Welcome !

[Editor's note: This is the first post from Nic the Intern. We hired Nic to travel around, go to Tour de Fats (and a few other events) to collect stories and tell the world of his adventures. He's a real nice guy (and lucky to boot). Follow him: Tour de Fat on Facebook, and @TourdeFat on Twitter and Instagram, as well as here, the New Belgium Blog. 

Talk soon,

Juicebox]

From Nic:

This past weekend Tour De Fat ventured to Durham, NC for its third year in a row, and we brought along a couple of co-workers from the Mothership in Fort Collins to help out. World, meet the Sanger brothers:

Josh, left, and Jason, right, like motorcycles, cut-off shirts and words like "dang," and for Durham's Tour De Fat they got some killer mullet extensions glued into the backs of their heads. Why'd they do it? Because for one, the mullets were baller. The other reason, though, was that the Sangers were given the honor of sumo wrestling — it's a tradition when Tour De Fat rolls into North Carolina — Friday, June 14 after the seventh inning of the Durham Bulls AAA baseball game against the Indianapolis Indians.

Here they are signing wavers in the stadium's tunnels:

And here's Josh in his sumo suit:

Notice the fake belly button and nipples. We thought those were funny:

Josh and Jason really liked their suits — maybe too much. The seventh inning was a doozy, meaning the guys were in costume for a rather long time. This led to pre-match wrestling, fart jokes and a lot of pontificating from both Sangers. Durham Bulls staff, we apologize.

Jason managed to take off his sock while wearing his suit, which, according to people with experience in these matters, was very impressive:

He then kicked Josh in the butt:

Anyway, the brothers finally made it on to the field to fight three rounds in front of 10,000(ish) people. They were jazzed:

Now, the first two rounds were rigged — Jason and Josh would each win one of them — so the real fight came down to the final and third round. Most fake sumo matches at AAA baseball games can probably be brushed aside as simple entertainment, but in the case of the Sangers, it was a blood match. Nay, it was a blood REmatch ... a rematch for every scuffle the brothers got into while growing up. 

There was more on the line than the title of Durham Bulls sumo champion. The winner, well, the winner would be able to hold this fleeting moment over his brother's head until death. 

With that in mind, Josh went to work:

He viciously handled his brother, first slamming him to the mat and then, for good measure, adding a crowd pleasing body slam:

So that's that. Josh is officially the better-wrestling Sanger, and Jason has to live with it for the rest of his life. No big deal, I guess, if you have no pride.

Here's Josh posing with the past-years' winners of the Durham Bulls/New Belgium Brewing annual sumo-athon:

That is one sexy looking winner's circle. Here's to next year's match; hopefully it's a tag team cage brawl sorta effort. Oh, and the Bulls lost in extra innings, which was a bummer. A few of us are still sporting their caps here in Fort Collins, though. GO BULLS!

— Nic The Intern

Alright, this is a quickie. But the Durham show just ended and I wanted to give a couple highlights: over $20,000 was raised for local cycling, and (literally) every person in attendance had an amazing time... 

We'll catch up next week for more details, but boy-howdy, best day ever!

The picture above proves it. That's He's My Brother She's My Sister absolutely ripping the main stage.

Seriously, more to follow next week, but first I need some rest...

-Juicebox

I'm on Tumblr. A lot. I love it. It's fun and quick and there are so many interesting/hilarious things there one can't help but dedicate 12 or 13 hours per day looking at it. One of my all time favorite follows on Tumblr is Phones Replaced With Sandwiches (seriously, click on the link, it's amazing). 

And then, the other day, a few of us were sitting around the Beer Factory talking about Phones Replaced With Sandwiches and we decided to build an homage to this wonderful Tumblr. I present to you Phones Replaced With Fat Tires... 

Beer, up high.

Beers.

A big hole.

So cool....

Ah, phones Replaced With Fat Tires, it was a great way to spend an afternoon. If you feel like submitting take to Facebook.com/NewBelgium. It could be fun. Or, maybe replace the phone with a sandwich and send it to the person who thought of this first... 

