New Belgium Lips of Faith (Dark Kriek)

Brewed by New Belgium Brewing Company
Style: Fruit Beer
Fort Collins, Colorado USA

Bottle from Cody, thanks! Reddish brown color. Vinous aroma with hints of vinegar and cherry, not unlike a matured Rodenbach. Slight sour and vinous flavor with oak, cherry and vanilla. Gives a matured impression. Some fruity sweetness, but relatively dry. Has some complexity. Very well done!

22oz bomber poured into a tulip. Pours a deep, clear copper with a big off-white head that hangs around for a little while and dissipates to a healthy collar with a swirl of bubbles along the top. Little lacing. The aroma is mostly sweet with both cherries and some brown sugar sweetness. The cherries don’t show much tartness in the nose. The taste is slightly more tart version of the aroma with the cherries taking on some tartness after the initial blast of fruity sweetness and brown sugar at the outset. The finish has a hint of acidity but is mostly the tartness/sweetness of the cherrieslingering on the palate. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with decent carbonation and not very dry or tart for the style. This is a decent enough beer but nothing too groundbreaking. It relative lack of acidity and funk makes it more drinkable than other lambics, but as a fruit beer it’s pretty good.

Pours a deep red. Smells of cherry, red wine, vinegar, tartness, brett. Taste is a tart sour cherry concoction of funk. Could be more complex, but it’s a fine kriek.

Definitely a little funky - nice flavor of sour cherries with a definite oak character. Vanilla aroma with sweet cherry undercurrents. Some brett funk in the body as well.

Bottle courtesy of sebletitje. Pours a generally clear dark amber to copper color with thin off-white head. Aroma is tart with notes of ripe raspberries, some bretty notes, and hints of barnyard and grass. Flavor is sweet and floral with notes of tart, ripe berries, sour malt, with hints of cherries and oak. Generaly light to medium body with a tart finish.

Courtesy of sebletitje. Pours deep clear copper with thin off white head. The aroma is berry fruitiness to go along with some berry and Brett-like tartness. The taste begins tart and Brett-y like followed by a pulse of berry sweetness, mild funk and berry skin tartness. It gets mild and berry tart into the finish with a sense of balance between the sweet notes and tartness.

Bottle from Bevmo. Light reddish brown with a mild sour cherry aroma and taste. I wanted something a little more exciting for the price.

22 oz bottle
Thanks go to beernbourbon for sending this wantlist beer about a month ago in a trade. It was not quite as solid as I though it was going to be but nonetheless I enjoyed it. This one needs more tartness and intensity to be more than slightly average.

Aroma / Appearance - A minimal head and clear sheen of lacing melded with the opaque cherry red body. Cherry laffy taffy, charred wood, and Tang give it a profile somewhere between a Lindeman’s sugar pop and New Glarus Belgian Red. The closest thing that springs to mind is a poor man’s Rodenbach Grand Cru.

Flavor / Palate - Tart ripe cherries give it more kick than your average fruit infused beer. A medicinal aftertaste knocks it down a peg or two. The oak comes through at times then recedes into the background. Hopefully the next release in the series has more to set it apart; this one is somewhere just above average.