New Belgium Brewing
February 2010
This is a brand new beer from New Belgium. Kabluey and I sampled it at Fred Meyer (ever since the remodel, the Hawthorne store has been making an amazing effort to stock a wide assortment of delicious beers). The most incredible thing about this beer is that it’s good. Typically neither of us are fans of New Belgium beers, so we were pretty skeptical when the guy asked us if we wanted to try their recently released IPA.
This recipe uses three different hop varieties, and two of them (Simcoe and Chinook) are among my favorites. It’s satisfyingly bitter and has a great aroma. It’s not a super hardcore IPA, and in some ways seems more like a sturdy Northwest Pale Ale, but it was definitely worth the $5.99 (introductory?) price.
We took a six-pack of Ranger to a super bowl party, so now on top of being a solid IPA choice I also declare it the Official Beer of the Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints!