Article Contributed on: 1/6/2008 9:27:05 AM
A friend visiting from California stopped by for dinner, so I picked up a sixer of New Belgium Brewery's 2 Below.
It pours a crystal-clear dark amber with a nice white head, which sticks around for quite a while. Don't drink this one out of the bottle. It deserves to be showcased in a nice clean pint glass.
This beer is dry-hopped, which means that hops are added to the beer in the fermenting tank. Dry-Hopping was invented as a way to preserve beer on long sea voyages from England to India. This is the reason that India Pale Ales (IPA) are so hoppy and also where the name comes from.
Anyway, back to 2 Below, which is not an IPA. The aroma is pretty hoppy. I picked up apple and some banana smells. The beer is pretty sweet up front, followed by the noticeable tang of hops, some alcohol and then a nutty aftertaste. I didn't notice the sweetness until I really started to pay attention, but after that it was really noticeable. I think it shares a similar maltiness of it's well-known brother, Fat Tire.
This beer looks a lot lighter than it tastes. It's really full-bodied and the hops and malt are nicely balanced. It's an easy drinking beer, but at the same time it's rather complex in its flavor.
Overall this is a nice Winter brew. It's hoppy enough to keep me happy. But what does the name refer to?
According to the bottle, 2 Below is nearly frozen, which accounts for the beer's clarity. I assume this is where the name comes from as -2 C = 28.4 F. I must admit that 28.4 Degree Ale just doesn't have the same ring to it.
So at what point does beer freeze? Well, it depends on the beer. Obviously, the more alcohol in the beer, the lower its freezing point will be.
If you're really interested, here's a formula (No, I don't know the answer), to help you figure out the freezing point of your beer:
(°C) = -0.42 × A + 0.04 × E + 0.2 in which A is the percent of alcohol content by weight and E is the original gravity of the wort
Name: 2 degrees Below Ale
Brewer: New Belgium Brewery
ABV: 6.6%
Price: $8/six pack
Rating: 4/5