1554 from New Belgium

New Belgium's old Recipe enlightens us all.

New Belgium proprietors of Fat Tire make several other less known and less widely available beers. You can find them they aren't particularly elusive and I encourage you to do so no matter how you feel about fat tire. I for one am not a fan of the flagship they have chosen, but have yet to dislike any of the other beers they make.

My favorite is probably the 1554 enlightened black ale. I am downright smitten with this beer when i first discovered it i was almost as taken as when i first had bell's Oberon (i know a place where the wild thyme grows). For starters it's a dark beer i tend to swing that way. But, it throws the whole concept of dark beer on it's head. 1554 isn't a stout or a porter it's a crisp dry ale. Wait I'm getting ahead of myself the beer stats are worth reading but, check out the story.

This beer started from a recipe found in a library, but a flood in Fort Collins destroyed it. So the researchers at New Belgium, (think there is a college program for beer research, and if so do they the best parties or the worst i could see it working either way.) took off to find a recipe in Belgium and found some recipe written in ancient druidic language or something and dechipered it. can you imagine not only translating the words and sentence structure, but the wacky measurements. "16 ramms penises of hops must be thrown into the wert after two crows lengths and a flaggonsnarf of time after the greater bubbling begins". anyways after much trial and error, with I'm sure many tasty but incorrect batches that need drinking, were made

we come to 1554 huzzah! now imagine a pro beer researcher and a brew master are making incorrect trial batches that they share with the Belgian's in town. best party or worst party?

Ok back to the specialness of this beer. It is made with a light lager yeast that imparts a crisp dry even refreshing quality. But, it is also made with dark malts black patent is where i would start homebrewers. It has a delightful chocolate tone to it's flavor. Really clean finish that is actually sweet, not the sweet and syrupy taste but just aftertaste like you had a desert a minute ago and no it lingers. oh man i get chills. It has a fairly present hop character for such a dark beer, but subtle and understated. as for the color it isn't quite black a dark mahogany tone with a Carmel head that doesn't stay long. the smell of Carmel and taste in the foreground of vanilla start this beer of gently. It's wonderfully complex, ultimately drinkable and unquestionably delicious. This falls into the small category of beers my sister probably likes, and even smaller category that we both like it!

they just don't write em like that anymore

dan