Is New Belgium's La Folie the same as New Belgium's La Folie Wood Aged Beer? La Folie Wood Aged Beer used to appear in the list of Top 100 beers circa 2005 and 2007, but I can find no listing of that specific name in the beers for New Belgium. La Folie Wood Aged Beer was classified as a Flanders Red Ale, 6% abv. La Folie is currently classified as a Flanders Oud Bruin, 6% abv. To complicate matters slightly, most of the beers in the Lips of Faith series include Lips of Faith in the name: La Folie does not even though it is part of the Lips of Faith series. I am tracking how many of the top 100 beers circa 2005 and 2007 I have sampled and have just obtained a bottle of La Folie.
Same beer only different. The corked and caged ones were bottle conditioned and evolved over time in the cellar. The Lips of Faith version is not bottled conditioned so..they probably won't appreciate spending much time in the cellar. I say probably; the oldest sample is from 2009 so if anyone drinks one from that year any time soon, let us know how it's doing.
I think new (22 oz, Lips of Faith series) la Folie and the old (750 ml, Corked and Caged, bottled conditioned) beers are variants of the same recipe. I think the older batches were smaller scale productions and used smaller oak foeders (barrels) for maturation, which were sold/given to Russian River when New Belgium expanded several years ago. Then newer beer is filtered now, idk if it is pasteurized though. It seems like 2009 is the transition year, with both C&C 750's and 22 oz bombers made with that vintage listed. As for whether or not the 22oz beers will develop, that's anyone's guess. Not all beers with good again potential absolutely need to be bottled conditioned with yeast in order to develop. Flavors change and complex chemical reactions happen even in the absence of yeast. A filtered pasteurized IPA isn't necessary going to stay the same after a year just because it wasn't bottled conditioned There is also not a lot of difference between a Flanders Red and Brown, similar yeasts and fermentation, similar formulas, both traditionally wood aged, although the browns tend to be less sours and maltier. However, just like there are maltier IPA's that tend to be more like Pale Ales and hoppier IPA's that are more like DIPA, there is flex in the distinction between Flanders REds and Browns
I have a 2007 C&C in the cellar, IIRC. I'll check and get back. There is a difference IMO with the C&C versions and the Lips series.
