Please follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and Instagram. You can also follow us on Untappd with our names of @jenniek and @guitaristshad.
I hope everyone's livers survived GABF 2014. We did not go, but we did await with bated breath for the results to be announced. Congratulations to all the winners, both those we know personally and those we don't. If you are in the Columbus area, the Daily Growl in Powell is hosting an event Wednesday evening featuring Ohio's winning breweries, with Columbus Brewing's Bodhi and Creeper, JABF Wooster's Hefe, and Spooky Tooth from the awesome people at Fat Head's. Tonight, we feature a beer from New Belgium, which is not local to us. It's one of the major craft breweries in the US, though, and I have a particular affinity for them, as their CEO is a woman who helped found the company. New Belgium's cellar manager is also a woman. Considering that women were likely the first brewers, women are just now really up-and-coming on the craft brewing scene. That is not to say that we don't brew great beer, nor do we have undeveloped palates, nor that we are not a part of the brewing scene; I don't know about your hometown, but I am a part of many pages and groups that encourage women in beer. We are just in the vast minority in the craft beer industry, for the most part. Hooray for girl power!
Also, if this post shows up weird, Blogger is acting up tonight. It looks weird on my monitor and it's bugging me. Mercury has only been in retrograde for two days. Harrumph.
All grumping aside, here we have NB's fall seasonal, Tour de Fall. It's a pale ale. We actually picked this up in Champaign, Illinois, on our way to Peoria for my father's memorial service. We had stopped for gas, and it was much later than we wanted to be arriving in town. The gas station also happened to have a liquor store attached, so we decided to pick up some beer to enjoy once we checked into the hotel.
This pours a beautiful deep golden color that initially had some chill haze. I had a bit of writer's block that allowed that to clear up perfectly. There is a small amount of white head that remains atop the beer. The aroma is pine and earth, tropical fruits, and straight up Amarillo hops that were used to dry hop the beer. Taking a long sip, my palate is greeted with malty sweetness that is quickly followed by that earthy tone, a longer note of pine, and a bitter finish. It's a lighter, well-balanced beer, and a good example of a well-made pale ale. A different sip yields a completely different beer: tropical fruits and caramel sweetness and some bready flavors with just a tinge of earthiness. There are plenty of Cascade and Amarillo hops in here, but I don't mind the presence of either (I'm iffy on both, but let me note that is just a matter of personal preference). It has a very round mouthfeel.
Overall, I think this is a great example of an American pale ale. It's also quickly become one of my favorite beers from New Belgium.
4.3/5 caps
-Jennie
After a long day at work, sending a birthday email to my step-dad, texting my dad, and being involved on a meme war (for fun) that now has roughly 320 different memes clogging up my friend's wall on Facebook, it's good to sit down for some good beer. This has had time to warm, between the technical difficulties and Jennie's portion of the review. Speaking of warming up; Ohio, get your shit together. Your weather here in the last week has been more fickle than a teenager who's trying a last ditch effort on planning an after-prom party and realizing the guy under the bridge who normally buys you alcohol, if he can smell your hair, was arrested last week for public indecency while he was waving his penis in public, yelling about the turkey sandwich that he had 6 years ago before the aliens came and stole his Casio, leaving him a weird marking on his arm, which he calls "Bucky." Yeah, try and proofread that shit, yo. I like to throw things in like that to see if people are actually reading the second part of the review.... I expect feedback...
This is a nice golden copper color that still has a small amount of head hanging around, much like the image that's in your head from the previous paragraph, only not as offensive. No, this lingering is welcome. It appears to still have some decent carbonation, as I still see some bubbles coming up. Speaking of still seeing things, you're still imaging the previously mentioned image in your head, aren't you? The aroma on this is caramel, tropical fruits, and pine with some faint earthy notes. The first sip is rather malt forward with caramel and biscuit notes with faint hop characteristics that were noticed in the nose. It slowly builds with the hop flavor, never becoming a hop bomb though. There is some grapefruit that hangs around on the back end after this smooth drinking liquid has gone down your throat. This finishes slightly sticky from the hops, but again, never becoming a hop bomb. This apparently is only 38 IBUs, but could be a little deceiving, as it seems around 50, but that's just my opinion.
According to New Belgium's website, there has not been any food pairings submitted to them for this beer, we may be the first ones. In fact, we'll even submit a music pairing, because we go above and beyond, as those are the kind of people we are.
Overall, a good beer. If you're able to obtain this, please do, you will not be disappointed.
4.3/5 caps
-Nathan-
Food pairing: Grilled bratwurst (that has previously been boiled in beer and onions)
Cheese pairing: a good, creamy Farmer's Cheese
Music pairing: "Bicycle Race" by Queen
No comments:
Post a Comment