new belgium brewing – Happy to be a Table of Two

Hey guys, I don’t know about the rest of you, but this week has flown by for me. It was a really difficult week for me at work, with some really long days, but Thursday I started to pull out of the funk. Around 4 PM I started getting some things solved, had some difficult conversations with people, and we all just started moving forward. That’s the way I like work to go. Then I came home and Jackie and I had one of the best dates we’ve ever had. It was really good to just talk and start planning out some of our dreams. I’ve known it for awhile, but that girl has a gluten-free and vegan food truck in her future. Her sister/want-to-be business partner 🙂 and her have graciously agreed to let me be the guest chef/fry guy/financier, lol. The week definitely continued on an upward trend from there. We went out to valentine’s dinner at the Trumpet Blossom, which was great. I had some Bell’s Two Hearted off tap, it was a little flat, but still one of the best beers out there. So now you guys are all like, enough of the rambling, get me to the beer.

Yesterday while at Hy-Vee, I spotted Snapshot by New Belgium in the singles case. I had seen a picture of it and review on the New Belgium website last week when I talked about the Spring Blonde. So my curiosity was already piqued, I went for it. The beer is an unassuming, unfiltered wheat beer. Very nice nose with a good bit of orange to it. The thing I probably liked the best about the pour was the incredible bright white head. It had plenty of lacing and stayed for a good while. You can also see in the picture that the beer is a nice yellow almost lemony color. It certainly didn’t hurt that it was on a yellow table. 😉

(I’m still working on the horrible lighting in our kitchen. Someday I’ll be as good at food styling as my wife.)

As for the taste, it was bright, kind of sweet, and very tart. Its almost as if a sweet tart met a beer and had a kid. Well its really not that extreme, but you get the idea. It was a good beer, in that it was refreshing and not at all heavy. As for alcohol content its pretty mild, it was just 5% ABV, hardly any hops bitterness as evidenced by its 13 IBUs. I wouldn’t go rushing out to grab this as my normal beer of choice, but it is better than average. I’m pretty happy to give it a solid 3 out of 5. You won’t go terribly wrong with getting this, but you’ll likely find something that you enjoy better. Have a great week everyone, see you next time.

Blah winter! But, winter can bring some good things around. I do like seeing snow from time to time and I definitely enjoy Christmas. The other thing that winter brings is winter ales. This week we’ve got the Accumulation Ale by New Belgium brewing. Its a white IPA that tickles the palate and warms the insides. Hopefully you have a nice warm and comfortable place to read this review. Onto the beer.

I don’t know that I’ve ever had a white IPA before so I was ready to see what this had to offer. I grabbed my favorite glass and popped this open. The first thing that I noticed was the golden color. Somewhat similar to a kolsch, you know just a little bit of an unfiltered lager is what it looked like. The nose of this promised some spices like nutmeg to go along with a bit of grassiness and a hint of orange. That nose just gave such a great promise of big bold in your face hops. As the beer touted its an accumulation of hops. So if you like hops, you’re not going to be disappointed here. Mouthfeel for this brew was really nice. It wasn’t too heavy, but it also wasn’t as light as the color promised. It was really quite pleasant, a lot of bold hops up front, spicy, tropical fruit, followed by bitterness and then rounded out with a hint of wheat to try to give it a bit of balance. A really nice blend. 6.2% ABV with 70 IBUs. This one is bitter and warming but not overly so. It would be perfect for drinking on a day that you were stuck in the house and the snow was just piling up outside. It would be fantastic sitting in front of a fire. This will be a very solid beer with a 4 out of 5. You won’t be very disappointed by this unless you hate hops.

Did you all enjoy Thanksgiving? Find any special brews that you were thankful for? Hope you’re all doing well out there, thank you ALL for joining us on this journey.