New Belgium 1554 Enlightened Black Ale

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

Purchased: Single bottle (12oz) from New Belgium's Spring Sampler from Jewel-Osco in Chicago, Illinois; 2012

Style/ABV: Belgian Specialty Ale, 5.6% 

So I was feeling the New Belgium vibe after drinking their Dig, which I reviewed the other day. I decided to pick up their Spring Sampler, which features their Dig, Ranger IPA, Fat Tire, and this 1554 Enlightened Black Ale. Before I break down the 1554:

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.

There is a lot of mystery around this 1554. This beer is brewed with Lager yeast, so technically it is a Lager. But it is based on an old Belgian recipe, and according to the BJCP guidelines, this beer is a Belgian Specialty Ale. If you go to New Belgium's 1554 page, you can get their interpretation of what this beer is supposed to be. The recipe for this beer is based off a centuries-old Belgian recipe. This is a dark beer with a moderate body and mouthfeel, and is brewed with lager yeast and dark chocolaty malts. In fact, this beer clocks in at 5.6% ABV and packs 21 IBUs. The only hops in this beer are Target hops, which have a pleasant English hop aroma, but are quite intense. The beer uses Pale, Carapils, Black, Munich, and Chocolate malts. These should impart some nice dark colors in the beer, and some nice dark malt flavors. Let's get this beer in a glass and see how it looks, smells, and tastes.

New Belgium 1554 Enlightened Black Ale

Thanks to my over-sized snifter, I gave this an uber aggressive pour. I worked up 3-fingers worth of tan/khaki, silky head. The head is silky, super thick, and root-beer-float-like. It is made out of small bubbles, looks creamy, is sustaining, and leaving lacing on my glass. The body of this beer looks to be black in low light, but in reality this is probably a very dark-brown beer. You cannot see through this beer, but head retention is good and there is some lacing.

Right up front on the aroma you get some woody notes, some chocolate, milk chocolate, and vanilla chocolate. I'm also pulling out a bit of nuttiness, and some very pleasant and mild English hop notes. There are hints of roast on the nose, and there are hints of smoke as well. The smoke is just smoke, it is not meaty at all. There is also a touch of sweet caramel.

The taste on this is smooth, full, and malty. I've worked my way through a number of Belgian Ales this past year, and I know all about big malty beer. This beer reminds me of the big Belgian Ales, but with a clean and light Lager profile. I'm tasting chocolate, toffee, vanilla, wood, a hint of smoke, caramel and molasses, roast, and some earthy and bright English hops. There are almost some manifestations of fruit in here, probably from the sweet caramel malt notes and the hops. The finish is slightly dry and woody, and you really want to take another sip.

This has a medium-medium to medium-heavy mouthfeel, but this is very smooth and well supported by the carbonation. Despite finishing slightly dry and roasty, this is sort of refreshing on the palate. At 5.6%, this drinks light. It's gotta be the Lager yeast. This has outrageous palate depth that extends deep from front to back, but this has low complexity. You get smooth roast and chocolate up front; this leads into more roast and chocolate, with some sweet malts and hints of hops and fruit; the back end is lingering hops, and that trails off into a roasted and dry finish. There is nice lacing on my glass, and the head is hanging around.

Rating: Above-Average

Score: 81%

 

This is a very pleasant beer. As far as Lagers go, I actually prefer this to say...Sam Adam's Chocolate Bock. By quite a bit, in fact. There are some very nice chocolate and roasted malt flavors in here, but they are supported by this really clean and light Lager body. I would possibly suggest drinking this beer with some barbequed food, or a cheeseburger. This is actually a wonderful transition beer from the huge Belgian Ales that dominate the winter months, to something lighter and more balanced for the Spring. All in all this is an enjoyable beer, and a great addition to New Belgium's Spring Sampler.