New Belgium Unloads For Fall

Alpine Beer Company +New Belgium: Super IPA

Sampled: Sept. 6, 2012

Alpine is a San Diego-only rarity, so salute New Belgium for bringing it to the masses. That said, Super IPA was the best name they could pick? Well, you can’t judge a beer by name or label.

Loaded up on Columbus, Simcoe, Centennial and Amarillo, the brewers don’t mask their intentions. A thin but creamy lace coasts on an amber-orange body. Lemon zest, spruce tips, pine resin, and grassy textures dominate the nose. Few IPAs of any ilk have such rich noses. There’s some grapefruit,

Late in the palate, a bubbly bitter orange character blossoms. The finish arrives with only traces of bitterness, not the hop-bomb I anticipated. Strong IPAs often crash from unbearable bitterness.

Super IPA flashes a lot of hops, but through delicate balance, not sheer force. I attribute that to three rounds of dry hopping. I would never confess to being an IPA expert, but this collaboration definitely trumps most IPAs by a country mile.

New Belgium  Red Hoptober

Sampled: Aug. 27, 2012

For all its high-octane IPAs and experimental beers, New Belgium rarely receives any credit for its session seasonal ales.  Hoptober has been New Belgium’s tradition for several autumns, but it flipped the formula for 2012. There’s an undeniable hop kick, followed by a load of red malts. The hops push up against the malt with a leafy character that proves itself exquisite.

Reddish brown in body, Red Hoptober's flavor deviates nicely from the Octoberfest tradition. Red fruits abound in Red Hoptober. The combination of Cascade, Centennial and El Dorado hops (not familiar with the last) influences the malt character to great depths. The conflict between the two gives the ale more complexity than most fall seasonal s dare. In fact, it might be the perfect beer for climate change.

Even in an intense summer, it’s quite refreshing. If fall extends for more than a few weeks, Red Hoptober will still have the malt to satisfy Octoberfest urges.