New Belgium Lips of Faith (Dark Kriek)

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

22 oz. bottle from Binnys South Loop (Chicago, IL) picked up after I was surprised to see it there. Pours a very interesting reddish brown with some fiery notes and largely clear outside of the darkness with very small white head that dissipates to a film. Aromas are sour cherries, tartness, lighter sweet maltiness, and faint oak. Initial is nice: light maltiness conjures up some innocent yet tasty sour and tart cherry, light oak, light carbonation, and a decent dryness to compliment the sourness. This beer is a bit underpowered flavor wise, but it has character, spunk, and an all around smoothness and sessionability, and was better than some of these ratings led me to believe. Finishes with some tartness, oak, and dryness that usually indicate a pretty good brew. This really is nothing to scoff at and in six packs available year round, I’d be a regular buyer of this.

22oz at our monday tasting. Having a hard time getting the low rates on this. Its not the most amazing lambic but its definitely better than what I am seeing here. Anyways pours a burnt red. Lovely looking beer. Fizzy quickly collapsing head. Nose is sweet cherry, caramel. Flavor is malty up front with chocolate and caramel notes followed by a straight forward deep cherry flavor. Not cheap extract flavor either. Very jammy/cherry skin like with a slight bit of sourness. Not that sour at all. At our tasting people seemed to like this best. This may age extremely well.

Bottle from BlackForestCo. Thanks man!!! Pours a brown/red with an off white, fizzy head. Aroma is Sweet Tarts and malty. Flavor is an odd mix of sweet and tart cherry with some caramel and toffee. Get the oak on finish with some dryness too.

Bottle.

I must be some kind of idiot, but I really enjoyed this beer. First, it’s outrageously beautiful in a tall lambic flute with the late evening sun cutting through, streams of bubbles in the deep caramel liquid rising up to the full head.

But it’s not about the appearance. I mean, it’s just good. I enjoyed it enough that I’m going to go into the office tomorrow and apologize to the Colorado guy who I always antagonize when he talks about how great Fat Tire is. (For those of few you who don’t have that Fat Tire Colorado Guy at your workplace, this means I am going to be eating a serious amount of crow to someone who definitely doesn’t deserve it.)

So anyway, the beer. I actually think it rocks. It’s a totally approachable, mildly funky, lightly musty, not-so-sour, not particularly dry, just-really-nice-to-drink kriek. Caramel, plenty of oak, cherries of course, some strawberry, easily accessible. I would have called the alcohol at around 6% rather than 8%; no heat on the tongue.

Look, it’s not Selin’s Grove but I’ll deflnitely be grabbing a couple of more bottles.

Bottle. Pours clear ruby-tawny with a small, fizzy, off-white head, mostly diminishing with spare lacing. Aroma is average malt (cookie, caramel, straw), light hops (grass), average yeast (horse blanket, barnyard) with notes of stale, canned cherries and cardboard. Medium bodied, slick texture, lively carbonation, and a sour finish. Average duration, light sweetness and acidity, and moderate sourness.

Bottle thanks to bu11zeye. The look is clear red to brown in color with a decent beiged colored head. The smell is cherry, wood, slight tartness, and fruits. The taste is oak, cherries, malts. Very straightfoward and basic but still decent.

Bottle. Nose is cranberry and cherry with some vanilla oak tone to it. Deep dark black cherry red with a thick, tight bubbly beige head with a red tone. Really nice sour cherry and cranberry flavors but not that intense. Mouth is nicely carbonated. Pretty good beer. One of my first of the style.

Bottle from City Beer in SF. Very dark reddish-brown color with a tan head. Barrel aroma with roasted malt and tart cherries. Flavor is funky and sour with lots of cherries and wood. Medium bodied with fairly heavy carbonation.