New Belgium Le Terroir

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

Wow, my first sour beer and I’m in love. Kind of a yellow-peach color with a bubbly head. Smells of champagne and apples. The taste is sour, but not too sour. Lots of green apples, peaches, and pear. I’m in love!

2005. Smells like Pickled pickly pickle juice, wow. Brutally sour, lovely hop profile. I think I want more of this more than any other beer I’ve had. Quite a unique experience. I choose for once to not go into detail about the details of taste and flavor profile, because every time I enjoy this beer it is a new experience, transcendent and divine.

I’ve had this one a few times now, when introduced at KROC at GABF 2005 and at the brewery. I really like this stuff. It is a light golden beer with a crisp green apple-mild peach spice aroma, and a cleansing sour balanced crispness. Yeast, spice, and lovely, lovely Amarillo hops. Medium-light body, with malts stepping in to set the perfect balance. Not as sour as La Folie to my memory. One of my favorite NBB beers.

Sour! and I love just about all beer styles include rauchbier. Even the Lefthand Ginger Beer is OK, but this one, wow, what would you eat with it..radishes? Stick with the Trippel or 1554.

EXTREMELY sour. light body with no head. Kicks you in the ass with sourness with your first sip. Very acidic.

Brettanomyces added to bottle, as Joris sampled, below. Originally a gift from Lauren Salazar to Ron Jeffries, and Ron gave it to me. Full nose of tart apple, leather and acetic acid. Musty and earthy too. Lightish red/brown in color. Wonderful slight carbonation rises as you tilt the beer in the glass. Flavors are grapeskin-like in their thinness, with a minerality and a real cherry sweetness floating on top of incredible Rodenbach yeasty sourness, acetic as heck, but well-tempered by sweet fruitiness and by a hint of pine (or is that suggestion?). Fascinating beer - the dreg pour added some needed softness. I like the regular La Folie better, but this was a real trip.

Sample at Falling Rock. VERY interesting, never had anything like it from New Belgium. The only thing it reminded me of was an unknown Gueuze I had at Dilly Deli in Cincinnati. Clear, golden color. Ton of sour, lemony aroma. Complex, citrusy, lemony, malty, yeasty, sour flavor. Light, tart, carbonated mouthfeel. I’m really intrigued by this style of beer and very impressed with NB for putting it out. Can’t drink a lot of it, but interesting when you do.

When I tasted this for the first time I was completely blown away. I like La Folie a lot, but this is even better. It’s sour, and biting, but a bit more approachable than the La Folie, I think. Lots of fresh hops in the aroma - amarillo, I believe. As it warms up, you get some more yeasty and other citrus aromas as well. Flavor is fruity and malty. Aftertaste is quite sour, but not overdone. What a fun beer!