Lips of Faith: Imperial Coffee Chocolate Stout

I've had about 7 of the various Lips of Faith series beers from New Belgium Brewing and I am not stopping there. My wife has stepped up to the plate and has really been enjoying them with me. So far the Lips of Faith: Imperial Coffee Chocolate Stout has been my favorite. It has 10% abv and 39 IBUs. It's an imperial stout so it totally fits right in my wheelhouse.

It smells like a Starbucks mocha. The coffee and coco were really in your face as soon as you cracked open the beer. It poured out dark and smooth with a tan head that continued to produce lacing throughout the drink.

Right up front there was a dry and bitter chocolate flavor mixed with a surprisingly subtle hint of coffee. The coffee flavor was not too in your face. There was a nice slight smoked malt flavor that rounded the whole beer out. Really all of the flavors were surprisingly well balanced and mellow for an imperial stout, they can totally get super sweet sometimes. This did not turn out too much like a dessert. It had a clean dry, bittersweet chocolate kinda finish that you do not always get from an imperial.

This was a shockingly well rounded imperial stout. I give it a 4.

Lips of Faith: Tart Lychee

The Lips of Faith series is put together by New Belgium Brewing Company. It is an American Wild Ale with 7.5% abv and 20 IBUs. It is a blended ale that is 56% ale aged in oak and 44% ale brewed with lychee and cinnamon.

It poured a light caramel color with no head to speak of. The beer itself had a cloudy color. It had a fruit and berry aroma with a little bit of cinnamon.

Each sip was like a fruity bundle of joy in my mouth. It was sweet and sour with a nice tart cherry or raspberry flavor up front. The body of it was still tart but it had a nice oak-y backbone with hints of cinnamon. The woodiness helps to mellow out the sour flavor. It finishes off tart and dry with a lasting tanginess. It is a very well balanced sour beer.

This had a light mouth feel with almost no carbonation. It was smooth and dry. It was the perfect beer to have with Chinese food. The sweet and sour flavor matched up perfectly with my pork fried rice.

Great beer, and my wife liked it too. This is one I will look for again.

I give it a 4

Lips of Faith Brett Beer

I picked this one up on a whim. I really like a lot of what New Belgium does out there, and I am always excited to try a collaboration beer. This is part of the Lips of Faith Series as well as a collaboration with The Lost Abbey brewery. It has an abv of 7.5%

The beer poured out very light with a clear golden yellow color. It had about one inch of white fluffy head. It had a very fruity sweet aroma.

The beer was not what I expected. It had a sweet and fruity flavor with some strong bready malt taste. The fruit gave it a slight tang that made it the most mild sour ever brewed. I didn't think it was a sour until I checked their website. For a style that is so in your face this was subtle to the point of disappointing. There was however a nice, light complex hop finish that did its best to cover up the tang and additional alcohol flavor but didn't have much success. It was a fine combination of citrus and pine which finished the beer off very clean. Although the flavors were good, the beer was not very impressive.

It had a very light mouth feel to it with light carbonation. It lacked much back bone, and came off a little bit light and boring in taste and feel. The hops were light. The sour was barely noticeable and the malt was nothing to write home about. Really there was nothing exceptional about this brew.

Seriously I think I am being generous, I give it a 2