Lost Abbey Judgment Day

Brewed by Port Brewing/Lost Abbey
Style: Abt/Quadrupel
San Marcos, California USA

Serve in Trappist glass

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750 mL served in my Arendsnest glass. Pours fairly dark and appears murky brown in the glass. Quickly diminishing head. Aromatically, i’m not impressed. However, I think the flavor is very impressive. In particular, it becomes very complex after the mid-palate with a pleasant sweetness, hints of brandy soaked fruits, caramel, cocoa and hops. Overall, i’m very impressed with this beer and a proud patron saint.

from the bottom of the bottle thanks toWeeHeavySD. I showed up late, so the beer had already sat out for a bit but the tempture and lack of carbonation beer no problem. Dark brown with purple hints, aroma of dark fruit. Flavor was sweet with fruit, prunes and raisins most noticably. Lots of alcohol in this one. another great brew from lost abbey.

Big rich nose with lots of ripe dark candied fruit and touches of dark Rum. Soft cocoa and anise notes balance with big rich malt and earth. Rich lingering rum soaked finish.

Full draught glass at PP 12 hour fest on 3/24/07
Let the glass warm and breath for about 45 minutes while I was in line for pizza, I think this helped a lot. Not much of a head to speak of, though I’m sure that will change with the bottle (maybe). Dark brown with violet-burgundy tints on the edges and a medium-low clarity.
Rather sweet, but not a malty sweetness dominating; guess it’s the raisins. Regardless, there’s ample Belgian yeast, giving it more of a Belgian Dark Strong feel. Light banana/vanilla and lots of tart prune and black pepper notes on the finish. Hazelnut skins and light roast, almost in the quantity seen in some dubbels, it helps further add balance in concert with the phenols. Warming and vaporous alcohol is moderately present on the finish. Definitely different and not quite as polished as MOAB, but it’s also very young.
Sweet and malty, with an ample adjunct sugar presence (candi sugar, raisins), it still manages to pick up a fair amount of vinousness (prunes, concord grapes) and light roastiness, to offset the caramel/toffee sweetness. Lightly tart yeast notes sit on the finish, rather pleasantly but there is a strong blandness or sort of tannic-like dryness, perhaps you might say breadiness, that sticks to the palate and cuts in to the livliness of the flavors. The carbonation is low and though not really loose, does give the beer a bit of a heavy feel to it. Alcohol is perceivable, with warming and definitely makes itself felt, but at least helps cut some of the chewy toffee and raisin sweetness. Interesting stuff, and no doubt it should develop in to a better beer with some aging, as the raisins relax the strong hold they have on the beer and the yeast produces some deeper complexities. Will revisit, of course.

750 purchased at the brewery. Damn this is so strong. Pours purply red with a slight thin shell head. The aroma is grapey with a raisanish nowse. The taste is very strong, but more than the abv suggests. It is huge, and potent and sweet and crazy strong. I like it but damn I think this really needs to mellow in bottle for a while to get to be a bit more smooth. Hits you like a kick in the head. Great Label.

On tap at the PP 12 hour fest: Deep chocolate hue with little head or lace. Some oily coating on the glassware. The aroma has notes of earthy yeast esters, mocha, grassy hops, weak coriander, raisin and plum, and some metallic vapours. The taste starts with a rich malty overtone with a ripened prune character. Mild earthy finish with a tad spot of smoke. The mouth feel is soft, lush and rich and fairly dry for something with this sweetness. I dig it and found a constantly evolving palate.

Raisins...yes... A wee bit too heavy with the raisins. I would really like this with a little less raisin. It was like eating a box of them. Not my thing, but a good beer nonetheless.

UPDATED: OCT 9, 2007 Maaallllty! Yeah! It’s really great to try a dark beer, where the dark color comes from something other than roasted malts...in this case raisins I think. Sweet molasses, plums, vanilla and raisins. I’ve tried other beers with raisins and haven’t been impressed, but Judgment Day is really delicious. I bought a growler at Port Brewing Company’s tasting room. the alcohol is well suppressed. It supposed to be brewed in limited quanties so I’b going to buy one to store for a year. Again, great beer. My highest rating yet: 4.6. 9,5,9,5,18 I tried again at the anniversary party: aroma:8,taste:8.5, appearance: 5, palate:4.5,overall:18. Brought it down from 4.6 to 4,5.

Hand bottled, from ClarkVV. Murky, rusty brown with tiny, tan bubbles for a head. The aroma is prunes, light banana, light spice and toffee. The flavor is toffee, banana and figs, light cloves. Medium/full body with very little carbonation (i assume from the hand bottling), and a very soft texture.

UPDATED: JUL 19, 2007 750ml bottle from Pizza Port Carlsbad. a pretty dank brew! almost no head upon pouring, with little carbonation. color was daarrrkk, even for a quad, near black in the middle, with deep mahogany edges...reminded me of a soda almost. aroma mostly of alcohol, fruits and some roasted nuts in there. flavor: RAISINS! caramel, candy sugar and plums. palate finishes in strong dry alcohol with toffee notes and touch of smoky malts. A great impersonation of a true quad, but Id take the big Trappist ales over this anyday.