New Belgium Biere De Mars

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

ReRate: Golden orange colored, with a slight haze to it. Good head with exceptional lacing. Aroma is initially slightly hoppy then developes into full form at warmer temperatures and there are brilliant notes of apricot, orange, corriander, pepper and spicyness. Flavor is full of cheer with spice and pepper, citrus notes are abundant and complex. The finish is smooth and refreshing and overall this one is just a wonderful saison, this one got much better with a couple months of extra aging.

Bottle. Poured a cloudy deep orange with an average frothy off-white head that lasted and had good lacing. Good complex citrus and cereal aroma. Medium body with soft carbonation. Same good complex bitter sweet flavor with a moderate finish. Good brew.

I hate round numbers, so this gets me off 1,400. Big thanks to fly for this. Pours turbid orangish with medium white head and much sticky lace. Aroma of malt, hopcit, slight vomit, barnyard, and sweaty female locker room. Tastes malty, with hopcit, earthy peaty esters, and some dusty yeast esters. Smooth finish. Very good balance and complexity. Nice style.

Hazy golden ale with a creamy white head. Yeasty malt with light sulfur notes. Sweet malt with yeast and coriander notes with lingering light bitterness, and nice lemony points. Medium bodied. Thanks to Joe C., via Capflu.

2006 bottle. Head is initially small, frothy, white, fully diminishing. Body is hazy medium amber, bottle conditioned. Aroma is lightly hoppy (lemon, herbs, flowers), lightly yeasty (barnyard, dough), lightly malty (toasted bread), with notes of band-aid and orange peel. Flavor is moderately sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly sweet, lightly acidic, moderately bitter. Medium body, watery texture, lively carbonation. Fairly decent rendition of the style. One of the better offerings from this brewer.

12 oz bottle that came in a lovely box from Larry Pitonka (thanks!), BBD July 06, served at cellar temperature in a Corsendonk Christmas Ale glass. Just a touch of fizzy off-white head tops the opaque murky golden-amber body....nose is lemony, lightly farmy, sour-doughy, rather faint at first but with growing pungent floral qualities....the lovely fluffy, slightly fizzy mouthfeel supports a fruity, somewhat sour body that offers up hints of lemon, rosemary, honey and sour cherry....finish is rather herbal and dry with faint mineralic notes....mouthfeel turns a bit syrupy when warmer. All in all a fairly nice rendition, though no one would ever mistake it for Belgian.

A hint of sour. Also yeasty orange? Orange amber color. Not so cloudy, as the sediment settled. Orangy citrus, malt, hop flavors merge. Tiny bubbles foam to a chewy state. Mellow spicy hop finish. But there’s a faint hint of something tending towards creosote. Or some flavor I just can’t otherwise label. Not bad, just different. Bottle conditioned ale triumphs again.

Tried again, thanks to csbosox. I got more smell of cheese and a little sweeter take ont he taste. I enjoyed it a little more as it seemed to have a little more funk in it this time around. A slightly cloudy light orange colored body with just hints at a head. The aroma is oranges with caramel and some burnt nuts. The taste has some orange marmalade and black pepper spice to the finish. An interesting citrus take on the saison style.