New Belgium

Thanks to all who joined us for the New Belgium tasting. I hope you all had a good time. Special thanks to Jason B. for joining us and providing interesting insight to brewing and New Belgium.

Wholly, I think New Belgium Brewery has a good line of beers. I think those newly interested in drinking better beers should seek out this brewery. The flavors were distinguishable but not overpowering and I think they would serve as a great primer to something more complex.

Individually, I felt that the 1554 was the best of the four we tried and I'll give it 3.5 mugs. The mouth feel was much lighter than I expected, but the taste was good.

I felt that both the Trippel and The Abbey were worthy of 3 mugs. The Abbey smelled like banana nail polish remover and was better when it was warmer than the suggested temperature. The Trippel had a smell more reminiscent of Delirium Tremens and a much, much lighter body.

Finally, I thought the Fat Tire deserved 2 mugs. Drinking it now, I think the nose is barely there and the beer has little taste. But, I remember the first time I tried it (when my palette was conditioned with Big Brother beer) and thought it was very strong. I understand the popularity of Fat Tire and commend New Belgium for offering it.

Thanks also to Knight Jim and Knight Chris for providing the warm-up and cool-down beers.

As a side note...I'd also like to say that if I was picking beer on label alone, New Belgium would be tops. Their artwork is beautiful.

I think I prefer Old Indiana

For Roundtable 23, Knights Jim and Chris, along with Jason B., met Gina and myself at our house for a sampling of beers from New Belgium Brewery of Fort Collins, Colorado.

New Belgium is probably most famous for their Fat Tire Amber Ale - a beer not available in Indiana, yet still widely known by Hoosier drinkers. Gina and I had picked up the New Belgium beer on a recent trip to St. Louis, and then carefully (and under constant icey-cold temperature) transported them back to Indianapolis.

The beers for review were Fat Tire, 1554, Abbey, and Tripple. My personal goal for this meeting was to see if Fat Tire was deserving of its reputation, and to find out if New Belgium is doing better in its lesser known beer.

After warm ups from Brooklyn Brewery and Dogfish Head, we started with New Belgium's 1554 Enlightened Black Ale. It had a tiny malt nose, a dark reddish tea-like appearance, and very light lacing. A taste featured light chocolate notes, and at 5.6 ABV, the alcohol wasn't overwhelming. The overriding characteristic of this beer was its smoothness. It's an extremely drinkable beer - a good beer, but just good. 1554 gets a score of 3.5 mugs.

Back in June we visited Fat Tire by way of blind taste test, but felt that the beer may have been a bad batch. Although I didn't post a review on HBG then, I did post my thoughts on my personal blog - "diaper nose, can't believe they're selling this to people".

I'm happy to say that my feelings on Fat Tire are not as strong now - but they remain negative. Fat Tire has an orangey-apple juice appearance, medium lacing, and a weak sulfury malt nose. The taste reflects those same characteristics, thought it's not as bad as I remembered. It's not an offensive taste, but certainly nothing special. Just sort of blah. I'd give Fat Tire 1.5 mugs.

Next up was the Abbey Belgian Style Ale. It featured a fantastic Delirium Tremens like nose, but instead of Tremens apple taste, Abbey has a strong banana presence. This beer has a coke-colored appearance with slight lacing, and a banana and bubblegum taste, with strong alcohol notes - at 7.0 ABV, perhaps that shouldn't be a surprise. It's a very true to the Belgian style beers I've had previously, and gets better as it warms. But in the end, I've had much better beers in this style. I'd give the Abbey 3 mugs.

Our last choice from New Belgium was the Tripple Belgian Style Ale. It was not unlike the Abbey in having a fruity nose, though not nearly as strong. I picked up a slight malt note and a hint of apple that came through on the front once in my mouth. It was a very light with strong alcohol notes on the back, and a slight sourness. I'd give the Tripple a 3 mug rating as well.

All in all, I can't say that any of the New Belgium samples we had were bad beers - though Fat Tire barely crosses the line from undrinkable. These beers serve as fine samples of their respective styles, but none of them are really outstanding - and certainly not worthy of the hype. There's no reason to worry that you can't find these beers locally - you can find better choices in the products available in Indiana.

