Sunday Night Suds - New Belgium Ranger IPA

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at New Belgium's Ranger IPA.

This week's brew is also brought to you courtesy of the Chicago Connection. No, this is not Tinkers to Evers to Chance, but the Heinken Man to my BiL to WH, courtesy of I-90/80. The Sukkos delivery I referenced in last week's post also included a New Belgium Folly Pack which contained New Belgium's best known brew, Fat Tire, along with Belgo, Red Hoptober and the Ranger IPA. Although this was not the 2nd brew from the Sukkos delivery that I sampled, I felt a need to review the Ranger IPA in order to counterbalance the NHL's cancellation of the first month of the season.

New Belgium is an interesting brewery in the sense that they are among the largest craft breweries in the country, but they have never entered the Northeast market. Indeed, the distribution map on the New Belgium website indicates that they are in virtually every state west of Michigan, but other than a few states in the South, they are not available in the East.

 

I have heard recently that there are plans to expand production of New Belgium, including the possible opening of a brewery on the East Coast. When I get firm details of the expansion, I will try to write about it on the blog.

 

The Ranger IPA was exceptionally hoppy, even for an IPA. The beer poured a rich orange with some lacing, but the taste was all hops, all the time (great name for a bar, perhaps?). If you like your beer to be bitter, this is the brew for you. I sampled mine with roast chicken and barley and the beer was a bit too strong for the meal. It would probably make a great cholent beer (for drinking with cholent, not for making cholent).

 

New Belgium Ranger IPA is 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 Folly Pack box. Please note that not every brew produced by New Belgium is under kosher supervision. For a list of the New Belgium brews currently under supervision, please click on the link on the left side of my home page for my latest Kosher Beer List.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about New Belgium Ranger IPA, please follow this link http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/192/55081. 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!