New Belgium Frambrozen

I picked up a bottle of New Belgium Frambozen from Bruisin’ Ales in Asheville. The beer pours a red-tinted amber color with a frothy pink-cream colored head that leaves a thin lacing on the glass as it subsides. The aroma consists of raspberry, toasted malts, caramel, and toffee. The taste is lightly tart with raspberries built upon a toasted malt, caramel, and toffee base. The finish has a fruity extract flavor and leaves behind a grassy dryness. The alcohol content is 6.5% ABV. The tartness took me by surprise in this beer, and I can’t say that I was too overly impressed with the overall flavor. I think it started off nicely with the raspberry, but the brown ale left me wanting more.

New Belgium-Brewery Vivant Lips of Faith Biere de Garde

I picked up a bottle of the New Belgium-Brewery Vivant collaboration Biere de Garde, part of the Lips of Faith series. The beer pours a golden color with a bubbly white colored head. The aroma consists of lemon, orange peel, caramel, grass, and Belgian yeast. The taste is light bodied and refreshing with lots of lemon and orange peel flavors right on the front end. Hints of banana and caramel make up the background, and there is a light funk on the finish with some hay. A bit of grass and a biscuity after taste that lingers for quite a while. The alcohol content is 9.0% ABV. This was a nice drinking Biere de Garde with lots of biscuity flavor in the backbone, but it is still refreshing with lemon and orange peel mixed in there as well.

New Belgium Lips of Faith Imperial Coffee Chocolate Stout

While at Bruisin’ Ales in Asheville, I picked up a bottle of New Belgium Lips of Faith Imperial Coffee Chocolate Stout. The beer pours a black color with a lofty and frothy tan colored head. The aroma consists of strong coffee, chocolate, toasted malts, caramel, and vanilla. The taste is robust with lots of toasted malts and plenty of coffee on the front end. The coffee lingers for a while before a dark chocolate flavor mixed with caramel and vanilla arrives. A dry after taste brings back more coffee, but is just like drinking a fresh cup of joe. The alcohol content is 9.0% ABV. If you love coffee, this beer is for you. It is very robust and offers bold flavors with a nice chocolate accent to it. I highly recommend picking this one up if you see it.

New Belgium Lips of Faith Cocoa Mole

At New Belgium in Fort Collins, my fiancee ordered a glass of Lips of Faith Cocoa Mole, so I decided to try it. The beer pours a black color with a bubbly off-white colored head. The aroma consists of spicy chili pepper, chocolate, toasted malts, and caramel. The taste is chocolaty at first with a nice spicy chili pepper accent that is absolutely not overdone. A lingering spice is coupled with cinnamon and a hint of coffee in the background. The alcohol content is 9.0% ABV. As far as chili beers go, this was one of the better ones since the chili was not overdone or overpowering. Furthermore, the chocolate base to this beer was impeccable.

New Belgium Lips of Faith Porch Lounger

I ordered a glass of New Belgium Lips of Faith Porch Lounger at Max's in Baltimore prior to leaving for Denver. The beer pours a golden color with a thin bubbly white colored head. The aroma consists of peach, funk, pepper, lemon, brett, and a hint of hay. The taste is sweet with peach, light barnyard funk, lemon, and hay. The finish has some pepper that spices up the beer with a nice earthy tone. The alcohol content is 9.4%  ABV. I though that the addition of peach to this beer provided quite the drinking experience, as it was slightly funky and very earthy but the peach gave it another dimension.

New Belgium-Lost Abbey Lips of Faith Brett Beer

I picked up a bottle of the New Belgium-Lost Abbey Lips of Faith collaboration Brett Beer at Honeygo Wines & Liquors. The beer pours a golden color with a frothy white colored head that leaves a nice lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of lemon, grass, barnyard funk, hay, and pepper. The taste is dry and lightly tart with lemon with a solid complement of hay, barnyard funk, grass, and pepper. The finish leaves a funk behind with a lemon sugar cookie flavor. The alcohol content is 7.5% ABV. I would say that this wasn’t sour at all, as I expected, and it tasted more like a saison. If I were to review it as a saison, I would say that I absolutely enjoyed it. But billing it as a sour/brett beer was rather disappointing.

