New Belgium / Red Rock Lips of Faith - Paardebloem
Using dandelion greens to bitter a Belgian-style ale blossomed from our brewers collaborating with Red Rock Brewing. This being our sixth interpretation together since 2008, expect a wonderfully complex ale fermented with wild Belgian yeast and blended with just a touch of wood-aged beer. Bitterness imparted from dandelion greens and grains of paradise will have you blowing wishes for sips.
3.4
233 reviews
Fort Collins, United States
Community reviews
How: Bottle.
Where: Babajan, Stockholm.
Appearance: Golden colour with a white head.
Aroma: Hops, floral, grass, citrus, grapefruit.
Body: Medium body and carbonation.
Flavour: Hops, floral, grass, citrus.
22 ounce bottle, says Best Enjoyed by May 2014. Guess this was in my fridge longer than I thought. Served in a DFH Signature glass, the beer pours a hazy dark golden/orange color with about an inch off-white head. Head retention and lacing are both good. It smells like peaches, herbs/earthiness, white grapes/wine, citrus, and some bready malt. Taste is similar to the aroma, but with the addition of a bit of clove and grassiness. It’s fruity, tart and bitter. Mouthfeel/body is medium, it’s a bit coating and has a good amount of carbonation. I thought this was a good brew, I liked it.
Not too much aroma. Beautiful head, but a bit of chill haze. Nice bitter. Working through the add-ons tastes, the peach juice is present and nice balance - very minimal added sweetness, just flavor. Very light on wood agedness. Grains of Paradise and dandelion greens - not familiar with them in the brew, but there are some interesting tastes going on - I’m good with crediting them, or just great hop choices. Nicely done. Could almost fall under "fruit beer" more than Belgian.
Bottle at Babajan, Stockholm. Clear golden beer with a decent offwhite head. Hoppy floral aroma, grassy, hay, citrus, peach, citrus, some grapefruit. Hoppy floral flavor, grassy, hay, dandelions, peach, herbal notes. Decent beer.
12 oz. on tap. Cloudy golden with a lasting film of foam. Smell is mild funk, white grape, resin and herb. Taste is pear, grape and a touch of funky bubblegum. Finish is bitterish wheat flour and green herb. Medium body has medium-high carbonation and finishes bitter and dry.
The aroma is alcoholic and floral with yeast and fruit. The appearance is hazy gold. The taste is like the aroma. The palate is smooth. Overall a strange beer.
It's very different than other beers. It's a tart quality with a potent carbonated punch. Pours cleans yellow but loaded with flavor.
Appearance: clear light orange, with a scant, bubbly near-white head, no lacing, slightly syrupy legs. Aroma: mandarin orange, green tea, vegetal/floral notes, hint of honey cough drop. Taste: grassy and marmalade-y, sweet clover, herb garden, coriander, yeast. Finish: lingering syrupy sweetness, hint of tart, lactic wood, lasting vegetal. Notes: Not for me. Overly sweet, herbal, and weird.
On tap at gecko's. Light, a little tart, refreshing. Something is a little weird about it, but it's minor.
Bottle. Pours hazy pale yellow with a bit of white head. Aroma is vibrant, floral, slightly woody. Taste is bright mix of floral sweetness, some subtle, grassy hops, spicy belgian yeast notes. Interesting and complex mixture but it definitely works for me. One of the favorites of our bottleshare.
Bomber. Pours a murky, burnt orange, smallish white head with average retention and lacing. Nose is a bit of funk with somewet cardboard. Mouth is medium bodied, more tart than anything else (not getting really any sweetness at all), fruity yeast, grassy, some bread dough, drinks more like a sour than any of the reviews I’ve read on here (not getting any peaches or sweetness at least) the bitterness is there but there is also this odd prickly tingly sensation at the finish like my tongue is falling asleep. After reading up, I had high hopes for an interesting brew, but now that I’m drinking it, I gotta say that while it’s not terrible, I am a bit disappointed.
Dandelion greens for bittering. Aroma is a little bit floral and grassy. Herbal, sweetish with slightly sticky malts.
Nice and uncomplicated, good for a summer day, not the most memorable though. Pours a cloudy orange with a red hint and a white head. Not too much smell, some apple and peach. Taste is creamy with lots of peach, but not too sweet. Nice Hef finish. Had in the bottle.
Pours unclear hazy amber lemon with a decent grayish white head. Aroma brings fainter empty fruit plus a yeast sweetness. Flavors brings perfumey and floral notes that suggest peach and the bitterness from the greens is unique, not overpowering, and settles positively with the peach juice.
No retention and good lacing. Smells of peaches, lemons and grass. Tastes of lemons, sour dandelion and peach. Sour aftertaste.
Reviewed from notes.
The appearance has a hazy golden orange colored body with a one finger white foamy head that quickly dies and leaves some slightly clingy lacing.
The smell has peach, apricot, pear, apple, orange and coming through in a sort of floral yet somewhat herbal way. There’s also a little bit of a white wine sort of smell and slightly mixed with a woody/oaky sort.
The taste is tart and kinda sour yet sweet sort of Belgian-ness, slight element of apple juice in the flavoring, but coming through in a good way, dry sort of tart apple/pear aftertaste, super dry earthy sort of finish.
The palate is about a light to medium and slightly sessionable. Carbonation seems to be good for the style and for me, nothing obscure.
