Lost Abbey The Angels Share

bottle, vintage 2008, mit Riesendankeschön an Allen! Deep brown colour, almost black, no head at all. Aroma of caramel, roasetd malts, smoke, dried fruit, prunes.... Very full-bodied, very complex flavours of caramel, chocolate, smoke, dfied beries, prunes, plums, dates... Lingering finish. Very malty with a sweet character, balanced off by the alcohol. Very interesting, fascinating and hard to describe.

2008 small bottle version. Pours ugly black. Soy, dried fruits and slightly sour. Smooth and still. This beer is more odd than interesting.

Bottle, 2008 375 mL. Aroma of very sweet fruits, caramel, toffee, vanilla. Flavor the same, quite sweet, though noticeably brandy-sweet as opposed to typical barley wine malt-sugar-alcohol sweet. No carbonation, but honestly that didn’t bother me in the slightest, and having had this now, I really have no idea why it bothered everybody else so much. All that bothered me was that it seemed like a boring, predictable beer.

Live rate from the map room, on draft. Pours a very very dark brown, glassy, doesn’t look as viscous as I remember, small light tan fizzy froth. Aroma is surprisingly full of oxidation notes, raisins, almost a touch grassy and doughy sweet like a German dunkler bock, dark fruit, smells bitter. Flavor is like a burnt tootsie roll, surprisngly dark, sharply rich and aggressively boozy, actually ridiculously harsh and im usually not one to complain about a bourbon/brandy burn, flavor lacks any depth whatsoever and yet is seemingly completely oxidized, the brandy is sort of ’just there’, long alcohol, dark malt and raisin aftertaste, also surprisngly bitter. Medium/full bodied, sharp fizzy carbonation that doesn’t seem to belong, odd consistency, like a powdered mixed drink. I’ve now had this (and the bourbon) about 4 or 5 times, and now I’m sure that it isn’t worth it.

Bottle. Vintage 2008. Big dissapointment. Lots of things going on, in fact too many... soy, alcohol, liquor chocolates, dried fruits etc. Very vinous! But this beer is just too much of everything without being very complex or tasty.

Vintage 2008. Bottle from Bierkoning. Dark brown with tan slight head. Sweet, malty whiskey nose. Rich taste of sweet molasses, toffee and caramel. Prickly mouthfeel. Delectable sweet finish.

on tap at the Roadhouse. A beer so dark that it saps the light out of the room. Absolutely still with no head. Smell was a strong rich bread with a caramel element as well. Alcohol was in both nose and taste but was used well as an accent in such a strong beer. Taste was slightly sweet and does have a port element. The fact that I was able to finish this fairly quickly despite her strength attest to how well crafted it is.

Bottled 375ml. Vintage 2008. Aroma: Vinous with tarragon, vanilla, tobacco, raspberries, mocha, caramel, lavender, oak, cognac and rosemary showing up. Milk chocolate sneaking in. The caramel, oak and mocha components are most prominent. Appearance: It pours a beautiful, deep ruby brown beer with a very small bubbly head which dissipates rather quickly. Flavor and palate: Full bodied. Caramel, mocha, tarragon, oak and lavender appearing. Sweet. Practically no carbonation. Vinous. Smooth. White grapes showing up. Very low bitterness. Sweet complex finish which is reminiscent of lavender, mocha, mint, liquorice allsorts and caramel. Overall impression: Excellent. I love the first layer of mocha and caramel characteristics combined with the vinous second layer of oak, white grapes and the third layer of lavender and rosemary. Mindblowingly good. One of best beers I have had so far. Sharing it with a friend :-)