Lost Abbey Avant Garde Ale

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

Bottle@Home. What a nice beer to drink in the early spring sun. Made me feel like being in France where the style orginitated. And it’s not a bad example. Sweetish but lovely aroma. Golden colour, white head, good lace. Sweetish, malty, citrus and light hoppy. Hight drinkability, nice balance.

Bottled at Oliver Twist, Stockholm. Cloudy golden. Citric nose of dryish grain, cinnamon and coriander. Medium sweet with rounded spritzy mouthfeel. Fairly light bodied. Fresh, mild and evidenly spicy. Low bitterness.

Corked bottle. Orange blonde color. Malt, butter, pepper and nutmeg in the aroma. Malty, bready, buttery hopbitter flavor with nutmeg and citrus. Bitter cookies. Pepper in the aftertaste. Somewhat sticky mouthfeel. Pleasant ale.

Dark amber to gold body, large bubbles and visible carbonation, small white head. Sweet nose of malts, corriander, toffee, fruit. Taste of corriander, orange, bread and yeast (subdued taste of a tripel), more hops in the finish than I expected (a plus), a hint of unexpected sourness in the finish (also a plus), and indeed a good complex long finish, maybe more interesting than the initial taste. Dry, almost thiin mouth.

750 ML Bottle, part of MJ’s "rare beer" club: Lighty off white colored head, short lived, and orangey amber color that is lightly hazy. Very grainy and with melanoidin malt aroma. Light spicyness from yeast. Crisp, tart aroma at first when chilled. Light white grape juice fruit aroma as it starts to warm. Perfumey alchohol esters. Bready yeast malt w/ some hints of toastiness. Well balanced flavor and lightly grainy at first, some toasty and what seems to bea light wheat malt flavor, but also lightly bready malt. Finish is lightly bitter and herbal hop flavored that lasts into the lingering, toasty malt flavored aftertaste. Higher medium carbonation, medium body, well hidden alcohol. Not a bad beer, but it sort of lacks identity IMHO. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’m not a biere de garde fan!

Don’t know if I’ve had this style before. What is it? A little too warm and wheaty for me. Perhaps this is per the style, but it seemed out of place at the party. Ok. Beer 22 at Bill and Steiny’s. Re-tried at our local beer tasting and gave an overall score of 4. Probably more what I really think.

Bottle thanks to sickboy_282. Pours a cloudy gold, with a white head. Aroma is yeast, malt, and some fruit. Flavor is yeast, hops, and fruit. It’s missing something....not sure what, but it’s not all that special.

Bottle: Poured a medium yellow color ale with a big foamy white head with good retention and good lacing. Aroma of medium sweet malt with a distinctive yeast presence. Taste is dominated by medium sweet malt with some bread and yeast notes and a slightly dry finish. Body is about average with some great carbonation. Interesting but lacking some character to make this truly interesting and I cannot see this beer aging well.