Sunday, September 26, 2010

Sunday Night Suds - New Belgium Hoptober Golden Ale


This week's Sunday Night Suds comes as a special delivery from the Windy City and looks at New Belgium's Hoptober Golden Ale (on sale this week at Binny's).

Regular readers of this blog are aware of my fondness for New Belgium beers (see reviews of the New Belgium 1554 Black Ale -- here, Two Degrees Below Ale -- here, Sunshine Wheat -- here and of course, Fat Tire -- here. So as a reward for driving to Chicago for Sukkos, I took the opportunity to load up on New Belgium and bring some back to my home in New York.

Although the name Hoptober conjures up images of an Oktoberfest type of beer, it is definitively not that type of brew. Indeed, the experts at Beer Advocate consider the New Belgium Hoptober Golden Ale to be an American Blonde Ale which is defined as:

More or less a creation from the craft-brewery movement, and also reminiscent of the German style Kölsch. Pale straw to deep gold for color. Usually an all malt brew, well attenuated with a lightly malty palate. Most have a subdued fruitiness. Hop character is of the noble variety, or similar, leaving a light to medium bitterness. A balanced beer, light bodied and sometimes lager like.

With this kind of definition, it should not be surprising that the beer was sought after and consumed by the Heineken man as well as others in the Chicago family sukkah. The beer went very well with schnitzel and I would strongly recommend it for other types of fried chicken dishes.

Tip - If you are in the Chicagoland area, you can pick up the Hoptober Golden Ale on special at Binny's. While the NB brews usually go for 8.99/6 or 16.99/12, the Hoptober was on sale for 7.99/6 and 13.99/12.

New Belgium Hoptobers under the Kosher Supervision of the Scroll-K of Colorado. Although the beer does not bear the kosher symbol on the label, it can be found on the bottom of the six pack carrier. Additionally, if you would like me to e-mail you the LOC for New Belgium Hoptober. send me an e-mail and I will gladly oblige.

Please note that not every brew produced by New Belgium is under kosher supervision. Please click on the link on the left side of my home page to see my latest Kosher Beer List.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about New Belgium Hoptober Golden Ale, please follow this link http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/192/51991 . As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

Finally, if you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

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