Bottoms Up

I got a chance to drink a glass of New Belgium La Folie, the intensely sour brown ale, last Thursday night and damn, I STILL don’t really like it. I appreciate the fruit, the vanilla from the wood, but the mouth-puckering sourness produced by the wild yeast used to ferment the beer? Not for me.

I was in the minority; even my 21-year-old daughter loved it and everyone at our table at the beer dinner at Spenger’s Fresh Fish Grotto in Berkeley agreed. Don’t know why, but it’s not the beer for me.

Despite my own preferences, this beer has become a cult item, much cultivated by beer aficionados. One reason, I’ve always thought, is the only place you could get it was in the store at New Belgium in Fort Collins: $18 including tax. Now, it’s slowly emerging, bottled in a large, I think 750 ml, dark green, silk-screened bottle. Corked, Champagne style, of course.

New Belgium says this on its Web site:

La Folie Wood-Aged Biere, is our original wood-conditioned beer, resting in French Oak barrels between one and three years before being hand bottled, numbered and corked for your enjoyment. Brewmaster, Peter Bouckaert, came to us from Rodenbach (in Belgium) – home of the fabled sour red. Our La Folie emulates the spontaneous fermentation beers of Peter’s beloved Flanders with sour apple notes, a dry effervescence, and earthy undertones.

New Belgian’s Bay Area rep Jennifer Gilardi says she’s uncertain when or if the beer will be sold in retail stores here. However, it is in a lineup of on-tap beers coming, one-by-one to select pubs in the Bay Area. Find the list here.

Last note: You know, I’m not a brewer, but it would be fun to play with this beer, blend it with some fresh beer, perhaps even a fresh beer made with wild yeast (Brettanomyces) like Belgium’s geuze blenders do. They blend fresh and aged lambics in varying proportions. I think it needs something to soften the palate, at least for my trained-on-Coca Cola tastes. Opinions anyone?