Lost Abbey Veritas 004

Formerly brewed at Port Brewing/Lost Abbey
Style: Sour Ale
San Marcos, California USA

Bottle, at Lost Abbey. Thanks for shelling out the $$ for this one, Jimbo. Really nice golden color, with a big, vibrant carbonation. Smelled very sour, almost like sweet tarts, but the flavor was surprisingly mellow, restrained, and easy to drink. I know this is a special release, but I could easily drink this one a daily basis.

Bottle at the brewery sampled with naven. A reallly good sour. Straw colored, yet description says cdt is in the mix? Like a heavier version of red poppy.

Sampled October 2009
A steady, careful pour into my large Tripel Karmeliet tulip produces a two finger thick, pale tan colored head. The beer sits in my glass with a hazed, orange / gold color that shows a bright, only lightly hazed, yellow-orange, light gold color when held up to the light. Ah, the aroma is deeply satisfying for this sour beer lover; it has a distinct, tart almost grapefruit note that can often be found in a good Gueuze. This is backed by a toasted grassy note that seems to be a product of wood and pale grain. The oak plays a nice supporting role here, solid, but only lightly expressive; this beer is spiced with a touch of piquant oak and a rich woodiness. The overall aroma is fairly musty, with a damp earthiness, some, at times expressive, wild mushroom and overripe farmhouse cheese aromatics; really this just has an overall dank funkiness to it that definitely is challenging (sweet / smooth baby vomit perhaps). I absolutely love the funkiness achieved in the nose here, I really like a good funked up Lambic, and this hits that spot for me in a similar manner.

The beer is puckeringly tart as it first hits my tongue; there is a strong lactic tartness that is quite clean up front. It remains bracingly tart through the finish but some malt and other flavors seem to soften it just a touch towards the end. The tartness definitely reminds me of sour grapefruit. The earthy, funky mushroom, over-ripe cheese note that was in the nose is also in the flavor; it adds a nice base note to the bright tartness. Despite being so tart and light, there is a perceived sweetness to this beer; I am not sure that there really is much in the way of residual sugars here, but something seems to accent a very light sweetness which in turn boosts the perception of fruit in this beer. There is the afore-mentioned grapefruit, but there are also some floral apricot, perhaps some green peach, ripe green apple notes, a musky melon note and maybe even a touch of herbal honey. The oak provides quite a bit of spiciness here, it is almost more oral nasal than a flavor, but there is some of that too; the spiciness is peppery and can seem a touch boozy at time (more from the oak than from real alcohol though). The carbonation provides a nice initial zip to the texture, but this beer eventually settles down into a creamy, smooth sipper whose body is boosted just a bit by a tannic structure and always retains a touch of pep from the carbonation.

My first half of this bottle has me completely enjoying this beer. I think this would be a great hot weather beer, we have been experiencing an un-seasonable cold spell that sees our highs only in the 80s, but this beer is still hitting the spot quite nicely. It really has a nice balance between its various complexities. My second pour, with a touch more yeast, smells even more earthy and mushroom like & even has a touch more of that baby vomit ;-). The fruitiness really starts to come out more as this beer warms up; the fruitiness must be contributed, at least significantly, from the Yellow Bus; it is quite floral, though I wouldn’t necessarily sya it was peach. This has an aggressive funkiness to it that could be a challenge to those not used to funky beers, unlike many an American example of the nebulous Funky-style, this also achieves a very nice balance between the tart, fruity and harder funkiness. The complexity and depth definitely makes this a better beer than the Duck Duck Gooze, all this really does is make me want to try some Yellow Bus that much more (though the Cuvee de Tomme, surely must play a small part in this blend). My one complaint is that the oak can add a touch too much spiciness and booziness at times, on the other hand this same character helps to keep this beer quite balanced in nature. Just a really nice brew.

Hazy gold pour with a tall white head. Nose full of brett funk, peaches, oak, and citrus. Tart up front, very soft on the acidity, long dry bretty barnyard finish. Soft notes of pepper and oak. Very fruity through with tropical notes and peach.

vintage bar thing at LA, glass shared then bottle finished at toronado sd. my 1st go at a veritas. great beer, maybe a shame or to add to the lore but tasted along side yellow bus which was much better than this beer for me. similar, acidity is as strong just not as complex as YB or some other sours. possibly will be longer lived. funk, tart, bretty and drinking very young considering this is 2 years old from it’s initial release. would love to run across this beer in 3-5 years.

If you are ever going to have Yellow Bus and this in the same night, have this first. Yellow Bus crushes everything about this. Nose here is faint peach and bright fruit, light mayo funk. Flavor is watered down YB all the way - faint fruit, faint yeast, just an unripe strawberry tone like a standard lambic.

Scent is exactly what I want in a wild, tremendous funk over some citrus bite. Very good. Appearance pours looking flatish like Isabelle bit resurrected itself with a nice ring of head as I sat down ton drink over a fizzy and murky yellow liquid. Taste matches the smell and this is a funky winner! Funk, leather, lemon, peach, soury goodness. Big in every sense. A fantastic sour. Highly carbonated and thin, right where the mouth needs to be. Love this brew, sadly probably will not see another opportunity to try it.

Huge thanks to Alex (MasterSki) for breaking this one out during out sour/wild tasting! Poured from 750ml bottle into Bell’s Tulip. A - Pour hazy yellow with a white head. There is lacing evident after the head starts to fizzle down. S - Very funky! A lot more then the Yellow Bus, that’s for sure. There is a lot of Phunky Duck in this one. Really cheesy, sour/tart notes. I really don’t get any of the Yellow Bus on the nose at all, it’s overpowered by the PD. That said, this one has an awesome nose. T - I am able to pick up on the peach notes from the YB here although the funk is more present. Huge sour/tart notes meld well with the sweetness for a nice finish of both sweet & sour (chicken, anyone?). Not much CdT in taste, I think Phunky Duck just overpowers it here. M - Light bodied with a very dry lip-puckering finish. Nice palate-tickling carbonation rounds this one out well. D - An awesome wild from Lost Abbey. Not as easy to drink as the Yellow Bus, but then again, this is something different that I can appreciate when compared to YB.