New Belgium Lips of Faith - Dark Kriek
For many years we’ve celebrated Valentine’s Day at New Belgium Brewing by creating a special small batch beer for our family and friends. These beers tend to be a little funky, fruitful and straight from the heart. This year we decided to share the love.
New Belgium Brewing’s Dark Kriek is a limited edition Belgian kriek or cherry beer. Much darker than a traditional kriek with a dash of sour cherry up front, our Dark Kriek is actually a blend of two beers. We start with a light, dry, tannic beer aged two years in oak barrels and combine this with a heavier, dark ale and cherries to create one smooth cherry blast of love.
New Belgium Brewing’s Dark Kriek is a limited edition Belgian kriek or cherry beer. Much darker than a traditional kriek with a dash of sour cherry up front, our Dark Kriek is actually a blend of two beers. We start with a light, dry, tannic beer aged two years in oak barrels and combine this with a heavier, dark ale and cherries to create one smooth cherry blast of love.
3.5
239 reviews
Fort Collins, United States
Community reviews
Medium sour cherry aroma. Reddish-orange in color. Spicey, sour and cherry flavors.
Pours a rich red color with light, off-white, fizzy head. Aroma is of sour cherry, light oak, yeast, tangy malt, and some funkiness. Taste is much the same but it just seems to miss on the sourness aspect. More sourness would have made this more balanced as it seems a little lopsided. That aside, it’s still solid.
Dark ruby/brown appearance. Thin head sitting on top of the beer. Quite the pungent aroma - cherry and wood aroma dominate. It has a nice, fresh cherry aroma - not that fake artificial maraschino cherry aroma. The aroma is actually quite woody, considering only 35% of it was oak-aged. Slightly tart aroma comes from the cherries, obviously. Nice fruity, robust cherry-fruit flavor. This beer is quite delicious, for a fruit beer. The wood comes through quite well, and again, considering only 35 % was oak-aged. Quite impressed with this offering.
In short: A very woody/oaky and sweet cherry beer. Good brew.
How: Bottle 22oz. Exact age unknown. Tasting session with Montreal crew.
The look: Clear dark red body topped a small beige head
In long: Pleasant nose of earthy cherries. Taste has plenty of earthy cherries, a whole lot of oak/wood, a bit of caramel, light dark grapes notes. A bit too sweet. The beer is so woody that it brings an overall sensation of cherry wood. Not very sour at all and rather easy to drink. Almost sessionnable. Another good beer in the Lips of Faith series. Talking about faith, am I the only one who finds that a lightning rod on top of church shows a lack of faith?
Let this one mellow for +/- 2 years, and it is great. Wonderful balance between the sourness and the sweet malt. The cherries are very present and add a lot. The time spent on wood is obvious, needed and appreciated. A great beer from Colorado.
The flavor is similar to the Trans. Kriek, but more oak in the musky notes. The color is is clear amber with dark maroon notes and a beige head. The flavor of tart cherries on the palate that settles smooth on the tongue. Edit: Brings better flavors with time with some nice warmer cherry pie notes.
Bottle at a tasting thanks to David and Catherine
Appearance : Dark amber with a small head.
Aroma : Sour cherries, nicely fruity. A bit woody.
Taste : Light sour cherries. A bit light.
Overall : Nose makes you expect something a bit more sour. Not sour enough for a "Sour" but too sour for a fruit beer... Still enjoyable though.
Bottle. Pours medium brown with a medium tan head with a reddish tint throughout. Aroma is cherries and champagne. Flavor is nasty tomatoes and some cherries. Med mouthfeel. This beer is pretty gross in my opinion.
#2000 Cookout. Sample from a bottle shared by grownfool. Dark red-brown, tan head. Sweet malty aroma, cherry. Taste is straight up cherry, sweet.
Bottle [Vintage early 2009]... Poured clear, dark red. Lots of fresh cherry tones on this. Not so much sour going as would hope. Tart qualities still, with some grain qualities for a good body, and grenadine-like, sweet finish.
bottle shared by daknole on 1/17/2010.
coppery caramel brown colored pour with an off white film/ring for a head.
cinnamon cherry pie filling is the best thing i can come up with to describe the aroma... nevertheless, malty and delicious.
the taste is the same... cherry pie and similar tartness, malty sweetness, touches of cream, flowers and grass.
it feels kinda flat (character not carbonation) and flabby... like it’s missing some depth or complexity. 7/3/7/3/14/3.4
Bottle thanks to hannont!
Dark ruby, thin cream head that disappears quickly. Berry, bark, and bready malt in the nose, odd set of elements that is not a cohesive marriage. Flavor is similarly off, lots of wood and sour cherry combo’d with a tannic bitterness that offsets the malt presence. Thin, astringent sour mouth, though coating. The base beers seem good, but this is not a smooth blast of love, rather a harsh, off-setting collection of fruit and malt notes with barrel mistake littered throughout.
22-oz bottle Specs Houston, TX - Aroma: cherries, oak; Appearance: clear, deep-red color, pink-red head, some laces; Flavor: sweet, salty, cherry, sour; Mouthfeel: light bodied, thin texture, lively carbonation; Overall nice refreshing, clean, fruity, and sour beer balanced with a malty backbone and dry finish (Feb 13, 2010).
