A fellow beer-loving colleague came into work yesterday with a nice surprise. When I got my first six-pack of Lazy Magnolia's Southern Pecan Brown Ale last weekend, I picked up some for him too. He's driven as far as Starkville, Miss., looking for their Party Pigs before, so the least I could do was get him some while I was in Birmingham.He returned the favor with a self-built sampler of beers from New Belgium Brewery. I'd had their famous Fat Tire Amber Ale, of which my colleague is an evangelist. But I'd never seen any of their others. He picked some up on a recent road trip and was kind enough to share. Included was two bottles each of their Abbey, Trippel and 2-Below Winter Ale. I had the Abbey with dinner of baked salmon and Camembert last night, and it was nice. New Belgium says you'll taste fig, caramel and clove. I couldn't help but think of apples (I get that from a lot of ambers, too). I'm looking forward to the others.