New Belgium-Alpine Brewing Lips of Faith Super IPA

I picked up a bottle of New Belgium-Alpine Beer Company collaboration Lips of Faith Super IPA from Honeygo Wines & Liquors.  The beer pours a golden color with a frothy white colored head that leaves specks of lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of marijuana, orange, tangerine, hop oil, pine, and spruce. The taste is funky and hoppy with tangerine, orange, lemon, and a marijuana finish. Hints of pepper and spice linger with some leather after taste. The alcohol content is 9.0% ABV. This was such a funky and amazing IPA that I would love to get more bottles. It had a great marijuana flavor with loads of citrus backing it up.

New Belgium Lips of Faith Fresh Hop

I picked up a bottle of New Belgium Lips of Faith Fresh Hop from Honeygo Wines & Liquors. The beer pours a golden color with a frothy white colored head that leaves specs of lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of lemon, tangerine, passion fruit, orange, grass, pepper, and pine. The taste is light and refreshing with a nice citrus helping of lemon, pineapple, orange, tangerine, and passion fruit. The finish has some pepper, pine, spruce, and grass. The alcohol content is 7.0% ABV. This was a nice tasting fresh hop beer with plenty of citrus flavors, and it was absolutely easy to drink.

New Belgium Lips of Faith Prickly Passion Saison

My buddy Matt picked me up a bottle of New Belgium Lips of Faith Prickly Passion Saison and I opened it to share at our weekly bottle share. The beer pours a golden color with a bubbly white head the recedes rather rapidly. The aroma consists of passion fruit, pear, fruit cup, pineapple, and orange. The taste is fruity at first with passion fruit, pineapple, orange, pear, green apple, and a fruit cup. Then a cardboard funk comes out and has a hint of pepper. The alcohol content is 8.5% ABV. This beer didn’t hit any saison flavors on my tongue and really left a somewhat foul taste behind. I really wanted to like it, but the fruit flavors muddled the better flavors in the beer and made it very disappointing.

New Belgium Lips of Faith Tart Lychee

I picked up a bottle of New Belgium Lips of Faith Tart Lychee from State Line Liquors in Elkton, MD and decided to share it with some friends. The beer pours a cloudy golden color with a frothy white head that leaves some lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of what I assume to be lychee (I’ve never smelled it before) but I would liken it to raspberry and cranberry. The taste is light and dry and very bubbly on the tongue. There is a tart lychee (I get the name!) flavor that tastes like raspberry. Cinnamon dryness on finish adds a pie crust flavor and balances everything rather nicely. The alcohol content is 7.5% ABV. This was a rather delicious wild ale. Having never tasted or smelled lychee before, I wasn’t sure what to expect but I enjoyed my first exposure to the fruit and I would definitely buy this beer again.

Left Hand-New Belgium Beer Week Sauce

Another beer I ordered at Varga Bar in Philadelphia was the Left Hand-New Belgium collaboration Beer Week Sauce. The beer pours a black color with a frothy tan colored head that stays for a while. The aroma consists of dark Belgian chocolate, toasted malts, vanilla, and caramel. The taste is dark chocolate and rather dry with a light vanilla accent and a caramel sweetness. Coffee provides a great balance and wonderful flavor. The beer finishes a little dry and bitter, but has a wonderful overall flavor. The alcohol content is 6.0% ABV. This beer had an amazing balance of chocolate and coffee flavors with a nice vanilla and caramel sweetness.

New Belgium Somersault

Another beer I got to try at the Leinenkugel Beer Garden was the New Belgium Somersault. The beer pours an amber color with a bubbly white head. The aroma is grassy and has some lemon and earth smells as well. The taste is light and lemony while being very refreshing with a great citrus pucker. Grass, pepper and caramel round out the flavors on the finish and balance it delicately. The alcohol content is 5.2% ABV. I enjoyed this beer as it went very well with the hot weather. It was very easy drinking but was also flavorful, a great combination.

New Belgium Dig

I received a bottle of New Belgium Dig as part of a beer trade from my buddy Rich in San Diego. The beer pours a golden color with a frothy white head that leaves a neatly organized lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of lemon, tangerine, grass, and caramel. The taste is dry and slightly bitter. It has a solid caramel base with a strong lemon, tangerine, and pepper bite on the finish. Citrus lingers behind with some grassy hops. The alcohol content is 5.6% ABV. This was a nice and refreshing pale ale that I could see myself drinking over and over again. It was built very well and would be enjoyed by most people, as it wasn’t overly bitter.

