Beer Review | New Belgium: Red Hoptober

New Belgium: Red Hoptober

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Once again, I am cleaning out the beer fridge (so to speak) and drinking another IPA.  And as we know, IPA's lose their hop essence more quickly over time than any other flavor in the beer.  So instead of reviewing this beer on camera (http://www.youtube.com/user/nowitstimeforbeer/featured) and not giving it a fair review due to it's age, I'm reviewing it here on my beer blog.  I'll let you know how it tastes now, after it's expiration date.  Some beers keep better than others.  So lets see if this holds up.


This beer is the progression from a previous beer that New Belgium put out call simply "Hoptober"

• Cost: $7.99 6 pack (at beer and wine store) $9.00 at the grocery store.
• First Brewed: August 2012
• ABV: 6.0%
• IBU: 60
• Hops: Target, Nugget Cascade, El Dorado, Centennial
• Malt: Pale malt and Crystal 80
• Bottle Code: New Belgium is very good about their bottle codes.  They have a best-by and bottled on code.
• Best By Date "18NOV12": Translated = Nov 18th, 2012
• Bottled-On Date "120708": Translated = July 8th, 2012

Pour

There was almost no head.  If you didn't see the lightest bit of creamy lacing, you'd think this beer wasn't carbonated.

Look

It's a very dark beer.  Nearly the same color as the amber beer bottle.
It's lightly carbonated.  With small streams of bubble rising through the beer.

Aroma

A Very piney hop aroma.  It's very spicy I'm surprised at how hoppy this smells considering it's 2 1/2 months older than it's best-by date.
The malt comes out up front.

Taste

Piney hop flavor, right up front.
Then a roasted malt flavor mixed with the Caramel malts takes over.
It has a very nice blend.

Verdict

Even after 2 1/2 months past the best-by date, this beer is still absolutely wonderful.  I had a fresh one of these the other day and it tasted nearly identical to this one. So that proves that it does keep well.  Although I wouldn't try keeping it too much past the best-by date, a couple months doesn't seem to have hurt this beer at all.

If you want a roasty malt / hoppy beer, then this is certainly a great one to try.  It's well worth the $7.99 your are paying.

Rating

"A"