New Belgium 2° Below Winter Ale

Brewed by New Belgium Brewing Company
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Fort Collins, Colorado USA

11/08/2007: New Belgium 2° Below Winter Ale pours a clear deep golden color. It has a lasting, frothy off-white head and a moderate carbonation level. Bright hops (like a package of freshly opened hop pellets) and some artificail chocolate right at the very back jump out of the aroma. The flavor is really interesting and hard to describe. It is somewhat complex and I can only describe it as being hoppy with some cucumber (?!), caramel matliness, and fallen leaves. The flavors are unexpected in this medium-bodied beer, but it is still quite good overall.

12 fl. oz. bottle (Alc. 6.6% by Vol. / Best Before: 08 Feb 08 / 22526 132173 1449). Rating #463 for this beer.

Pours a clear amber with orange highlights and good tan head with lacing. Caramel, lightly vegetal, nutty, with some pepperyness. Finishes with an old smoke quality and very slight cherry. Interesting brew.

Bottle, courtesy sebletitje probably. Clear copper pour, frothy head, wet sticky lacing. Sweet cereal and grainy nose, some caramel. Flavors is sweet sticky grain, wheat some caramel. Medium-bodied and tasty.

Pours luxurious amber with immense white head that retains exceptionally well. Head retention and aromatics go hand in hand, and this beer doesn’t dissapoint. Nose is a beautiful clean metallic with dark cherries, and a slight citrus bubble gum wrapper component. (reminds me of juicy fruit gum). Palate offers a nice balance with malt and hops, again the cherry citrus flavors come through, nicely rounded, and it ends on a slightly sweet finish. Exceptionally drinkable, and quite refreshing. Very approachable too for those not fully invested in craft ales.

Bottle. Light aromas all around. Roasted and caramel for the malt, herbs for the hops, dough for the yeast, and pepper in the background. Head is frothy, white with good lacing and is mostly diminishing. Color is clear amber/tan. Flavor is slightly sweet and lightly to moderately acidic, then finishes lightly acidic and bitter. Palate is light to medium, watery, has a lively carbonation and finishes dry. Light in aroma, but a sharp taste is what pushes this ESB in the above average part of the scale.

Bottle pours an off-white head that laces with a clear amber body. Aromas of white bread, caramel, spicy hops, and yeast. Flavors of caramel, white grape, little barnyard, and spicy hops. Smooth finish.

bottle from my cousin Sam. Thanks youthfulfreak! Pours a rich amber color wtih a good mostly white head. Aroma is full of delicious hops. Some caramel malt is noticeable but the hops really shine. And the flavor is pretty nice. A different spin on a winter ale and I liked it! Nice floral/citrus hops with some good caramel in the malt profile. Good beer. A bit underrated IMO.

Deep amber coloured body with ruby highlights and a very thin off-white head. Aroma of fresh hops (dry hopped), toffee, malt and a bit of concord grapes. Medium-bodied; Strong metallic taste up front fading to a strong malt backbone covered with nuts and spices, all fading to a very subtle hop flavour. Aftertaste shows more of the hops, but even more of the nuts and malt. Overall, a decent beer - not my favourite from the brewery, but nice to try and probably fairly nice for the cold season here! I sampled this beer on draught at the New Belgium Hub in Denver International Airport on 26-November-2007.