Lost Abbey Avant Garde Ale

Brewed by Port Brewing/Lost Abbey
Style: Bière de Garde
San Marcos, California USA

750 ml bottle shared at Houston Beer Tasting. Pours a cloudy amber with thin white head. Smell is bready malt. Taste of bread, similar to a dopplebock. Mouthfeel is medium with some carbonation.

First Official Houston Tasting. Pours a bright yellow with a small eggshell head. Aromas of orange peel, grains and bread. Flavor of apples, pie spices and some lightly spiced hops. Medium bodied mouthfeel with nice effervescence.

Hazy golden-orange beer that looks as if it’s gonna taste good. Its soft white 1cm head stays there with consistency. It smells as if it’s gonna taste good as well. Quite herbal, spicy, leafy – a whole field of subtlety. Still, strangely bready – grainy, biscuity AND strawy, but definitely rustic at it, but unassuming. Comfortable medium body, good texture, fitting carbonation. A pale example of a bière de garde, but feeling most natural, classy and gently hopped with at least floral saaz. Mildly leafy and grassy upon the closure. A class act!

Caged corked 750 ml. bottle, no bottling date, but I purchased this bottle over a year ago, blurb on the back label, sampled in a tulip glass. Sediment is visible at the bottom of the bottle. Poured an cloudy burnt orange, with fine specks of sediments, nice size foamy creme colored head, decent retention, settled into a thin creamy lacing. Not much in the way of sticking. This is missing the earthy mustiness and tart fruit smells that I love in the Bière de Garde style, probably the result from using their house lager yeast. Aromas of honey biscuits, banana bread, faint scents of oranges and lemons, and a light herbal leafy hop. I really don’t smell any spiciness. Not a bad nose, but also kinda of a bland one. Creamy smooth medium bodied mouthfeel, I would have like more of a airy feel, the carbonation fades a bit too much as you’re consuming it. The fruit tastes have a watery mild tartness, oranges, lemon and banana. Lightly toasted malts, honey nutty grains and sweet bread. As in the aroma, the spiciness is barely noticeable. Towards the end softly herbal spicy hops emerge, helping to give this a dry finish. The alcohol is properly restrained, just a low fruity warmth in the palate. For a Bière de Garde, or an Avant Garde for that matter, I feel this is just too mild, average tasting. This is the only disappointing ale I’ve had from Lost Abbey, everything else has been first rate. I’m sorry, but I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone wanting to explore the Bière de Garde style.

Bottle, Irvine, CA. Hayish golden color, big thick white head. Nose is malty and yeasty with some earthiness. Flavor is malty with some acidity and yeastiness. Taste more like an abbey tripple than biere de garde as I know them. Pretty balanced brew, but not that special.

My Bottom Line:
Chewy bready malts and lingering spicy hops slowly tango on a lightly doughy yeast in this sumptuous and appeasingly honest Bière de Garde.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A veil of foam skirts the hazy straw blond.
-The body is healthy and with the flavor profile creates an authentic Bière de Garde experience.
-The spicy hoppiness (Spalt?) is as present in the aroma as in the finish, balancing out the malty baguette throughout.
-Alcohol is not a player in the flavor profile; this is beautifully drinkable.
-I often get flavors which resemble vegetable broth notes in some Bière de Gardes; no idea how to describe them any differently.

Bottle.

22 oz bottle.

Pours deep gold (clear, at least the first glass worth) with a nice soft white head.

Laid-back but impressively complex aroma: barnyard yeasts, some lemon peel, wet humus, complex earthy spices. The aroma is impressively dry. Not bitter, dry. Sparkling euro-hop dry, grassy, delightful. No pine resins here, again those mild earthy spices (and seseme?). Beautiful.

Partly it just matches what I’ve loving to drink these days, but partly it’s the pure quality -- this is such a terrific beer. Wow. I feel very lucky to have lost abbey now coming into Washington State.

First sip brings a toasted grain malt upfront with a nice hit of caramel. Fruity spiciness is evident and I pick up a grape skin and green apple flavor. Flows down with a bready, yeasty aspect and some earthy tones as well. Just a slight sour twang to it. Finishes with a touch of hops. A bit dry and grainy. Mouthfeel is on the lighter side while still having a nice creaminess to it. Ample carbonation, the beer goes down easily and is refreshing.