Juicy Watermelon | New Belgium | John's Brew Review

hey gang and welcome back to John's brew review so this week I'm going to be
bringing you a brew from New Belgium New Belgium is a brewery that you may be
familiar with if you live in the United States as far as I've seen they're
available pretty much nationwide I've got a feeling they do some overseas
distribution as well just considering the size of the brewery I've lived on
the west coast and the East Coast as well as the south of the United States
and I found it pretty much everywhere I go
they've been around for quite some while they're out of a Fort Collins Colorado I
believe for a lot of people I think that they're a brewery that is kind of an
introduction into a wider world of beer rather than kind of your mainstays and
your big dogs in the industry and I think I have a lot of fond memories when
it comes to drinking a lot of new Belgian brews they still make some great
ones that I enjoy for example this voodoo Ranger IPA up here I had recently
I really do enjoy that I think it's a pretty good pretty good
IPA they also make some other brews that I think are very popular and well-known
there Fat Tire as well as their Triple R to that kind of stand out to me as some
really solid brews that they offer but today from them I'm going to be
reviewing juicy watermelon so this is a watermelon and lime ale I'm not sure if
this was a redesign on a previous brew that I've seen from them called heavy
watermelon that was out maybe a couple of years ago and I haven't seen on
shelves since this may have been just a redesign or a repackaging of that brew
I'm not really sure but let me go ahead and give you a disclaimer I have had it
before and I do have some thoughts on it that I'm really interested to share with
you however I'm also going to you know go based off of the experience that I
have today drinking it and try and be as honest as possible when it comes to this
review so we'll go ahead and dive in and I'll give you a look at the bottle art
and as you can see they really do put quite a prevalence on the watermelon in
this brew as well as the line you can see they're really eye grabbing if
you're a fan of watermelon or lime if you were walking down your grocery aisle
in your beer section and you are a fan of those flavors I've got a feeling this
is going to stand out to you it sure did to me it's the reason why I picked it up
initially because they really do a good job of
highlighting what it is that they're including in this brew and unfortunately
I think that ends up being a cause for some disappointment that I'm going to
have later in this review and it does ring in at 5% alcohol by volume so it's
a pretty light brew it's very sessionable as we call it in the beer
community which means you know it's not going to get you falling over too
quickly you can drink a few of these and still feel pretty okay so with that out
of the way I'll go ahead and I'm going to give this guy a pour all right as you
can see here doesn't produce a lot of head which isn't surprising for this
type of brew and it's looks very refreshing they aren't lying when they
give that that kind of descriptor to it in there it looks very refreshing it's
got a it's got you know your standard golden color for an ale there's really
nothing that stands out about it as far as the visuals go it does look
refreshing it's got what I would probably describe is what you would
imagine as your standard kind of beer visuals here so nothing really standout
is here so I'm going to go ahead next and I'm going to see what the aromas
like so I'd say already when it comes to the aroma we're running into trouble
here there's very very little of either a watermelon or lime aroma I would say
you know a watermelon aroma it's not particularly a strong aroma in the first
place however lime you would really expect to stand out and while there's a
small hint of it it's very very it's very very faint which is disappointing
you know when you take a look at the label art it makes you kind of get the
impression that these are going to be much more prevalent aromas in the brew
in all honesty with that said I really can't smell any watermelon at all in
this it's a very if you get in there deep and take a big old big old sniff of
it it's got a very faint line scent to it but it's already off the bat I'd say
a little disappointing when it comes to the aroma so next up might as well go
ahead and take a sip so when it comes to the flavor again a lot of the
descriptions that I gave for when it comes to the aroma are basically the
same here when it comes to the flavor it is very very
think in any of that watermelon or lime taste it does have a bit of a tangy
flavor to it which comes from the lime however it's very very faint and in all
honesty it tastes a lot like one of those big brand beers that just happen
to include a little bit of lime in there a little bit of that lime flavor and
it's while it's not while it's not unenjoyable it is very unimpressive
there's nothing outstanding about this beer it feels it feels very safe in all
honesty this is a brew that's not meant to really appeal to anyone specifically
but also meant to not put a very wide market off is kind of what I'm assuming
they were going for here the watermelon flavor is almost non-existent on the
first sip that I had at the very end I did get and it almost was more of an
aroma than a taste of the watermelon however after another two to three sips
even that little bit of that watermelon flavor that was there had already
disappeared and I can no longer really tell that it's even in the brew so I'm
giving this brew a fair chance and starting fresh as far as my opinion on
it when it comes to this review it's basically what I thought it was the
first time that I did experience it like I said a very unimpressive brew and in
all honesty that's very disappointing not just because I do enjoy some New
Belgium brews but the way that they market this beer this is something that
really is a bit of a pet peeve of mine when it comes to beer when you as a
company or as a brewery take the time to really highlight flavors to call your
brew juicy watermelon uh to make such a show on the outside of the bottle and
then fail to actually deliver on what's inside of the bottle that's really
disappointing to me they call it a watermelon lime ale I'd moreso describe
it as an ale that happens to have some watermelon and lime included at some
point in the brewing process now I'm not a brewer however I have had other brews
that do highlight a watermelon flavor and
those brews the brews that come to mind that I'm thinking of do a much better
job of it I'm thinking of brews like watermelon Dorado from ballast point
which I was actually talking about with a friend just the other day on our
podcast and it's really disappointing to me when I again and walking through when
I'm walking down the beer aisle and this really excites me with this bottle are
and the logo and the name and I'm thinking hey I'm going to get a big hit
of watermelon flavor and it's just matte in a glass in all honesty so when it
comes to this brew I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to give it two out of five
Cheers now the reason it's getting a 2 is because I don't necessarily think
it's a bad beer it's definitely something that I can drink especially on
a hot summer day however it is overall a pretty big disappointment when it comes
to flavor especially with the way that it's advertised you would expect a much
bigger hit of that watermelon or lime flavor and you basically get neither one
so I think 2 out of 5 I could be a little more harsh because of how
disappointing it was and give it a 1 but I'm not going to do that because as I
said it's other than the lack of those flavors that I'm actually expecting and
looking for it's not necessarily a bad beer but again there's nothing that's
really that really stands out about it if I was offered this at a barbecue or
something of that nature you know I'd drink it and I'd be
perfectly okay with it but there's no reason why I would ever buy this again
personally for my own personal tastes so with that out of the way I'd love to
hear from anybody who may have tried this brew
did you have a similar opinion to mine or there may be some people out there
who loved it maybe you can explain something that I'm missing when it comes
to it we'd love to hear from you down in the comments and don't forget that the
number one way to support the show is to go down and hit that red subscribe
button so as always thanks for watching and Cheers

Juicy Watermelon | New Belgium | John's Brew Review

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