Craft Beer Corner

Because you've asked for more information about our beers, the Craft Beer Corner is now a regular blog feature. The Craft Beer Corner will appear every Tuesday, in conjunction with a section of our Bottle Club® email. While we can't showcase every new arrival, we will give you a sense of the best new items every week. Please remember that many of our craft beer products, such as seasonal brews, are available in limited quantities.

This week's title might more appropriately be "New Belgium Corner,' since that's the brand that is dominating the conversation. We did get our share of Fat Tire and other New Belgium varieties, but that's only part of the story for our weekly look at craft beer deliveries.

We start, of course, with a look at the New Belgium deliveries, in alphabetical order:

On display in Lawrenceville

Citradelic: Tune in and hop out with New Belgium Citradelic. Set adrift on a kaleidoscopic wave of hoppiness brought to you by a mystical marriage of Citra hops and tangerine peel, which elevates each sip onto a plane of pure tropical, fruity pleasure. Citradelic’s namesake hop and fruit combine to jam with visions of additional hops like citrusy Mandarina Bavaria, tropical Azzaca, and fruity Galaxy for a colorful explosion that’s grounded by just a touch of malty sweetness. Bored by the status quo? Expand your palate with a pour of Citradelic. 

Fat Tire: The one New Jersey has been waiting for. Named in honor of the co-founder's bike trip through Europe, FAT TIRE AMBER ALE marks a turning point in the young electrical engineer's home brewing. Belgian beers use a far broader palette

On display in Woodbridge

of ingredients (fruits, spices, esoteric yeast strains) than German or English styles. Together with co-founder Kim Jordan, they traveled around sampling their homebrews to the public. Fat Tire won fans with its sense of balance: toasty, biscuit-like malt flavors coasting in equilibrium with hoppy freshness. Fat Tire: Pairs well with people.

Rampant Imperial IPA: Burly and bitter, RAMPANT IMPERIAL IPA , pours a pure copper and carries the sheen of a rightly hopped beer. The Mosaic and Calypso hops bring stonefruit to the front seat, and the addition of Centennials nod towards citrus for a well-rounded aroma. The taste expands these hops with heavy peach tones and a profoundly bitter bite. There is some malt sweetness to stand up this IMPERIAL INDIA PALE ALE , and RAMPANT IPA'S finish is bone-dry.

Ranger IPA: Bring out the hops with RANGER IPA! This clear amber INDIA PALE ALE beauty bursts at the starting gate with an abundance of hops: Cascade (citrus), Chinook (floral/citrus), and Simcoe (fruity) lead off the beer, with Cascade added again for an intense dry hop flavor. Brewed with pale and dark caramel malts that harmonize the hop flavor from start to finish, Ranger is a sessionable splendor for all you hopinistas.

All of the New Belgium selections are available at both stores, while supplies last.

River Horse Roly Poly Pils. We gotta have some love for local craft brewers, too. A complex balance of malts round out Czech Saaz and German Hallertau hops, followed by a clean and crisp finish. A classic Czech-style Pilsner, our Roly Poly Pils is a super drinkable and tasty year round beer! 5.3% ABV.

Abita Big Easy IPA. The hop flavor’s big, but like life in New Orleans, we’re taking it easy. This Session IPA is brewed with lemon peels and dry hopped with Cascade, Amarillo, Centennial and Simcoe for a hoppy aroma of citrus, fruit and pine. Easy to drink and just right for long hot days, steamy nights, parades or a day on the river with friends. 4.5% ABV, 40 IBU's. 

Oskar Blues. The. Gubna. Each year GUBNA is reinvented with a new hop bill. Concurrent hop selection panels at both the Colorado and North Carolina breweries picked some of the season’s highest quality and most exciting hops to load up this formidable and complex Imperial IPA. Brewed with whole-leaf Galena hops, our brewers then add Columbus and Sorachi Ace to GUBNA 5.0, which spikes the beer with spicy, blackcurrant notes and subtle citrus overtones. GUBNA is dry-hopped with prodigious amounts of El Dorado, Comet, and Chinook hops, creating a dank, dense, pineapple & lemon zest nose and unique blend of grapefruit, apricot, and herbs, while finishing clean and bitter. The GUB sits on a base of Rye, North American Pale, and Munich malts, which offers a smooth and flavorful backbone to support the gargantuan load of hops. 10.0% ABV, 100 IBU's.