Beers in Review: New Belgium Mothership Wit, 1554, Mighty Arrow, Frambozen and Dark Kriek
In what is becoming a regular weekly occurance on this blog, Beer in Review is taking on New Belgium Brewing Company. Based out of Fort Collins, New Belgium is the result of one homebrewer’s bicycle tour through Belgium. Inspired by what he saw on his trip, Jeff Lebesch brought back with him a few ingredients (how’d he get that past customs?!) and an imagination brimming with recipes.
BetterBeerBlog had the opportunity to visit New Belgium in Fort Collins during our trip to GABF. We enjoyed ourselves tremendously. I found their brewery to be state of the art and environmentally progressive while their employees to be nothing short of warm and welcoming. To visit New Belgium Brewing is to be hugged by your hippy, always happy uncle and aunt who homebrew.
Some people I know aren’t fans of New Belgium, in particular, they hate Fat Tire. I remember having Fat Tire at a pool hall I used to visit and, as I recall, I found the beer to be vastly different than anything I had at the time. For a while, it was the only thing I drank. But things don’t stay the same. I grew to like other beers and Fat Tire became, jokingly, Flat Tire. The truth of the matter is that whatever you opinion is of New Belgium, Fat Tire has allowed New Belgium to go out an brew creative. It’s what has paid the bills and allowed some really interesting beers to leave Fort Collins (La Folie, anyone?). Tonight, I’ll be review 4 of New Belgium’s beers.
Mothership Wit, New Belgium, 4.8% ABV
Mothership Wit pours out a slightly hazy pale straw color with a small but lasting white head. The beer has a medium-low wheat malt aroma that has a citrusy component and a slight sweet malt character with trace spice notes. The initial flavor that hugs my tongue is that of a mild spice character, possibly a result of the yeast-derived phenolics and the spices. There’s a noticeable sweet, wheat malt component to the flavor with honey undertones. There is little to no hop flavor and almost no hop bitterness. In the finish, you have a slight and pleasant tartness. Mothership Wit is medium-lo/medium in body and effervescent with its carbonation.
Truth be told, I’ve had this beer before. In fact, the first time I had this beer was at last year’s Fairfax Brewfest. I liked it then and I ended up using it in one of our beer and food pairing events. Mothership Wit is an example of the Belgian Witbier style. When I compare Mothership Wit to the BJCP style guidelines for a witbier, I find that the beer compares well. The only thing I would knock this beer off for would be it’s appearance. In my interpretation of the style, I believe that witbiers should be cloudy while Mothership Wit is remarkably clear for the style. Mothership Wit is a bit more accessible than the more notable witbier, Hoegaarden, and hopefully you’ll give it a shot.
1554 (Enlightened Black Ale), New Belgium, 5.6% ABV
1554 pours out a very dark brown with ruby hues, amber highlights and an off-white head. It’s as clear as can be for a beer this dark. This beer has a deep roasty quality in the aroma reminiscent of black coffee, with dark chocolate undertones and hint of grainy tartness. No noticeable fruitiness or hop aroma. The deep roasty aroma prevalent in the aroma is the primary flavor of the beer and is supported by semi-sweet, dark chocolate undertones. The roasty character is not everbearing as in porters or stouts though. There is a medium-low bitterness that is reminiscent more of black coffee rather than hops. 1554 is surprisingly medium-low/medium in body with medium-high carbonation. Maybe it’s a combination of the roasty grain character and the carbonation but this beer slightly dry.
1554 is an interesting beer and has a storied history. First of all, this is technically a lager, not an ale as the beer is fermented using a light lager yeast. With the original recipe lost to a flood, New Belgium brewer Peter Bouckaert and researcher Phil Benstein flew over to Belgium to research and develop this beer’s recipe through trial, error and a lot of hard work. As I understand it, the name comes from the year of the recipe they found and worked with. From a BJCP standpoint, 1554 is an example of a Belgian Specialty ale. To explain this style would be fruitless. It’s basically a catch all for Belgian-style beers that don’t fit into the other Belgian categories. The first time I had this beer was at Rosy McCann’s in Santana Row. I liked this beer so much I ended up featuring it in one of our beer and food pairing events.
Mighty Arrow, New Belgium, 6.0% ABV
Might Arrow is New Belgium’s foray into the Pale Ale style of beer. I didn’t know what style to compare this beer to as there is a Belgian Pale Ale style but from reading on their website, this seems to be more of an American Pale Ale. The first time I tried this beer was at New Belgium. From what I wrote, this beer seemed to fit into the style but let’s see if my review today adds up to what I wrote before.
Mighty Arrow pours out an clear, amber/light copper color with an off-white head. The aroma has a refreshingly fresh pungent, piney and citrus hop character to it. The malt aroma definitely takes a back seat to the hop aroma and is more of an undertone than anything really obvious. Despite the big hop aroma, the beer isn’t overly bitter, about medium-level bitterness that is not harsh and lingers on the palette for a bit but isn’t clingy. The hop flavor is medium-high/high and has similar qualities to the aroma along with a slight fruity character. The beer is has a medium-low/medium malt sweetness that balances out the hop aspects of the beer. Might Arrow is medium bodied with medium-high carbonation and is smooth and easy drinking. Although I must say that there’s a slight astringency in this beer that reminds me of grapefruit juice. While I believe that there are other pale ales that I enjoy more, I am pleasantly surprised by this beer. I don’t remember this beer having this much character in Fort Collins. Then again we only had a small taster.
