New Belgium Lips of Faith - Kick
We get a kick out of collaborating. Harvesting the creativity of Kim Jordan of New Belgium and Dick Cantwell of Elysian produced this ruby-hued, slightly sour, pumpkin, cranberry ale. It’s a treat that does the trick.
3.5
260 reviews
Fort Collins, United States
Community reviews
22oz bomber purchased at my local liquor store. The beer poured a hazy orange with slight foam and lacing that dies away quickly. Initial aroma is sour with some obvious funkiness. I didn’t get much pumpkin, perhaps some cranberry from the overall sour aroma. The taste pretty much mirrored the aroma though the more I drank of it the less tart it felt. As it warmed it still remained nice. Medium mouthfeel and not too much carbonation. Sour finish that dies pretty qucikly with just a touch of the sour lingering for a while. In my mind the beer inproved as I drank it, perhaps because my palate grew more accustomed to the sour element. The sour is by no means over the top.
Serving: 22 oz. bottle from State Line Liquors. It pours a deep gold with a small but lasting white head. An odd musty metallic nose. The flavor has a unique tartness with a hint of sweetness around the edges. The cranberry really comes through, but the pumpkin adds a hint of earthiness. Medium bodied with a lingering sour and bitter cranberry finish. Unfortunately that finish starts to wear on you after half a pint. Unlike most sours that end refreshingly, this one just gets less and less inviting.
had on tap when this first came out and in bottle last weekend, aging isn’t for this one, the fruit and spice have died down quite a bit .. . mild cranberry and spice .. . mouth is thin .. . there have been better LoF beers
.. . . the nuclear bomb scene in teminator 2 is still awesome!
Crystal clear and radiant pumpkin orange, with a small head that leaves sparse lacing. The aroma brings some squash flavors, along with a touch of alcohol, malt, and spice. The flavor is spicy, mostly cinnamon and perhaps nutmeg. Pumpkin pie, but a bit too sweet. The cranberry flavor is there, but sweetness prevails over tartness. An overall lack of a cohesion. A bit cloying, I can’t imagine drinking much more than a snifter sized portion of this. Sweet and fruity, with moderately low carbonation. Ok stuff, but I wouldn’t seek this out again. I have had it twice now, and been unimpressed on both occasions.
Serving type: bottle
Reviewed on: 10-23-2011
22oz bottle purchased for $6, not a bad price. Clear light orange color and not much head. Smells sour with a hi t of funk and just the slightest touch of cranberry. The taste was mostly sour ale and reminded me a lot of the sourness in Eric’s Ale and Le Terroir, maybe it’s the yeast. This was a great sour beer value and I’d definitely purchase this again if I saw it.
Serving type: bottle
Reviewed on: 11-08-2011 20:20:12
Pours clear amber light in color with a pink hue and creamy white head. The aroma brings sweet cranberry tart. The flavor has not lost cranberry at all after a year either bringing palatable tart cranberry notes dominating, a small sweetness to them as well. The body is not thick, thin and quite crisp.
pours a semi-clear orangish with a small snow white head, and a little lacing.
smell is of pumpkin, coriander, malt, spice, and wild yeast.
taste is sour, pumpkin, spice, cranberry in back, and malt.
Bottle. Pours a hazy orange with a thin white head. Aroma of cranberries, light pumpkin, and some funk. Flavor was lightly tart with cranberries, faint pumpkin, lemon and had some funky sourness.
Can’t believe how high in style this thing is... and overall? You all are friggin’ nutz. Pour was orangey and the head was small. The aroma was cranberries and pumpkin. The flavor was the same, cheap friggin cranberry juice, nothing wood or elegant about this thing at all, some random messed up spices. A sloppy mess. Brutal.
