I’m not sure of the role of beer in life, and every beer must have a role. Surely this one has a role. But I can’t quite say what. I think that when wanting to make a nice light refreshing beer for bicycle riding in Belgium, its best to make it in Colorado and sell it in January. The golden color might be the color of someone’s bicycle, as pictured on the label, but one also needs a seat and handlebars the color of white foam. It smells more like wheat with light medicinal phenols moreso than bicycle grease or whatever Belgium smells like in the springtime, which I might guess is mud and pig manure, neither of which are present in this light fermentation profile. Its a warm Florida January afternoon and the beer washed down some beans and rice well enough. I’m starting to hate how craft brewers are moving more and more towards pushing insipid lightly flavored beers on everyone. This one isn’t insipid, but it got me thinking.

12 ounce bottle. Pours a clear golden color with a medium sized frothy white head. Good head retention. Aroma of floral, herbal hops and pale malts. The taste is pale crackery malts, herbal hops. Medium bodied, high carbonation, simple, well balanced.

12oz bottle. Hyper filtered yellow-orange body. Foamy, lacy white head. Really clean, really fresh, and really refreshing to have a NG beer that doesn’t feature a new wacky adjunct. Sort of strikes me as lager-like, in that in has rich, subtle malt tones, not unlike a Hellerbock in some respects, but the mild fruity yeast remind you of it is an Ale. Clean, well done beer, albeit a little hollow and not that extreme or exciting.

Bottle @ home, picked up at Wilbur’s Fort Collins. Pours a fairly clear yellow with a white head. The aroma has some spicy yeast, lemon, light pepper, and cracker notes and is clean. There is a bit of sweetness in the flavor but it dries out well in the finish. Cracker and dough dominate the flavor along with some grassy and light citrusy notes. Some bitterness on the finish. Nothing too flashy and sure, it’s a little boring but it’s clean and dry. That’s just fine with me. Update: Three weeks later it tastes like veggies.

It pours a straw yellow that is almost blindingly bright and clear, with over a 1 finger head of foam. Lacing is great as per NB usual.

The smell is kind of earthy, has some distinct lemon thing going on, light aroma of yeast.

I have to say the smell translates to the taste and is nice. I think the lemon flavour does a good job of making this interesting. A bit earthy, light hint of pepper, kind of bitter in the finish.

Medium bodied though in the finish, it does get very light, almost watery.

A good brew here. I’ll enjoy the other 5 bottles.

Clear gold pour - lively carbonation that eventually produces a frothy lace - fairly sweet nose of honey, pear, apple, with a slight lemon tartness and mildly floral hops - quite sweet up front, with a syrupy texture - innocuous pale malt sweetness - no Belgian character to speak of - the New Belgium website states this is brewed with Nugget hops and a "hybrid ale yeast" - not sure what that means, but here we have a beer with lightly resinous hops, moderate sweetness, and little yeast character to speak of, tasting more like a clumsy american "craft" lager than a Belgian ale - pretty poor showing.

Bottle from Total Wine in Orlando, FL. Pours gold with a large creamy white head. Aroma is softly yeasty with a citrus note. Flavor is bready with citrus and a minimum of spice and yeast. Starter Belgian.