Audio By Carbonatix
Keep Westword Free
We’re aiming to raise $20,000 by April 26. Your support ensures Westword can continue watching out for you and our community. No paywall. Always accessible. Daily online and weekly in print.
Although I’ve never been New Belgium Brewing‘s biggest fan when it comes to their standard beer lineup, I’ve always admired the way the Fort Collins craft brewer — Colorado’s largest — tries to keep environmental and employee-happiness issues on their list of priorities.
And in recent weeks, I’ve become a much bigger fan of their Lips of Faith series of one-off specialty beers that are sold in 22-ounce bomber bottles.
The company has made about a dozen of these beers; their most recent is Vrienden, a sour-style beer brewed in collaboration with Maine’s Allagash Brewing. It is a mellow take on the style — which uses the brettanomyces yeast strain — and quite good.
In 2011, New Belgium plans to brew eight more Lips of Faith beers, two per quarter, says spokesman Bryan Simpson.
The first will be Dunkelweiss, a 9 percent ABV dark wheat ale “brewed with spices.”
The second is Le Terroir, a dry-hopped sour ale that has been available before on tap, but not in bottles.
2011 will start off deliciously.
Follow Westword‘s Beer Man on Twitter at @ColoBeerMan.
