One of the most well-known craft brewers in the US is New Belgium Brewing. They make several varieties of beer, and have really started to get more and more creative with their brews. Tonight’s BOTG is a beer called Biere de Mars. From the brewery:
With earthy tones of ripe mango and lemon verbena, this bottle-conditioned ale reflects the hearty character of the southern Belgian and northern French countrysides. Brewed with barley, oats and wheat malt, Biere de Mars’ celestial orange hue inspired the planetary play on words.
Brettanomyces, a wild yeast strain, added for bottle-conditioning creates a refreshingly sour flash across the palate. Lemon peel coupled with the lemon verbena imparts fruitlike character and a citrusy finish.
Biere de Mars on my old ladder.
Biere de Mars is New Belgium’s attempt at making a brew similar to the classic French and Belgian brews that are made in the months when the seasons change from winter to spring. This beer’s style is called a Biere de Garde and they were produced in these winter/spring months before the yeasts became unpredictable in the summer months. These beers were designed to keep and drink later in the year and Biere de Garde translates to (Beer for Keeping). Enough with the history lesson; you are probably dying to know what I thought about it!
It's hazy, yes, but most of the haze in this picture is from the humidity of Houston, TX!
Beer Review:
Biere de Mars pours up a cloudy orange color, with a large cap of white, bubbly head. This beer has tons of carbonation. Bubbles trailed up from the bottom through my entire glass. The head provides a good amount of lacing down the glass as I drank. The picture to the left shows the cloudy appearance, but appears even more hazy because of the humidity of Houston, TX. That’s just the condensation on the glass!
Lots of aromas in this beer. My wife and I could smell grapefruit, spices, and what I described as a green apple or sour pear smell. We both agreed that it smelled fantastic, and we were both pretty excited to get a taste of this beer.
The strange thing is that we both mentioned that the beer tasted “flat” after our initial tastes. Perhaps we are so used to bitter, strong flavored beers that we weren’t prepared for the subtleties of this type of beer. As the beer warmed up just a bit we really started enjoying all the interesting and delicious flavors this brew has to offer. It was lemony, spicy, zesty, and ended with a slightly tart finish that is incredibly refreshing.
This is a wonderful beer, and supposedly it pairs well with all types of food. I had already eaten so I can’t confirm or deny this. However, the beer was so enjoyable that I plan on purchasing several more bottles to try with our “gourmet” dinners (yeah, right!).
Astros Review:
These one run losses are getting tedious. I am trying to stay positive. At least we aren’t getting blown out like in recent years! Right? RIGHT??
Read this article from Houston Chronicle’s Zachary Levine, and then come right back to discuss it with me. I’ll wait…
Yes, the Nationals’ pitching has been tremendous. But so has ours for the most part. Wandy pitched well again, and got the loss because of two boneheaded defensive plays in the same inning. In my opinion, Justin Maxwell should have caught that ball that he dropped in shallow center. If it hits your glove you need to make the catch. Even worse, was the miscommunication with Jed Lowrie and J.D. Martinez on the next play. They looked like my son’s 9U team. Pitiful.
And again, we had plenty of chances to score and could not break through when runners were in scoring position. The only positive I can take away from this is that we continually have runners in scoring position. Surely the RBIs will come!
Finally, to all you Astros fans who read this blog or follow me on Twitter, please keep being passionate fans. Last year was rough. This year might be just as bad. There is a light at the end of the tunnel I promise. The Astros used to be bad in the early 90′s. From 1995-2005 we were one of the most successful franchises in MLB. We will get back to those days.
Go ‘Stros!
