Today we finish up the second half of Round 3! Voting goes thorough the weekend, Round 4 to start Monday!
If you need some help deciding you can click on the links to each video for our “expert” opinion. If you’d like to tell us why one of these beers should win over the other you can tweet us @thebeerfriends or find us on Facebook. it won’t help that beer win any but we’ll enjoy it. (more…)
Hello Beer Friends Nation!
In the spirit of competition, Beer Friends would like to invite everyone to our second season of NFL hashtag battles! Using hashtagbattle.com we will pit two breweries against each other when their NFL counterparts are facing off on the gridiron. Are you ready for some football? And drinking? And #hashtag battle?!?!?!
What’s a hashtag battle? When you’re drinking a beer of a brewery competing in the battle, throw a #hashtag of the brewery and tweet it (or setup your foursquare or untappd to push to tweet and include the #hashtag) and we’ll use hashtagbattle.com to declare a winner after the Monday Night football game on ESPN. Support your team, support your beer, drink local and hashtag battle!
Week Six – Dallas Cowboys at Carolina Panthers (#shinerbeers vs #newbelgium)
Hello Beer Friends Nation!
Ah New Belgium, probably the biggest brewery that isn’t in New York City. Well the Beer Friends turned out to be pretty resourceful and have been able to review a few beers (Fat Tire – Belgo – Dig) and today we check out 1554, an enlightened black ale. 1554 is a Belgian black ale that was a test and see project (darn, have to do a bunch of in-house tasting!) that started in 1997 and was good enough that it’s a year round today. This rounds out the Amber (Fat Tire), Belgian IPA (Belgo), Spring (Dig) and Black Ale of styles we tried from New Belgium – so far… Belgium! Black Ales! Roasted Malts!
Hello Beer Friends Nation!
Today is the third in the series of the New Belgium Reviews (Dig – Belgo). New Belgium has recently announced a new $175 million dollar brewery in Asheville, NC and the Beer Friends are terribly excited about it – so we decided to find and review some of their brews to get the East Coast (mainly New England and NYC Area) ready! Fat Tire is certainly the most popular brew from New Belgium and the name was inspired from the “fat tires” on the mountain bike that the founder Jeff Lebesch rode through European village on his career-inspiring beer tour. History! Colorado Beer Tour! Expansion for Delicious Beer!
Hello Beer Friends Nation!
You know what makes this a Good Friday? Another review from the Beer Friends! We return to our New Belgium Series with Belgo, a Belgian style IPA. This is part of the Explore Series which also features favorites like Ranger IPA and the new Shift (Pale Lager). This week Greg Avola from Untappd joins us again – giving great insight and fitting in nicely at “the table”. If you are interested in joining us at the table email us and we’ll see what we can do – we’re always looking for new (beer) friends! Fort Collins! Belgian beers (Thank God Phil wasn’t here…)! New Friends!
Hello Beer Friends Nation!
New Belgium is a legendary brewery on the East Coast. We’ve all met that friend that grew up out West and Fat Tire was more available than Sierra Nevada – or have that East Coast buddy that went to Vegas on a bachelor weekend and came back telling of a magical beer… Growing up in Colorado, I didn’t know what I had until it was gone. By the power of motor vehicles and some well planned traveling – the Beer Friends were able to get their hands on some of the New Belgium line for samples. This week we review Dig the spring seasonal offering taking the place of Mighty Arrow, and this Beer Friend likes the change. Enjoy this review in our New Belgium series (yeah we bought a couple six-packs back!) Beer Road Trip! New Belgium! Spring!
Hello Beer Friends Nation!
In the spirit of competition, Beer Friends would like to invite everyone to our NFL season hashtag battles! Using hashtagbattle.com we will pit two breweries against each other when their NFL counterparts are facing off on the gridiron. Are you ready for some football? And drinking? And #hashtag battle?!?!?!
