New Belgium Brewing is launching a new kettle-soured series of fruit-forward beers in 2018, riffing on the Belgian tradition of adding fruit to create crisp, slightly tart and refreshing flavor profiles. Tartastic Raspberry Lime Ale is New Belgium’s first release of the series, marking the transition of Tartastic from one year-round offering, Lemon Ginger Sour, to a rotating stable of sessionable fruit beers.
Tartastic Raspberry Lime Ale pours a light raspberry hue with welcoming aromas of raspberry, strawberry and cherry, followed by lemon and lime. Beers in the Tartastic Fruit Series are New Belgium’s take on shandies and radlers, according to Ross Koenigs, Brewer at New Belgium.
“We found most of the current competitive offerings to be overly sweet, almost artificial in flavor,” Ross said. “Our goal here is to let the fruits’ natural sweetness shine through while being complimented and enhanced by blending with a kettle sour. The crew in the brewhouse is pumped to have a new platform to explore all that fruit can bring to the beer table.”
The new Tartastic Fruit Series taps into New Belgium’s decades of brewing knowledge from working with fruit, a tradition true to the brewery’s Belgian roots. Each beer in the Tartastic series is a blend of two beers – one that is traditionally fermented and one that undergoes a lactobacillus fermentation that creates a subtle tartness. By blending the two brews, the tartness is deemphasized and the result is a very refreshing and sessionable beer packed with fruit flavors and aromas.
The Tartastic fruit series will feature other new flavors rotating throughout the year, including the return of fan-favorite Lemon Ginger Sour. Tartastic Raspberry Lime Ale is available now in 12 oz. bottles as well as draft.
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