Lost Abbey Avant Garde Ale

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

750 ml bottle shared by shigadeyo. Pours a hazy golden color with a small white head. The aroma has a bready malt backbone with sweet honey, floral, yeast, and light citrus mixed in. The flavor is honey wheat bread, fruity, herbs and spices, slight citrus, and a slight alcohol presence. This one kind of grew on me with each drink. I could enjoy this on the porch with an apple, but I would probably leave the soft cheese for someone else.

Pours yellow orange into the glass with white head. Aroma is slightly fruity. Flavor is bready with some fruity caramel sweetness.

Hazy orange pour. One finger head. Really not much to the aroma.Tastes of bread crust , toffee and a bit of citrus with a dryish finish. Worth a try but I won’t repeat on this one.

Bottle: Pours an effervescent orange with good clarity and a dense off white head. Some dryish bread rust like malt in the aroma- some subtle caramel sweetness and herbal hop notes. Chalky Belgian phenols are there as well. Creamy/silky texture. The flavor starts with dry bready notes- some overripe peach and notes of caramel are followed by lots of peppery/herbal spiciness from both hops and dry phenolics. Notes of white peppery at the back. Soft and subtle- easy drinking. Well done.

Pours a milky caramel color with a 1 finger creamy white head that has great retention and leaves a few specks of lacing. Aroma is caramel, toast, floral hops, honey, sweet grass, some musty and earthy notes. Flavor is caramel, crusty white bread, grass, basement mustiness, a hint of toffee, sort of spicy (yeast?) notes, floral sweetness and some dried citrus peels. Finish is wet limestone, toasted grain, toffee and a little mossy funk. Palate is medium thin, watery and slightly acidic with a fairly neutral finish. A pleasant but not overly interesting ale that I believe would pair extremely well with most food.

3/11/2009: Okay, I am finally just going to come out and say it... All of the Lost Abbey beers that I have had (mainstream releases) have been good, but they don’t seem like anything special to me. The beers are always right on for the style, but I just can’t find anything overly unique or interesting about them. Am I missing something? I don’t know. Apparently I just don’t fully know how to fully understand or appreciate Belgian beer styles and their nuances and complexities, but I have been saying that for years so that admission should be nothing new. Other than having some honey sweetness and being floral and lightly spicy, there isn’t much else specific I can call out. The appearance is spot on (hazy gold with an off-white head) and I like the maltiness (toffee-ish and slightly fruity) with a good level of sweetness and an inviting and pleasing spicy and grassy hoppiness and mild bitterness in the finish. I’ll say it again, quite good but I don’t see what the big deal is regarding the Lost Abbey brews. That being said, they have some very attractive labels/packaging! Now that I have said all of this stuff, the matliness and sweetness is really growing me! Looks like I need to remove my foot from my mouth now...

1 pint 9.4 fl. oz. corked and caged bottle (7% alc. by vol.) from IrishBoy and shared with Tmoney99 and alexsdad06. Thanks Richard! Rating #391 for this beer.

Bottle shared by shigadeyo. Poured a hazy orange color with an average white frothy head that lasted and produced good lacing. Moderate yeasty and sweet citrus aroma. Medium body with a smooth texture and flat carbonation. Medium yeasty sweet flavor with a smooth citrus sweet finish of average duration. Soft drinkable brew.

Poured a murky caramel color with a bubbly off-white head. Aroma is very dirty and has a biting sour scent, with a little sour cherries and vinegar. Very similar taste. Nice malt backbone, earthy yet sour. Well carbonated, tingly on the tongue, and has a lasting malt finish. Very nice!