Lost Abbey Avant Garde Ale

Brewed by Port Brewing/Lost Abbey
Style: Bière de Garde
San Marcos, California USA

Pours a golden orange color with a frothy eggshell colored head. The nose is a sour yeast with a little bit of dirty sock funk, pepper, and a hint of straw. Mild flavor, smooth with some meaty fullness, but a slight sweetness. Has a really strong bitterness that actually gets stronger after you drink it. A pretty rich mouthfeel with a sort of buttery feel.

Bottle @ Kolding Bryglaug Americans tasting.
[thank you, Boutip!]
Pours clear golden with a small, creamy, white head. Aroma is sweet, malty, apples, light citric hops and yeast. Fine and light mouthfeel. Flavour is wonderfully complex, very dry, fine, light anise, some citric notes, good yeast and malty sweetness. Lightly warming. Good example of the style.

On tap at Port Brewing/Lost Abbey in San Marcos. Pours coppery orange brown. No real head. Super intense sweet aroma of yeast and bread. Starts off sweet and smooth and ends with a slightly spicy complexity.

This pours apricot in color with a thick head of medium-sized white bubbles that fades continually. Aromas were of orange, dough, lemon, herbs and spice. In the mouth it is medium-bodied with lots of carbonation. The palate is round and rich with a bitter bite on the finish. The flavors show off the bread dough with the other flavors from the nose taking the back seat. This was a well-balanced beer with nothing out of place.

Pours with a large, off-white, thick head. Clearish, fizzy golden body. Aroma of caramel, fruit, and some light wood elements. Taste is of caramel, citrus, earthiness, and a relatively strong alchol taste for 7% (which I happen to like). Fizzy and a bit thin. Quite different from the other Biere de Gardes that I have had in France.

Thick dark gold with nice white head that leaves minor lacing. Spice, citrus and some sweet malt. Flavor was a little of orange with a touch of honey. Towards the finish, nice little bite of hops that sticks with you. Nice clean finish.

I like the beers of Lost Abbey, that I’ve had (not many, but I’m trying) and I greatly respect Tomme Arthur’s skill...but the label copy really honks me, man! Check this out: "Grab a seat on the porch, some soft cheese, and a tree ripened apple from your grandmother’s old orchard." What the Hell? Who can they possibly be addressing here? Sorry, gang, I live on the fourth floor of an apartment, I’m fresh out of cheese, and neither of my dead grandmothers ever owned an orchard, old or new! Way to make me feel inadequate! Makes it kind of hard to "relax and watch the evening arrive as the afternoon sun is consumed by the illuminating moon"? Especially since I’m having it at midnight, as I look out the window at sparse lit skyscrapers of the downtown skyline, as motorists buzz home like bees on the freeway below Can’t I just drink it in my living room, with a slice of pizza, while stroking my cat? Anyway... Hazed straw yellow, smallish white head as it sits in my chalice. Citrus and bread aroma, light spice, rather nice! Rustic and refined at the same time. More of that climbs on board the tongue, soft and luscious, waves on waves of flavor, ending in satisfaction, finishes even and dry. A little lemon, a little peach, more spices, and plenty of toasted malt. Beautiful beer, a great companion for food. I mean, tree ripened apples from my grandmother’s old orchard, of course.

a darn good biere de garde....very nice grainy malt flavors and a very balanced finish....damn good beer!