Pizza Port Cuvee de Tomme

Brewed by Port Brewing/Lost Abbey
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
San Marcos, California USA

On tap GABF ’02: Light brown color, sweet cherry aroma, syrupy palate, heavy sweetness. This is more like a port or wine than beer, the liquid sticks to your tongue and won’t let go. Wow.

GABF 2004. Red-brown with an average-sized frothy, light-brown head. Aroma: barnyard, wet wood, cheese, light malts. Chocolately, rich, and delicious flavor, with the right combonation of sourness. I’m happy to see that sour cherries were indeed used as a source of fermentable sugars, because I kept going back to sour cherries as a source of the tartness. Glad to see I was right!

Gold foil issue: Clear, dim mahogany. Fizzling, loose tan head. Aroma packed with tannins, sour cherries, musty oak, perfumey alcohol, and zingy vinous notes. Brettanomyces take the backseat to the balasamic vinegar, leather, leafy undertones. Some peachy esters mixed-in with cunning hop notes and plummy malts. Soft, slick body. Loose, tiny-bubbled, carbonation. Starts with an ungodly blend of leathery malts and tart, musty cherries matched with a burst of chewy hops. The acidity is rich and becomes addictive as it eases the hops and adds to the mild astringency. Glorious brett and tannic notes come and go. Colossal hops return in the substantially dry finish under a blanket of woody, medicinal notes and mild astringency. Tannins enrich the tartness while absorbing the chewy, earthy hops. Still very young, but with some age, the sky’s the limit with this beauty. Thanks, jcalabre!

375ml bottle. Beautiful beer. Foamy thick head that’s not collapsing any time soon. Dark reddish-brown body that doesn’t let much light through. Fantastic sour aroma. Not overly powerful, but clearly there. While the sourness may be clearly there in the aroma, it is nicely muted by the Oak aging. Additionally, the oak is not overpowering, just rounding out the sharp edges of the sour cherries. Tomme Arthur suggests aging his beers, but this one is pretty yummy right now!!

Gold foil. Thanks to AlanC for sending me this rare treat. Deep ruddy brown-red. Aroma, that to me just screams fantome. Some acidity, some phenolics, sour cherry. Dark sweet malts, loads of cherries, tart yeast character cuts into malty sweetness. Bags of flavor, this is really world class stuff.

Bottle, at various locations during the Zythos weekend, March 2006. Hazy chestnut red, moderate off white head and good condition. Oxidized woody metallic notes over sour cherry in the nose, everything up a notch in the mouth with some barnyard notes but without becoming overpowering, ling lingering tinny metallic and woody/earthy finish.

(gabf'03) Gold winner of the strong specialty ale. And for a good reason - this begian ale has gone to the school of rock. Rich fruit flavors of plum, dates and cherries accompanied by a perfect blend of spices. Complex palate is made of sipping. Pizza Port throws down the goods.

Thank you SO MUCH to Eyedrinkale for this. It was absolutely fabulous. Funky grapey alcohol vapors, woody. I want to dive in. Smells kind of like cantillion. Tart and tingly. Mindblowing. Tart & vinous, grapes, funky, woody. Its 24 hours after sampling and I need MORE!!