For a New Year's blog a champagne-like beer seemed appropriate, so I decided to take a look at New Belgium's Brut IPA. The Brut IPA puts a fun champagne-like spin on the style. It's wonderfully effervescent, super dry, light on hop bitterness and very refreshing. After some deliberation while beer shopping, I decided to purchase New Belgium's Brut IPA for this blog. As a fan of New Belgium, I was particularly excited to see their take on the style.
As I started pouring Brut IPA, I found myself enjoying the sight of a light golden, clear IPA. I am by no means tired of hazy NE-IPAs but this was a nice change of pace. The aroma is tropical, citrusy(zesty lemon, grapefruit & orange), and a touch white wine-like, with herbal tea notes. The first bubbly sip was enjoyable with grapefruit, lemon, white grape, pineapple, grass and herbal tea. The hops are a dialed back a bit as expected with the style but what is there is really nice. The finish is where things took a turn for me. While a dry finish it is what you should expect from the style, in New Belgium's Brut IPA's case it is extremely dry & astringent, to the point I felt I needed a tall glass of water once I finished it.
New Belgium's take on a Brut IPA is not all bad but one bottle goes a very long way. As I mentioned earlier, I really enjoyed the hop flavor. There was a nice touch of grain in there as well, it just all fell apart in the finish. This is a beer I would love to revisit down the line to see if the recipe gets tweaked slightly. The potential for something great is there. In its current state, it would work for a toast at midnight on New Year's if options are limited. As a session beer, I advise you to look elsewhere.
As far as the style of Brut IPA goes, I am excited to see how big this style gets. Brut IPAs are growing in popularity by the day with more and more breweries attempting them. I look forward to trying and writing about many more.
Overall rating: 2.5/5
Rating Scale:
1. Repugnant and undrinkable
2. Acceptable but forgettable
3. Good, worth a purchase
4. Excellent, a step above the norm
5. Truly Exceptional. Drop everything, BUY IT NOW!
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Happy New Year!
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