New Belgium Lips of Faith - Cascara Quad
Cascara Quad is a dark, strong and surprisingly delicate ale made with dates and coffee cherries. Channeling the Trappist tradition, it’s brewed with an ethereal malt bill, and spiced with the fruit of the coffee bean (cascara). The aroma brings dates, cherries and pipe tobacco right to the nose and builds layers with hints of spice and fruity Belgian yeast. Once on the palate, Cascara Quad starts swinging clove, fig and molasses. Each sip offers sweet warmth, deep complexity and fleeting dryness.
Hops: Hallertauer Hersbrucker-Nobel, Styrian-Golding-Nobel
Malts: Pale, Munich, Caramel Munich, Biscuit, Black
Fruits/Spice: Belgium Amber Candy Sugar, Date Sugar, Cascara Tea
Body: Medium-Heavy
Aroma: Ripe figs, raisins, plums, black cherries, toffee, chocolate, pipe tobacco, rich Corinthian leather and leather bound books.
Mouthfeel: Starts big and smooth, finishes still smooth yet the cascara tea and higher ABV will bring a nice dry warm end to this epic novel.
Flavor: Sweet and rich, huge complex overall taste.
Visual: Brooding, dark, cloudy berry brown with tan head.
Hops: Hallertauer Hersbrucker-Nobel, Styrian-Golding-Nobel
Malts: Pale, Munich, Caramel Munich, Biscuit, Black
Fruits/Spice: Belgium Amber Candy Sugar, Date Sugar, Cascara Tea
Body: Medium-Heavy
Aroma: Ripe figs, raisins, plums, black cherries, toffee, chocolate, pipe tobacco, rich Corinthian leather and leather bound books.
Mouthfeel: Starts big and smooth, finishes still smooth yet the cascara tea and higher ABV will bring a nice dry warm end to this epic novel.
Flavor: Sweet and rich, huge complex overall taste.
Visual: Brooding, dark, cloudy berry brown with tan head.
3.3
285 reviews
Fort Collins, United States
Community reviews
Bottle from a trade. Hazy burnt orange color with out much head. Bottle says best before 14 Aug 2014... Just in time!! Aroma is sugar, dates and caramel syrup.
The body is medium with a solid quad base. Dates upfront of the flavor with a sweet syrupy texture throughout the sip. Lingering dark fruit after the sip. Candi sugar and raisins here as well. Very sugary. No coffee to be found here which is problematic after a lot of time. Perhaps it was better a year ago? Two years ago?
Draft at White Oak Tavern in a snifter. Amber with fading off white head. Nice aroma of spices, coffee and chocolate. A bit light and thin for the style. Fruit and spice with sweet dry finish.
It poured a dark brown color with a tan head. The aroma was of dark chocolate, some nibs, cherries, sugar and booze. The taste was of dark chocolate, cherries, orange, cocoa nibs and booze. Nice.
The aroma is sweet and malty with fruit and alcohol. The appearance is orange copper. The taste is like the aroma. The palate is smooth. Overall good.
This is a rich flavorful beer, this beer has a lot of flavor with rich Belgian sugar and dark malts. Fruits like cherries and dates
I had this at Global Brew. Pours amber with a off white head. Taste sweet, Carmel, fruity. I thought this was good. I would drink this again.
Quite light and low on palate for the style. Amber with ok head and lacing. Finishes musky, with too much wood. Only faint hints of dark fruits in this. Tap at takeover even at Monk’s Cafe.
Bottle, shared with Parksy. Medium amber with orange highlights and a big fluffy off white head. Very sweet profile, lots of dates, soft banana, barley candy, vague fruit acids. Not a bad sipper, but I would never peg this as a quad-- where are the phenols, the yeast character?
Pours a dark reddish brown color with a fairly good head. Aroma is cherry, coffee, malt, candy, spice, date, figs, plum, toffee, and tobacco. Taste is cherry and candied coffee beans, plum, fig sweetness, warm spices. Very interesting beer, fantastic one timer.
The name is a reference to coffee cherries. Hazy dull amber-brown with a fairly rich head for a high test beer. A little phenolic, tons of sugars, very sweet taste, big blast of alcohol late. Estery, but this seems rather unfocused.
Bottle. Heavy dark bread, nutty and caramel for the malt, moderate herbs, cooked orange and orange peel for the hops, moderate dough for the yeast with notes of date, dried cherry, brown sugar and alcohol. Head is tiny, fizzy, tan with fair lacing and ggod legs, and is mostly diminishing. Color is murky brown. Flavor starts moderately to heavily sweet and lightly acidic, then finishes lightly to moderately bittersweet. Palate is medium to full, creamy with a soft carbonation and has a moderately alcoholic and slightly sticky finish. Nice drinking Quadrupel. Of course its heavy body and texture, and its alcohol is fairly noticable, but there’s not a bad aspect to it.
Only $3 a glass at Black Forest, Eugene, OR, on Fat Tire Friday’s. That’s a good deal for a 10% alcohol beer. Very strong alcohol flavor. Was very hard to drink, but worth it.
Bottle... Cloudy, dark caramel pour with a small, white head. Good retention. The bouquet is both fruity and malty - dates, overripe banana, coffee cherries, vanilla and caramel. Medium-bodied with lively carbonation. Flavors of caramel and dark fruit lean a hint toward the bitter and boozy side of balance, but not by much. Lengthy, medium-bitter finish. Bottle courtesy of darkguardian!
Thought I should avoid this one, but I am up for trying anything once. Probably should've stuck with my initial thought. Smell is of small hint of fig, cherry, and caramel, but alcohol is the dominate aroma. Taste mirrors almost exactly. Boozy and not much else to save this beer. I even tried aging it a year before trying... Do not recommend.
