Southampton Abbot 12

Brewed by Southampton Publick House
Style: Abt/Quadrupel
Southampton, New York USA

2003 Vintage Deep brown elixer with a strong, thick, lasting khaki coloured head. Intensely aromatic and flavorful brew, aroma and flavors of fig, date, bread, over-ripe fruit, banana, malt, bread, caramel, toffee, and cream. Soft, pleasant palate. Deep, rich, lasting, and enjoyable. Thanks to AustinPowers for the trade.

Deep dark brown, light ruby hints. Small off-white head. Big, deep and juicy aromas of dark fruits (grapes, dates, banana, figs) and chocolatey malt (not as proeminent as rochefort 10). Sweet doughy yeast, cookie-ish in fact gets along well with the toffee or caramel ice cream reminiscent malt. Palate procures a light tartness which is not unpleasant. Very fruity from the beginning to the end, extremely malty leading even to a slight roasty bite. This may not be totally world-class, but it isn’t too far, very well-built for sure, complex, but also very sweet and in need of a few years to reach its full potentials imo. This was a 2003 bottle. Mouthfeel is awesome though, creamy, smooth, well rounded big body with carpet soft carbonation.

2003 Bottling, Sampled May, 2004
Pours a hazy dark amber color. Rich aromas of dark fruit waft from my glass as I pour it. The carbonation is quite low, with only a wispy head, when roused it shows a brown color. Fig dominates the aroma, though it is joined by dark caramel notes, almost a coca-cola type quality, earth, wood, alcohol, brown sugar. Quite a rich aroma, it is super malty almost like a strong bock. The beer itself was some what lighter bodied than I was expecting, still rich though with an almost meaty quality to it. It is fairly sweet with an astringent finish that seems to be a combination of alcohol and yeast character. Tastes like it has just started to oxidize, perhaps, this adds to the rich maltiness of this brew. This beer is redolent of dark concentrated fruit; fig, raisin, prunes, and a hint of orange in the finish. There are some banana and clove notes here as well. As this beer warms up the concentrated fruit notes really picks up. All I can say is that this is deceptively good. Rich, complex, and hearty what more do you need.

Rerate (Aug-06, 6-4-8-4-14=3.6): Rubber and plastic blow off leaving liqourice, toffee, caramel, burnt sugar and floral and orange notes to the aroma. Opaque brown body is topped by a low, off white, fine bubbled head that recedes to lasting cover. Toffee, sugar, dark fruits, caramel and even a touch of oak in flavour. Medium body with moderate, soft bubbled carbonation. Bottle (2006 edition) sampled with beerbuzzmontreal, MartinT, Olivier_MTL, Rastacouere and Yowie). Original Rating (8/25/04, 9-5-9-5-19=4.7): Huge, sweet cookie-dough and burnt sugar aroma with plenty of chocolate, plum, raisin and fig notes. Opaque, dark brown with small tan head that recedes to lasting cover. Chocolate, doughy yeast, subtle roastiness, huge, strong maltiness with notes of marzipan, hazelnet and sweet brown sugar cut by a mild tartness before overwhelming. Thick and sweet and very full-bodied. Luxury itself in the mouth. Bottle (2003). Enjoyed with MartinT and Rastacouere.

Oh wow. Thanks to Springslicker for opening this one! Pours a dark brown, small almost non existent white head. Aroma is caramel, smoked pork, cherries, and toffee. Flavor is sweet, but not too sweet, caramel, nuts, figs, and lots of other stuff I didnt get. Alcohol blends in VERY well.

My bottle (750ml) shared with GregClow, biegaman, mabel, jerc & mds -- courtesy of the first annual Festivus. Not sure of the vintage of this one, I’m pretty certain it’s at least a year old, probably more. Pours a hazy orange-copper with an average size lasting foamy off-white head. Nice aroma of caramel malt, fruity and a little sweet. Delicious sweet flavour, also fruity along with caramel malt -- easy to drink and oh so tasty, I love this! Alcohol’s well hidden. Medium bodied, creamy mouthfeel. Simply put: Fucking awesome.

big thanks to moejuck for sharing this publick house bottling at the hampton stank room 102. pours dark amber with white head. nose of raisins, plums, caramel, and toffee. flavor of raisins, plums, ripefruits, brown sugar. alcohol well hidden. this is a gem. the best american attempt at the style i’ve ever had.

This was by far the superior offering Southampton brought to the table at the 2006 GABF. There must be something to the “Quad” prefix because every time I pick up a bottle of such it ends up being as complex and entertaining as any good work of Victorian literature. The Abbott 12 carries the tradition with pride, offering up a slightly jumbled but toothsome array of tongue pleasers that managed to pierce the rapid beer tasting haze with an incredulously mild mannered but complex flavor profile. In my tiny sampling glass I see a clouded, brown mixture which, humble as it may be, practically begs to be consumed. I oblige, but first I give it a quick smell sample. The profile reads out with almost nothing. The aroma is very timid. Nothing perceptible comes through except some alcohol, so I leave its bashful self alone and move onto the taste, which I hope will be a little more extroverted. I’m rewarded with the stellar taste I mentioned above. Burnt honey, caramel and roasted apple immediately remind me of a thousand small town candy stores I’ve passed by in my life. At each one I peered through the window with eager eyes. They shined with gluttony as I glanced at the copper bowl where a worker is crafting gorgeous candied apples. It is an art lost on the urbane. A little charred wood adds to the quaint and cozy story the Abbott 12 is weaving, invoking a small fire with a few ruddy faces gathered ‘round it. There’s also a sizeable mountain of brown sugar entangled in the beer, coaxing me with its mature, sugary flavor. Most distinguishable is all the flavors of burnt carbon matter. Each one makes up a different flavorful fuel, but they all cooperate with their shared history of arson victimization. The delicately organized taste is but short lived, and soon disappears leaving only the brown sugar to console the tongue with its murky molasses. This would be the ideal company for any late evening outing to a building older than fifty years. The whole character beautifully matches with many of these old mining towns in the Rocky Mountains who’ve relied on their old, rustic charm to keep the revenue flowing. If they could only offer up this Abbott 12 on a regular basis it would make for an unforgettable evening of relaxation and rumination.