Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Broadening Our Horizons LXXIX

We've been saving that New Belgium/Cigar City collaboration brew for an auspicious day... which is to say a warm and gentle sort of day... for to enjoy it.  That day arrived today, whereupon it was (a) warm and (b) without Force Six or better breezes on the Beaufort Scale.  So, just for starters...


That's just before we poured Round Two.  And how was the beer?  Very good, thank ya.  I was prepared to not like this beer after reading several reviews at the Go-To guys' site for all things barley, hops and water.  Here's one such review:
Light amber color. Nice see through. Rich, creamy head with exceptional stick and smooth foamy lacing.

Aroma is clean with hints of malt and spices.

Biscuity malt flavor with hints of butter and diacetyl. Herbal leafy hop, descent balance. Touch of spices without a hint of heat. Yeast is not prominent as expected.

Sturdy medium bodied. Smooth, creamy texture. Slight warmth from the alcohol. Well carbonated.

Descent (sic) brew overall just weak for a pepper beer. Lacks the spice level and heat I was hoping for. Just a little dull in my opinion.
I would respectfully disagree.  If Buddy wanted "spice," then perhaps he should have sprinkled three or four drops of Tabasco Habanero Sauce into a Miller Genuine Draft, and Walla!  Mission Accomplished.  There's more to chile than fire, however, and I was impressed with the way the NB/Cigar City guys managed to capture the taste... as opposed to the fire... of chiles in this beer.  I won't go into any lengthy digression about chile but suffice it to say there's a HUGE flavor element in the wide varieties of chile one finds in this world.  In its own very subtle way, this ale managed to capture the spice and lingering flavor of the two varieties of chile... Anaheim and Marash... used in the brew.  This is a very well-done beer, both as concept (delivered!), and drink-ability.  The first round went down fairly quickly and we're halfway through Round II, as we speak.

That said, would we buy a sixer of this every week were it available 12 months out of the year?  No, we wouldn't.  But the brew was insanely delightful as a one-off... and sometimes that's exactly what you want.

2 comments:

  1. That beer sounds down right interesting. Your knowledge of the humble chili pepper (in all it's glorious varieties) is also impressive. Like the Missus says (and she IS Korean), "There is tasty hot and there is painful hot. Go for tasty every time, and the heat won't be so bad!" Can't say I disagree with her.

    And it snowed here this morning. Well, it was more like frozen slush but it was cold and frozen. Yuck!

    (Didja see me waving when I flew over last week? Twice.)

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    Replies
    1. I THINK that was you and a couple hundred of your friends I was waving at. Didja see me down here?

      Sorry about yer WX. It should get better soon, right? Yer Missus is so-very-correct about hot things... in every regard!

      Delete

Just be polite... that's all I ask.