New Belgium La Folie Reserve Thai Tea Coming in 2026

New Belgium La Folie Reserve Thai Tea: A Wild New Sour

Here we have an exciting new La Folie Reserve variant coming in 2026 from New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins, Colorado, and Asheville, North Carolina. This latest addition to the brewery’s celebrated sour beer program is La Folie Reserve Thai Tea, a highly distinctive wood-aged sour ale built around an adventurous combination of tea, spices, coconut and other specialty ingredients.

According to the new label, La Folie Reserve Thai Tea will be a wood-aged sour ale brewed with oats and lactose, along with black tea, coconut, mahlab, anise, green cardamom, cinnamon, monk fruit and vanilla extract. The beer will check in at 6.5% ABV and will be packaged in elegant 375 mL nitro bottles.

That ingredient list alone makes La Folie Reserve Thai Tea one of the more intriguing New Belgium releases to watch in 2026. Rather than simply adding tea to an established sour beer, New Belgium appears to be building a layered flavor profile that combines the tannic and aromatic character of black tea with coconut, warming spices, vanilla and a touch of sweetness from lactose and monk fruit.

The result should be a fascinating interpretation of the Thai tea flavor profile through the lens of New Belgium’s La Folie sour beer tradition.

A Thai Tea-Inspired La Folie Reserve

Thai tea is traditionally associated with bold tea character, sweetness and aromatic spice, making it an especially interesting inspiration for a wood-aged sour ale. La Folie Reserve Thai Tea brings those ideas into craft beer through a combination of black tea, coconut, green cardamom, cinnamon, anise and vanilla.

The addition of mahlab is particularly interesting. Mahlab is a spice made from the kernels of a particular species of cherry and is known for an aromatic character that can contribute almond-like, cherry-pit and floral nuances. Combined with green cardamom, cinnamon and anise, it gives this upcoming La Folie Reserve a remarkably complex spice bill.

The beer also contains oats and lactose, ingredients that can contribute additional body and softness. That could be particularly useful in balancing the natural acidity associated with a wood-aged sour ale.

And then there is the 375 mL nitro bottle. Nitro packaging has become an important part of New Belgium’s specialty La Folie Reserve program, and it can add a creamy, softer presentation to beers that might otherwise emphasize sharp acidity.

New Belgium’s flagship La Folie is itself a pioneering American sour ale. The brewery describes the original beer as a Flanders-style sour brown ale matured for several years in large French oak foeders, with a profile featuring green apple, cherry and plum-skin character.

That history makes La Folie Reserve Thai Tea a natural extension of the brewery’s willingness to experiment with its wood-aged sour foundation.

6.5% ABV and 375 mL Nitro Bottles

At 6.5% ABV, La Folie Reserve Thai Tea sits right in the range traditionally associated with many of New Belgium’s specialty La Folie releases. The packaging is equally notable.

The label specifies a 375 mL bottle, or approximately 12.7 fluid ounces, with the beer being presented on nitro.

For collectors and fans of New Belgium’s barrel-aged and wood-aged beers, the smaller-format bottle should make this release especially appealing. The label’s dark, elegant design also fits the more experimental and premium character of the La Folie Reserve series.

At this point, official release timing, distribution information and detailed tasting notes are still forthcoming, so there is no reason to speculate about the final flavor profile beyond what the ingredients and brewing style suggest.

What is already clear is that this is not a conventional sour ale. It is an ambitious Thai tea-inspired wood-aged sour beer that combines a classic New Belgium brewing tradition with an unusually broad selection of tea, spice and dessert-inspired ingredients.

What We Know About La Folie Reserve Thai Tea

Label Text

“Wood-aged sour ale brewed with oats and lactose and with black tea, coconut, mahlab, anise, green cardamom, cinnamon, monk fruit, and vanilla extract.“

Related New Belgium Coverage from mybeerbuzz.com:
New Belgium has been expanding its La Folie Reserve lineup with increasingly creative wood-aged and foeder-aged sour beers. Check out our coverage of New Belgium Adding La Folie Reserve Recursive Nitro, New Belgium & Onyx Coffee Labs Team Up For La Folie Reserve and New Belgium Adding Barrel-Aged Frambozen Reserve for more specialty New Belgium sour beer coverage.

About New Belgium Brewing:

New Belgium Brewing is one of the most influential names in American craft beer, with a history that stretches back to 1991 in Fort Collins, Colorado. The brewery was founded by Kim Jordan and Jeff Lebesch after a bicycle trip through Belgium inspired them to bring Belgian brewing traditions back to Colorado. New Belgium’s own history traces the inspiration for the company to that 1988 trip, followed by homebrewing experiments in the basement of the founders’ Fort Collins home and the eventual launch of the brewery.

The brewery quickly established itself as one of America’s leading craft producers, with Fat Tire becoming its signature beer and helping introduce a generation of American drinkers to Belgian-inspired craft brewing. But New Belgium’s impact goes far beyond one flagship beer. The brewery has consistently experimented with Belgian-style ales, IPAs, lagers, fruit beers, barrel-aged beers and, perhaps most importantly for this release, sour ales.

The company’s La Folie sour program is particularly significant. New Belgium describes La Folie as America’s pioneering sour ale, with the beer matured for years in large French oak foeders containing the brewery’s long-running souring culture. The classic La Folie is sharp and sour, with green apple, cherry and plum-skin notes and a deep mahogany appearance.

That commitment to wood-aged and foeder-aged sour beer has made La Folie one of New Belgium’s most recognizable specialty programs. The brewery has continued to use that foundation as a platform for creative variations, including fruit-driven and ingredient-focused Reserve releases. La Folie Reserve Thai Tea appears to take that philosophy even further by combining the sour base with black tea, coconut and an extensive collection of aromatic spices.

New Belgium also operates a major brewery and Liquid Center in Asheville, North Carolina, which opened in 2016. The Asheville operation has become an important part of the brewery’s national brewing footprint and specialty beer program. New Belgium currently identifies Fort Collins and Asheville as two of its major brewery locations, with both offering visitors opportunities to experience the brewery’s beers and culture.

The brewery’s innovation program remains a major part of its identity. New Belgium says its brewing operation includes one of the country’s largest sour programs, dating back to 1999, while its portfolio continues to span traditional Belgian-inspired beers, contemporary IPAs, lagers, fruited sours and experimental specialty releases.

The La Folie Reserve series is a perfect example of that philosophy. Rather than treating sour beer as a narrow style, New Belgium has repeatedly used its wood-aged foundation as a canvas for unusual ingredients and flavor combinations.

Previous Reserve releases have included specialty ingredients such as coffee, fruit, honey, saffron, chocolate and spices. The brewery’s La Folie Grand Reserve program has specifically been described as an opportunity to reinvent its signature sour beer each year with intriguing and sometimes difficult-to-source ingredients.

That makes La Folie Reserve Thai Tea a particularly exciting addition to the 2026 New Belgium lineup. With black tea, coconut, mahlab, anise, green cardamom, cinnamon, monk fruit, vanilla, oats and lactose layered into a wood-aged sour ale, this upcoming beer has all the characteristics of another ambitious New Belgium experiment.

For now, beer fans will have to wait for the complete release announcement and official tasting notes. But the label alone tells us that New Belgium La Folie Reserve Thai Tea is shaping up to be one of the brewery’s most unusual sour releases of 2026.

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