Tag: La Folie

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To the PX

I missed either by mistake or by cost last year’s special La Folie Gran Reserve release: Geisha.  Now a new and even more intriguing barrel aging and nitrogen adding experience is on the way with PX.  The PX stands for Pedro Ximénez, a white Spanish wine grape varietal that is used to produce the namesake Pedro Ximénez Sherry.

New Belgium and their barrel wranglers procured 20 of these rare sherry barrels and put La Folie inside. Then… “Once matured, 400 whole, hand-split Tahitian vanilla beans were infused into the sherry barrel-aged base beer for four months, swirled every day to intensify the combination of vanilla’s sweetness with existing fig, sour plum and cocoa flavors.”

I may splurge for this one.

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Gosh-a


New Belgium has a fancy new beer in the pipeline suitable for special occasions.

Geisha combines the namesake coffee from Panama at Hacienda La Esmeralda with La Folie sour ale. According to the press release this makes for “the coffee’s brilliant mandarin and soft jasmine floral notes which play nicely with the sour plum and cocoa flavors synonymous with La Folie.”

The special coffee was sourced from Fellow B Corp, Sustainable Harvest of Portland.

Here is the info about where the beans came from: “The lands that make up Hacienda La Esmeralda where first brought together as a single estate by a Swede named Hans Elliot in 1940. Coffee had been growing on lands in and around Hacienda La Esmeralda since at least, 1890, and it was this huge reservoir of coffee knowledge and culture that helped the Petersons redevelop much of their land for coffee farming and even make their first coffee farm expansion at Palmira in 1988. It was a happenstance of altitude and lot separation that discovered Geisha’s amazing flavors and aromatics.”

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Sean Suggests for May 2017

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This month we focus on sours from established breweries. Sometimes chasing new leads us to forget the classics. Well, and one new beer but from a classic brewery.

~LIGHT
Firestone Walker Barrelworks/ Bretta Rose5.3% ABV
“Thirty miles north of Barrelworks lies the fertile Santa Maria Valley. Its warm days and cool marine layer-fed evenings allow for a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables to be grown in its rich soil. One of Santa Maria’s crown jewels is locally grown raspberries. We jumped at the opportunity to ferment fresh local raspberries with one of our Barrelworks creations. Behold Bretta Rosé! A low-alcohol Berliner Weisse style ale, acidified and matured in French oak puncheons for 6 months, is the foundation for this gem. Add 1000 lbs. of fresh raspberries, allow a secondary wild fermentation for 4 more months and voila (!), we have a crisp effervescent concoction, bursting with raspberry perfume and flavor, a rosé color, bracing acidity, and a clean and refreshing finish.”

~MEDIUM
Ommegang/ Pale Sour6.9% ABV
“Pale Sour is an elegant, drinkable sour beer, unique in that it’s not wood-aged. It has a well-balanced blend of sweet and sour. Liefmans is such a historic, iconic brewery and having the opportunity to work with them has been an honor and very enjoyable. Pale Sour begins with a mixed culture fermentation in open copper vats. Aged over several months in stainless tanks, master blenders blend new batches with older ones until the optimal balance of flavors is reached.”

~DARK
New Belgium/ La Folie7.0% ABV
“La Folie, French for “the folly,” is a beer steeped in New Belgium brewing tradition. This wood-aged, sour brown spends one to three years in big, oak barrels, known as foeders. And when the beer finally hits the glass, La Folie is sharp and sour, full of green apple, cherry, and plum-skin notes. Pouring a deep mahogany, the mouthfeel will get you puckering while the smooth finish will get you smiling. Not a beer for the timid, La Folie is a sour delight that will turn your tongue on its head. Find out why it’s considered one of the best sour beers around. “

All of these beers can be found at Sunset Beer Co. (unless they got bought up real quick)

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Beer Dinner Review – Lost in the Woods

I did not know that Pedaler’s Fork in Calabasas was not only a restaurant but also a bike shop and coffee spot as well. Plus it was the host of a beer pairing dinner with the challenging foudre based beers of New Belgium Brewing.
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Thanks to the generosity of New Belgium, I was able to learn more on the Art (and Science) of Beer and Food pairing with the challenging and damn tasty, sour beers from the Fort Collins Foeder Forest.

Course # 1 – Shrimp Pasta with Black Pepper Nage and Pea Tendrils paired with Transatlantique Kriek
This was an odd choice. The bright and tart cherry from the Kriek was dulled by the cream and salt of the shrimp and the pasta. The cherry didn’t get a chance to shine and would have been better served with a salad that had some cheese and nuts in it. The ravioli were quite good as was the sauce and the beer was fantastic (my second favorite of the night) but combined they just didn’t add anything.

Course # 2 – Braised Pork Shoulder with Charred Celeriac Puree and Dried Apricot Sauce paired with La Folie Sour Brown
Now this worked! The light touch of apricot with the pork really found a willing partner in the La Folie which added a tart bite and notes of barrel wood to the food.

Course # 3 – Chocoloate Mousse Cake with Chocolate-Blackberry Ice Cream and Blackberry Sauce paired with NBB Love
First off, this beer is beyond excellent. It was so good. Subtle whiskey mixing with tart and a bit of blackberry as well. The chocolate mousse was fine. But in comparison it was the undercard of the dessert course. I had the cake and had sips of the beers and it was fine but it didn’t light a fire. A blackberry sorbet or gelato with chocolate cookies might have been stronger.
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Kudos to New Belgium though for the thoughtful swag though. A really cool wood coaster with the Lost in the Woods logo, a napkin with the logo and a keychain bottle opener with wood and metal too. SO much better than a glass. Well done.