EATFREAK

Ranger

Well kids, in honor of Saint Patrick’s Day (and a happy one to you by the way) I’m gonna review another beer. Not a beer you are likely to drink on Patty’s day. No, in fact you should follow my advice and throw together some bad ass Black Velvet’s … http://eatfreak.org/2009/10/21/the-black-velvet/

That’s probably what I will do – I will also enjoy a dinner of boiled corned beef and veg. – and I’ll tell you all about it later.

Right now I want to talk about Ranger – New Belgium Brewery’s first foray into the world of the Pale Ale. The India Pale Ale actually. First off – it’s kind of a bullshit review as New Belgium is easily the the absolute best brewery running in the mainstream beer world right now. I freaking dare you to attempt to dispute that statement. So anyway – yeah – this is a glowing review (spoiler alert).

New Belgium has built their empire on Heavier European based Ales, brewed in a sort of new american way. There is usually not a really Hoppy flavor to their beers. If you don’t know what Hops taste like – go order a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale – that’s what Hops taste like. If you don’t like that beer – you don’t like Hops and stop reading now. Ranger marks the first beer out of New Belgium to have a pronounced Hoppy flavor – and a fucking pronounced Hoppy flavor indeed.

So Review Time:

The Pour – Rad. Beautiful color. Huge head, almost too huge – but I love that. Especially in a Hoppy beer, because there’s an earthy flowery sort of thing to the foam. A+ for looks. She’s gorgeous.

The Smell – I think my neighbors can smell the hops coming off this thing. I guess if you don’t like hops you’d hate this smell – but that’s not really the point. It’s supposed to be an India Pale Ale – so it’ supposed to be hoppy. Some hoppy beers have a bitter kind of gross smell. Not this IPA. It’s a fantastic flower, mildly sour smell. It’s awesome. Another A+.

Taste – What can I say. I am a Californian (I may have mentioned that before) we are the champions of the Pale Ale. Our Sierra Nevada remains the most well known, ordered, and loved of it’s kind in the world. Our Stone Brewery practically kills people with the amount of hops in all of their beers. I dig pale ales, I dig hops. The hops flavor is huge – but not in a bad way. As far as enormously hoppy beers go – I prefer this to what’s coming out of Stone Brewery. Most importantly – the hops are a mouthful, but they somehow manage to not completely cover up any other flavors in there. Underneath all that sour hoppy goodness there’s a really well brewed ale. A+

Conclusion – this is my favorite India Pale Ale in the world (not pale ale … india pale ale .. important distinction) It manages to balance the overwhelming hops you expect from an IPA with straight up amazing brewing quality that we’ve come to expect from New Belgium.

Again – if you don’t dig hops, don’t ever go anywhere near this beer. But if you do dig hops – you are going to fucking love this thing.

So there. Happy Patty’s day – try to take good care of yourself and not kill anything or anyone. But for shit sake – enjoy yourself and enjoy good quality beer – Because today is the day St. Patrick gave his life to free us all from Anheuser Busch.

good bye forever

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