New Belgium Lips of Faith (Pats Belgian Stout)

Formerly brewed at New Belgium Brewing Company
Style: Stout
Fort Collins, Colorado USA

New Belgium brought this to the Hops in Humboldt Micro-Brew Festival on August 26th in Fortuna, CA. Poured dark red/brown with a large bubbled off-white head that left big chucks of lacing in the glass. Nose of chocolate and fruits, with overtones of nuts and grains. Mouthfeel was lively yet smooth at the same time. Taste was mostly chocolate and coffee, with a little burnt touch to the malt. Finish was slightly bitter with a sense of hops. With a brew this complex you really need more than 4 oz to figure everything out, but I found this enjoyable.

Draft: Dark russet. Buoyant white bubbles quickly rise to the surface. Aromatic notes of roasted wood and bittersweet chocolate. Light touch of plums, but the fruitiness is quite subdued. Soft prickles of carbonation. Poorly concealed yeast notes plague the initial flavor despite its being laden with silken bittersweet chocolate layers. Harsh notes of bark do deepen the malt a bit, but the malt remains mostly one-dimensional in soft chocolate. Sweet plummy esters are discernable, but, as with the aroma, the fruitiness is next to nil. Soft, bulbously velvety chocolate flavors balance the juicy-hop finish. Too prickly in the mouth and perhaps a bit simplistic in the malt department, but decently made.

It was only two years ago when an NB employee told me they wouldn’t brew a stout because it’s not a belgian style. Well well. Draft. Dark red, clear with minimal head. Light malty aroma. Taste is molassis, light butter, faint roastedness. Sour. Mild coffee roast in the finish. Light bodied.

Draught at the brewery. Beer was a very dark brown, nearly opaque. Small, frothy, off-white, mostly diminishing head that’s fond of the glass. The aroma was moderately malty with notes of roasted grain, puppy chow, roasted peanuts, light note of chocolate; Hoppy with a light note of herb; Yeasty with a trace of basement. The flavor was moderately sweet, lightly acidic, trace bitter with a long, moderately bitter, lightly sweet, lightly acidic/grippy finish. Roasty retros. The body was medium, the texture was velvety and the carbonation was lively.

Draught at the brewery. Body is dark brown. Aroma is moderately malty (cereal, roasted grain, chocolate), with a note of candy sugar. Flavor is moderately sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly to moderately sweet, lightly acidic, lightly to moderately bitter, slightly husky. Medium body, velvety texture, lively carbonation. Nice mouthfeel, but suffers from the same dogfood-like vege-cereal malt character that so many of their beers have been having in the last year or two. One dimensional sugary sweet character otherwise.