I love you,

Juicebox

Paardebloem is a funny word. It's not even English, it's Flemish (I think). It means dandelion. Yep, the little yellow flower that turns into the weird windmill thing that you blow the petals off and make wishes. Little know fact, it's a totally and completely edible flower, the heads, the leaves, the greens, all of it. And when eaten it tastes vegetal and bitter. Bitter. Yep, like hops. 

Paardebloem (the beer) has been brewed before. It is the brain child of Chris McCombs (AKA Puffy). Puffy is a plant engineer here at New Belgium and a former brewer at Red Rock Brewing in Salt Lake City. Over the years he has gone back into Utah to join up with these folks (at RRB) to create a beer bittered with dandelion greens instead of hops, they call(ed) it Paardebloem. They have made it a bunch of times (it even won some awards (NBD)). And here it is again, in all its awesome glory (it's even in bottles this time). The difference between Paardebloem present and past is that this version was brewed here, at New Belgium, in a larger capacity for further distribution. The Red Rock folks came to Colorado and brewed with Chris, not vice versa. This is great news for everyone who wants to try it, because, for the most part, you can get it. 

What does this version taste like? Well, it's like a strong Belgian golden with some green bitterness (dandelions). And a hint of funk, as it utilized a mixed fermentation with some ale yeast, along with some brettanomyces. Then we topped it off with some wood aged sour beer to emphasize the funk, and add a hint of tartness. 

This beer is devine. Seriously, I have had a few of the versions in the past and this one is my favorite. Go here to find a bottle near you and I hope you like it!

-Juicebox

Alright, by now you know we're selling a new summer seasonal, and it's called Rolle Bolle (and it's delicious). But the question of "what the hell is a Rolle Bolle? (pronounced Roll-ee Bowl-ee)) keeps coming up. But ask no more because I am here to explain it... 

Rolle Bolle is a game, played in Belgium (and other places to, like Ghent, Minnesota!). The game is a bit like Bocce Ball, but instaed of rolling balls, you roll big discs. These discs look a lot like wheels of cheese. It's pretty awesome. The player rolls these wheels towards targets, like a stake in the ground, or a painted circle. The closest wins points. We have two courts at the brewery, you should come by and play.

And to help in Rolle Bolle (beer and game) PR we had some totally awesome, custom Rolle Bolle sets made to giveaway (we'll get to that in a minute). The sets were made by Tyler Morris Woodworking here in Fort Collins. The fellows at TMWW did extreme amounts of research and it shows. Rolle Bolle wheels are not quite even, side to side, so they roll in an arc. And this arc adds one more dynamic you have to play during the game. Meaning you can't roll it in a straight line to get to the stake. Ideally you would want the arc to be the same on all the Rolle Bolles in the set and this is where all the research from TMWW paid off. All of them had to be hand cut from European Beech into blocks. Then cut from blocks into rough wheels, then lathed to the right shape. Then each Rolle Bolle had to pass the roll test. If they didn't pass they went back to the lathe for correction. 

I got to go to their shop and see some sets get made, here's a quick video:

Pretty awesome, right? These fellows hand-lathed 127 sets of eight. That's 1,016 total bolles. At roughly 5 minutes on the lathe each (and that's not counting the all the work to get to this step) equals 5,080 minutes of lathe work. Seriously, lots of work, but they came out awesome. A big, huge THANK YOU is in order for those guys, they do great work.

And then, let's get to the part where you can win a set... Just go here and enter to win: WIN AN AWESOME ROLLE BOLLE SET OF YOUR OWN!!!!!!! It's that easy... 

And then (again), if you win, you should play all the time, with your friends and family.

Have a great day,

Juicebox

As warmer weather approaches people are starting to configure their loyalties and sign letters of intent to the summer beers beers they'll be drinking. Before that happens let me fill you in on the newest New Belgium seasonal offering, Rolle Bolle. 

Firstly, let's cover the basics: raw materials. The malt bill is pretty straight forward, pale malt and some oats. The oats are key here as they lend a nice creaminess to the beer. The hops are American for sure, Cascade, Centennial, and Amarillo. All three of these offer up great citrus notes and some floral undertones. We fermented Rolle Bolle with an American Hefeweizen yeast. This hybrid is more subtle in its esters, the clove and banana are there, but muted. The last bit of raw materials information is of great importance. There is a generous fruit addition, and the fruits are pretty special: Monk Fruit and soursop. Until a few weeks ago I had never heard of either. But in the great Belgian tradition of brewing, where things like this happen all the time, the fruit was found, built upon and added to the beer. Both of these fruits live near the tropical, citrus family tree of flavor, soursop more pineapple-y and Monk Fruit a bit sweeter and maybe some hints of lemon. But really, what is all of this information going to do without drinking some Rolle Bolle and relating the experience, let's get to it...

