New Belgium La Folie

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

Beer 1100! Huge thanks to Secret Santa Crosling for this beauty! Bottle #4-1066. Slightly hazy amber with hints of orange, perhaps ruby, good initial head died fast. Aroma of sour cherries and a bit of light chocolate cake. Complex layers of flavor - sour cherry, wood, with chocolate faint in the background. A bit of yeastiness, perhaps a nod towards caramel. A superb example of the style, fitting for a milestone rating. Perhaps better than the numbers here suggest. RERATE: 8/29/09, Relentless Thirst, Lips of Faith bottling. Notes matched, but knocked the score up a bit - this is just a fantastic beer.

Bottle courtesy of BeerandBlues2: Poured a deep reddish color ale with a medium foamy head with better then average retention. Aroma of oak and tart is quite impressive with some tannic qualities also discernable. Taste is quite sour and tart with a nice oak presence and some subtle sour cherries. I thought taste had some great tannic qualities and was very reminiscent of Rodenbach Grand Cru, which is a great compliment when coming from me. I would love to try this again and I really appreciated all the complexities that this beer had to offer.

On tap into a small tulip, Falling Rock Tap House. Finally, I get to rate this. Smells freaking fantastic. I smelled it for a full five minutes before daring to taste it. Acid cherry and granny smith apple in the nose; something lurks in there reminding me of white zinfindel and sharp blue cheese (without the cheese). The taste explodes like Enola Gay dropped it. My eyes watered it was so intense. More purely sour than any gueuze I’ve had. Fruitier than a gueuze, not as straightforwardly dry, but not as fruity and round as a Rodenbach. Granny Smith apples dominate the taste with a lack of sweetness (although the taste contains cinnamon syrup and caramel), some cherry, and dark spidery yeasty things after the sour dies off. Sour fumes even waft up into the nose from the back. The finish is almost dry, but the acid keeps bringing up saliva, so it can’t really achieve it. Body is medium, somewhat fizzy. Officially dope, although doesn’t aspire to the heights; if the finish were more developed, or it were a bit more complex, would be one of my all-time bests.

06.02.05 750ml bottle 2004, #5173 Trade from pdee. Luscious teak color, dark and glistening; sudsy tan head that quickly fades to a lasting ring. Right from the first whiff, I can tell that this is a brew I’m going to love again. Acetic, rotten cherries dominate an earthy backbone. Woody, fortified wine is underlying but present at every turn from the nose to the aftertaste. HInts of cheesey funk, present on the nose, do not stick around to harass; that’s why I love flemish sours and not so much many lambics. Dry, astringent, but not unfortunately so. Sourness can feel a bit brutish if this brew is not sipped but in small doses, WOW. Time in the wood, once again, does miracles for a beer, at once mellowed and deepened. Thanks a million, Brian.

Pour is a cloudy orange with a small tan head. Aroma is fresh cherries with a strong and overpowering woody backbone. Very earthy and musty with lots of sourness.Very strange beer. Lots of mustyness and flavor, which is smooth.

(750ml bottle, courtesy of Kevin) Pours a cloudy reddish-brown body with a moderate beige head. Aroma of cherry, wood, vinegar, and earthiness. Flavor of tart cherry with a dry, woody finish. Excellent! Thanks again Kevin!

One that has been on my list the longest, it did not disappoint. Looked great dark brown with red highlights and a compact head. Sharp aroma of vinegar and barnyard. Flavor is sour cherry and just layered with complex vinuos notes. Perfectly balanced and drying on the end.

Equipment: 2002 vintage. 750 mL bottle served chilled in a Brewer’s Art chalice. Appearance: Murky reddish brown topped by a small off-white head. Big bubbles popped up occasionally and replenished what eventually was a scant film of small bubbles. Wisps of lacing were left on the glass. Aroma: Oaky and brassy tannins bitchsmack your nostrils like a rented mule. Then some heavy and tart cherry aromas kick in. Peppery twang and whole lotta funkiness. If the P-Funk mothership landed in a barn and starting doing cow evisceration a la the Greys, that’s about the level of funk we’re talkin ’bout. Flavor: Vinegary, woody, sweet, and incredibly tart. Intense as all get out. Whole lotta tannins goin’ on. Long lasting aftertastes. Palate: Puckering and quite the palate scraper. Oddly refreshing. I think my cheeks are still caved in. Overall: If Flanders Reds are your bag, this is your new best friend. At first, I didn’t like it but after I got about halfway through the glass, I reached out and snagged the last few precious centimeters of this stuff so’s I could get the yeasties. Aw crap, the bretty beers are growing on me.