Beer for the Weekend - New Belgium Abbey Grand Cru

"Just when I thought I was out they pull me back in"*. Just like Michael Corleone and the illegitimate world, I've been pulled back in to New Belgium's new offerings. The Le Terroir was so good, I've heard various people think someone else made it. Le Terroir was one of the biggest surprise beers of the year for me and now, if I see it on tap somewhere, I'm going to order it.

*Just because, I feel I need to get something off my chest. I like The Godfather III (feel free to skip this italicized part if you don't care about my feelings for a 20 year old movie). It was the first of the Godfathers that I saw so that has something to do with it. I'm not going to say that it's in the same realm of the first 2, Godfather II is probably my favorite movie ever, but I think III is an acceptable movie. The opinion might turn on your feelings for Sofia Coppola who was almost indicted for murder for her performance in III and I can definitely understand the viewpoint that she was awful. There's a reason she's never acted again. But, and I can't stress this enough, I was 17 when III came out. I was walking around like Reggie Hammond when he got his first taste of freedom with Jack Cates. A friend back then used to have a joke that he knew he was too drunk when he got home if he thought he would hit on his mom and ask her to his room. I knew his mom, she wasn't a looker, she looked most like Molly Shannon in the "I'm 50" sketches on SNL. But I was 17, I would have given her a whirl and not thought twice about it. With that kind of attitude and mojo, Sofia Coppola making gnocchi with Andy Garcia worked for me and I thought about gnocchi a lot in my alone time. So without the distraction of Sofia Coppola ruining every scene, and in my eyes enhancing every scene, the rest of the movie can stand on its own. And it's not that bad, some good Vatican intrigue a good couple of scenes with Michael and Kay and a pretty crazy Andy Garcia wearing leather sport jackets. Everything was pretty enjoyable. Plus there was a great Harry Connick song at the end.

New Belgium's newest beers to hit town are Super Cru and Abbey Grand Cru. Super Cru is basically Fat Tire with double the malt and hops plus some Asian pear juice and some saison yeast. I've never liked Fat Tire so I don't know if I'll ever try Super Cru. But, Abbey Grand Cru is up my alley. I like Abbey Ale, it's not something I ever buy, but I enjoy one every now and again. Abbey Grand Cru is basically a double version like the Super Cru.

Abbey Grand Cru should be the finest Belgian style beer New Belgium makes. Since I love a good Belgian beer, as well as most of our readers, Abbey Grand Cru is the beer for the weekend. Next week will be an expensive one with at least 1 and maybe 3 rare and tough to come by beers coming out, you're going to want to take it a little easy on the expensive beer. Abbey Grand Cru should be around $6-$8 for a large bottle, will be easy to find and will be a fine beer to drink all evening in anticipation for a crazy beer searching week.

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