Visual: A bright, white head sits on top of a pale gold pour. The foam leaves ample lacing.

Aroma: Sweet lemon and a hint of white wine lead the charge. There are subtle herbal/spice tones, but not overbearing. There is a tartness to the smell as well (not sure if you can "smell" tart, but I am not sure of how to describe it otherwise). 

Taste: Among other things, the flavor hold two kinds of sweetness, the malt and the fruit. The malt is a pretty straight forward, backbone kind of thing, present and delicious. But maybe not "malty" in the traditional sense. Then there's the fruit. Before drinking this beer I had never had Monk Fruit nor Soursop, and even after drinking it I haven't had the fruits, you know, as fruit, so with the help of research and drinking I am am making a few assumptions. There is a fruit sweetness here that can only be attributed to the additions. It's refreshing and tropical and lemony and wonderful. The tartness from the aroma carries over gently here to offer a crisp-ness that makes this beer awesome (IMHO). And that crisp-ness is in concert (not war) with the creaminess afforded by the oat addition. Just delightful. The hops are not to be overlooked here either. All the citrusy, American hops play very well with the fruit. It's nice in that the hops keep the fruit from overpowering anything with sweetness. The balance of the two is key to Rolle Bolle. 

Mouthfeel: Creamy and crisp... Is that even possible? I think it is. The key, I think, is that the creaminess is light (like the rest of the beer). The beer is sharp but smooth, easy and super refreshing to the palate.

Body: Light! It is a summer beer after all. I see Rolle Bolle as a super sessionable, easy drinker that will work for all summer duties/tasks. 

Overall: 15.5/10. Seriously, I love easy drinking summer beers. I also like fruit beers when the fruit doesn't punch you in the face (I also like it when the fruit punches you in the face, but not in my session beers). Rolle Bolle nails it (I know I am super biased, and have yet to give a bad review here, but really, I mean it...).

My suggestion, for you dear reader, is that you run out and buy yourself a sixer of this beer and give it some sips, you will not be disappointed...

Alright, that's it for today, but stay tuned because the long and awesome story of Rolle Bolle is coming soon.

Hugs,

Juicebox 

Alright, so it is actually an update, not a new app. But it has been fully redesigned and looks/acts/functions as if it is a truly new app. We put our first one out last year, and it may not have been the best app ever, but it was an app. It did some helpful stuff like locate you a beer and generally tell you the generalities of our beers, maybe not as smoothly as it could have, but man, we're moving on. And hopefully you're coming with us. If you were a previous owner of our app you should already have the update updated. If you have never had a New Belgium app you have come to the app store at just the right time. And if you are one of the folks that deleted that old app because you couldn't figure out how to turn off the Shift Beer alarm, please, head back into the store and give the new one a try, it is very different, I promise. 

This "new" app is actually a NEW app. We completely redesigned it from the support beams up. It does all the stuff the old app did, tell you about our beers, help you find one, etc...  But it does those things in much more graceful ways that are both functionally and aesthetically smoother to the previous edition. And then it does a few things that the old app didn't do. First is the exclusive content section. This is a peek behind the curtain to see what beers are coming up. This section is also a look into what might be coming down the line. We want to be able to share looks at stuff in the ideation stage, as well as showing you what is the next Lips of Faith beer. It's pretty cool. The second thing that really sets this app apart is Beer Mode. Beer Mode allows you to preselect messages to post to your social sites so you can give your beer the undivided attention it deserves. The idea is that the app posts to Facebook for you so when you're sitting at the bar you can take your nose out of your phone and put it into your beer, or a conversation with the real-life people sitting right next to you. The theory behind Beer Mode is somewhere in the world of the Anti-App, it's a phone app that encourages you to put your phone down. I think you'll really like it. Here is a quick diagram on the flow and function of Beer Mode, just in case I wasn't clear...

