Loft - New Belgium Brewing

    Loft is a hard beer to categorize. Conservatively, the closest style to which Loft is most similar would be a Belgian Pale Ale. This style confusion comes from the fact that Loft is brewed using multiple ingredients which are rarely seen together. Both barley and wheat malts go into the mix as well as a decent amount of hops. New Belgium Brewing (Fort Collins, CO) really worked to defy genres with this one.

    Loft pours a light gold color with a half-finger of white head. The foam leaves a good bit of lacing on the glass. Lots of bubbles are visible in the beer.

    The beer's aroma is mainly hoppy, though the wheat and barley malts can both be smelled as well. The strange mix of barley and wheat creates a sort of confusing scent which makes me wonder what I'm in for as far as taste.

    Loft is medium bodied with a medium-high level of carbonation. The beer finishes lightly, and almost watery.

Talk about a light beer!

    Loft's flavor begins with slightly bitter orange peel hops changing to sweet biscuit malts and finally a grainy, sweet wheat flavor. The aftertaste is that of wheat. The beer's flavor is very light, making for a nice hot-weather drinking beer. I really find the strange mix of malts and hops off-putting, but not disgusting.

    I find myself somewhat torn between my love for ingenuity and a respect for the tried and true. I definitely applaud New Belgium for attempting to make a genre-bending beer, but at the same time I just find the beer to be strange tasting. I don't want to become the sort of person who automatically hates anything different from the norm, so I worry that differences from the traditional styles in the beer's recipe are causing me to dislike it more than the flavors themselves. This is just a beer that you will have to try for yourself to see what you think of it.

    While I don't hate this beer, I definitely wouldn't choose to drink it regularly. Loft is a very easy to drink beer, but the barley and wheat just seem to be at odds with each other when I taste it. This isn't enough to make the beer taste horrible, but it certainly isn't entirely pleasant to drink either.

Amulets and Ale Rating:

Discuss this review and more on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/AmuletsAndAle!