Lost Abbey The Angels Share

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

2008 375ml. Pours deep brown with slight ruby highlights. Absolutely zero head, but there were a few stray bubbles up on the side of a sitting glass.
Smells of warm, woody brandy and dark fruit. Warm and vinious flavor. Near perfect BA-melding for a big barleywine. Finishes with a hot brandy coating on your mouth. I just can’t help wondering how it would taste with a reasonable amount or carbonation.
Here’s hoping for improvement next year.

750 mL bottle shared by LooseCannon at Immy’s Backyard Throwdown. This is from the flat batch. Pours a brownish red color with no sign of carbonation. Aroma is toffee, raisin, earthy notes, spice and brandy. Taste is caramel, spice, spice, chocolate and berries. Full bodied with lots of alcohol warmth.

375 ml bottle
Thanks to two generous traders for sending me bottles of this. Having tried it I now plan on sitting on the other for at least a year to see if the carbonation comes back or if it mellows out a bit. Generally top notch I can’t wait to try the Bourbon version and see the contrasts and similarities. If you’ve got a generous friend who can send you some it’s worth $15 a bottle (though perhaps not $30 for a full 750).

Aroma / Appearance - The headspace is dense and rich with a mixture of licorice, chocolate, sherry/brandy, booze, and a feel like that of a flourless chocolate cake. Very low on carbonation, though hard to tell through the dark body, it exudes blackness into the area around the glass.

Flavor / Palate - Not quite as good as it smell it is nonetheless a top notch contender. Rich and warm the only flaw might be the flatness which I don’t expect from a year old barleywine. Chocolate, brandy, and figs compensate nicely however. Sticking to the throat from the start it grabs your attention and refuses to let go. This feels like a beer you would drink with dessert or afterwards while resting on the porch during a cool fall evening/winter afternoon. I’m glad to have tried it; clearly Lost Abbey is still on top of their game here.

Huge thanks to DuffManSW for providing this milestone. Rating #500. 2008 bottle. Poured a very deep mahogany with no head (but did have carbonation thankfully). There’s lots of candied fig, alcohol, brandy, vanilla, heavy charred oak,and some vinousness. Very pronounced alcohol burn. This beer is so big, so rich and yet incredibly smooth. The body is thick, full, and sticky with a little carbonation. Awesome beer!

2008 75cl Bottle @ Bloggprovning Syd. Dark brown witn no head. Sweet flat caramell Madeira vanilla figs dried fruit no carbonation.

375ml bottle, 2008 vintage, scored via a few trades. After all the controversy about this beer I was interested and excited to try this. Took the cage off and hoped I would hear a hiss or pop or something from the cork... no such luck. Pours a deep brown, mahogany with zero head. Legs line a scotch. No carbonation period. Sorry Tomme, this ain’t under carbonated, this is flat. Still, I’m willing to give this the benefit of the doubt. The aroms is really nice.The brandy comes through really well, apples, peaches, cookie dough, caramel, candy. Flavor is really great, it tastes like a caramel apple. The sweetness of the malts teams really well with the fruitiness from the brandy barrel. Tons of caramel, some coconut, vanilla, sort of a sour mash thing, slight orange. Slightly oily on the tongue, sweet finish with a gentle warmth provided by the alcohol. Man, I wish this was carbonated because this was really good, but the absence of CO2 really hurts the look, nose, flavor and mouthfeel. Was it worth the $15 for the split? Maybe, maybe not. Would I like to try next years version, hell yes.

Flat as my ass bottle from the 2008 batch. I don’t know if I have ever had a flatter beer, other than perhaps if a bottle was open for 2 days and I tried to drink it. The aroma really took me sticking my nose right up to it. Carmel, vanilla and oak. The flavor is huge and unique. ALot of brandy notes. I think I would really appreciate this beer to a far higher degree if it was carbonated. It makes it really hard to drink being flat and all, this is why my ’palate’ score is so low, I don’t know how long I will be able to keep drinking this bottle.

Had a infected 07 bottle and decided not to rate it, now I had a 08 wich was as expected, flat. Anyway, with two bad or "less good" releases of this I think LA deserves a good honest rating.. 08 Version. Close to black with no head. Aroma is very held back becouse of the lack of bubbles but the little one can smell is just pure tasty candy and vanilla. Mouthfeel is.. flat but the flavours coming through is still nice. Caramell, vanilla a candy-oak-fruit orgie ment to strike you with more force (yet again lack of carbonation.) Flavourwise the 08 is fine it just doesnt pop out of the glass the way it should wich is kind of a big deal yeah.