Lost Abbey Cable Car

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

750ml bottle, Batch 1, with a huge THANK YOU to Davecooks for the first of two awesome rare treats! Pours a hazy golden yellow with a minimal white head that drifts to a whispy covering. Aroma provides a brief glimpse of barnyard funk, must, and some citrus rind. Flavor is only lightly sour, with almost some white wine qualities, white grape skins, lemon rind, only the slightest acidity. Very light and drinkable. I hesitate to call this a disappointment, but would put more than a few sours above this. Thanks again Dave for the chance to try!

Sampled at the brewery for RBSG 08. Pours a clear amber with no head. Sweet and sour fruit aroma. Tart, sour taste, of citrus fruits and cherries. Lingering sourness. Very nice sour ale.

Many thanks to pepsican for bringing this bottle to iowaherkeye’s’ farewell to Iowa’ tasting. Batch 001. Poured a cloudy light orange-yellow color with a white head. Enticing, funky white wine vinegar aroma. There was also a whiff of something from the dusty corners of my cellar (in a good way). Light to medium bodied with pleasant, moderate acidity. Dry white wine, funky unripe grape, and cider vinegar rounded out the flavor profile. The yeast laden last splash at the bottom of the bottle was especially nice. Mouth puckering, saliva-stimulating goodness! Thanks Andy!

batch 001. Hazy amber pour with a nice sized white head. Silage and earth aroma. Flavor was silage, dust, grass, earth, stomach acid, lemon, oak, and orange peel. Tart dry finish with the sourness coming through but not overpowering the beer. Very nice.

Bottle at Toronado San Diego, 2008 version. Poured a really nice bubbly hazy yellow, very good white head as well. Smelled very dry and you could tell it was sour as well. Very easy drinking beer, went down quite smoothly, very dry and sour on the palate as well. Great beer.

Bottle at Toronado during the RBSG Pub Crawl Tour on 08/01/2008. Clear golden body with a small off-white head. Sour, but sweet aroma, with some light apple and fruit. Sweet sour flavor with light fruit. Medium light body with moderately high carbonation.

Rating 1900. Bottle picked up at Toronado. Cloudy yellow color, moderate head with good lacing and retention. Aroma is barnyard action, oak, wood, funk, tart, sour, citrus etc. Medium bodied, really nice balance of sourness and sweetness. Very drinkable despite all the stuff going on. Very similar to RR Beatification. After sampling that recently, I found it more lemony and tart compared to CC.

Batch 2; Sampled August 2008
Funky, cheesy and sour notes are quite noticeable as I pour this brew. An average pour into my large Tripel Karmeliet tulip produces an almost two finger thick, pale, white colored head that leaves some lacing on the sides of my glass. This has a little chill haze and a touch of permanent haze to it; it went into the cooler with only a slight haze. The beer is a murky, light amber color as it sits on my desk, but it shows an orangish copper hue when held up to the light. Wow, this is much more funky than I was expecting it to be, more funky than just about any other Lost Abbey brew. Ample butyric acid aromas of old, dried sweat laden blankets and cured leather are joined by funky-woody mushroom aromas, some definite farmhouse cheese notes (though this is somewhat soft), uriatic cat pee, fresh scraped lemon zest, oxidized peanuts. This is all anchored by spicy, tannic oak notes that linger in the background of the nose, but are quite noticeable once you get past the funk. Some fruitiness seems noticeable at times, but at others is drowned out by the funk; when noticed, aromas of ripe pear, white wine vinegar, hints of kumquat pith & zest, . This has a very complex, very funky aroma that has a significant, but not overwhelming oak character that seems to be a bit more pervasive than I originally thought, but as a supporting role.

The first sip is quite dry tasting, it is not quite as mouth puckeringly sour as I was expecting, based upon the aroma, but still has a nice tartness to it. My first sip definitely leaves me thinking that this needs to have a harder sourness to it. The carbonation is at a light-medium level; persistent, prickly and noticeable, but not any where near the effervescence of sparkling Gueuze (which seems to be a rarer and rarer thing now a days, even amongst the classic Gueuze producers). The flavor also seems a bit cleaner than the aroma, though it is definitely tart and funky. The acidity here seems predominantly lactic in character and reminds me of tart grapefruit, some lemon zest, a touch of vinegar-like bite in the finish. Other flavors that round things out are a slight, funky cheddar cheese note, something a bit like smoked almonds, a touch of saltiness (tied up in the previous note), a definitely tannic finish and some light, spicy oak notes there as well. This somehow picks up a perception of sweetness to it, though I don’t think there is much in the way of residual sugars in this beer; it almost seems to be acidity based. Light and quaffable, this beer also hides its alcohol quite well, which makes it all that much more drinkable.

My second pour of this is a touch more yeasty, which seems to soften the tartness a bit and also adds some raw, fermented dough notes (though only just a touch) as well as enhancing a cooked bread like character (sour dough to be sure though). I easily polish off this 750ml bottle, though there is enough acidity to make my empty stomach feel a bit rumbly. Worthy of the hype that I built up in my mind? I don’t know, but it is definitely worth the hype to try it. It could use a touch more carbonation as a beer like this could always use a lively carbonation in my book.