New Belgium Dig

Brewed By: New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins, Colorado

Purchased: Single bottle (12oz) from Jewel-Osco in Chicago, Illinois; 2012

Style/ABV: American Pale Ale, 5.6% 

Cooool. I get to break new ground with New Belgium's new spring seasonal, their New Belgium Dig (holy shit, I said "new" like 14 times...). I'm looking at the hops used in this brew, and it is making me excited to review it. I know it isn't even close to Spring yet, and just a few days ago I reviewed the New Belgium Snow Day, but whatever. The beer industry is like the retail industry, seasonal beers come out 3 months before the season. On that note, about New Belgium:

New Belgium is based out of Fort Collins, and opened in 1991 when founder Jeff Lebesch took his home-brewing into the commercial world. For reference, New Belgium is the thrid-largest craft brewery in the United States. You can read more about New Belgium if you check out their website.

If you check out the New Belgium Dig page, you can find out all about the beer. This is a Pale Ale brewed with Sorachi Ace hops for "a fresh Spring zing with incredible lemon aroma," and Nelso Sauvin hops for "bursts of passion fruit, mango and peach." Also, you forgot the Oxford comma, New Belgium. The full list of hops for this beer include: Target (pleasant but intense), Nelson Sauvin (relatively new, this imparts grape-like and wine flavors; passion fruit), Cascade (pleasant, flowery, spicy, and citrusy with some grapefruit), Nugget (heavy and herbal), and Sorachi Ace (also relatively new, this has a lemon flavor and is used for bittering). This beer clocks in at 5.6% ABV, and packs 36 IBUs.

The Nelson Sauvin hops were used in Stone's 15 Anniversary Ale, and I very much enjoyed the flavor they imparted the beer with. So let's jump in and review the New Belgium Dig.

New Belgium Dig

The pour reveals a big amber-caramel colored beer, with a big 4-finger and slightly off-white head. The head is colored with hints of amber, and is very foamy with big, thick bubbles. When held to bright light you can see that this beer is still very amber. This is a filtered beer with good carbonation. The head is pulling on the glass, and there is already some lacing. Head retention is nice as well.

You pretty much immediately pull some of the Nelson Sauvin hops on the nose. I'm getting resiny grape, passion fruit, mango, and melon on the nose. The Nelson Sauvin hops have a kind of earthy and woody note, almost tobacco-like. I'm also getting some herbal notes in here: herbal and earthy hops. And maybe a touch of lemon or citrus.

Oh man, wow. Yeah, the Nelson Sauvin hops are really big in the body, with big woody and earthy grape-hop notes driving the palate. I'm getting some malts that pop up in the back end, followed by bitter and drying. I'm tasting tobacco, grapes, bitter orange and lemon, woody complexity, a slightly toasted or bready malt flavor, and lots of earthy and herbal hop flavors. I get hints of a Pledge-lemon, but any lemon flavors in here are getting masked or enhanced by the other hops (specifically the Nelson Sauvin).

This is kind of a strange beast. It drinks medium-light, and has that slightly crisp, thin, and watery body you might expect with a Pale Ale. But this also has some really bold hop flavors, and the 36 IBUs hit pretty hard. I don't know how balanced this is per se, but I don't really care. This is very drinkable for 5.6%, and the Nelso Sauvin hops are rapidly becoming one of my favorite hop varieties. This is moderately complex with medium palate depth. You get some smooth carbonation and hop bite on the front; this rolls into a woody and earthy middle with hops and malts; the back end is lingering hop bite, woody, and dry.

Rating:  Above-Average

Score: 83%

 

The more I drink this, the less impressive the middle becomes. There is a lot of bitterness in this beer, and there are a lot of potentially big flavors from the Nelson Sauvin hops. There's a slight drop off somewhere where the big flavors sort of drown out due to a thinner middle, and that sort of disrupts the continuity of flavors. This isn't a huge complaint though, and it sounds a lot worse than how I'm rating this beer. Again, I'm really digging the Nelson Sauvin hops, and this is a drinkable and refreshing Pale Ale. I'll probably pick up a sixer of this some point down the line. This is another enjoyable beer from the fine folks at New Belgium. Check it out.