If you made it out to the Duff’s Autumn Beer Dinner in November 2007 or a couple of events when she last visited in 2009, then you had a chance to meet New Belgium Brewer Lauren Salazar.

Well if you didn’t have a chance to meet her, she’s coming back into town this week to kick off the New Belgium’s newest year-round selection, the Ranger IPA.  Here’s a list of events she’ll be attending this week:

Tuesday, Feb. 9th

• STL Hops/New Belgium Party at Mattingly Brewing Co.

Wednesday, Feb. 10th

• Pi Restaurant (Delmar) Ranger IPA/Lips of Faith Tasting with Lauren Salazar 7-8:30 pm
• Ranger IPA/Lips of Faith Tasting at Dressel’s Pub with Lauren Salazar 9-11 pm

Thursday, Feb. 11th

• Ranger IPA/Lips of Faith Tasting at The Stable with Lauren Salazar 6-8 pm
• Ranger IPA/Lips of Faith Tasting at The Bridge 9-11 pm

Lauren is a great brewer and provides plenty of information about New Belgium beers, so make the time to go out and visit one of these events. Here’s Lauren’s bio from NB:

Lauren Salazar, New Belgium Brewing Company

Lauren is the Sensory Specialist and a Quality team member at New Belgium Brewing Company, where she has been employed for over eleven years and sensory-focused for over ten. She developed the sensory program from a basic production check to its present program and is responsible for all facets from design to implementation to re-engineering. Other areas of interest and fun at the brewery include brewery-wide flavor training, new product development, small/esoteric beer production and wood barrel project blender. Lauren is a judge at the World Beer Cup and Great American Beer Festival, has presented and taught short courses for the CBC, WBC, AHA, ASBC, MBAA and many others.

Salazar received her BSW from the University of Georgia a lifetime ago and holds a Certificate from UC Davis for Applied Sensory Science and Consumer Testing.

Lauren Salazar from the New Belgium Brewing Company is coming back into town and NB Beer Ranger Joel Winn has set up an exclusive meet and greet for STL Hops members!

This event is being held at Mattingly Brewing Company on Tuesday, February 9th from 6-8PM.  Joel and Lauren will be on hand to discuss New Belgium’s newest year-round beer Ranger IPA as well as giving out some swag.

If you have not had a chance to meet Lauren, this is the perfect opportunity to meet one of the nicest people I’ve met in the brewing industry.  As Lauren is responsible for the La Folie series, this is you chance to ask her all of the questions you’d ever want to about sour beers.

Joel is providing me with a whole list of events Lauren is particiapting in next week, so stay tuned for that.

Note: If you’re reading this post, then you’re a member of STL Hops. You don’t have to sign up or do anything special to attend this event. Just come on out.

Duff’s Restaurant is once again holding their annual Autumn Beer Dinner featuring New Belgium Lips of Faith beers tonight, Monday, November 2nd at 7:30PM. The dinner will cost $75.00 which includes tax and gratuity. You can make your pre-paid reservation by calling 314-361-0522. Here is the menu for the event:

La Folie Sour Brown Ale
Smoked Trout Pate, Goat Cheese Crostini

Bier de Mars
Warm Cabbage Salad, Crisp Pork Belly, Smokey Blue

Le Fleur Misseur
Waterzooi Poisson, Belgian Seafood Stew

Fall Wild Ale
Cranberry Duck, Sweet Potato Pear Puree

Trans-Atlantique Kriek
Ronnie’s Chocolate Truffle Ice Cream, White Chocolate Waffle, Cherry Sabayon

Here are my thoughts from 2007’s dinner for all of those interested in this year’s dinner.

This was our last full day in Denver, so we headed to Fort Collins, CO to check out New Belgium Brewing.  I was lucky and was able to visit New Belgium last year during GABF.   While my tour last year was a lot of fun, this year we got a tour from New Belgium’s Sensory Specialist, Lauren Salazar.

Notes from Day 3, New Belgium Brewing:

• It shouldn’t surprise you that this place is huge.  Just enormous.
• Which is why they’re on schedule to do 500,000bbls this year.
• This first photo below is the original brewing system that New Belgium started with.
• Check out Sponge Bob eating a pizza!
• Yes, this is the second day in a row I got to visit the top of a brewery’s fermentation tanks.
• As you may know, this company is very green.  You can see the new solar panels they’re installing.
• Drinking beer right off of the large wooden barrels is really cool.
• I asked Lauren about the change in La Folie, she told me that she realized that she was making the beer more for her palette and not for the consumers.  Which is why the sourness has been scaled back a bit to make for a more balanced beer.
• While we saw the bottling line, we didn’t actually get to see it in action.
• But I did get to see it last year and I’ve included a video below.
• Yes, that really is a slide and yes you really can slide down it.

[View with PicLens]

12►

Mmmmm Brettanomyces. It’s the little yeasty beasty that scares vinters and brewers alike.  But some brewers embrace the Brett.  In fact, the not only embrace it, the love it.  One of those brewers is New Belgium Brewery and their newest beer in the Lips of Faith series is the Fall Wild Ale.  I’ll let them describe it for you:

This chestnut hued ale has a deep tawny haze that mimics the colors of fall itself. The brew unfolds with notes of banana, clove and pink bubblegum- quintessential aroma qualities of the Trappist yeast strain used. The rich malt bill brings to mind toffee, caramel, brown sugar and bittersweet chocolate. The twist- what makes this Belgian so special? We spice our Dubbel with Schisandra berries, known as “five flavor fruit, ” because it tantalizes the taste buds with four tastes – sweet, sour, salty and bitter – plus pungency.

Then we finish the brew with our house wild yeast strain of Brettanomyces with yields farmhouse flavors and tropical fruit notes- developing further as this beer ages. Fall Wild Ale is a full-bodied brew that opens sweet & creamy but finishes warm and peppery- asking for another sip. This deceivingly refreshing ale is 8%ABV so imbibe but beware.

If you’re read to get a little Wild, I’m told it’s currently available at these locations:

• Cicero’s
• Dressel’s
• Hair Of The Dog
• Pi
• The Red Lion

Cicero’s Italian Restaurant continues their fall Beer School semester this Wednesday from 5:30-6:30PM. Cicero’s Beer School provides background about beers and beer styles usually directly from people directly in the beer industry. It’s perfect opportunity to learn more about a style you’re unfamiliar with or to just brush up on a style you haven’t enjoyed in a while.

This week’s school is being taught by Joel Winn from New Belgium Brewery. Joel will be on hand to discuss and sample their new Fall Wild Ale, La Folie, Hoptober and Biere de Mars. Go out and take advantage of one of the few places where you can drink and learn!

If you can’t make it out to the Beer School, you can check out all of the classes via podcast at Cicerosbeerschool.com.

Newstead Tower Public House is hosting another in their line of monthly beer dinners with this dinner featuring New Belgium Brewery’s Lips of Faith series. The date of the dinner is September 16th at 7PM. The cost of this event is $40 and reservations are required. You can make reservations by calling 314-535-7771.