We’re not yet through with the summer but we’re close enough to fall that we can start ideating. And in that changing of the guard from oppressive heat to cool and crisp, one may require a transitionary quaff, that sort of drink that’s got a bit of summer zip but will still warm your bones. Walking that intraseason tight rope is the dark sour ale. Both bright and weighty, the dark sour scratches that late-September itch in a way few beers can. And they make great coffee beers.
That’s why New Belgium has teamed up with Onyx Coffee Lab for a limited new variant of their La Folie dark sour ale that includes coffee from Costa Rica’s famed Las Lajas.
Announced via beer blog MyBeer Buzz, the La Folie Reserve, a flanders-style sour brown ale, will be aged in oak barrels and will include a yellow-honey processed coffee from Las Lajas. Notes of peach, raw sugar, mixed berries, and dark chocolate from the coffee will present in the beer a deeper, more complex sweetness, having flavors of plum, molasses, fresh figs, and baker’s chocolate.
Clocking in at a very drinkable 6.5% ABV, the limited Las Lajas La Folie will get a further layer of complexity coming from a nitro charge to add creaminess to the beverage. Per MyBeer Buzz, it will also be available in nitro-charged 750ml bottles.
The release date for the beer has yet to be stated, and indeed neither New Belgium or Onyx Coffee Lab have officially announced the collaboration. (Onyx’s retweet of the MyBeer Buzz announcement is the closest thing to an acknowledgement that exists currently.) But one can’t help but assume that it will be available for the impending season change.
It’s almost here, can you taste it? The season change is coming. And the La Folie Reserve with Las Lajas sour ale is going to be the official beer of cooler temperatures and layering.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
