Oscar Worthy - Coffee
New Belgium Brewing Company

Late 2014 vintage; drank on draft 2/14/15 @ Three Floyds.

Plum appearance.

Tan head; strong lace.

Roasted coffee & tart cherry nose.

Medium mouthfeel.

Fresh coffee bean flavor up front; a tart cherry finish.

As this warmed it got slightly puckering.

A unique pairing that's enjoyable, but 6oz is enough.

 

 

 

Weird.
Lightly sour.
Not much coffee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You have to give NB an E for effort, and I appreciate their willingness to experiment. Unfortunately, this particular beer struck me as a failure. On tap (of all places) at Beachcombers in Florence Oregon this past weekend.

The beer pours an attractive blackish brown color with good head retention and decent lacing. When I ordered the beer, I was not aware it was going to be sour, but one sniff gave me a tip off. On the nose, you really pick up a lot of coffee, along with a sour, vinous component. The combination is not bad at all. However, on the palate, the sour component completely overwhelms the flavor profile. The coffee is still there as well, but that's all I get. If the base beer has any separate flavor, I'm not picking it up. The finish is very dry and sour, and the mouthfeel is (unfortunately) very thin.

It was a chore drinking my 12 ounce glass, and the $7 price tag only added to my pain. Nice try guys, but IMHO, this beer sucks.

 

 

Smell is mostly coffee, with a bit of acidity. Tastes more sour than the aroma, definitely coffee up front followed by oakey tartness.

Not sure how I feel about the combination of coffee and sour, but this is certainly one of the more unique beers I've ever had. I love La Folie, and the sour part of this beer is similar. But as I drink it, the coffee just seems to be taking away from the sourness as opposed to complementing it. But I applaud the creativity from New Belgium.

 

Had on nitro... Far better than I had supposed... Good, but not amazing...

@ Glass Jug

Mostly clear chestnut with a ring of big bubbles around the edges. Aromas of ground coffee mostly...chocolate bread and a slight tart edge. Coffee meets juicy tart flavor. The coffee tastes cheaper, but it's more subtle here meeting up with some vinegar and brown malts. Thin-ish and drying with decent acidity. Not bad, but maybe not my thing.

 

 

On Tap @ Apex in PDX

A interesting brew here. Dark cloudily brown ale, with a small amount of thin mocha head. really an unblended old bruin aged on coffee beans. as a result this thing is really weird, but good. The noise is super powerful with the coffee flavor and the lactic quality shinning through. The beer itself has some coffee notes upfront, but there is very little on the mid-palate and the finish as this thing is quite lactic. still my first foray into a coffee sour and it was pretty damn good. something to seek out, even though i think there were 8 kegs made, so good luck...

 

 

Half inch of white lacing. Great smell and texture. My first ever sour coffee brew. Hats off the New Belgium for this bold combo

definitely one of the best new belgium beers i have ever had. this is the kind of stuff that keeps them relevant and they kind of stuff that needs to get packaged. its a coffee infused foeder of beer they use to blend into la folie, and its absolute amazing. the coffee aroma is incredible, super earthy and rich, and acidic too, no attempt to hide it. i smell notes of chocolate with it too, and the sour of the base beer, which seems at least conceptually like a really weird match is actually tantalizing. the taste too is just that good, sweet chocolate moves into heady coffee, but its not a dark beer, barely amber to brown in color, and the lightness of the grain bill allows flavors in the coffee usually covered up by roasted barley bitterness to come out. thats where the cocoa comes from, and the combination is splendid. heavy lactic sourness in the finish, but it comes right out of the coffee middle, seamless and easy, very natural for something so uncommon. carbonation is expressive and both the coffee and the sourness linger on the palate after the swallow for quite awhile. interesting, but it works in an after dinner context. its inventive and close to flawlessly put together. knowing that new belgium is capable of beer this good almost makes some of their beer seem lazy, but this is inspiring. i have never had a coffee sour, at least not one that does both parts so well. i hope to see this for sale in the market down here at some point. an absolutely must try for the curious palate!