It surely has been a while since I have done a Lips of Faith series beer. That and the fact that I have not seen many out and I recently just Gruit so you will most likely see a review of that one soon as well. This time New Belgium does a collaboration with Perennial which is something we do not often get here in the west coast so seeing them with NB making a Belgian Stout is simply amazing. I can only hope that what comes out of this is pure epicness. The Belgian Stout is a rare feat that I have only seen few do and do it great. The fact that we have Perennial involved, I can only hope for the best. The Lips of Faith series has been awesome for so many years hitting some great craft hits. I just hope this one is a hit too. Well, let us see, cheers!

Aromas:
Dark fruit raisins, plums, figs, cherries, clove spice, dark chocolate, bakers chocolate, milk chocolate, Belgian chocolate, biscuit bread, vanilla, caramel, banana hints, smokey notes, soy sauce, oak notes, earthy notes, anise, molasses, soy sauce and coriander.

Flavors:
Dark chocolate, Belgian Chocolate, Milk chocolate, Bakers chocolate, Oatmeal cookies Dark fruit raisins, plums, figs, cherries, currants, vanilla, dulce de leche caramel, mint chocolate chip, anise, licorice, molasses, bananas, clove spice, coriander spice, rye, oak notes, smokey notes, soy sauce hints, rye bread, BBQ hints, earthy notes, salt notes and leather hints.

Aftertaste:
Leaving with an anise, chocolate, raisins, earthy notes, salted plum sauce, caramel and hints of oak. No alcohol in the taste, pitch black body, creamy and smooth mouthfeel, moderate drinkability.

Overall:
This beer reminded me of the Ommegang Art of Darkness, Shiva’s Tears or a Smokey Dubbel. This was perfect mainly since I love Belgian Chocolate Stouts and the chocolate and mild smokey notes works wonders here. I have yet to try Perennial Artisan Ales but what they and New Belgium have brought forth is very amazing. If chocolate was truly made to have small bit of salt, it seems to work as it is more balanced the way it is. I would highly reach this one out if you like smokey hinted chocolate beers.

Anime Corner:
Original demon character was used in this pairing to pair with the aspect of sweet Belgian chocolate and monk beers which are typically holy that drive away evil. The fact that a devil/demon girl is eating the chocolate is like tainting or in this case salting the Belgian chocolate. It necessarily is not a bad thing as you can see she does look innocent and she does have some Angelic traits, it is just that salting or tainting a Belgian chocolate introduces some awesome pleasures to the palette that enjoys just a little more than the average sweet chocolate. Some people don’t like pure sweet and this goes to balance flavors out. So it seems to work. That and the fact that some of the colors she has do match with some of the colors from the the label.

Sources:
http://oi59.tinypic.com/2w556xy.jpg