New Belgium Ranger IPA: Folly Pack (5 of 5)

Brewed by: New Belgium Brewing

Beer Classification and Specs

• Style: IPA
• Variation: American
• Seasonal: No
• ABV: 6.5%
• IBU: 70

Notes: Part 5/5 in Summer Folly variety pack tasting flight.

Brewer’s Notes and Ingredients

Bring out the hops! This clear amber 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.

Hops: Chinook, Simcoe, Cascade

Malts: Pale, C-120

Yeast:

Ale Yeast

First Impressions

Artwork: Breaks New Belgium’s usual mold of label artwork. Two color vector drawing of hops.

Color: Clear, copper to light amber.

Aroma: Barely hoppy.

The Tasting

Arrived in: Bottle

Served in: Tasting Glass

Trivia: This IPA is named after the New Belgium Beer Rangers (their field reps).

I am going to call New Belgium Ranger India Pale Ale a weak IPA, and I mean that in more ways than one.

Ranger came across too feeble in the fundamental elements you look for in an India Pale Ale, and was fairly average overall.

Most IPAs will have a hoppier, floral, or citrus nose to them, but Ranger did not. The dominant hop flavor we should expect to find in an IPA was also absent.

Actually, the taste itself was not that bad, just fairly subdued, with no crispness or citrus. A little on the watery side…

The brewer’s notes claim to “bring out the hops!”, and call Ranger “a sessionable splendor for all you hopinistas.” They might have brought the hops, but any hopinista would be happy to point out that some of them went missing somewhere along the way…

Final Score: 2/5

New Belgium Ranger IPA was average (bit below) at best, but would make a good entry level IPA for beer drinkers just starting to explore that characteristically stronger family of beer. I can see how Ranger could be sessionable, but for me one was enough.