Monday, August 29, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
New Belgium's Fat Tire
Fat Tire will always hold a top spot among my pantheon of drinkable beers. At the ripe, green age of 21 a friend of mine capriciously purchased a 24-pack of the delectable amber ale from Costco one afternoon. After suffering through a pair of brews, he decided he’d had enough. “Go ahead, I know I don’t want anymore,” he said with resignation, teetering on disgust.
In retrospect, it’s difficult to imagine my love for beer having been sparked as rapidly or as enthusiastically as it had been had this not taken place. Beer is an acquired taste, and absent a gun being pointed at your head continuously by the uber-fascistic Brew Police (exhorting you to drink whenever they say so), one bad go-round with the wrong kind will lead you away from beer for quite a while. I’ve known people to start off with a pint of something they can’t at all stand, only to find myself meeting them at a bar a couple months later and watching them opt for mixed drinks. No, most people need a strong, positive early experience in order to become a beer lover. And as for my buddy, he had gotten his start long before, so don’t worry about his one sour encounter.
All Fat Tire does to facilitate a long, healthy love affair with man’s best evening friend is hit you with a great balance of caramel and “toasted” malts. Some call it “bread-y,” some call it “biscuit-y,” but the dominant malt flavor is a nice, grain-y one to balance out the hops. In Oregon and Washington, many of us are conditioned by the choice of local microbrews - a choice dominated by selections featuring heapings of hops and high IBU counts. It’s refreshing to have a choice that doesn’t hit you with bitterness at first sip - perhaps offering some insight into why I have so many experiences with people in the Northwest who either can’t get into beer, or who can tolerate it only because of one too many nights of Keystone Light-conditioning during beer pong tournaments.
Fat Tire is a nice, light, taste-balanced (if not somewhat wheat-y, or grain-y, as stated) amber ale. If you like hops, you will pick those out too - New Belgium’s signature beer features a healthy serving of the Willamette Valley breed. The caramel notes balance out the other malts to make the beer a little sweeter. At 5.2 percent alcohol by volume, it is not too strong to knock you out before you can fully appreciate the orchestration of flavors. The smell leans somewhat bitter, but you can tell it apart from the sting a whiff of Widmer or MacTarnahan’s induces.
New Belgium has a great line of regular and seasonal beers. Other favorites of mine are the Mothership Wit (an official “wheat beer”), the Trippel (fermented for a longer period and pretty powerful at 7.8 percent ABV), and 1554 (a light, chocolate-y dark ale concocted from a centuries-old Belgian monastery recipe). However, Fat Tire being their flagship, the great balance of ingredients (leaning toward the “biscuit-y” malts) can be detected in any of their other selections. The modifications are simply perks.
Crack one open sometime, and give yourself a head start on the road to true beer appreciation.
In retrospect, it’s difficult to imagine my love for beer having been sparked as rapidly or as enthusiastically as it had been had this not taken place. Beer is an acquired taste, and absent a gun being pointed at your head continuously by the uber-fascistic Brew Police (exhorting you to drink whenever they say so), one bad go-round with the wrong kind will lead you away from beer for quite a while. I’ve known people to start off with a pint of something they can’t at all stand, only to find myself meeting them at a bar a couple months later and watching them opt for mixed drinks. No, most people need a strong, positive early experience in order to become a beer lover. And as for my buddy, he had gotten his start long before, so don’t worry about his one sour encounter.
All Fat Tire does to facilitate a long, healthy love affair with man’s best evening friend is hit you with a great balance of caramel and “toasted” malts. Some call it “bread-y,” some call it “biscuit-y,” but the dominant malt flavor is a nice, grain-y one to balance out the hops. In Oregon and Washington, many of us are conditioned by the choice of local microbrews - a choice dominated by selections featuring heapings of hops and high IBU counts. It’s refreshing to have a choice that doesn’t hit you with bitterness at first sip - perhaps offering some insight into why I have so many experiences with people in the Northwest who either can’t get into beer, or who can tolerate it only because of one too many nights of Keystone Light-conditioning during beer pong tournaments.
Fat Tire is a nice, light, taste-balanced (if not somewhat wheat-y, or grain-y, as stated) amber ale. If you like hops, you will pick those out too - New Belgium’s signature beer features a healthy serving of the Willamette Valley breed. The caramel notes balance out the other malts to make the beer a little sweeter. At 5.2 percent alcohol by volume, it is not too strong to knock you out before you can fully appreciate the orchestration of flavors. The smell leans somewhat bitter, but you can tell it apart from the sting a whiff of Widmer or MacTarnahan’s induces.
New Belgium has a great line of regular and seasonal beers. Other favorites of mine are the Mothership Wit (an official “wheat beer”), the Trippel (fermented for a longer period and pretty powerful at 7.8 percent ABV), and 1554 (a light, chocolate-y dark ale concocted from a centuries-old Belgian monastery recipe). However, Fat Tire being their flagship, the great balance of ingredients (leaning toward the “biscuit-y” malts) can be detected in any of their other selections. The modifications are simply perks.
