Fat Tire | Amber Ale 5.2% ABV 22 IBU
Pale, C-80, Munich, Victory malt
Willamette, Goldings, Nugget hops
New Belgium Brewing CO 🇺🇸
Ordered from Thirsty Beer Shop Singapore 🇸🇬

Know that this is not an unbiased appraisal.

Tl;dr ironically, liking this mass-produced once-craft beer in such a time as this may be the very essence of hipsterism itself.

How you take to this beer might depend on how you feel about OG craft breweries selling out (selling up?) and joining the big time. Before Sapporo bought Stone, Kirin bought New Belgium.

Alternatively, how you take to this beer might depend on how you feel about innovation in brewing and hops with complex genealogies and ™️ in their names. There’s no Citra, Mosaic or Idaho 7 in Fat Tire. No kveik yeast either.

I first had Fat Tire about ten years ago; an illicit bottle that was already past its Best By Date when it arrived in my hands via the grey/parallel import market.

A lot of time has passed since then. Hazies, fruited goses and pastry stouts blow my mind, but I don’t always need my mind blown. And that’s where Fat Tire has come in.

This is a thoroughly unexciting beer. It’s by no means bad, but it couldn’t be more off-trend if it tried. But therein lies the appeal: by being an amber ale; and by using classic hops like Goldings, which I have always loved in beer, Fat Tire manages to stand out simply by being so damn different!

I’m not going to rush out to order a case of this, but whenever I get tired of juice bombs or adjuncts in my beer, this is one of a select few that I’ll reach for.

@hopviously