New Belgium Mountain Mantra

Formerly brewed at New Belgium Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Fort Collins, Colorado USA

Draught. Pours mahagony with orange hints and a creamy tan head. Piney and citrus rind hop aroma with hidden caramel malt and orange peel. Grapefruit hop and resiny flavor with a sweet caramel malt body and faint yeast. Spicy medium bodied palate.

Orange-amber in color, with a white head. Aromas of pine, and yeasty esters. First you taste some piney hops that fades away as you drink the beer, then you taste bubblegum and spices. Avery interesting and complex beer. It didnt have near the hops I was expecting.

Can you get too much of a good thing? I found this way overdone w/ spices & hops...maybe if they bottled it some age would help to mellow the spices and bring it together...but I was reluctant to even finish my sample at the brewery...reminded me of a homebrew experiment I’ve done...one that I won’t repeat!

Draught. Body is light amber. Aroma is lightly malty (toasted grain), moderately hoppy (herbs, grapefruit, resin), with a note of clove. Flavor is moderately sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly sweet, moderately acidic, moderately bitter. Medium body, velvety texture, lively carbonation. Pleasant easy-going pale ale with a hint of Belgian-ness (clove in this case).

Nice white head, clear orange color to the body. Strong aroma of mint, spices, hops, and lemon. Sweet and hoppy up front, becomes more minty and bitter in the finish. Medium body. Spices came off just a tad too astringent/chemical for me.

Light orange gold color. Small to medium sized white foamy head. Aroma is floral and fruity. Awesome aroma in this one. A medium to full bodied “IPA”. Malts are fruity and sweet. Hops are floral and a touch grapefruity. Lots of spices in this one as well, coriander, kefir lime and lemon peel. Lots of floral flavors, with big bright yeasts, but it still has a nice malt backbone and lots of hops. Spicy and slightly strange. Hoppy without being bitter. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly sweet.

Appeared today on draught @ the brewery. I presume this will replace the saison as this is again referred to as an experimental, "pilgramage" type beer. It’s a very strange, extremely hoppy beer, spiced with kaffir lime leaf and lemon peel, as well as Sterling, Goldings, Liberty, Saaz and two other varieties. The strange thing is that it is fermented with Belgian yeast; the same yeast used to ferment Abbey. It leads to a clear orange color, a minty, lemon and lime infused aroma (from both the spices and the hops) with a touch of fruit and Belgian yeast. Light and airy on the palate with a tremendous diversity of hop flavor and underlying notes of caramel and the attributes of Belgian Yeast. They didn’t call this beer an India Pale Ale but unfortunately, this is definately one of those beers that doesn’t even come close to being stylistic. It’s hoppy and weird. Going by what is in the glass, I say IPA but if there would have been an IPA/Belgian Ale/Saison/Spiced Beer/XX Bitterish option, I would have chosen that. It will be interesting to see what Belgian beer enthusiasts say about this beer, because it is a straight hop bomb. I enjoyed it, but I also love hops.