Last night Jason played a fantastically wonderful trick on us by pouring 5 different red ales into plastic cups, thus instituting a blind red ale taste test. The idea was that we'd try the 5 before moving on to our review of Fat Tire.
Those of you who travel with me, and perhaps those of you who don't, know that Fat Tire is a staple vacation beer - something we've always looked forward to after a day's hike, or by the campfire...
Anyway, 5 samples of beer first, right? Here are my notes:
A: Sweet nose, dry, hoppy but not overwhelming. -1
B: A little darker than the first, vinegar nose, sulfur taste -2
C: Same look, diaper nose, can't believe they're selling this to people -3
D: Really dark, some lacing on the glass, sugary nose, peanut butter scents. More peanut butter in the taste, not as sugary as the nose would suggest (which is a good thing). This is a winner. + 2
E: Strawberry + medicine + organic strawberry toaster pastry nose, lighter, not offensive, but not good either. medicine taste. + 0
The beer were then ranked:
1) D - This was revealed to be Fort Collins Retro Red - A fantastic beer, get some.
2) E - Barrelhouse Red Leg - I've had this on tap and it was better
3) A - Bell's Amber - New to me. Eh.
4) B - Breckenridge Avalanche - I've recently been in an email conversation with this brewery... I hate to say I didn't like the beer, which is their most popular product.
5) C - Fat Tire - FAT TIRE!?!?
See how he snuck that Fat Tire in there? To put it lightly, I was completely blown away with my dislike of the Fat Tire.. I mean, I've got a Fat Tire cycling jersey - that's how much I thought I liked it.
We're not running our reviews, because we're afraid we got a bad (or skunked) batch of Fat Tire - I've got to bring some back from St. Louis at the end of the month to test the theory. I've heard that New Belgium's other beers are better, so I'm going to bring some of them, too. Should be interesting...
3 comments:
that's hilarious that you have the bike jersey.
only because i don't even drink, but being the bike nerd that i am, i always told myself that if i did drink, that would be my selection. hell, i thought about drinking just for the cultural assocation. fortunately, i never started.
fat tire must be to cyclists what St. Ides is to hip hop heads (so i've heard anyways).
-spitz
I liked fat tire years ago, but I tried some recently in chicago and I thought it sucked too.
I thought that Fat Tire was easily the worst beer that we've reviewed. I really would like to give it a second chance to see whether we did indeed get a skunked batch.
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