A good brew on a hot summer day! Beers of August

Hooray for beer! Where I am, the summer sun and humidity are oppressive. Beer seems to help sometimes, especially the lighter seasonals as sampled here. Keep in mind, my reviews run from 1 being outright undrinkable dysentery-causing bongwater to 5 being life-sustaining nectar of Valhalla. Remember to support your local and micro-brewers. The future lies with them, not your major corporate macro breweries. Make your beer personal and buy local. So with no further ado, let's get on with the beer reviews, shall we?

HONEY MOON SUMMER ALE (Golden, CO) - 3.5

Blue Moon's summer seasonal is a clear amber wheat ale brewed with clover honey and orange peel for added zing. The flavor is overwhelmingly sweet, and heavy on the honey, though Honey Moon feels lighter and less filling than the signature Blue Moon, so it's a better fit for those steamy summer days. Pretty tasty stuff...not too complex but refreshing just the same.

NEW BELGIUM - SKINNY DIP (Fort Collins, CO) - 4.0

This clear golden ale is New Belgium's summer seasonal, and it's among the brewery's lighter offerings. The flavor is mild and malty, with a slight hoppy character and a hint of citrus. Oddly, I place this one curiously between a traditional lager and a pale ale. It's certainly tasty, and unique. Like most of New Belgium's employee-(and Earth-) friendly brews, this one's quite satisfying.

GOOSE ISLAND - PERE JACQUES 2010 BELGIAN STYLE ALE (Chicago, IL) - 3.5

Saved this powerhouse for last, and for good reason. It's a limited edition ale that, in the grand tradition of classic Belgian ales, is bottle-fermented with active & living yeast, so aging further develops the flavor. But I'm not waiting to write this review, so off comes the bottle cap and into my glass it goes. Hmm. It's a nice opaque amber in color, with an odor of bourbon (indubitably the strong 8% alcohol content), candy sugar, and maybe grapes. The flavor is sweet, with an unmistakable muted burn. Definitely a brew to savor. The beer snob in me says to rate this one higher, but I can't help but feel it needed some time/aging to reach its full complexity. As it stands, strong and hearty, but lacking individuality.

MICHELOB - PALE ALE (St. Louis, MO) - 3.5

This attractive amber pale ale pours with good lacing. The appealing floral/hoppy aroma also bodes well for this craft macro. But that's all window-dressing. What's it taste like? Well, Michelob's Pale Ale has a brisk and balanced hoppy character, but it's not too acidic or strong (nor complex) as other pale ales. A sturdy, solid beer -- not memorable, but a good representative of the style, and a nice place to start.

Welcome Fat Tire and New Belgium!

It's a great time to be alive...one of the craft beers that first moved me to drinking independent brews has finally made it's way East with distribution in Indiana! Woohoo! No need to road-trip to Schnuck's groceries in St. Louis to fill up the ol' car's trunk!!!

Yes, Fat Tire (from the wonderful "wind-powered and employee-owned" New Belgium Brewery in Colorado) is now here. Weirdly enough, it's being sold in 12pks of cans...and larger-sized bottles, but not the regular 12oz. bottles (at least yet). Ah well, it's all good (beer).

Looks like there's a special 'Hoosier' bottle for us Hoosiers, and I've seen the 1554 Black Ale here now, too. Yum.

New Belgium Brewing website

And a brief promo for New Belgium's 'Follow Your Folly' theme, featuring the inimitable Devendra Banhart...

Beer Wars

Just received this bit of info, and this trailer. It seems that I have some kindred spirits in my mission (life is far too short to drink crap mainstream/corporate beer)! This film is being shown in 440 theaters across the United States...I look forward to seeing it!


More clips can be found here.

New Belgium Breweries

Once upon a time there was a boy. And this boy really loved going to concerts. One night, he found himself (and his brother) in Saint Louie, at one of these shows. The boys ordered a beer that they hadn't had before. It was Belgian-style. And lo, this beer was deemed Fat Tire. The beer was godlike. The show rocked hard, too. It was an emotional experience, with the hops and malts and intense flavors mixing with the emotional and intense music. And thus, a passion for Fat Tire was born. This 'Fat Tire' was not available locally, so the boys dreamed of once again having such a beer. Years passed, and future trips to St. Louis proved fruitful in drinking more of this lovely, sweet nectar of brews. Friends would, upon special request, import these beers via long, arduous roadtrips. And the beer was still good. The stuff of dreams, even.

Then, it was discovered that this beer was not Belgian at all, but it was produced in Colorado by New Belgium Breweries. And said brew wasn't alone. There were other beers in the family. Other friends (some well-entrenched in beer-lore and knowledge - talking about you John) mentioned other types of New Belgium beers that dwarfed the mighty Fat Tire. And that these beers may be distributed to the farther Midwest next year or so, but that wasn't soon enough. It was agreed that the Radiohead concert was a good excuse to seek out more beer, and hopefully not empty the bank account too deeply.

And so it was, this past week, that my beautiful Cori and I located a late-night grocer (Schnuck's is the best!) in St. Louis and loaded up a cartful of New Belgium products. And they were on sale! $7.49 a 6-pack! Actually, it was almost embarrassing - $80 on beer, with no other groceries or household supplies to mask the evident alcoholicism. But it had to be done. Wow. Such a variety of new beers to experience and enjoy, and yet others still never seen. Indeed, the future looks bright, from this angle.

I have now tried maybe 4 or 5 types of New Belgium beers, which are created at the first wind-powered brewery in the US, and by a company that is environmentally-conscious and renewable-resource-minded. But the bottom line is, the beers are damned good! Complex and refreshing, the Abbey Belgian-style ale is a solid choice, being a Belgian Trappist style, with actual Belgian yeast strains and a crisp, malty presence. Fat Tire is a good choice for the beginner, being relatively light but with a nice floral bouquet. Trippel is yummy and rich, while others I've yet to taste will be remarked upon here later. Suffice to say, New Belgium is a superb brewery making some waves with folks like us at Goatsden HQ. If you're located in one of the more Western-oriented US states, you are fortunate to have access to these fine beers. And if you travel that way, be sure to find some for yourself. Especially as I may not share mine! Hah!

New Belgium