Oh, yes. This is more like it. Sometimes I find myself sitting amidst a massive list of strange and unusual brews looking for something unique and different. Sometimes this pays off, and sometimes it doesn’t and my tongue never forgives me. Thankfully, this is one of those times that I made exactly the right decision at the right time. I decided to forego the bizarre or the extreme and try something that looked and smelled like a good solid beer for a hot summer day after a week of madness.
New Belgium Dayblazer is refreshing and light after a massive series of tongue-lashing experimental brews that have left me almost longing for the simplicity of an American pilsner. Thankfully, I didn’t have to get that desperate.
It would be inaccurate to call this beer simple, but it is significantly lighter in flavor than most brews of its ilk. Obviously that’s by design, as this is clearly supposed to be a refreshing and sessionable brew perfect for the time of year. It’s wonderfully without pretense, too. No ‘infused with,’ or ‘naturally flavored’ or ‘wet hopped with’ or ‘excreted by’ or any of that nonsense. It is actually possible to brew a beer that doesn’t have four big flavors all vying for the top spot, and frankly, after the Sweet Baby Java, this beer is just the palate cleanser I needed.
To the unsophisticated palate, or the extremophile one, this beer will seem unexciting, possibly bland or even boring. Well, nuts to you!
Sure it’s not brewed with blood orange, peanut butter, weasel excrement or coriander, but it sure is pretty damned nice to have such a straightforward beer. I actually made it halfway through the glass before I realized just what I’ve been missing.
It’s lightly sweet with a very gentle wheatiness and a pleasant medium body that makes it a perfect, hot-summer-day session beer. Of all the diverse ways New Belgium could have gone with this beer, I’m rather glad they scaled it back and made a beer that tastes like an easygoing wheat beer and isn’t crammed full of apricot or the tears of babies.
Maybe it’s just because my taste buds are physically exhausted from alpha-acid overdose and sugar shock, but I really like this beer. It has a happy simplicity to it that is so nice to see after a coffee-peanut-butter-chocolate-kitchen-sink porter. It’s quaffable without being dull and satisfying without needing a gimmick. I do hope I get the chance to taste some more the next time I’m out on a beautiful sunny day, just relaxing by the beach or taking a stroll. Oh, who am I kidding? I’m chained to a desk in my office and there’s a honey-mesquite red ale in the corner that’s staring at me threateningly. Well … I guess I’d better get back to work before someone actually makes such a ridiculous beer.
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