New Belgium La Folie

Brewed by New Belgium Brewing Company
Style: Sour Ale
Fort Collins, Colorado USA

#150. Tasted at KC Bier Meisters meeting. 2002. Bottle # 4805. Light brown color, cloudy, lots of suspended particles. Cream colored ring. Sour nose, lemon?, yeast perfumy. Full mouthfeel, sour, almost like tart cider. Sour finish. Really nice. One of my first sour beers, so my rating is pretty non-descriptive. I hope to re-rate after some more exposure to the style.

bottle #: 07-7123, Falling Rock 10th Anniversary blend courtesy of iowaherkeye, thanks Joey. shared with illini08 & nimrod. while I’m not much of a sourhead, I have had a few which I really liked. unfortunately this one just didn’t quite do it for me. by the time I hit the second half of my glass I was enjoying it more, but the first half of the glass was tough. reddish brown pour with a tan-ish off white head. aroma and initial flavor is TART cherries and some sour funk. in addition to the tart cherries other flavors noted were some oak and acidic vinegar to make your mouth pucker.

FoBAB 08. Pours a hazy brown/red. Aroma of funk and sour cherries. Flavor had the sour cherries, a touch of wine, oak, yeast, and some tart flavors. Great sour.

750 ml bottle (2005): Medium amber w/ a thin but lasting off white head. Light brett/horsey aroma with bready malts; also a bit solventy for some reason. Also some lightly toasted malt and oak aromas. Very sour to start, but caramelly malt tries to cut the sourness, but to no avail.. It stays sour into the dry finish which is toasted malt flavored. Medium light body, medium carbonation. Too sour for my tastes and it seems to lack a bit of complexity for being 2 years old, but I’m sure this beer would lay down well for another few years.

Red-tinged brown, pretty well clear w/ a short-lived head of off-white bubbles. Nose is tart and fruity w/ lots of complex spice nose--absolutely the best quality this beer has. Taste is tart but conservatively so for something that says "seriously sour" on the label. The overall effect is quite like some of the tarter pure fruit juices, cranberry or cherry, only w/ added depth and complexity from some tannic overtones. My only gripe is mouthfeel which I felt lacked the necessary effervescence to make this a truly lively experience. Overall, a wonderfully complex beer though.

6/1/09 notes: new batch and bottling, poured from bottle at Bruisin Ales in Asheville. Pours dark red with a smoldering cream-colored head. Aroma is rich of cherry, wood, vinegar, and rhubarb. Flavors starts with dark cherry fruit, then negotiate terrain that includes orange peel, apple cider vinegar, mellow vanilla-oak, and a whole bunch more. The tartness on the finish is so mellow and inviting that you almost forget how radically different this beer is. Palate is smooth and softly effervescent throughout. What a privilege to have tried this.

On tap at Papago Brewing. Pours a nice reddish brown color with a small off white head. Aroma is sour, acidic, vinegary, cherries and oak. Flavor is a very acidic sour cherry taste with hints of oak and a little funk. Very drinkable and the sourness is mouth watering, I love this stuff it’s great. Really impressed.

On tap@OBrien’s: Murky, dark prune brown color with a wisp of beige foam. Aroma is sour, acidic red wine vinegar. Flavor starts sour vinegar followed by green apple and a lightly tart lemony finish. Light-medium body is thin and lively.