KOTBR Review #20 - Trans Am's flat tire leaves Burt Reynolds red in the face

I always wondered how the folks in Atlanta reacted after getting their first sip of the beer that Bandit and Snowman worked so hard to sneak in. I mean, it's Coors. I imagine some Georgian had to have said, "You evaded Sheriff Buford T. Justice and risked time in prison for THIS?!?"

For our twentieth review, the Knights had some Fat Tire Ale (from the Fort Collins, Colorado-based New Belgium Brewing Company) hauled in. This cult favorite only recently started crossing the Mississippi and is still not shipped to Indiana.

Sitting around the Beer Round Table, along with myself, were Knights Chris, Jim, Kelly, and Mike. Gina and Matt were guests who also provided commentary. My lovely wife, The Lovely Wife, was also there, but since she doesn't like beer, she didn't drink beer. Look for her new blog soon: "Hoosier Girlie-Drinks-With-Little-Paper-Umbrellas Geek".

For the big 2-0, we decided to change things up. Before doing a review of the Fat Tire, we did a blind taste test of 5 Red/Amber Ales. Since I was playing host and knew which beer was which, I elected not to provide commentary.

Among the five, the favorite was a Fort Collins, Colorado beer, but not the one you are thinking. Retro Red from Fort Collins Brewing Company. This was a unanimous selection. Everybody enjoyed the sweetness of the flavor and the complexity of the aromas.

Second place was a toss up between Bell's Amber from Michigan and Barrel House RedLegg from Cincinnati, Ohio. Everyone agreed that they were both equally good. The RedLegg, by the way, can usually be found at Great American Ballpark, home of the Reds. Hence the name.

Fourth place went to Breckenridge Avalanche Ale. It wasn't that it was a bad beer. But this beer was lacking in flavor and mouthfeel compared to the previous three.

Fifth place went to Fat Tire. A dirty trick played by yours truly on the rest of the Knights. Even those who had Fat Tire in the past didn't recognize it during the blind taste test.

Does this mean that Fat Tire is a bad beer? Not by any means. There is always the possibility that, in traveling from Colorado to Chicago, the beer went Pepe Le Pew on us. It could be that, given their popularity, they are producing so much that a bad batch went out. It is difficult to say. Given the circumstances, we decided that it wouldn't be fair to rate Fat Tire right now. We'll try again in the near future, after Mike and Gina return from a trip to St. Louis with a new batch of brew.

But I think this little test illustrates that Fat Tire may not be the best red ale out there. Given the difficulties Hoosiers have in obtaining this frequently-praised beer, it should be comforting to know that there are at least four other red/amber ales that are worthy of attention and admiration, whether Fat Tire is available or not.

If only I had a mustache as cool as Burt Reynolds'

Not that long ago, I was thinking about the movie Smokey and the Bandit, a movie that came out the same year I was born, oddly enough. A movie that is celebrating it's 30th anniversary this year. What better way to celebrate it than to hope in a black Trans-Am, evade some state troopers, and ship some booze across state lines.

Well, I'm not a trucker. And I don't have a black Trans-Am. And I normally drive exactly 9 MPH over the speed limit in hopes of not grabbing too much attention from the fuzz.

But not too long ago, I did bring some beer across state lines. And it is a beer not available here in Indiana. And much like Coors back in '77, the stories about the quality of this beer are almost mythical in proportion.

I am speaking of Fat Tire Amber Ale from New Belgium Brewing Company in Ft. Collins, Colorado. If you talk to anybody from Indiana who has dad Fat Tire, you'll hear some tales about the healing powers of this elixir, how it brought peace in the Middle East, and just how damn tasty this beer is, the tastiest around.

I've had some tasty beers. In fact, Indiana and the Midwest are able to produce some damn fine brews. But I have never had Fat Tire. So is it as good as people claim? Or, like Coors, is it elevated up by the fact that, until recently, it wasn't shipped east of the Mississippi? I'm hoping to find out.

During a recent trip to Chicago, which recently started receiving shipments of Fat Tire, I picked up a case of 12 big-ass bottles. And this Thursday, I am having the Knights of the Beer Round Table, and a few selected guests, at my humble abode at Four Square No. 266 for a grill out, a blind taste test of red ales, and, hopefully, an honest assessment of Fat Tire.

Come Thursday, we'll know if there is any (Sheriff Buford T.) Justice to the Fat Tire tales.