New Belgium Biere De Mars

Brewed by New Belgium Brewing Company
Style: Bière de Garde
Fort Collins, Colorado USA

Cloudy orange under a massive white head. Fresh yeast aroma, with a hint of citrus. Light to medium body with a refreshing flavor. Hints of peach, orange, lemon,and other light fruits.. Fruity, faintly sweet finish.

Pours hazy orange yellow with low medium carbonation. Sweet and sour aroma. Sour, orange, oaty. Not a fan.

Tap. Pours a pale hazy yellow with no head. was a bit disappointed in this one. Seeemed too light and watery. Faint hints of yeast and hops but all in all not very remarkable but rather average.

On Tap: Pours a very hazy deep golden yellowish orange. Yeast strands throughout. Very minimal to 0 head. It looks a lot like a hefe. The aroma is of bubble gum, clove, spices, glue, pine nuts, citrus yeast and dough. The flavor and the palate are both kind of light and fluffy. Rather sweet with brown sugar, molasses, clove, bread, and various malty tastes.

From the bottle.

Pours a hazy gold. This beer comes off like a caricature of why many people don’t like saisons. The aroma is grassy, some lemon, a bit of grapefruit, musty basement, stables, and funky outhouse. The flavor is all of the above, with the emphasis on the stables, basement, and outhouse, albeit with a bitter hop finish that unfortunately comes off medicinal than anything.

I can’t find much to recommend this beer compared with the other saisons that I’ve tasted, and as such I don’t understand many of the ratings I see here. Perhaps as "sethdude" suggests in his Dec 2005 rating, the 2005 has taken a decided turn for the worse. In any event, I had to follow this one with a scotch chaser.

Orange all over the place, in the color, nose and flavor. Nice citrus notes up front, when it warms up a little, it seemed to have a little honey flavor to it. Nice clean finish.

12oz. bottle, best by 7/7/06. Hazy golden/yellow color with a small white head. Yeasty, citrusy aroma with some Brett-like characteristics. Flavor of lemons, pale wheat malts, bread and again that Brettiness. Different and funky, but the flavors didn’t seem to come together for me.

Lately I am incredibly unimpressed by this brewery. Draught. Opaque murky pour. Nothing but cloudiness and orange-straw viscuousness. Head dies quick. At first the nose was delightful. Sour grapes, bubblegum and a nice cracked and edgy malt flavor that was, to say the least, refined. This however quickly turned south. At first the funk that wafted from the goblet was palatable. Dead spiders, dusty corners and goats milk. But then...OHH...pure gym socks...over and over again nothing but gym socks. No subtleness only a nasty fungusy ripeness. This keg was brand new too. Flavorsare murky and confused. Too much bubblegum, malts are flat and sour like most of their brews and the funkiness penetrates everything in a decent but not impressive way. All in all this is an ok beer but just hold your nose when you drink it.