New Belgium 1554

Inspired by a 500-year-old recipe in a Belgian cookbook, New Belgium brings a taste of the Old World to the present day.

My Rating: 9.0

Brewer: New Belgium

Origin: Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

Name: 1554

Style: black lager

% ABV: 5.6

IBU: 21

Color: rich chocolate brown

Aroma: malty, lightly fruity

Flavors: toasty, caramel, chocolate notes

When their original recipe was lost to a flood at their Fort Collins, CO facility in 1997, Phil Benstein and Peter Bouckaert flew to Belgium in order to scour ancient texts for the beer recipe they sought.  The result was their 1554 Black Lager, brewed from a recipe found in a book published in the namesake year.  (Read the rest of the story on their website).  

What fascinates me most about this story is that today I am drinking the same thing people were half a millennium ago.  While today we view beer as a luxury--something we associate with leisure and enjoyment--it was a life-saving necessity at the time this recipe was written.  Most Europeans did not dare drink their water since they had the nasty habit of using their rivers as sewers, so beer was the only safe way of keeping hydrated.  I wouldn't mind drinking beer at every meal, but I have to say I'm glad I'm able to drink my tap water without fear of contracting cholera or syphilis or some other nasty disease.

The beer itself was a beautiful dark chocolately brown that let just a little bit of light through in the red spectrum.  If it weren't for the effervescence, it would have looked like a pint of coffee.  A thin, but dense, head of foam formed and lingered for quite a while in the glass.  The aroma was very bright, especially considering the darkness of the brew itself.  Strong malty tones shone through in the aroma with very light fruity notes.  The flavor was very toasty, but never smoky, like a perfectly toasted slice of bread.  The toasty flavors gave way to a wonderful caramel taste, finally ending in subtle chocolate notes.  This beer had a moderately dense mouthfeel without ever feeling oily.  In fact, one of the biggest things that hit me was how smooth it was from start to finish.  The flavor was consistent as the beer warmed up.

Overall, 1551 was a fantastic winner in my book.  The black lager style combines all the smooth bright flavors of a lager with the robust power of a stout, making it an excellent starting point for those looking to get into dark beers.  I've never tasted a beer that reminded me so perfectly of toast, and with the chocolate notes, it was almost reminiscent of toast with Nutella.  I would absolutely buy this beer again.

Schöfferhofer Grapefruit Hefeweizen

Tasty if you like grapefruit, but it's barely beer.

My Rating: 5.0

Brewer: Schöfferhofer

Origin: Frankfurt, Germany

Name: Grapefruit Hefeweizen

Style: hefeweizen

% ABV: 3.2

Color: pinkish orange

Aroma: bright, grapefruit

Flavors: grapefruit, citrusy, bitter

This citrusy brew is not exactly something I would have chosen on my own, but I was offered one by one of my roommates, so I figured it was worth a shot.  If I weren't expecting it to be beer, I would have rated it much higher than a 5, but we'll get to that later.

I did a little snooping on Schöfferhofer and most of what I found was just about this beverage.  In fact, their U.S. website is completely dedicated to the grapefruit beer and nothing else.  Finally I discovered that back in Germany, there is indeed a regular hefeweizen you can purchase, but it doesn't seem to be available in the U.S.  So I am left with the grapefruit hefeweizen.

It has an extremely low ABV of only 3.2% because it's only half beer.  Yes, you read that right: it's only half beer.  50% hefeweizen and 50% carbonated grapefruit juice.  But all this aside, I gave it a fair chance and went into the tasting with an open mind.

The aroma was strongly of grapefruit with very subtle wheaty undertones.  Its color was a vibrant pinkish orange, cloudy from being unfiltered.  The lacing was very minimal from the start.  The first sip was very bright and citrusy.  Grapefruit's characteristic bitterness kept it from being overly sweet.  The beer felt very thin and watery in my mouth and had almost no body whatsoever.  A very subtle malty flavor emerged in the aftertaste, but this was fleeting, like the shadow of a flavor.  I couldn't detect a hint of an alcohol flavor.  The subtle malt flavors were the only thing that tipped me off that I wasn't just drinking sparkling grapefruit juice.

Overall, I enjoyed the flavor since I like grapefruit juice, but as a beer it just can't measure up for me.  It's basically just carbonated juice.  Perhaps I would like to try a blend stronger on the hefeweizen side, say 70-30 or even 80-20.  For now I'll stick with my beers that are 100% beer.