11/2/2011 - I’ve had the privilege of living in both Denver and Seattle. Both are relaxed cities, reeking of the West Coast insouciance that irks my East Coast friends. Hiking in the morning, beer in the afternoon, and an obscure hobby in the evening. It’s no wonder that Elysian and New Belgium jive so well. I got my first taste of their collaborative potential when I first had the Elysian Night Owl, which is apparently brewed with some help from the folks at New Belgium. The Lips of Faith Kick is more vocal about its heritage. From the aroma to the taste, this beer obviously benefits from the collective wisdom of two craft beer powerhouses. Opening the bottle releases a bright lemon and citrus aroma, topped by a ripe cherry tanginess. A yeasty Belgian quality is also evident, with some banana esters to round out the brighter fruit flavors, and a touch of bubblegum to give it a frolicking quality. I can register only one complaint: I can’t smell any pumpkin. No raw pumpkin, no vegetal pumpkin, no pumpkin spice, no pumpkin pie, nothing! This tastes much, much more like a Spring beer than a Fall beer, and while I’m not crushed to go without my pumpkin fix, I find it odd that a beer wrapped in the visages of pumpkins would abandon that theme in the aroma. The touted sourness comes in on the first sip, plying the to tongue with a mild cherry acidity before yielding to strawberry and cherry notes. In spite of the sourness, this beer is on the whole light, fruity and refreshing; this is why it feels so well tailored to Spring, and somewhat about of place in Fall. All the same, it is a measure of the excellence of one’s beer when a consumer drinks it, finds the exact opposite of what he was primed for, and still finds lots of beer love for it. The Kick is a fantastic collaboration, and I hope to see more soon.
A hazy orange/yellow colored beer, with a white head. The aroma of fruits, a lot of grapefruits, sweet. The taste of sweet fruits, grapefruits, a little bitter notes and little sour hints. the aftertaste is sweet with a very little sour. Not my kind of beer.
I liked this one quite a bit. Deep red colored body, thin head. The slightly tart cranberry infusion helped the pumpkin and spice out to make this not-your-average-seasonal. I wouldn’t mind sitting down with a bottle of this on a late fall evening.
The nose on this was full of yeast and sour notes, like some sort of sour ale. A taste reveals cranberries, some honey and light nuttiness. Crazy drinkable for the abv, and is more tart and dry in the finish rather than warm.
A nice hazy orange pour with some tart and spicey, maybe a little bit of pumpkin. Taste is tart, but the pumpkin is very faint. Enjoyable, but missing something overall.
Pretty good, accessible sour fruit beer. Served with an average sized very frothy, off-white head that slowly settled to a light cover which lasted all the way down and plenty of lace. Color is a clear amber with lots of bubble trails. Aroma is fruity sour and fresh. Flavor’s like nose with the Brett and carbonation up front with fruit right behind and taming it down along with slight bitter. Body is relatively soft for a sour beer and carbonation is spot on. Finish is like flavor, slightly long and fairly drinkable.
22 ounce bottle into tulip glass, no bottle dating (but was from the release in Fall 2011). Pours very hazy golden orange color with a nice 2 finger dense white head with good retention, that reduces to a nice cap that lingers. Some decent spotty lacing on the glass. Aromas of tart apple, lemon, cranberry, hay, grass, pepper, earth, cherry, raspberry, funk, and yeast spiciness. Nice and well balanced aromas with nice complexity. Taste of tart apple, lemon, cranberry, cherry, grass, hay, earth, pepper, funk, bread, and yeast spices. Light puckering acidity on the finish; with lingering notes of apple, lemon, cranberry, pepper, earth, and yeast spices on the finish for a good bit. Great balance of flavors with nice complexities; with a nice balance of tartness. Medium carbonation and body; with a nice slightly slick and crisp mouthfeel. Alcohol is extremely well hidden with hardly any warming noticed at all after the finish. Overall this is a damn nice blended wild ale. Very nice flavor complexity, and very smooth and easy to sip on. Really enjoyed this one.
Pours deep orange with a couple fingers white head and good retention. Smell is candy like with a hint of pumpkin spice. Taste is lightly tart, pumpkin and sour funk, a bit off in the tail. Almost chewy, vegetable qualities. I like it.
On tap at Falling Rock. Poured a clear, pumpkin orange, with a huge frothy white head. Good lacing. Aroma is tart cranberry, some spice, some pumpkin, and funk. Taste is light spice, only moderately tart, but it seems to linger long after I put it down. Not picking up pumpkin at all in the taste. Sticky mouthfeel and medium carbonation. Well-balanced and not overly sour, good beer.
