Fat Tire Ale

Review Date 8/14/2023 By John Staradumsky

  Style: Golden Ale   Brewery: New Belgium   Country: USA   State: Colorado   $ Per OZ: $.09 (B), $.34 (D)   ABV: 5.2%

What’s this, Bruguru, you guru of brew, you? You’re only NOW reviewing Fat Tire Ale from Colorado’s New Belgium Brewing Company? One of the most ubiquitous and well-known of all craft beers? Take the guru out of your brew right now!

Fear not, dear reader. It’s not as bad as all that. I have indeed opined on the classic New Belgium Fat Tire Amber Ale, over 20 years ago. To this day, I can still remember going into a liquor store in Texas and emerging, a large grin on my face, with a six-pack to take back home to Rome, Georgia. I had heard much of this beer, but had never been able to find it. Now I had, and I was delighted.

As soon as I returned home, I chilled my bottles and resolved to drink one the next night I was to drink beer. That night came, and I was…underwhelmed. I had been warned of this by the beer geek community. Still, though, I did enjoy the beer, and I penned my review for Epinions.com, it being a few years before I even thought of establishing what was to become guruofbrew.com.

As the years went by, things changed. Fat Tire Amber Ale eventually became available here in Georgia. New Belgium built a brewery in nearby Asheville, North Carolina. And now, Fat Tire itself has changed, which is why I am here today. New Belgium, has removed the soft caramel maltiness of Fat Tire Amber (my favorite part of the beer) and made it into a less than exhilarating golden/blonde ale.

To which I have to ask: why? Why did you do this, New Belgium? Could you not have left the classic Fat Tire alone, and simply introduced a companion beer called Fat Tire Blonde Ale/Golden Ale/Whatever? There is precedent for this, after all, as you launched Fat Tire Belgian White six or seven years ago, though I think that is no longer a thing. To be fair, too, you’re not the only one tinkering with a classic. Samuel Adams has “refreshed” their flagship Boston Lager after all.

New Belgium says of the new Fat Tire:

Fat Tire's unique flavor profile originates from 1930s Belgium. During this era, small breweries began offering easy-drinking beer crafted with signature Belgian yeast in order to satisfy the tastes of visiting British soldiers. Today, Fat Tire blends a subtle malt presence with a slightly fruity hop profile and crisp finish, to create a bright and balanced beer that drinks easy, anywhere.

It is made with the following ingredients:

YEAST House Ale Yeast

HOPS Triumph, HBC-522, Barbe Rouge

MALT Pale, C-80, Munich, Raw Barley

The new New Belgium Fat Tire Ale has an alcohol content of 5.2% by volume with 15 IBUs. I paid $2.49 for a 19,2 ounce can at Total Wine, and they sell it in six-packs for $9.99 or, best deal yet, $16.99 for a 12-pack. My can is stamped as canned on 07 May 23, I assume at the Asheville, NC brewery.

New Belgium Fat Tire Ale (NEW) pours to a pale golden color with a thick creamy head of foam and a nose of, well, not much at all. Taking a sip, the beer is light in body, slightly malty, but only slightly. It has a crisp finish that helps make it drinkable, and it is a fair example of a golden/blonde ale-but not an exceptional one. I prefer the original to this beer, and though I might drink it again, I would not go out of my way to do so.

Glad I tried it?  T

Would I rebuy it??