New Belgium Lips Of Faith Transatlantique Kriek

Lips Of Faith Transatlantique Kriek
New Belgium Brewing Inc.
Fort Collins, Co
8.00% ABV

C. Clear
H. Pink Beer!
N. Tart Cranberry, Cherry, Slight Apple

Beer Drinker; Lips of Faith was one of the beers we sampled at our tasting last Saturday. I had heard this beer name before, but had to ask who brewed it and what style to expect (mainly because I was too lazy to read the bottle). Someone said it was brewed by New Belgium, at which point I asked the famous Ed Roberts when we are going to get our Fat Tire, just to keep a long-running, annoying joke on the table.

This is a Kriek beer. The first time I had this style of beer, I was in a "classroom" full of 300 "students" at Cornell's Hotel School, with Michael Jackson talking about the diversity of beers. He was serving this style beer to us! Yes, THE Michael Jackson! That awesome cherry aroma reminds me of that day every time. Anyway, this beer was pink and bubbly and could easily be confused with a rose champagne. The flavors are sour and tart all the way through, accentuating the cherries in every way. It really is an incredible flavor sensation! There are some people that don't like the style or the sourness. Those people are wimps!
Score: 3.9999

The Ferm; This was one of the many beers that were tried at the second meeting of the minds. It was one of the huge surprises for me, I have wanted to try some of the Lips of Faith line for quite some time. Having heard some good stuff about the beers in this line from New Belgium my expectations grew. I was given the task of working the rotation of bottles, and when I opened this bottle I was VERY surprised that it poured PINK! Yep, not knowing much about the bottle that I was about to dig in to, I began to think...ahh man this is going to kill everything, its a Lambic! So I took a further look at the bottle and realized it was a Kriek, well thats a bit better, but not much. The beer came across as strong sour cherries, and thats about it. For someone that is not a big fan of Lambics or Fruit Beers, this was sort-a a surprise treat. Yep, it was a Pink Roller-coaster; I was excited, saw pink and not excited, then tasted and did a small loop of excitement. Worth finding another bottle to try it again!
Score: 3.812

Overall: 3.90595