New Belgium Blue Paddle

My buddy Jason had a bottle of New Belgium Blue Paddle in his fridge in Denver, so I decided to give it a try. The beer pours a golden color with a lofty and frothy white head. The aroma is fresh smelling with grassy hops and butterscotch. The taste is light and refreshing with grassy hops on the front end and a hint of lemongrass. The best part of the beer is the earthy finish. The alcohol content is 4.8% ABV. Most of all, I enjoyed the lemongrass flavor that came along with this beer as the citrus gave the beer the relief it needed and made it refreshing.

New Belgium Lips of Faith Grand Cru Abbey Ale

I ordered a bottle of New Belgium Lips of Faith Grand Cru Abbey Ale from France 44. The beer pours a red-tinted amber color with a bubbly off-white colored head. The aroma consists of sweet candy malts, cherry, caramel, raisin, and orange. The taste is very sweet with plenty of raisin, caramel, and malts hitting the tongue. There is a biscuit flavor that comes out with hints of cherry and orange. The finish is spiced a bit with some pepper and earthy hops. A faint hint of chocolate comes out in the after taste. The alcohol content is 9.5% ABV. I enjoyed the flavor of the Grand Cru Abbey Ale with it’s sweey, malty flavors and biscuity mouth feel. The finish was the best part, as the spice balanced out the sweetness.

New Belgium Lips of Faith Clutch

My buddy slipped in to Honeygo Wines and Spirits to grab a bottle of New Belgium Lips of Faith Clutch, a beer made for the rock band. The beer pours a dark brown color with a think filmy tan head. The aroma consists of dark chocolate, toffee, caramel, and a slight sour tinge. The taste has a burnt profile with lots of malts, chocolate, toffee, and caramel. There is a slight sour tinge to it, but not very much or as advertised. The alcohol content is 9.0% ABV. I enjoyed how burnt and toasty this beer was accompanied with a slight sour accent. It was enjoyable, but not quite what I was expecting, not that that was a bad thing.

New Belgium Lips of Faith Super Cru

I ordered a bottle of New Belgium Lips of Faith Super Cru from France 44, the supercharged version of Fat Tire. The beer pours an amber color with a frothy off-white colored head. The aroma consists of sweet pears and malts with a slight cherry accent. The taste is extremely sweet with plenty of malts and lots of pear juice as well. There is a faint hint of peppery hops and an alcohol warmth on the finish. The after taste leaves some caramel and burnt malts. The alcohol content is 10.0% ABV. I would say that I enjoyed drinking this beer, but I was glad I shared it with another person, as it was rather on the sweet side. An entire 22-ounce bottle would be difficult to finish.

New Belgium Lips of Faith Dunkelweiss

I picked up a bottle of New Belgium Lips of Faith Dunkelweiss while in Colorado and shipped it home to myself to review. The beer pours a dark brown color with a frothy off-white colored head that laces to the glass. The aroma consists of raisin, sweet malts, fig, and earthy hops. The taste is sweet and smooth with a nice amount of fig and raisin giving it a front end sweetness. Lots of malts are at play here bit a slight twist of caramel. A little bit of earthy dryness comes in to play on the finish. The alcohol content is 9.0% ABV. The most impressive part of this beer is that the finish and after taste was not watered down like some can be. The sweetness and earthy hops carry through all the way to the end of the experience.

New Belgium-Allagash Lips of Faith Vrienden

I picked up a bottle of New Belgium-Allagash collaboration Lips of Faith Vrienden while in San Diego and I shipped a bottle home to review, and it became my 500th beer on Untappd. The beer pours a golden color with a frothy off-white colored head with some lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of wheat, sour cherry, and vinegar. The taste is slightly tart, hints of vinegar, sour cherry, sour wheat, and lemon. The finish brings out a floral flavor of hibiscus that dries out the mouth a little bite. The alcohol content is 8.5% ABV. The Vrienden was a lightly tart beer that had some nice sour accents that would be a nice transition for people not into sour beers yet. I really enjoyed the light sweetness and delicate sour twist, all working together as one.

New Belgium Lips of Faith La Folie

I bought a bottle of New Belgium Lips of Faith La Folie while in San Diego and shipped it home to myself to review. The beer pours a brown color with a frothy off-white colored head. The aroma consists of lots of vinegar and cherries up front and with a sweet malt base. The taste is smooth and sweet at first with malts before vinegar and sour cherry and raspberry kick in and cause the mouth to pucker. The alcohol content is 6.0% ABV. The tartness of this beer is wonderful and plays very well with the sweet malts of the brown ale base. The malts don’t hang around very long on the tongue, so this beer is all about the sourness, but it is also well grounded.