Saturday, October 01, 2005

Beer: New Belgium Brewing Company: Seasonal: Winter 2005

My wife wore a Tour De Fat t-shirt as we made our weekend market rounds last week. We'd attended the event two years ago as the guest of a friend who works for New Belgium Brewing Company. One of the folks at Arizmendi noticed the shirt and struck up conversation, mentioning that our friend had just dropped by bottles of this winter's seasonal ale. Not even labeled yet.

As luck had it, we were having the New Belgium guy over for dinner that night. He came bearing two bottles of what he described as a "double-hopped" ale, atypical among the belgian-style ales that they are known for. It also happened to be right up our alley. Winter Ales tending to be either too sweet or cloyingly spicy for our tastes. Good stuff.


Not knowing really what the beer will be called, or when it will be generally available, I can only tell you to keep an eye out.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

ok, we have indeed named our new seasonal release - "2° Below Winter Ale". A bright warming blast of Sterling and Liberty hops along with tawny-roasted malts. We push 2° Below into a final, nearly freezing, state which gives its ample structure developing brilliant clarity. Dry hopping during fermentation creates a rosy, floral nose with a hint of pepper spice and subtle estery undertones. 6.6% abv with 30 IBU's. Released this winter only on tap, Oct.06 in bottles. Winter 05 bottle release will be our infamous Frambozen (Rasberry Brown Ale).

2° Below Winter Ale will be available on tap in fine bars and restaurants throughout the Bay Area now thru Jan 06. Cheers!