See what I mean, totally awesome. At this time it is built for Andriod and iPhone. Go to your stores and get the app, it's free. Here's the links: Google Play and iPhone.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you soon...

-Juicebox 

The latest Rampant Imperial IPA video is out (episode 5 (see blow)(see the rest here)). I would like to take one minute here and thank Pirate Ship Adventures for their hospitality. These folks lets us come on their boat, hang out, talk like a pirate, film stuff, and drink a couple beers. It was awesome, thank you so much...  

If you are ever in San Diego you should check them out, super fun times abound...

-JUICEBOX

Man, I love April Fool's Day! This morning I taped down the handle of the sink sprayer! It totally soaked my wife, children, kitchen floor, counters, cabinets, adjacent bathroom and my priceless collection of Faberge' Eggs. It was great! 

And, as a St. Louis native, and lover of totally awesome beer, I also love Schlafly. Historically, today is also the day in which I lay in wait for the Schlafly April Fool's post. I will sit, computer facing, until it hits the internet. In the past they have done Schlafly Titanium, they have done the Swirlie Bottle, with GULP technology, the Ultimate 550... Then there was the pre-April Fool's set up joke of 2009, Schlafly APA Lime. They have a real nice sensibility with the laugh-y stuff over there (not to mention high-end love of Cardinals Baseball). 

And then today happened, another gem, 21st and Locust. 

Kudos Schlafly! Kudos indeed...

With love (and without an April Fool's joke of my own). XO,

Juicebox

PS, #LetsDoThisThing

Rampant Imperial IPA is out and on shelves and in tap lines everywhere (you know, in our distribution area). It is big and bold at 85 IBUs and 8.5% ABV. It is full of Calypso and Mosaic hops, both are relatively new and totally awesome. The beer is flat out good, like a '85 Camaro with a Hyper-Color paint job and a sweet Rampant IPA sticker right on the hood (my dream car). This beer is full of pop. 

Back in 2010, when Ranger IPA first came out, we were worried about hoppy beers. We had never really made a hoppy pale, much less a full blown IPA. But we gave it a shot, and it turned out pretty good. The drinking public liked Ranger too, a lot. The hop blend was right, the malt backbone was present, and it seemed as if this Belgian style brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado could make an awesome hoppy beer. 

And here it is, 2013, and we made an Imperial IPA. Rampant pours a bright copper, with a slight sheen of hoppiness. The head is bright, white and lingering. Mango and citrus jump off the nose with fresh cut grass and a certain pine-i-ness. There is a hint of something else in there too, maybe peach. The taste follows suit- stone fruits, citrus and a bold bitterness. The hops are supercharged here (just like that Camaro). There is some lemon peel in the brew, and that comes through, pairing well with the Centennial hops. The hoppy bitterness is upfront, ambitious and wonderful. There is malt in there as well. A mild sweetness that reminds us who made the beer. Rampant is medium bodied, dry, and warm from the alcohol. This beer is top notch. A super great IPA.

The other great thing about Rampant, and the hops in it, is the burp that comes with drinking it. This sounds a bit weird and gross, but it is totally true and awesome. To hop up Rampant our brewers use a technique known as dry hopping. When making a beer there are several stages, from raw malted barley, to the sweet barely tea known as wort being boiled, to pitching the yeast into post-boiled, chilled wort for fermentation. It is at this stage, the fermentation, when the beer is is becoming beer. It is also this stage in which dry hopping happens. Dry hopping imparts all of the flavor of the hops into the beer, but not all the bitterness. Which segues perfectly into the hop burp because when the beer hits the warmth of the inside of your body that is the warmest the hops have ever been. Your stomach is about 98.6º, and that stomach heat starts to volatilize all the oils and aromas from the hops. Beer is also carbonated. Mix the bubbles and the volatilized hop aromas and BOOM! you get a hop burp. Rampant hop burps run the gamut from mango to peach to grapefruit. It allows you to have a deeper understanding of the beer and the hops that go into it (as well as the necessary functions of the human body).

We also made a quick film to explain this wonderful happening take it in... 

On that note, I'm out.

Until next time my friends,

JUICEBOX