New Belgium hits the Mid-Atlantic

Yes, microbrew lovers: we are just one short week away from New Belgium Beer finally hitting the Chesapeake region.  August 22nd is the day that Fat Tire and its associated beers finally come to Maryland, Virginia and the District.  I smuggled the above-pictured bottles in my checked luggage the last few times I visited California.  No need to do that anymore, or for that matter drive all the way to North Carolina.  Over the next week I will be drinking some of these beers, to give a taste of what we can expect. 

Already I can tell you about Fat Tire: this ale actually tastes fattening.  The first time I had one, in the company of my old grad school adviser and his wife (ah, social scientists like to drink, especially the anthropologists), I ended up drinking another.  Thus began a very long-distance love affair that led me to smuggle most of a twelve pack back in my checked luggage, and to get excited when I found it on tap at Flex, a Raleigh-area gay bar (er, "club" as they call them there).  Now all I have to do is head to the Wine Source.  Oh, that's right: I have to find out if they'll have it and when...