Lost Abbey The Angels Share

Brewed by Port Brewing/Lost Abbey
Style: Barley Wine
San Marcos, California USA

Serve in Snifter

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UPDATED: APR 8, 2009 Pours a deep brown hue with a light tan head. Aromas of toasted nuts, caramel, toffee and a little chocolate. Mouth feel is medium to full bodied with flavors of oak, vanilla, caramel and a nice roastiness.

UPDATED: SEP 27, 2008 750 ml bottle. Pours darker than any bw I have seen with a small head. Aroma is cocoa, smoke and heavy on the vanilla. Taste is sweet and the body is rich. The alcohol doesn’t smack ya in the head more like just gently warms the palate. The smoothness redefines what a bw should be. This one is excellent.

Bottle. The colour is almost black with a hint of red with a small beige head. The aroma is heavy on whiskey, wood, vanilla and coconuts, and so is the taste just with a hint of alcohol in the good way, all this goodness in packed in a medium to full body with a sweet alcoholic finish. Me I like!!!!

Bottled. A deep red beer with a slight haze under a collapsing brown head. The aroma is sweet with notes of whiskey, chocolate, and vanilla - nice. The flavor is sweet malty with notes of vanilla, chocolate, and wood, as well as light notes of the alcohol. Nice one.

Bottle from cquiroga, sampled with badnewsbeers. Dark brown body with reddish highlights, thin tan head. Leaves good lacing on the glass. Boozy oak and vanilla aroma with toast lurking but buried in barrel. Strong oaky body with brown sugar, toast, and alcohol. Burnt caramely sugars and candied fruits impart sweetness to this high octane oak-alcohol elixir. The rich, sweet body does beg, however, for a bit more complexity and heft. Very nice.

Pours with a dark reddish-brown body topped by a thin head with some lacing. It’s sweet and malty with nice vanilla and oak notes with underlying dark fruit notes. Full bodied, smooth and slightly warming.

This is one seriously complex beer. I mean there are a ton of things going on in the nose and flavor. Huge aroma of chocolate and oak hit me like a ton of lead. After warming up a bit more sweeter notes came out like brown sugar and a vinous profile came out. An oil mouthfeel that was slick, yet sublime at the same time. Flavors were, like the nose, incredibly complex with the same notes as above and a sweet character but balanced by a wine-line tannic kick. I want more!

Bottle: Dark bourbon color, nice head and light lacing. Nose of oak, bourbon and plum, light molasses and roast. Astringency and coffee. The flavor is chewy, nice anise and licorice roast, sweet notes. Lots of coffee. Finishes balanced. Delicious barleywine. I need to get some more of this stuff.

UPDATED: AUG 19, 2010 12/12/06 06 vintage. Thanks to drewbeerme for this amazing sample. Pours a brown black chocolate color with a frothy milk chocolate head that fades down (is this a barley wine or impy stout). A lot of beers have toffee in the flavors and esters but this has tons of toffee in the nose and taste unlike any other and especially unlike any other barley wine. Toffee and chocolate blend in the nose with some of the hard to distinguish subtleties found in the flavor. Toffee, chocolate, bourbon, oak (i can even tasted the charred to it), vanilla, and those syruppy dark red fruit flavors underneath just barely peaking thier head out. Slick syruppy mouthfeel with the alcohol burn on the tip of the tongue. Its hard to believe this is still pretty fresh b/c all though it is a little hot, these flavors are balanced so nicely so that nothing is overpowering and the beer tastes amazingly complex. A fine example of a barrel aged beer that many brewers could learn from.

Angels Share tasting (Brandy ’06, ’09, Bourbon ’08, ’09, ’10, and Grand Cru ’10). 06 vintage Pours a brown black with a beige ring of a head. Nose of raisins and oxidized malts and dark fruit, oak, vanilla nose. Similar flavors heavy on the vanilla and oxidized malt. Overly sweet and too oxidized but decent. 8/3/8/3/16 3.8

09 vintage. Enjoyed next to the bourbon and grand cru. A still murky pour. Rich molasses maple syrup, oak, raisins, brown sugar, Molasses, chocolate, lots of dark fruits, rich flavors. Really nice. Dry fruit finish. 8/3/9/4/17 4.1

UPDATED: MAR 9, 2009 Bottle at a local tasting. Dark brown pour. Aroma is a bourbon slap to the face. After you get past the bradny, hints of dark fruit and sweet malts make themselves prevalent. Flavor is very smooth and toffee-sweet, with bourbon, oak, and vanilla all making themselves present. The alcohol presence is significant. It’s a very nice brew, but not a traditional barleywine. Hop presence is minimal to say the least.