New Belgium Lips of Faith - Grand Cru Abbey Ale

Brewed by New Belgium Brewing Company
Style: Abbey Dubbel
Fort Collins, Colorado USA

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip

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Courtesy of the New Belgian Kinetic Sculpture team and their fearless leader, Jen Stampley, the "pedaling pixie".. Thanks Jen. Pours a dark amber color with a foamy beige head. Nose of roasted malts and belgian yeast. Medium plus in body with a smooth mouth feel. Flavor of rich malts and there is some ripe fruit . Finishes generally on the sweet side, but right at the end a bitterness arrives. This is an easy drinking and flavorful beer with notobvious flaws. Like this one a lot.

Bottle from Pacific Liquor: Poured a dense brass/copper liquid that showed evidence of sediment floating about while a delicate pillow of foam graced the top. In the aroma, my nose picks up on a semi sweet yet spicy scent of caramelized malts and authentic Belgian yeast. The drink has a heavy palate that is carried by a backbone of caramel malt and with mild spiced yeast that balances out this abbey dubbel while also staying true to monk recipe traditions.

Bottle: Poured a clear brown color ale with a large foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of dry caramel malt with a bready yeast is interesting. Taste is dominated by dry caramel malt notes with very subtle residual sugar notes and some bready notes. Body is about average with good carbonation and light warming alcohol can be detected. I am not sure where all those high ratings are coming from. I was expecting more complexity from the yeast ester which I could find here and I thought the beer was too dry for the style.

Enjoying at JLBeers in Fargo. Great tap. Kind of simple, but with all the expected aroma and favors. Banana and a hint of spice and sweet bubblegum, malt and a hint of old barnyard straw. Just what I was hoping for,

From beerlicious iphone app: amber color. frothy tan head. sour from start to finish. long duration. medium body. creamy stick texture with a bit of bitter aftertaste.

Bottle gift from SJ. Drank at xmas party 2012. Really good. I love Belgians. As always a nice bready aroma and flavor mixed with dark fruits (Cherry and raisin) and spices. A sweet caramel finish , but with a kick. YEAH BOY!

22 oz bottle to taster Aroma of Belgian yeasts and tangerine. Clear reddish amber with no head. Taste is yeasty, slightly sweet.

July 7th, 2011 - The Lips of Faith series seems to alternate between Dogfish Head style experiments spearheaded by one of the brewery’s mad scientists, and refined interpretations of beloved classics. The Grand Cru Abbey falls into the latter category, leaving the NBB six-pack lines in the dust and ascending to a category of excellence that even the most stringent beer snobs will find to be quite good. Rich yeastiness fills the air just moments after the bottle cap is removed. The basic bouquet is identical to the regular Abbey, but it’s augmented with keener, better balanced smells of soy sauce, grapes, cedar, molasses and even a breath of juniper. A sip of the dark amber (and just a bit short of crimson) body reveals a flavor profile with clear links to the dubbels of tastings past - umami abounds, limned with a dry woody taste on one side and a subtle parmesan cheese taste on the other. These are kept in check by a strong alcohol bite - a deviation from those dubbels I mentioned earlier - to make a beautiful flavor with more flavor and punch. American style? Probably. This is a great Lips of Faith, and though the experimental beers made from cacti and ground toucan bills and amethyst are good, remixes on the classics can also be amazing.

Bottle shared by MrPickles...thanks Andy! - Pours clear amber with a thin off white head. Nose is tropical fruit, light baking spice, and a bit of sugary sweetness. Taste is the same--sweet and sugary tropical fruit. Tastes kind of like the sugary dried tropical fruit you can buy, with a lightly boozy, warm finish. Slick and thick, with a bit of carbonation.

The flavor of tea and bitter is the dominate flavor. Proper malts with hardly any hop. The bitter taste like black tea. It's a winner ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone