale that isn't overly fruity or too mellow.

I'd heard a lot of good things about New Belgium's Hoptober Golden Ale. I was a little hesitant to pick this beer up because of how it has been compared to Pale Ales. I'm very particular about the kind of strong hop flavors I like and considering how this beer is New Belgium's Oktoberfest seasonal I couldn't help but think of a hoppy Amber or Märzen. Neither of those options sounded particularly appealing but I decided to pick up a bottle of Hoptober before I completely convinced myself that I wouldn't like it. So, for starters, this beer isn't a traditional fall seasonal style. It's really more of a summer or spring Pale Ale. New Belgium calls this a Golden Ale which puts it into the Blonde style. The Hoptober's appearance is rather light, you could even go so far as to call it pale... The aroma is very hoppy, it has that tell tale grassy citrus flavor which pushes this beer closer to Pale Ale territory. After taking the first sip of the Hoptober I'm convinced, there really isn't anything Autumn about this beer...