Overall, this is a good Belgian Strong Pale Ale, good job New Belgium, I’m pretty sure I’d have this one again, and it went great with my chili I had for dinner, however I have to mention this thing drinks like fruit juice.
A solid Belgian ale. Pours a hazy orange with white head and lacing. Aromas are sweet Belgian candy. Yeast. Maybe a touch of peach. I get a bit of that dandelion bitter at the end. Nice stuff.
Cloudy orange honey color. Mild yeast aroma with peach and citrus just apparent. Good flavor, nothing over powering, but there is a little clingy sweetness.
(bottle - 22 oz) Cloudy gold pour. Yeast and sweetness at the start of the aroma with a very interesting herbal note, more than likely from the dandelion. Flavor is similar. Basic Belgian Ale at the start with an interesting herbal quality from the greens and grains of paradise. Different.
Picked up a bomber bottle at Bi-Rite liquor in San Diego. Pours the color of cloudy honey, with a medium-sized, soapy off-white head that dissipates pretty quickly. This stuff has a really nice, big aroma of lemon and spicy belgian yeast. As for flavor, it’s quite sweet and fruity...almost lemonade-like, actually, but finishing with a mild grassy bitterness. Feels medium-bodied and pretty drinkable, so the 9% alcohol really sneaks up on you. I see that it’s too sweet for a number of other reviewers, but to me this is a very interesting beer, one that you sip on for a while. Kind of like an unusual candy or something. I dig it.
Poured hazy golden with very little head. Aroma is very mild fruit. Medium mouthfeel with low carbonation. Taste is too sweet with a fruity grassy taste.
Poured from a twenty-two ounce bottle into a New Belgium stemmed goblet. Builds a fluffy plateau of head that skims gracefully over worn gold pigmentation. Reminiscent of a field covered in dandelions or full cumulus clouds, which dissipate to cirrus streaks of lace too swiftly. Like many LOF entries the nose is intricate, which in this instance results in salted caramels, summer sausage and marinara sauce with the slightest tart hint of unsweetened lemonade. The palate carries citric peach juice across more intensely than the nose, but I ended up likening it to pulpy orange juice than the proper stone fruit. Flavors of wet stone, raindrops-straight-to-tongue, lentils, capers, and ravioli noodle jarringly evolve into a bitter end palate of cooked spinach and bell pepper. Its flavors of hearty Belgian Strong Pale severed by an overwhelming vegetation comes off cloying. A crisp, sprightly mouthfeel offers drinkability and would have offered more had the after taste not resembled dewy morning lawn. Worth a try for complexity gluttons like myself, but stray away anyone who wants just a simple "good beer."
Belgian style or not, it’s funnest to pronounce "Paardebloem" as though you were the Swedish chef. Maybe that alone boosts this beer in my esteem. Straw, doughy yeast, peachy and citric, mild spice, bitter tang. Bork.
1/31/2014: New Belgium Paardebloem... I asked the bartender about this beer since I didn’t know what it was and all she said was that it was "lighter with some dandelion" flavor. This wasn’t really enough to go on, so I asked to taste it and discovered that the beer was delicious and unique, so I asked for a tall and I’m glad I did. While drinking it, I enjoyed the fleshy fruit flavor paired with a peppery spice; the bready maltiness paired nicely with the oddly bitter dandelion; the finish was slightly woody and dry; I could tell there was some read alcohol lurking inside, but I had no idea that it was 9% while drinking it! This is a great beer and I hope to enjoy it again sometime! 23 fl. oz. draught at Brazenhead in Mason, Ohio. Rating #192 for this beer.
On tap at Mash Tun Festival 2013. Hazy yellow with a small white head. Aroma of flowers, earth, fruit, bread, caramel, and yeast. Flavor is similar with a mild funk aftertaste.
22 ounce bottle poured into a snifter. Pours a hazy copper color with a velvety head of white foam that dissipates down pretty quickly. The aroma is sweet and fruity. I can really pick up on the peaches. There’s also a bit of caramel coming through as well. The taste is sweet and fruity with a bit of cracker or bread kicking in about mid palate and lingering on the tongue through the finish. Medium carbonation.
Bottle from State Line. Pours turbid dark straw/orange with 1-finger off-white head. Nose is grainy pale malt, peach, mild funk, grains of paradise. Tastes malty, yeasty, with some notes of peach, grains of paradise, and hops. Solid complexity.
Draft. Poured hazy yellow color with an average frothy white head that was mostly lasting with excellent lacing. Moderate to heavy citrus and green straw aroma. Medium body with a slick texture and soft carbonation. Medium to heavy smooth bittersweet flavor with a medium to heavy bittersweet finish of moderate to long duration. This is a interesting good beer.
Draft to taster at Dutch’s. Looks decent; a cloudy lemon yellow with foamy white head. Smells yeasty with grassy and citrus notes. Tastes like it smells with some bitterness and light woodiness. Nice and smooth on the palate. Enjoyable.
On tap at Dutch’s. Hazy golden orange color. Thin off white head, good ropes of lace. Medium to bigger body. Smooth, crisp, lighter carbonation, lightly slick texture. Easy to drink. Some nice citrus, orange, floral notes in the aroma. Lighter Belgian yeast, just a hint of candy sugar. Moderate sweet taste, light bitter. Impressive Belgian strong ale, better than expected. Ended up sessioning a few snifters of these in a row without much trouble. Much smoother than your typical Belgian Belgian strong ale.