New Belgium Le Terroir

Brewed by New Belgium Brewing Company
Style: Sour Ale
Fort Collins, Colorado USA

On tap at FoBAB 2007. Pours a hazy orange with a thin off white head. Aroma is tart. Oranges, citrus, peaches, and hay. Sour tart flavors tangy oranges, citrus, peaches. Oaky and a light funky earthiness. Balanced with a drying finish. Damn tasty.

On tap at FoBAB 5. I drank lots of this 2 years ago, but was unable to take notes.. truly delighted to have another shot at it! Poured pretty much clear medium golden with a nice white cap. In the aroma, ridiculously sour vinegary notes and dry, dusty barn were almost overpowering.. some wheaty tartness too.. it’s hard to imagine smelling a beer that I could picture doing a better job of stripping paint off a car, which is a good thing! The flavor held serve and then some.. vinegar and oak tartness stung the tip of the tongue, and were still around long after I finished drinking this.. some sweeter wheaty notes and lemon zest showed around the middle of the drink.. wonderful funk levels going on here! The acidity just ripped through the tongue.. awesome! Please bottle.

FoBAB Chicago, 2007. Described in the program as an "American wild ale, dry hopped, aged in French oak." That’s enough for me to want to try it. Another light, tart smell. Golden ale color with a bit of haze. No head, of course. Full tartness on top of standard ale malts. Any hops? Doesn’t matter. Actually puckery, but it’s a sourness I can enjoy. Red wine at the finish.

FoBAB 2007. Hazed yellowy brown with almost no white head. Big tartness and still strong herbal presence. Sharp and dry, light malt, some vinous tannins. Thin body. A little bit fizzy though there’s low carbonation here. Big sharp vinous tartness. Yogurty lactobacillus. The nose reminded me of Luciernaga. The flavor is more sour though. Like a lighter malt version of La Folie, except the spicey herbal hops. Same sort of critter sourness. Lingering tannic sourness. Greater than the sum of its parts.

on tap at FoBAB V, this was one of my favorite beers I had that day. Really sour and tart. Very unique. Fantastic beer.

on tap at FoBAB V: pours hazy orange with no head. a sour and tart peachy and orange nose. flavor is really tart and funky. really great stuff. 4.1. 11/3/09, draft at Sheffields, pours hazed amber with white head. nose has a green fresh hop aroma with sour peach and apricot. flavor is sour, acid, peach, white grape, sharp and acidic finish. fresh hop burst in there too. 4.0.

Hoppy but acidic aroma. Golden and cloudy with a thin white head. Sour taste that mellows out as it finished. Some sweet fruit taste. Nice sweet note at finish.

New Belgium tasting at Max & Joe’s Tavern on 10/18/7. This one was aged for 3 years. Pours a cloudy light amber to dark gold with a medium white head. Amarillo hop aroma is very evident. It’s like opening the nitrogen-sealed hop pellet packages. They use a whole pound of these per barrel! Very sour, but not a harsh burning sourness. Rather, it has a nice tongue tartness. I like this much better than La Folie because it lacks the esophageal burn. I think dry-hoping definitely improves these sour beers.At least, it works for me. At the warm finish, the oakiness really emerges and makes this even better.