New Belgium Le Terroir

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

Served in a small half-pint miniature (Samuel Smith lager) wine-type glass and was hazy orange. The smell was delicious vinegar, enticing glue (you know you’ve sniffed it!), and sourness. The taste was explosively sour but in such a good way like sourpatch kids candy. Sour peaches, apricots, and it really puckered my mouth towards the back. This is without a doubt the best New Belgium beer I have ever tasted and so interesting the way the flavors change in your mouth. Excellent, excellent beer. Serving type: on-tap Reviewed on: 10-27-2007 18:46:08

love fest ’08. Hazy amber with nice carbonation. Mmmn. Sour bitter citrus hops on the aroma. Smooth with an incredibly biting fruity brown sugar cinnamon sourness. Citrus hope battles the Sourness in the lingering finish.

FoBAB 2008 labeled as: "Vieux Terroir" and is apparently aged much longer. The beer pours to a glassy/murky shiny copper body with a thin creamy off-white head. The aroma is catty amarillo hops with sour fruits like peaches and apricots with funky barrels. The palate is Cantillon tart. Ridiculously mouth puckering. Acidic to boot! The flavor is super sour fruits with nice dry hopped characteristics. Perhaps a light cherry and peach. Crisp and clean. Refreshing. The hit of the evening. Blends well with the Tart Lychee.

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.

Hand-bottled bomber from Crosling. This is fantastically delicious. Tart, funky, grass aroma only hints at the intrigue brought from the flavor. Starts like a sweet, spritzy soda up front -- think old-school, tart Orangina -- then quickly segues into a peachy sourness, complimented by a touch of citrusy hops. Smooth oak finishes out the flavor. The symphony of flavors in each sip is beautiful. Plus, the mild carbonation makes this very drinkable and soft, especially for a sour. Excellent!

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.

Orange beer, small just off-white head. Beautifully C-hopped, and only light lactic and acetic hints in the nose. Great, perfectly fresh hops taste, on top of beautiful lactic acidity. Fresh pipe tobacco smoke, and again hops (fresh) in the swallowing, grapefruit-like. Dry-out effect, dry, dry, dry. Absolutely great combination - the perfect marriage between bitter and sour. Super! Notes for the Brettanomyces refermented Le Terroir Orange-amber beer; nearly no head, transparant. Soft straw-like, soft-hoppy nose, with lots of fusels and higher alcohols. Lemon-like sourness, extremely remarkably clear but falling away rapidly, hops flavour/ aroma without the bitterness. Flowery background flavours. Sharp, burning MF, more acid than alcohollike, of cours. Sharper, more phenolic than the usual dry-hopped Terroir, but nice all the same; yet the Bretts and the dry-hopping seem uneasy bedfellows.

Yeah…. It’s only like one of my new favorite beers of all time, FLY!
Sampled: -First on draft at Brewery New Belgium, then on draft at GABF (twice), next on draft at Falling Rock where I truly got down and dirty with a couple 10oz snifters of this marvelous creation of sour mash with aromatic dry hopped finish of a beverage...

This beer gets a truly descript rating when I encounter it again…. Sometime soon… haahumm… BeanDip!