New Belgium Snow Day

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

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

Style/ABV: Black IPA, 6.2% 

I've been wanting to try this beer for a while, so I'm happy to have finally picked this beer up. Better late than never, right? New Belgium put the brakes on their 2° Below Ale to roll out their Black IPA, Snow Day. I'm not sure if we will ever see 2° Below again, which is unfortunate because that means I won't be able to review it. I actually liked the 2° Below, and I'm sad to see it go. Snow Day is an awesome name for a beer, and it conjures up all sorts of romantic imagery about a winter that we currently are not having in Chicago (the temps are just way above average...not that I'm complaining). Before I talk about the Snow Day any further, let me introduce 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.

Today's beer, Snow Day, is a seasonal offering from New Belgium. This is a Black IPA, so this beer has subtle chocolate and caramel flavors, as well as big hop notes from the Stryian Golding, Centennial, and Cascade hops. Clocking in at 6.2% ABV and packing 55 IBUs, this is a reasonably sized beer. Let's dive in and see if this is a worthy replacement for the 2° Below.

New Belgium Snow Day

The beer pours with 2-fingers worth of gray/chalky/off-white head. The head has some soapy and funky bubble consistency, and it is leaving some nice lacing. Head retention is nice with a nice cauldron effect chilling in my glass. The body of this beer is a dark ruby red or brown. You can see visible carbonation, so I would guess this is filtered. The carbonation is medium. 

You smell a lot of hops in the nose, along with some darker and more assertive malts than you would not typically get with a regular IPA. I smell chocolate, tobacco, wood, earthy notes, and maybe a wheat note. I'm pulling out hop comb, pine comb, pine needle and evergreen forest, with a twang of grapefruit or tropical fruit. 

My impression upon first sip is that there is quite a bit of roasted malt on the back end. You get caramel, roasted malt, chocolate, and hops on the front. I'm tasting wood, tobacco, sugary pine, forest, roast and nuttiness, hints of chocolate, pulls towards earthy coffee, and a lot of bitterness (for the 55 IBUs). 

The mouthfeel is medium-light thanks to the carbonation which stretches the palate depth a touch thin. This has low to moderate complexity, but the flavors that this beer does impart are really nice. The 6.2% ABV isn't all that noticeable, but the 55 IBUs provide a solid kick. I would definitely session this in the winter months, or pair this with some football food. You get hops and carbonation and then malts on the front; this rolls into the woody, earthy middle; and finishes with that roasted back end. The finish is a touch dry with no really noticeable alcohol warming (your mileage may vary). 

Rating:  Above-Average

Score: 77%

This is a nice replacement for the 2° Below. A lot of breweries crank out an IPA during the winter time, and that is fine. But what differentiates this beer from your typical winter IPA is that this beer uses those darker malts to impart some roasted and chocolate notes. That translates into something that is a little more heavy, and features some flavors that I might desire more so in the winter months. Honestly, hops remind me of pine trees and snow. The big dark malts remind me of sitting by the fire on a snowy night. So mission accomplished. This beer kind of teeters between being average for the style, and above-average. I think Snow Day's drinkability makes this beer sessionable - add in the fact that this beer is very cheap to pick up - and this is a winter winner. I'm happy I got to try this beer, and I look forward to next winter when I can hopefully drink this beer during an actual snow day.