Lost Abbey 10 Commandments

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

Tap at Papago courtesy of Tommie Arthur. Pours a dark brown color with a large tan head. Looks gorgeous. Smells and tastes like a holiday beer, which I didnt expect. Lots of pine, raisin, and anise. Earthy and sweet.

2008 edition. 750 ml bottle bought at College Liquors in Grand Junction, CO. Pours a dark brown color with a large light brown head. A very nice aroma consisting of brett, some funky sourness, raisins, spices, and malt. The taste was very nice, lots of warmth here, some honey, spices, dark fruit, raisins, somewhat vinous, overall very nice. A really well made brew.

Bottle from Mounment in Concord, CA. Poured a reddish/brown color and smelled of....well raisins. Very sweet, so if you like sweet, buy this beer.

Darker brown body, red hues towards the edges, with a tall tan head. Higher carbonation really brings out a nice spiciness to the nose. The brett character wasnt very strong, more clove coming through and some dry herbalness. Deep dark fruit maltiness, raisin and hints of port and a slight black licorice flavor to the finish. I would like to try this as the brett develops more and give the beer some tartness.

Thanks southbay. Pours a dark hazy brown with a 1-2 finger tan head. The nose is yeasty, spicy, sweet, nice rosemary in the nose, has a De Dolle tartness to it. The flavor has a very nice sour/tart character to it, rosemary, spicy, warm alcohol, yeasty, nice Belgian character. Warm and tart mouthfeel with some bitterness. What a nice beer.

One of the most wine-like beers I’ve had, and though that’s usually not a compliment coming from me, I thought this was very interesting and good. Pours deep red with almost no head. Aromas of Belgian floral and some fruity herbiness. Very drinkable with a nice balance of raisins, honey, that pervasive Belgian floral quality, and herbiness. An interesting and largely successful experiment, and a delicious change of pace.

750ml bottle. 2008. I bought two of these, one to age a year, and one fresh. I believe this is a couple months old now. Pours almost completely flat, brownish red color. Some very faint swirls appear and a tiny ring of bubbles but this is more or less flat. At first I think I get an Orvalish brett component but fairly quickly I figure it is just normal spices. Aroma shows raisin, chocolate, fruity spicy esters of saison origin, peppery. Rosemary is present but much less pungent than it is in normal herb form. A complex and intriguing blend of aromas. The warmer this gets the more the rosemary comes out. Some oregano is also present and general pizza stuff. Taste is more traditionally saison like than the aroma with a hint of dark caramel, light chocolate, and dark fruits intertwined with the spicy, phenolic yeast. Mouthfeel is slick, neither sweet nor dry though it somehow feels young. After all is said and done I get no wild yeast component out of this. I will certainly rate this again in a year when I crack my other bottle. As for now I think this is a fairly solid beer and a good example of a dark saison.

Bottle: Toooo sweeet, lots of honey and fruity notes. Lacks any head or lacing.