Somewhere near the end of 2013, New Belgium released details of what was going to be their newest year round beer: Snapshot Wheat. This beer was to be a blend of both a traditionally fermented wheat beer, and one fermented with the souring bacteria lactobacillus. Being a fan of the Berliner Weiss style made me excited to try this beer; with the assumption that it would be similar to that style of beer.
2013 was a great year for us and we want to thank you all for continuing to read and share our articles, tagging your photos #hookedonhops, and saying hello to us when we are out at a bar or festival. We appreciate all of it, and we are excited for what’s to come in 2014!
In the meantime, I have compiled the articles and topics that were the most popular over the past year. Enjoy! (more…)
A year later than what was originally announced, but I was right when I suggested that the year-round sour would likely be a blended sour beer. The press release suggests that they will rotate through various sour beers by stating that “The brewery will use this expansion to bring Lips of Faith offerings like Tart Lychee and Eric’s Ale into year round production by 2015.” Tart Lychee was an amazing beer, and I’ve heard similar comments made about Eric’s Ale as well.
The benefits of using beer blends is that less of of the aged sour beer needs to be used for each batch, allowing them to then release more beer than if the beer was made up of 100% sour beer. Additionally, these beers would be less sour, and thus more approachable to drinkers who are unfamiliar with sour beers. As the label on Eric’s Ale states: “This is a sour beer for those who don’t like sour beers.”
Full press release below (more…)
Confirmed by a recent Reddit AMA:
We will have some kind of sour out year round starting in 2014
I’m a huge fan of New Belgium’s sours, and I’m excited to see what, and how, they release a year round sour beer. More than likely, I think this may be referring to La Folie. Lauren Salazar has said before that she hopes to be able to release La Folie year round.
My other guess, is that it won’t be a 100% sour beer, and will instead be a blended beer; ie La Folie is 100% dark sour beer (Oscar) and Le Terrior is 100% light sour beer (Felix). A beer like Tart Lychee, on the other hand, is actually a blend of Felix with non-sour beer. This allows them to use less sour beer (an important consideration since it takes a year or two to sour a batch of beer), but it also makes the beer less sour. If it’s going to be available year-round, this will allow it to be more approachable for more people who don’t have the palate for a full blown sour beer.
Last year around September, I had my first pumpkin beer of the season. Don’t get me wrong, I love the style and season. However, by the time Halloween and Thanksgiving roll around, I’m either burnt out on them, or not able to find them due to Winter beers emerging on the shelf. Is this a case of supply and demand? A competition to see who can get the first seasonal on the shelves? Or is it excitement from brewers to get their newest spicy creations out to the masses? (more…)
After the trip to Washington state, I headed down to Colorado for a few days. I primarily spent my trip in Denver and got to visit a wide range of breweries and bars. If you make your way into the state, I highly recommend checking these places out! (more…)
While in Colorado, we had the pleasure of taking a trip up to Fort Collins to visit the New Belgium Brewery. If you ever visit Colorado, you have to make it up to New Belgium! Being the third largest craft brewery in the country, the brewery has more of a museum look to it, with bits of history spread throughout; like the original brew house that Jeff Lebesch started with! (more…)
While Lauren Salazar was in Las Vegas for several of the New Belgium events in town, I was given a chance to sit down with her and discuss New Belgium’s creative process and some of their upcoming projects.
La Folie has become one of my favorite beers and being able to sit down and talk with the blender who makes La Folie was awesome. I’m really looking forward to all of the new beers that we discussed, as well as New Belgium’s expansion.
Hooked on Hops: You’re known for being the wood cellar manager at New Belgium and blending sour beers, like La Folie. What are some non-sour beers that you enjoy drinking?
Lauren Salazar: I’m a crazy stout fan! Anything dark, malty, huge; that’s my thing. Old Rasputin, Big Bad Baptist, I love anything huge and big. (more…)
A year ago when it was first announced that Dogfish Head and Sierra Nevada were partnering up with Spiegelau to create glassware specifically made for the IPA, the excitement was huge. And now that it’s finally available, everyone is calling it marketing gimmickry. (more…)
One week into 2013 and I finally took the time to look back at 2012. I thought I’d reshare several of the most read posts over the past year. I hope you all enjoy this look back!
#drinklocal
An ode to supporting all the businesses here in Las Vegas that promote craft beer across the valley!
The Great Las Vegas Festival of Beer
A recap of the 2nd annual Vegas Festival of Beer. Worth reading up considering the 3rd Festival of Beer is coming up soon!
Hooked on Hops at Tenaya Creek
Last year we held a special food pairing at Tenaya Creek with their Imperial Stout and Goran’s gingerbread stout cake!
An Updated Guide to Aging Beers
Worth reading through a few times if you have any interesting in understanding how to age beers.
Freshness Matters
Worth reading through a few times to understand the importance of drinking beer as fresh as possible.
Kind of contradicts the aging article huh? Nope. Read both and learn why!
Bacon and IPA Spaghetti
Another one of Goran’s food recipes featuring beer!
The Las Vegas Downtown Brew Festival
After the success of the Great Las Vegas Festival of Beer, 2012 saw the premiere of the Downtown Brew Festival!
What The Craft Beer Scene Can Learn From The Metal Scene
Last year saw craft beer fans searching for the most obscure breweries possible, while calling out the pioneers as overrated. Armando shared his thoughts here.
Danny is a Ninja
Right at the tail end of the year, we launched a video mini-series reviewing some beers. The first iteration is New Belgium’s La Folie. We have since added Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA, and Stone Vertical Epic 12.12.12