Overtly boozy bordering on one dimensional. Some fig and prune in the flavor, but nothing memorable. Was not enjoyable, finished one glass pour and sent it on its way into my new garbage disposal. Lacking in complexity for a quad and overpriced for the flavor. Pay another dollar or two and get a nice quad.
Bottle at the Bulldog. Hazy brown with white head. Aroma of dates and cherries. Taste of malts, cherries and sweet fruit. Nice finish with almost no aftertaste. Pretty good beer.
3/1/2014. 22 oz. bottle. Pours hazy medium brown with an offwhite head. Nice lacing. Aromas are sweet, malty and nutty. Flavors have dried fruit, nuts, spices, sugars and a bit of alcohol burn on the finish.
22oz bottle. Poured an amber color with an off white head. Dark fruits, dates, toffee, and somewhat nutty.
It pours a rustic brown color and leaves the same colored body with a one finger white foamy head that died within a half minute. Some lacing ends up trying to stick to the sides.
The smell has a tart cherry with a slight coffee-ness trying to come through but honestly kind of comes through in an "ashy" sort of way - hmmmm...
The taste has some tart cherry and some other dark fruits try to balance the coffee and ash. The ftertaste is somewhat a bland yet kind of tart cherry. It has a dry ashy and somewhat coffee finish.
On the palate, she sits about a medium on the mouth and tongue, not really sessionable - though it seems like this one tries to be as the carbonation runs fairly smooth.
Overall, I say this is a decent quad, because I have become more engaged in this style within the past year, I think I can honestly say that this is a mostly ok quad that I don’t think I’d have at my Easter meal.
Tap. Medium clear dark yellow pour, minimal carbonation and an aroma of strong boozy malt and raisins. Flavor is also boozy malt, Belgian yeast, and finished with a sweet sugary finish. Decent.
on draft .. . pours a 3 day old bruise brown purple .. . mild foam, big bubbles .. . quite sweet, muddled .. . has this odd kick on the end. . could never finish a whole glass .. . . question mark, office chair, question mark. where?
22oz bomber pours with a clear amber body that has gold edges and supports a nice looking tan head of foam. The aroma offers up a mix of prunes and raisins and Belgian candi sugar as well as some yeasty spices and a dollop of molasses. The taste is similar with a big dose of sweet Belgian candi sugar, dates, raisins and prunes where there’s a modest smooth sweet malt and molasses note out at the periphery. Decent Quad but overall seems rough around the edges even though the ABV is pretty well hidden. It seems it could meld better with some cellar time.
Pours a clear rusty amber. Smell is fruity cherries and mild coffee, some raisin. Taste is a bit off putting, some coffee but not good coffee, hot booze, tea, black currant. I dont know, I normally like the LOF a lot more than this. Oh well
Pours dark amber brown. The aroma is almost spicy with a strong malt flavor and date/cherry taste showing through. A decent quad with strong cherry/spice/coffee flavors shining through.
(Hé bien, on dirait que c’est arrangé avec le gars des vues: pour mon 2600ième rating sur cet espace débilitant, voici une évaluation oubliée dans le fin fond de mon téléphone depuis mon dernier voyage en Floride). Une bouteille meilleure avant 2014 et partagée avec Stefan, mon frère, ce grand bourlingueur. Donc, une bière ambrée sur laquelle vacille un petit anneau de mousse beige. Une dentelle tente, tant bien que mal, de s’éparpiller sur nos deux verres. Le nez m’apparaît d’abord assez sucré et fruité. Mon frère note la présence d’un alcool perçant et trouve également qu’elle dégage un ou des parfums épicés. Quant à mes narines, elles ne peuvent s’empêcher de penser que cette bière expire un souffle terreux et même un peu floral et herbacé. Quelques gorgées suffisent pour nous confirmer que cette quadrupel n’est pas, pour nous, terriblement réussie ni sincèrement ratée. Encore une fois, les saveurs douces et fruitées s’arriment bizarrement à cette levure belge/sauvage/épicée et aux quelques herbes qui finissent par traîner ici et là dans le fond de deux verres que nous ne finirons jamais. Au palais, j’ai l’impression que le corps devient un peu trop collant lorsqu’il se réchauffe totalement. La finale apporte encore une fois un lot de choses sucrées et fruitées qui, comme le dit si bien Stefan, manque un peu de subtilité. Décidément, une étrange bibitte qui n’est pas pour autant une monstruosité.
Pungent aroma right out of the gate; traditional Belgian yeast and candy sugar, dates, and fusels. Comes off as hot. Dark caramel colored pour with a finger of creamy beige head. Mouthfeel is a bit light, but silky. Pretty well the same song and dance as the nose, but without the warmth of the fusels. The modest amount of coffee flavors is a nice addition and isn’t distracting from the Belgian stock. As the glass warms the coffee becomes more evident in the nose, which is also nice. Faint bit of cherries too. Overall this is good, but not up to par for the $8.99 price tag.
poured as taster at Ft. Collins site - nose of applesauce, walnuts, taste caramel, toffee, malt, liquor, long finish
Tap at a New Belgium tap takeover. Cloudy dark red/brown. Lacing. Forgettable nose. Decent quad--mild bittering hops make it less sweet and a bit easier to drink. A solid attempt.
Bottle @ tasting. Aroma is very sweet caramel and red fruit madness. Flavour is a tangy raisin liquorice madness. Meh. Not doing it for me.
Tallahassee, Fl - ABC Fine Wine & Spirits - 22 oz bomber. Hazy dark orange pour sticky off-white head, nice lacing. Muddled aroma, hints of alcohol, some blended whiskey soaked maraschino cherries. Flavor is where it really goes south. A booziness permeates it up front, some sour cherries, some ripening vegetables, a hint of dates. Mouthfeel is too slick. Back to the drawing board on this one.