New Belgium Brewing - Lips of Faith-Tart Lychee

I wasn't really a huge fan of New Belgium until I started going through their Lips of Faith series of beers. Then I tried two sour beers in the series, La Folie and La Terroir, and absolutely fell in love. Now, let's just say I get pretty excited every time they announce the release of a new addition to the series (even though they're not all sours). So when I read that the next addition to the series was going to be a sour brewed with lychee (possibly my favorite fruit), I almost fell off my chair. A few weeks later, I finally found it in a store and gave it a try.

Tart Lychee pours a hazy burnt golden color with a thin cream colored head. The head lasts forever and leaves tons of sticky lacing down the glass. The smell is full of fruit and citrus, though a bit disappointingly lacking in the lychee department. I picked up a good amount of overripe citrus, lemon flesh, brett, pale malt, earthy yeast, oak and a touch of indistinguishable spiciness, but not a ton of lychee.

The taste opens with a nice snap of lemon and then progresses to some notes of apple cider vinegar, oak and lemon zest. The finish brings hints of pale malt, orange zest and brett with just a touch of lychee on the finish. "Tart" is definitely a good description as this beer never really crosses the line into mouth puckering sourness. Overall, I was pretty satisfied with the taste but disappointed at the lack of lychee flavor. I was a little curious at how the lychee would work in a beer, and after this one I'm still kind of looking for that answer. This is by no means a bad beer, but it's definitely not New Belgium's best.

Final Grade: B

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