From 650ml bottle purchased Oct 2011. Pours a wonderful russet hazy amber, large fluffy white head dies to a nice lacing. Subtle aroma of pumpkin, nutmeg, cinnamon, some sourness & bready malt. Flavour is nicely tart & sour, biting the sides of your tongue. A little oaky with a good blend of pumpkin, spice and bitterness coming from the cranberries. Very refreshing on the tongue with the perky, tight carbonation. The finish, though a little short, is nice sour/bitter/tarty fruit with the cranberries showing through the most. A real nice slightly sour, refreshingly good balanced ale. Could easily drink this all day.
Bottle at Max’s for the TURD Tasting. Pours a light reddish amber body with no head, light white lacing brimming. Aroma is light, sour fruit and some spice. Mouthfeel is medium to thin with notes of pumpkin spice, and tart cranberry. Not as gross as the recipe would suggest.
Bottle at the TURD tasting. Hazy gold with a white head. This was an odd one. Weird fruity and wine barrel-like notes, a bit of strange vegetal notes. Not awful, but whatever they were trying to do, it really didn’t come together.
Bottle at a tasting at Max’s for Sam’s visit. Pours a mostly clear gold with a thin white head. Super sweet, weird tart sourness, strange. No idea what is going on here, but it’s not pleasant. Do not want.
Bottle shared by me at MaxxDaddy’s tasting. Pours orange. off white head. Nose/taste of cranberry, slightly soured pumpkins and light grains and malt. Medium body. Interesting.
Bottle shared at the NY Meet the TURD tasting. Pours orange. Slightly tart lemon notes with vegetal notes. Some celery character. Pleasant amount of tartness, but the vegetal notes don’t mix all that well with it.
Bottle. Orange pour with tan heAd. Fruity cranberry and other light fruit aromas. Flavor is lighter fruit, but drinkable none the less.
Thin white head of varying sized bubbles with light carbonation. Light fruity aroma with some pears, strawberries, yeast and some grainy malts. Color is a cloudy orange. Wow, lively in the mouth with lots of zippy carbonation, a nice puckering/salivating tartness with some more yeasty and herbal flavors along with some lemon and straw. Kind of reminds me of a slightly funky saison. Very easy drinking and the tartness really plays the flavors off the tongue. I am impressed with this brew and am really enjoying it.
A - Pours a hazy golden-orange color with a finger of frothy white head atop. The head fades down at a normal pace leaving behind some nice lacing.
S - Aroma is a mix of cranberry and pumpkin with some pumpkin pie spices, sourness and funk, some oak, with a touch of bready malt.
T - Starts off with some cranberry sweetness with some funkiness and tart and sour flavors growing from the background with some yeast flavor. Through the middle some more sourness comes through with some oak and some pumpkin flavor and a touch of bready malt. The finish is a mix sweet fruity berries with cranberry being the strongest, some pumpkin, sourness, and a bit of oak and bready malt.
M - Medium bodied with mild carbonation. Feels smooth with a sour and sweet finish.
D - Very drinkable. The balance of the sweet berry flavors with the sourness, oak, and pumpkin is really nice here and has some great complexity.
bomber at azwine 9/6/11.
clear. pale orange with a soft white head. some spots of lacy foam get left on the glass.
the nose is mildly tart... vinegar/acetic mixed with earthy gourd sweetness, lemon peels, cobwebs/cellar, faint vanilla/oak/wood and brown fallen leaves.
the flavor = the aroma but without the earthy gourd business until it warms past room temperature. cranberries are quite noticeable along with some other notes of orange and a cinnamon-y aftertaste. i wish there were more richness/depth to the flavor...maybe with some time?
it is medium bodied, crisp and sharp but it has a phlegmy feeling in the back of the throat after it has been swallowed. 7/3/7/3/15
22 ounce bottle that poured a cloudy orangish color with aromas of funky pumpkin, caramel, vinegar, and some oak. Flavor is an interesting mixture of tart fruit, pumpkin, oak, overall not what I was expecting from the aromas being all over the place, but I really liked this one overall.
Bottle. Thanks Randall!. Pours a slightly hazy golden color with a white head. Has a fruity spicy pumpkin aroma with some tart hints. Fruity malty slightly tart spicy pumpkin flavor. Has a fruity malty spicy pumpkin finish with weak tart hints.