Sunday Night Suds - New Belgium Nitro Cold Brew Cream Ale

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at New Belgium's Nitro Cold Brew Cream Ale.

This beer is classified by New Belgium as a Cream Ale, but should not be confused with a can of Dr. Brown's Cream Ale. As explained by the experts at BA:

Cream Ales, spawned from the American light lager style, are brewed as an ale though are sometimes finished with a lager yeast or with lager beer mixed into the final product. Adjuncts such as corn or rice are frequently used to lighten the body but it is not uncommon for smaller craft brewers to make all malt Cream Ales. Pale straw to pale gold in color, they were known to have a low degree of hop bittering yet some hop aroma. More recently, a number of breweries have put their stamp on the style by giving it more of a hoppy character, nudging it toward Imperial. Well carbonated and well attenuated.

Interestingly, BA's definition of Cream Ale has a very wide range of abv as the style (according to Beer Advocate) can range from 4-8.5% abv.

When I first poured this beer I was struck by two things: (1) despite the Nitro in the name of the beer, there was no appreciable escape of fizz sound like when opening an over carbonated beer and (2) the beer poured rich brown and then when it settled it took on a much darker appearance. 

I took a few long sips from my pint glass and thought to myself - this is like a Guinness, but lighter. I then read the can and saw that they made the beer with High Brew Coffee, so that was why there was a strong coffee flavor. But there was some other smoothness there which I read came from oats.

So basically, this is a breakfast beer which goes very well as an after dinner dessert. Mrs KB really liked this and I am certain that I will be buying more six packs of it, if and when I remember where I found it.

The New Belgium Nitro Cold Brew Cream Ale is under kosher supervision by the Scroll-K/Va'ad of Denver, and their symbol is on the bottom of the six pack can box. However, not every brew produced by New Belgium is under kosher supervision, so look for the Scroll K on the six pack holder or box when considering purchasing any NBB product. Many of the "sours" such as the Peach Kick which was released over the summer cannot be certified kosher.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about New Belgium Nitro Cold Brew Cream Ale, click here https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/192/444929/.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

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