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Tuesday, June 11, 2013

143. New Belgium Fat Tire Amber Ale


Could you believe that I've never had Fat Tire from New Belgium until now?  Better believe it..!  New Belgium (http://www.newbelgium.com) might be out of Colorado, but they're one of the bigger craft breweries out there.  The Raleigh area was celebrating Triangle Restaurant Week.  It's one of those deals where some of the better restaurants in town offer a 3 course prix fixe menu for $20 or $30.  I went with some buddies to Sullivan's, which was participating in the promotion.  Why not have a beer to go with my meal?  The beer list was actually quite disappointing, and this was the one of the best of the bunch.  For those of you wondering, I had some cheesesteak egg rolls, a caesar salad, filet mignon with horseradish mashed potatoes and zucchini, and a key lime pie (yeah..restaurant week rules).  

I was provided with a bottle and a nifty looking pilsner glass.  I poured most of the contents in there and was pleased to see the amount of retention in the head and the amount of lacing in the glass.  I didn't expect to get such a nice "look".  My friend's Yuengling shared similar characteristics.  With the lighting, it was hard to get the right color, but since it's called an amber ale, I figured the color was amber.  The head color was egg-white, for those of you that were wondering.  Aromas of malt, bread, and light citrus.

The beer is what you expect from an amber, malt, caramel, the light citrus.  It was a little sweeter than I'd like.  As expected, the beer was light bodied with moderate carbonation.  This is a decent brew, but not a standout.  Still, it beats a Miller or Coors or Bud.  With its wide availability, this is a great gateway beer to the craft world.

Grade: C
Price Paid: $6.00 (12 oz bottle) (Yeah, what a ripoff..)

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