Sunday Night Suds - New Belgium Tartastic

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at New Belgium Tartastic, a self described "lemon ginger sour ale."

Although this beer sounds like a Radler (or as we American's call them, Shandy) this is not a lemonade infused lager. Instead, this is yet another of the invasive species known by a nickname "Tart Ale", but more correctly classified as a Wild Ale. 

As explained by the gurus at BA:

Sometimes Belgian influenced, American Wild Ales are beers that are introduced to "wild" yeast or bacteria, such as: Brettanomyces (Brettanomyces Bruxellensis, Brettanomyces Lambicus or Brettanomyces Anomolus), Pediococcus or Lactobacillus. This introduction may occur from oak barrels that have been previously inoculated, pitched into the beer, or gained from various "sour mash" techniques. Regardless of which and how, these little creatures often leave a funky calling card that can be quite strange, interesting, pleasing to many, but also often deemed as undesirable by many.

I have been trying to like Tart Ales and have tried a few such as the Leinenkugel BeerGarten Tart  (reviewed here http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2016/08/sunday-night-suds-leinenkugel-beer.html); the Boulevard Tell Tale Tart (reviewed here http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2016/08/sunday-night-suds-boluevard-tell-tale.html) and the New Belgium Fat Sour Apple Ale (reviewed here http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2016/08/sunday-night-suds-new-belgium-fat-sour.html). I have gained an understanding for the flavor profile of the brew as the yeast does create a sourness almost like souring grapefruit juice, without the artificial sweetness of a Radler/Shandy.

The Tartastic is true to the style and poured a light maize with no noticeable lacing average to mid level carbonation. The beer is on the low end of the abv scale as its only 4.5% abv, so if you wanted to have more than one, it would not be overly intoxicating (although I don't know why you would consider having more than one at a sitting). 

I am hard pressed to find any food to pair this with and would welcome any suggestions in the comments below.

The Tartastic is under kosher supervision by the Scroll-K/Va'ad of Denver, but 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 Tartastic click here beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/192/246993.

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).

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