At some point, there needs to be some sort of theme to these damn posts. Here we've got ourselves a nice little two-fer theme!
New Belgium - Shift Pale Lager
a 5.0% ABV 29 IBU Lager take on a Pale Ale. Everything Jack's Abby has done, I've loved. And this was around first. Sad I didn't get to try it on my recent trips to it's distro area, but I finally scored one, so let's see! Just what you'd expect - a hazy golden pour, big ol' fluffy white head. There's a strong nose for a Pale filled with fresh hay, honey, cracker malts, with some grassy/piney malts and some faint tropical fruits. Dry, crisp, somewhat fruity, a touch hoppy and sweet.. for such a simple style, this is firing on all cylinders. It's an incredibly clean and bright beer, nothing overpowers anything else, but everything stands out. Caramel, cracker and honey malts, fresh cut grass, essence of pineapple and mango.. all of these come through wonderfully. I can see the 'hype' (more like huge praise) behind this beer.. totally warranted. A terrific evey day beer.
- - 8 Hops!
New Belgium - Fat Tire
a 5.2% ABV 18 IBU American Amber Ale. I believe I reviewed this from a bottle about a year ago when I visited Georgia.. but here's the can. Can't remember if I really did or not.. so I'll just do it again for you bastards. Another one that had huge praise surrounding it. Copper pour with an average-sized head. Bready, caramel, toffee, touches of mineral/metallic, yeasty, citrus.. a bit lighter than most Ambers I've had with more citrus notes. It's definitely light for the style, but for 5.2% it's sort of expected. Take Shift, add more nuttiness and caramel malts and you have Fat Tire. It's crisp, yet rounded and smooth, there's the citrus notes that meld well with the faint hoppiness and sweeter malts.. but the sweetness is by no means too much. This is a very nice beer.. yes there are better Ambers out there as this premiered years ago, but it shows you where the style came from in the US.
- - 7 Hops!
No comments:
Post a Comment