New Belgium popped up in this blog a few weeks ago with their Fat Tire Amber Ale, the first carbon neutral beer to be made in the USA. This brewery really does walk the walk in terms of the environment and even though they are big, and by default a decent contributor to the problems of climate change, they really are doing quite a bit to become part of the solution and less of the cause

Citrus Rescue is another string in their bow as they take aim at being carbon neutral by the year 2030. This beer is brewed in conjunction with Imperfect Foods, an online grocer at the forefront of eliminating food waste. One such way of doing this is by using the ugly food that is often simply thrown away but, aesthetics aside, is completely edible. Of course in this instance the unwanted food stuff is oranges and New Belgium uses 35,000 imperfect oranges to make this beer. 

You could argue that the beer will taste fine without the oranges I guess, dry hopped with Citra, Lotus and Mosaic, but the bigger picture is certainly about raising awareness and educating people to hopefully change perception around the aesthetics of food. This is the first domino in a long line and the knock on effect is hopefully that people will take steps to reduce food waste in their own lives, which will then help alleviate hunger, slow climate change, and support farmers.

We have to start somewhere right!

Let’s see how attractive these ugly oranges make this beer.

It’s pale gold in the glass with a brilliant white head. Boom - there’s certainly plenty of citrus notes on the nose with the orange combining with the hops and malt to create more of a pink grapefruit effect. The palate continues the obvious orange theme but it’s not heavy handed in any respect with the orange addition melding into the beer nicely.

This beer will take you back to those youthful pub trips with mum and dad when you nagged them enough so that they eventually broke and poured some beer into your lemonade. It’s shandy-like for sure - but one for grown ups and with more sophistication than it lets on.

A fun beer with serious intent in every respect and hopefully one that will force people to take a look at the food wastage in their lives and take steps to amend.

Buy New Belgium Citrus Rescue here