Crack one open sometime, and give yourself a head start on the road to true beer appreciation.
Kona Wailua Wheat
In my mind, Kona has always had a knack for brewing beers that truly resonate with people. Many craft breweries will experiment with different ingredients and proportions, but often their creativity gets the better of them (and their product is an odd combination of discordant ingredients, like Budweiser’s Clamato mixture), or their additions simply don’t jive with the signature taste of their beer (like Bridgeport’s typical bitterness weighing too much into the roasted coffee of their Cafe Negro porter). Kona, however, matches the right flavors within its recipes, creating beers that highlight certain components without creating an odd clash of ingredients.
Kona’s Pipeline Porter is one good example of this (and, on a side note, all Kona beers feature names that hint at its Hawaiian locale). The 17-year-old brewery also makes the Wailua Wheat, a spring-summer seasonal that boasts passion fruit in a wheat ale recipe that is as light as it is refreshing. The proportion of citrus is just enough to direct the beer, while not being so dominant as to render the malts or hops irrelevant or incongruous. It is a great coordination of flavors, and, given its fruit qualities, definitely a useful “starter” beer for those who haven’t yet acquired a taste for brew.
Kona’s other main selections, namely its Longboard Lager, Fire Rock Pale Ale, and aforementioned Pipeline Porter, all boast a similarly pleasing background of flavors to suit the prominent ingredient(s) in each. Common descriptions of Kona include “crisp,” “refreshing,” and “balanced.” The Longboard Lager, though bottom-fermenting as opposed to Kona’s ale offerings, strikes some as caramel-rich, or biscuit-y, or a bit fruit-noted. Whatever the observation, though, it is a successful flavor profile that lends itself to supporting the other beers. When you add citrus and hops (a workable fruity and bitter combination), you get the popular Fire Rock, and when you infuse coffee and caramel malts, you get the espresso goodness of the Pipeline Porter.
The Wailua Wheat, however, has the makings of a real hit. The scent right out of the bottle reveals that you are about to try something more palatable and conducive to tropical island daydreaming than most. Matched with fish or chicken (something light that lends itself to citrus-y adornments), it can serve as an enjoyable sweet and wheat-y compliment to the meat. It almost serves as its own dessert. Its 5.4 percent alcohol content also ensures that you can have a few before your taste standards start to drop off.
Reviews sometimes differ on this Kona selection. Some find the passion fruit to be too dominant, some find the wheat to overtake the fruit, some find it too hoppy, and still others think it is too bland altogether. I take that as a sign that Kona has made something pleasant and appreciated. Though people may differ on their criticisms, they still appreciate the great balance and flavor profile used here. Consistently good ratings, and in finding new ways to put it down, they are really affirming its overall strength.
I say pick one up and picture yourself on Waikiki.
Kona’s Pipeline Porter is one good example of this (and, on a side note, all Kona beers feature names that hint at its Hawaiian locale). The 17-year-old brewery also makes the Wailua Wheat, a spring-summer seasonal that boasts passion fruit in a wheat ale recipe that is as light as it is refreshing. The proportion of citrus is just enough to direct the beer, while not being so dominant as to render the malts or hops irrelevant or incongruous. It is a great coordination of flavors, and, given its fruit qualities, definitely a useful “starter” beer for those who haven’t yet acquired a taste for brew.
Kona’s other main selections, namely its Longboard Lager, Fire Rock Pale Ale, and aforementioned Pipeline Porter, all boast a similarly pleasing background of flavors to suit the prominent ingredient(s) in each. Common descriptions of Kona include “crisp,” “refreshing,” and “balanced.” The Longboard Lager, though bottom-fermenting as opposed to Kona’s ale offerings, strikes some as caramel-rich, or biscuit-y, or a bit fruit-noted. Whatever the observation, though, it is a successful flavor profile that lends itself to supporting the other beers. When you add citrus and hops (a workable fruity and bitter combination), you get the popular Fire Rock, and when you infuse coffee and caramel malts, you get the espresso goodness of the Pipeline Porter.
The Wailua Wheat, however, has the makings of a real hit. The scent right out of the bottle reveals that you are about to try something more palatable and conducive to tropical island daydreaming than most. Matched with fish or chicken (something light that lends itself to citrus-y adornments), it can serve as an enjoyable sweet and wheat-y compliment to the meat. It almost serves as its own dessert. Its 5.4 percent alcohol content also ensures that you can have a few before your taste standards start to drop off.
Reviews sometimes differ on this Kona selection. Some find the passion fruit to be too dominant, some find the wheat to overtake the fruit, some find it too hoppy, and still others think it is too bland altogether. I take that as a sign that Kona has made something pleasant and appreciated. Though people may differ on their criticisms, they still appreciate the great balance and flavor profile used here. Consistently good ratings, and in finding new ways to put it down, they are really affirming its overall strength.
I say pick one up and picture yourself on Waikiki.
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