New Belgium Lips of Faith (Pats Belgian Stout)

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

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.

On tap @ Falling Rock poured a clear brown with a lasting amber head. Aromas of chocolate, carmel and hints of coffee and vanilla. Palate was light bodied and smooth. Flavors of milk chocolate, carmel and vanilla with a smooth lightly sweet finish.

Draft. Blackish beer with a nice off-white head. Sweet malt and yeast aroma. Yeasty, chocolate and sweet malt flavor with very light fruitiness and some oatmeal that comes on stronger as you drink more. Lingering chocolate and yeast. medium bodied.

Tap @ Papago. Mild roasted and grain aroma. Dark body with a good head. Flavor was not what I expected for a stout. Slighty watered down with some medium burnt roated taste. More like a a porter than a stout to me. Smooth and easy on the palate.

Pour is dark brownish black with thin off white head...smell is roasty with hints of cocoa and coffee...slightly roasty flavor and very sweet...effervescent mouthfeel....

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.

On tap at the Falling Rock as part of the GABF 06 festivities. Clear black with lots of brown hightlights. Light easily passes through. Served with no head. Very creamy choco flavors with Belgian yeast character. Aroma was also very Belgian in character. Seemed very thin. Pretty let down.

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.