New Belgium Brewing Company--Dark Kriek--Lips of Faith Series--65% Ale Brewed With Cherry Juice 35% Ale Aged In Wood Barrels--2009 22 oz. Bottle Release. 8.00% ABV--10 IBU’s? (4.25 / 5.0) Kriek--Dark--Thin fizzy mild lace off white head. No sediment. Hazy rich dark ruby color. Aromatic sour black cherry oak hint front. Sour sweet thin textured rich toasted fruity juicy wild Kriek body. Clean refreshing sour cherry rich complex fruit end. Barrel Aged mellow. Sampled 9/30/2009. 2 @ $11.99 Each.
Local 22oz bottle. Hiding out in the cellar for almost a year now. Pours a clear dark brown with ruby highlights. Thin tan ring on top and no real lacing. Aroma has both the sweet and the sour from the cherries plus a little oak. Little sour punch to the flavour and definitely get the tannin notes. Alcohol pops up just a touch in the finish. Unique twist on the kriek.
Bottle at Papsø’s - Thanks. Clear red/amber - white head. High cherry, wooden, acid, vinegar, fruity, berries, lacto, sourness, citric, marzipan, caramel, toffee, rubber, leather, light chocolate. High drinkability.
Bottle. Pours a clear dark cherry red with a frothy head. Nose is sweet and sour, red berries, faded hops, slightly medicinal. Collage of sweet and sour dominates this, which I like, but there’s a little too much sweet and the cherry flavor is a bit strange. I can’t stand the slightest bit of medicinal cherry flavor in a beer, this borders on it. Not bad, just alright, not really my thing.
Bottle at Papsø.
Clear orange brown coloured with a small off white head.
Fruity aroma of berries, cherries, oak and red wine.
Fruity flavour of cherries, marzipan, oak and red wiine.
Tart woody finish.
Clear deep red with a medium beige head. Sour aroma with lacto, sour cherries and almonds. Sour flavour with cherries, almonds and lacto. Not a sour? You are kiddin’ me...
clear amber, smooth white head.
fruity, acid, citrussy aroma. deep . berries
flavor is sweet and sour, red or blue berries, faint vineagra.
Bottled. A deep red beer with a thin beige head. The aroma has notes of caramel, malt, alcohol, wood, and sour cherries. The flavor is sweet and acidic with notes of tart cherries, wood, and lighter notes of caramel and malt, leading to a lightly tart finish.
Bottle. Dark reddish amber with a small off white head. Lots of cherry aroma with light sour notes. The flavour is cherry, oak, wood, light acidic, light metal and some caramel. Very nice.
Bottled. Reddish coloured. Unclear. Dense beige head. Aroma of fruits, spice, light sourness and grape. flavour of sourness, grape, fruits and light spice. Medium bodied. Dry sour end. good palatecleaner with high drinkability.
22 fl oz bottle. Pours clear and golden deep amber/red with a small and quickly gone head. Aroma is light acetone and cherries. Almondish and cherry fruity flavoured, light milky and sourish note. Sour to light citric flavoured into the finish.
Bottle 65 cl. Pours a clear amber with an off-white head. Sweet cherry aroma. Medium body, a little vanilla but dominated by the sour cherry notes with a little underlying sweetness. Almonds too. Vaguely sourish finish. 280110
Bottle ( 22oz ). Shared by jerc and mabel with me, blankboy, garthicus and gregclow. Clear bright deep refractive red, smallish creamy/frothy white head. Aroma of cherry (sour), slightly sour white wine, crushed berry seeds - a bit like cherry pie filling. Taste is a bit less sweet, dry grass bitterness and NOT enough cherry at all - pretty boring. Light body, fairly astringent, well carbonated, with a slightly harsh bitter finish. Really liked the aroma.
ChrisO’s pre-GBBF tasting, 1st Aug 09. This was a bottle I brought back from San Francisco. Dark brown looks. Subtly sour with the fruit being very well hidden behind a strong woody note. The nose is likewise not too in-your-face with the sourness and there is a good underlying warmth to the palate. Works surprisingly well.
Bottle. Poured a clear dark cherry red with minimal head. Aroma was full of cherry notes, mainly tart cherries, but there were hints of sweet cherries. The flavor began full of sweet cherries, but transferred to more sour and tart cherries for the finish. There was a bit of a woody undertone through and was dry on the tongue.
Pours reddish brown color with tan head. Aroma of sour cherries and some caramel. Tart cherry flavor with some sourness and oak flavors from the barrels. Medium body with average carbonation and a dry, tart finish.
Deep dark cherry, lasting creamy off white head, light lacing.
Aroma is of black cherries, oak, wood and earth, only light sourness.
Flavour is lightly sour with some light tartness, cherries, actually more sweet at times, some chocolate.
Sweet/tart mix in the mouth, mod body, high carb.
Finishes sour at first but then the sweetness kicks it, cherries as well.
The sweet/sour mix make this like 2 beers in one bottle. It’s good.
650ml bottle shared by beerhugger, thanks Steve.
Opened on August 18, 2009.
No date.