New Belgium La Folie

750 ml bottle thanks to BeerandBlues2. Cola color and head. But very active. Over flowed after the cork went flying up and hit the celing....(someday the wife will ask me what all those little marks are from)... Aromas were very sour cherry and apple Very Flemishy. Flavor was also very sour. Cherry and pear and tangerine. Wowzers really really tart. Very tasty stuff

In short: Intensely tasty Flemish Sour that also offers a rich malty body. Amazing stuff.
How: Many tasting sessions. Never had a full bottle. Latest sample (rated here) at Montreal-crew sour beer tasting. Bottle from MartinT
The look: Cloudy dark red body with a medium beige head
In long: Straight to the point Flemish Sour. Very sour. Lots of cherry and oak sourness. A little peppery-ish spicy too. Rich body that offers more on the malt/caramel front than all other Flemish Sour except maybe the Earthmonk. Somewhat fluffy body. Woody and even tree bark flavours in there too. The attack is intense, then the beer settles down and it becomes rich and round and after you swallow you get that intense comeback of spicy cherries and oak. Might be my second favorite Flemish Sour right after the Earthmonk. There are many things I expect to find in Colorado: mountains, cows, guns… but this Flemish Sour was quite a surprise.

Pours an amber red with a thick creamy light tan head. Smells, of extreme tanic sourness, and mixed in with some apples and cherries. I’ve had this one before room temperature, but this one was ice cold and it seemed way more sour this time than before. I get a lot of lemons, and tannin, some light citrus fruits as well. extremely sour but still nice.

Fruit and brett in the aroma. Reddish brown color. Sour, green apple up front, some berries, vinegar, very smooth oaky tanin finish. Right after you swallow it feels like you grow a little patch of hair in the back of your mouth.

Bottle # 04-2995 Vibrant copper with stunning clarity, a bit of a head forms, and disapears, there’s a fine film of tan bubbles coating the top of the beer. Nose is of biting, green apple skin acidity, cherries, raspeberries, and a bit of woody taste swimming in vinegar.In your mouth, the beer is aggressively sharp and surprisingly full-bodied, with just the subtlest hints of astringency and that acidic bite in the back of the throat. It hits your toungue with a lovely acidic start, followed by underripe raspberries, almonds and slight woody aspect. Vinegar is omnipresent here, and it’s lovely in this form. There’s a every so faint toasted bread there, It’s sour and tart, through and through, but it’s somehow balanced. Finish is fruity and vinegary with that acidic bite building in the back of the throat. Exquisite.

This is my second sour beer, so my rating could be biased a little high, but oh my god is this good. Sour aroma, with a hint of champagne. A very complex flavor that I have trouble describing other than amazing. I will buy this again!

2005 Vintage. My brother lives in Denver and sent me 6 of these beauties last winter! I have been cracking them on special occasions, or when thirsty (always a special occasion). The last bottle was last week, and I have to admit that this beer is improving greatly in the bottle. My impressions last year this time were that it was overattenuated and not nearly as complex as the Rodenbach Grand Cru of 5+ years ago. Interestingly, the complexity is improving in the bottle with more complexity in the later tries. I am down to one bottle and will have to save it for a truly special occasion. Intensely sour, some woodiness, tart, and wonderfully crisp on the palate.

January DMBT. I don’t know how to rate this because I just simply don’t like these sour beers. I have tried to like them, however, it just doesn’t work with my palate. That said, I can tell that it’s a well crafted beer, especially for this style. However, I like my beer to taste like beer, not Vinegar. The people at our tasting were split: Either people loved it, or wanted to barf. I, unfortunately, was in the latter group.