On beer and philosophy

Oh, who the hell am I kidding. On beer.

Tonight, we were served a beer from a Canadian brewery that billed itself as a Coloradan-style pale ale. For the uninitiated, Coloradan style apparently equals "tastes like Fat Tire Ale", and Fat Tire Ale tastes like dirty socks.

To be fair, the New Belgium brewery does have some good beers, but to bill Fat Tire as a Belgium-inspired brew is a grave disservice. And now to discover that Fat Tire is the template for a particular style of beer - well, let's just say I'll be avoiding Coloradan-style ales from here on out. Socks. Yuck.

On the plus side, I had two pints of Bell's 8000 batch this evening, modeled on a Belgian style wietbier, but a little hopped up and with a hefty 9% ABV. This beer was absolutely true to its billing (and I'd have a hard time describing Belgian style to anyone, but I know it when I taste it - think Chimay). I've never known a Bell's brew to go wrong, but this one was truly outstanding.