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New Belgium partners with iconic Chicago wormwood liqueur brand on special beer

The Colorado brewery is daring you to try this six-pack

Voodoo Ranger Malort IPA.
New Belgium

New Belgium Brewery is calling it a dare. The brand has teamed up with Jeppson’s Malört on a six-pack of beer that includes both a popular IPA beer and one made with the legendary Chicago-born liqueur. The Roulette IPA pack is officially out and it includes four Voodoo Ranger IPAs and two cans of the unique Malört-style IPA.

It’s a clever bit of marketing as all six cans look the same. Hence, the roulette name. Consumers won’t know what they’ve cracked until they have a taste. The move is decidedly fun, playing off the adventurous aspect of the ranger character and combining a blind tasting with a challenge of sorts.

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The Voodoo Ranger is a popular IPA, hazy in style with juicy fruit notes. Malört is a Swedish-style liqueur made with wormwood that first launched in the 1930s. The lesser-known liqueur has quite the reputation, deemed by some be the most awful liqueur ever crafted.

What’s it like? Tremendously bitter, for starters. It reminds of a bold take on citrus bitters and there’s an herbaceous quality too. Chicagoans are keen to takes shots of the stuff. But in beer, especially a high-octane IPA, it just might work.

New Beglium Brewing is a Colorado-based brewery perhaps most famous for creating Fat Tire Ale. The brand began in 1991 and has grown large enough to have a serious national presence. A longtime player in the craft beer movement, New Belgium brews both in Colorado and North Carolina.

The beer is available from coast to coast via the brand’s broad distribution avenues.

Mark Stock
Mark Stock is a writer from Portland, Oregon. He fell into wine during the Recession and has been fixated on the stuff since…
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