When it comes to sour beers only a handful of the breweries I have tried do them right and New Belgium is one of them. Surprising since I dislike their regular year round beers except Belgo. Every wild ale or flanders red New Belgium produces from their Lips Of Faith series has been perfect no less then an A- beers.
You see when it comes to sour beers you think of Belgium’s Rodenbach or Russian Rivers sours right? Well yeah if your barley getting into sours but there are other breweries out there like Upland Brewing, Cascade Brewing, and the list can go on. One thing none sour drinkers don’t realize is New Belgium produces sours not just fat tire lol. La Folie has to be one of the best sours out there come one even Russian River used New Belgium’s La Folie barrels on batch 1 of Beatifaction the sour beer everyone goes crazy on and is 100/98 on rate beer. My last reason why this is a dominate sour is because the craftsmanship and effort new Belgium puts into it.
New Belgium Brewing Co. – “2012 La Folie” Belgian Style Flanders Red
6% abv 18 ibu’s – Lips of Faith series – Poured into a tulip glass. Bought at Kelly’s Liquor in San Jose, Ca.
Appearance: pours a cloudy dark brown body, with 1 finger off white khaki head that dies down quick, minimal carbonation, and nice lacing.
Aroma: Huge cherry notes, raspberry, woody earth tones, funky, vinegar, acidic, and vinous qualities.
Taste: Sour cherry, sweet raspberry, nice oak bite, not to tart but present, vinegar, wine like tannin notes from a red wine, and a dry finish.
Overall: Wow! Perfection the real mother pucker lol. This beer made my mouth get real watery off the first drink. Some sours can give off a nice tannin like astringency that will dry out your inside cheeks and pucker up your mouth but they tend to be minimal unlike the La Folie it had huge astringency. This beer balanced out nice with a subtle sweetness and oak like bite. I highly suggest if you like sours pick this up I am giving this a 19 out of 20 making this a solid A but would of been a A+ if it had more tart notes to it.
ever tried a Surly 5 (a.k.a. Pentagram)?
Nope I haven’t and to be honest I haven’t tried any Surly but hear great things and would love to try it. Willing to send us one to review we would appreciate it.
i’m in the south bay area. i only have a couple bottles of surly 5; not enough to give one away…but i’d be willing to trade for another sour or different quality beer. i also have the full vertical of (surly) darkness ’07-’12, (surly) smoke, 1 (surly) abrasive, (founders) kbs, ’08 (goose island) bcs, 2010 (deschutes) jubel, ’10 (deschutes) mirror mirror, and some other random bottles…
Nice, the south bay. Hope to see you at some San Jose events at beer week. I am always willing to trade lets set up something in the future.