New Belgium Brewing has been making sour beers for nearly twenty years, launching its wood beer program in 1997 with La Folie. The award-winning sour brown continues to serve as one of the brewery’s most beloved sours and the 2016 version is now available. Every year, Eric Salazar, New Belgium’s Wood Cellar Manager, and Lauren Salazar, New Belgium’s Sour Beer Blender, coordinate a blending of various foeders (oak barrels) to make La Folie a beautiful example of a Flanders-inspired sour brown ale.
“We taste barrels every three months and then blend different foeders with different flavor profiles and ages to make a special blend that we call La Folie,” said Lauren Salazar. “It’s hard to believe we’ve been experimenting with sours for almost two decades, but I love every moment. It is definitely a mix of art and science, with so many different combinations.”
La Folie, French for “the folly”, ages one to three years in French oak foeders formerly used in wine production. The result? A smooth-drinking brown ale with a delightfully tart finish. This one-of-a-kind beer is sharp like a lambic, sour in the finish, and full of green apple, cherry, and plum-skin notes. It pours a deep mahogany.
La Folie is 7 percent ABV and is available in both 22-oz. bombers and on draft.
Transatlantique Kriek
Transatlantique Kriek offers another dose of sour that’s crisp and effervescent with a bright flash of cherry. The 2016 edition of Transatlantique Kriek began life in the oaken vessels of Gert Christiaens’ Oud Beersel brewery, a 130-year-old Belgian lambic brewery. After it wood aged, Oud Beersel’s lambic was blended with tart cherries and shipped across the Atlantic to New Belgium Brewmaster, Peter Bouckaert. Bouckaert then used the cherry lambic ale along with a portion of New Belgium’s sour Felix to create a full golden brew. The result is an intense cherry nose leading to a pleasing sweet-tart finish.
Transatlantique Kriek is 8 percent ABV and is available in 22-oz. bombers and on draft.
To geek out even more on sours, here are some links for enjoyment and learnings:
- History of New Belgium’s sour program – http://bit.ly/1Zo6f1S;
- Building Foeders – http://bit.ly/1OeeHYW;
- History of Sour Beer – http://bit.ly/1IZh1nV.
To find New Belgium beers near you, visit the libation locator at http://www.newbelgium.com/beer/locator.aspx or download New Belgium’s Beer Mode app.
About New Belgium Brewing
New Belgium Brewing, makers of Fat Tire Amber Ale and a host of Belgian-inspired beers, is recognized as one of Outside Magazine’s Best Places to Work and one of the Wall Street Journal’s Best Small Businesses. The 100% employee-owned brewery is a Platinum-level Bicycle Friendly Business as designated by the League of American Bicyclists, and one of World Blu’s most democratic U.S. businesses, and a Certified B Corp. In addition to Fat Tire, New Belgium brews thirteen year-round beers; Citradelic Tangerine IPA, Ranger IPA, Rampant Imperial IPA, Shift Pale Lager, Slow Ride Session IPA, Snapshot Wheat, Sunshine Wheat, 1554 Black Ale, Blue Paddle Pilsner, Abbey Belgian Ale and Trippel and a gluten-reduced line, Glutiny Pale Ale and Glutiny Golden Ale. Learn more at www.newbelgium.com.
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