Frambozen, New Belgium, 6.5% ABV
Frambozen is one of New Belgium’s seasonal beers. In this case, Frambozen is a late fall/early winter beer. In fact, I picked up this beer with the rest of the winter warmers I tried a few weeks ago (that I still have plenty of. Anyone want to come by and help me finish these bad boys off?) Frambozen is a raspberry brown ale, and from a BJCP standpoint, would be entered in the specialty ale category. According to their website, New Belgium sends representatives to the Pacific Northwest where they pick raspberries and have them turned into pure juice to be used in fermentation.
Frambozen pours out a clear and deep burgundy in color with deep red hues and an off-white head. The aroma is decidedly raspberry in nature with a slight, sweet caramel malt character coming through underneath. The flavor of the beer is much like the aroma; big raspberry fruit component that dominates the flavor of the beer. There’s a low/medium-low hop bitterness that is mixed with the tart raspberry fruit flavor that makes up the finish. This beer is medium-low/medium bodied an has a medium/medium-high carbonation. This is a “wet” beer as a result of the raspberry tartness.
Out of the beers I’ve had so far, this is proving to be my least favorite, simply because the base beer (brown ale) is lost in all the raspberry. It’s a beautiful looking beer and has great drinkability but I would’ve prefered a beer with a little more balance. When evaluating a specialty beer, one of the things I look for is balance: I want to be able to taste the base beer as well as the special ingredient. Unfortunately for this beer, the raspberry is overpowering to the point of being almost like fruit juice. I’d be interested in knowing what other people thought of this beer.
Update: After allowing this beer to warm up some, the brown ale character starts to rear its head in the form of a “brown sugar” character in the aroma and a nuttiness in the flavor.
Dark Kriek (Lips of Faith), New Belgium, 8.0% ABV (65% ale brewed with cherry juice, 35% ale aged in wood barrels)
The Lips of Faith program at New Belgium is an interesting one. Basically, the Lips of Faith program allows the brewers to play and develop the beers that they’re interested in. It’s almost akin to being a homebrewer, except that you have a multi-million dollar brewery to work with and a nigh-unlimited range of ingredients at your disposal. Oh, what a hard-knock life for the brewers of New Belgium. How dare their management and owners allow them creative freedom. Don’t they know beer brewing should be determined by their accountants?!
Dark Kriek has an inviting dark cherry and a lactic sour/tart aroma with an underlying sweetness and no hop aroma to speak of. It is reminiscent of a Flanders/Flemish Red. The beer has an off-white head that goes away quickly. Dark Kriek is a beautiful beer that is a monochromatic gradient of garnet and red hues. The flavor is unexpected. Dark Kriek has an initial dark cherry fruit flavor and lactic sourness that quickly gives way to a complex plethora of brettanomyces derived character that is a combination of barnyard, horseblanket and vomit (cidery). This beer is medium bodied and medium-high/high in carbonation with a noticeable dryness but surprisingly, I don’t pick up any alcohol notes despite being 8% ABV.
When looking at this through BJCP-tinted glasses, this falls into the fruit lambic style. I can taste the base lambic style but it is balanced with the fruit character of the dark cherry. Dark Kriek is an enjoyable beer but it is not for the uninitiated. This is a beer for the adventurous palette and not for the weak-paletted, light lager drinker.
At the end of the day…
I’m drunk. It’s an ocupassional occupational hazard that comes with the job. I really should reread everything to make sure it’s okay but I won’t. Out of the five New Belgium beers I reviewed today, I will probably repurchase 4 of them for regular consumption. Even the one I “disliked” was a decent beer, just not balanced. I wish my pockets were deeper though as I saw New Belgium’s Pilsner, Tripel and Abbey Dubbel on the shelves as well.
If you must know, the tasting order was arranged by percent ABV; lighter beers first followed by higher percentage ABV. Hopefully you will read this review and it will help you when you decide to purchase (or not to purchase) a beer. If you’ve had these, I encourage you to leave a comment with your take on ‘em. Lastly, if you’re a brewer/brewery/brewpub who would like me to review their beers, please leave a comment with your contact infor or email me at betterbeerblogATgmailDOTcom.
March 27th, 2009 at 7:54 am
I would love to try some of the dark beer from Belgium, sounds great!
May 29th, 2009 at 9:47 am
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May 29th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Hello! I’ve dropped in via Beer 47 and just wanted to say I think your reviews are well written. I came primarily to see how you liked Mothership Wit and 1554, as these two beers are my “beers of choice,” which is to say the labels found most often in my fridge. I agree with your impressions of these two beers and would have written very similar reviews.
I’d love to try the Dark Kriek, but unfortunately none of this beer made it from Fort Collins to The High Plains of New Mexico where I live. As a matter of fact, I consider myself fortunate that New Belgium ships most of its “normal” labels to my neck o’ the woods. It’s very rare we see any of the specialty beers, but some of the seasonals do make it here… from time to time. I’ve had Mighty Arrow and 2 Below, as examples.