What’s a hashtag battle? When you’re drinking a beer of a brewery competing in the battle (#stone vs #newbelgium), throw a #hashtag of the brewery and tweet it (or setup your foursquare or untappd to push to tweet and include the #hashtag) and we’ll use hashtagbattle.com to declare a winner after the Monday Night football game on ESPN. And because football needs beer, we’re starting on Saturday morning to include the brews consumed during College Football Saturdays. Support your team, support your beer, drink local and hashtag battle!
Hashtag Battle Week Five Matchup: Denver vs San Diego (#newbelgium vs #stone)
Hello Beer Friends Nation!
Dreams are broken and the strong move on… who ever thought the Rocky Mountain IPA had a chance against Breakfast Stout or (the biggest upset) Great Divide Yeti Imperial Stout over Bristol’s Laughing Lab, not to worry Bristol fans – Mass Transit pulled through over the strong year-round available Founder’s Porter. Can Yeti continue it’s run? can Bell’s pull through as the two seed continuing to a 1 vs 2 match-up? Vote and decide!
The 1 vs 8 match up has last year’s winner Fat Tire advancing to play 471 Small Batch IPA from Breckenridge Brewery. This is Breckenridge’s first year in the BFF4 and they had a strong showing… can they be a Butler and bring down the #1 seed?
Hello Beer Friends Nation!
It’s that time of year where EVERYONE is swept up in the madness… yes – Beer Friends Final Four Beer Bracket is BACK!
Forget Louisville in the First Round and bubble teams, we’re talking ales in the First Round and drinking the suds…
This year we (kinda) followed a regional bracket match up instead of the style like last year.
Brad’s Bracket includes beers from Colorado and the Michigan area (somehow Great Lakes snuck in there…). Vote your favorite brew through and pick that Cinderella team, sorry, stout. Pick the winner and hold it over your friends heads until the next year (Brooklyn’s Dark Matter anyone?) Beer! Voting!
The 1 vs 16 match up pits Last Years winner, New Belgium’s Fat Tire against a stout from Boulder – Avery’s Out of Bounds Stout. The Out of Bounds was delicious when infused with coffee, but Fat Tire seems like the fan favorite – should be interesting. See more of this entry for voting!
Hello Beer Friends Nation!
While one Beer Friend held down the fort in NYC, the other three travelled out to the Great (Brewery) State of Colorado for a look around. Below is a brief recap of the days and breweries we hit.
August 12th -
Garden of the Gods
Phil, James (honorary BF this trip) and Brad arrive in Colorado Springs, quickly finding themselves standing in front of a liquor store cooler inspecting the new and interesting beers in the cooler. Then a quick run around Garden of the Gods, in North-west Colorado Springs. Then a drive to Denver to pick up Graham and back home for our first beers of the tour – an extension of Christmas in July/August with a New Belgium 2 Below and Odell’s Isolation Ale to kick off the trip (beers remaining from my winter holiday trip home).
August 13th -
A beautiful drive to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. After taking some time to find a campsite (be sure to call ahead) we stop at our first brewery, Estes Park Brewery. This small brewery stays true to their roots, producing small batches to sell to local stores and supply their pub which is upstairs. A few highlights were the Trail Ridge Red – also known as the Redrum Ale (playing off the famed Stanley Hotel in Estes Park – inspiration for the Steven King novel “The Shining”) and the Estes Park Porter. Then we headed into Fort Collins to check out Coopersmiths Pub and Brewing and Equinox Brewery a short walk away. Equinox had a great feel – a bit of a coffee house vibe, it’s a bar without any heels and no Coors Light on draft. We enjoyed their sampler with six offerings – Sunrise Golden Ale, Vernal Hefeweizen, MidSummer Pale Ale, Orbit ESB, Zenith IPA, and the Sunset Stout. All we very enjoyable but MidSummer Pale Ale was a favorite of these Beer Friends. From there we headed to a favorite drinking hole – Old Chicago, had a few before returning to the forrest.
Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park
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Paul
dingerc Graham
Brad
Corporate Kerouac
Phil
