Lost Abbey Cable Car

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

Courtesy of hoppymeal at northernbrews’ November ’08 sour tasting

Bottle: The aroma consists of sour limes, sour cherries, and the same faint cleaner aroma that I noticed in Isabelle. It pours a slightly hazy golden-orange with a small white head. The flavor starts with lots of sour apple and lime up front. It turns more sour lemon in the finishy. Light-medium bodied with a mild carbonation.

Sampled at last summer’s Cleveland bash. Dark straw colored body. Lively carbonation. Great flavor with a nice balance of lemon, herbal notes, and light hints of peach. Great sour aspect to this beer.

Bobby91 you are the man. Awfully nice to share a beer of this rarity. Damn fine. Dark gold pour wtih a white head. Vinegar up front wtih some tart apples, tropical fruit, lemon, wet earthy tones and some light funk. Flavor is sour, but the sourness does not detract from the fruitiness of this beauty. Its sour, don’t get me wrong. But the array of fruits that danced on my tongue with some soft yeasty notes provided a real drinking experience. But what would I know...I was drunk and I am not a sourhead...HAHA. I wasnt drunk when i tasted this one.

GABF 2007 and RBSG 2008. This was one of the highlights of GABF for me; my friends and I camped out at the Lost Abbey station on multiple days just taking refills of Cable Car. We got it down to a science where we’d be first in line when the new bottles were cracked, getting the clearest pours before the sediment became disturbed. Bretty pineapple-granny smith smell. The delicate yeasty things are the first impression in both the nose and the mouth, not the acidity, which was at a lower level than expected (this would never be confused with a proper gueuze or La Folie, the acidity being much more restrained). The fruit flavors provide a soft but fresh base to the foamy yeasty notes floating over the top, and change upon different sips and different samples: sometimes peach, sometimes lemon, sometimes starfruit (perfectly identified by awaisanen). This beer’s glory lies in its subtlety; it really takes concentration to fully appreciate, but rewards the effort. Wonderfully crafted.

Bottle at Craig’s bit tasting, Edinburgh, 21-03-09 thanks to Craig for hosting and for getting hold of some great beers. Pours warm gold with a white head. Tart and citric aroma touch musty and some wet wool. Feels nice and bubbly in mouth little champagne like in fact I get asti spumante (attended too many cheap and cheerful weddings where champagne was obviously not an option) Finishes quite dry and fruity. Very likeable. A8 A5 F8 P4 OV15 4.0

Bottle at home with Fin ... Thanks to AgentSteve for this one ... amber ... very subdues but again typical sour nose ... again tart ... but not so obviously citrus ... more vinegar ... no real depth to me ... quite drying ....with a little lemon juice in it end... ANotherGLad to have tried but no thanks to any more ...2.7 Tk2 Remains of the Bottle the next day ... slightly hazy amber (bit of sediment from pour ... slightly sweet tart lemon nose ... light citrus more sour orange than lemon and definitly some vinegar with a little bite at back of throat ... dry linger ...

Bottle at the SDT Room. Made the trip from LA expressly to have this bottle, and was not disappointed. Opens with an aroma of thick yeast, flour flowers, and lemon juice concentrate. Down into flavors of the same, plus very light mandarin orange, really slight unripe cranberry and a smooth finish. Carbonation is very soft, and the finish doesn’t linger. No mustard notes or particular funk.

BA review: Anyone that knows me knows that I’ve been trying extraordinarily hard to get a bottle of this. And anyone that has ever let it known that they’ve had a bottle knows this as well. I’ve offered well over $100 worth of very rare beers, many brewery only release and plenty with less than 1000 bottles made. I’ve been drinking beers with Shane(beachbum1975) for the past 8-10months or so. We both trade way more than we should. We’ve always ’unspokenly’ tried to one up one another. Well that mother fucker one upped me to end all one ups... but that doesn’t mean I won’t stop trying :) This bottle was a belated Christmas gift and presented to Chris(Yetiman420), Steve(FtownThrowDown), and Me(and of course Shane), as a blind tasting for my 500th review. That bastard also just traded for a bottle of the beer I was getting him for a belated Christmas gift. What a D-Bag! I honestly cannot express my thanks and gratitude, Shane. This was my Holy Grail beer and now my Lost Abbey bottle collection is finally complete, and what’s a better way to do it than with a Tomme Arthur signed bottle of Cable Car! :D 750ml corked and caged brown bottle poured into a Duvel tulip. Shared with 3 great BAs. A: Pours a very murky under ripened grapefruit peel color. A decent sized head forms and holds for a minute or so before falling to a few bubbles. Some spotty lacing throughout. S: Loads of tart fruits. Lemon, orange, grapefruit, apricot, pineapple, cherries. Some astringent acids from the fruits adds to the tart and sour aromas. Funk is minimal but still lightly present with a touch of wet hay and maybe some light cider vinegar notes. T/M: The tart and sour fruits are spot on to the nose. Lemon, pineapple, orange are more dominant with cherries and apricot or peach playing more in the back. Really a citrus explosion that is odd in that I normally experience this with loads of bitterness, which this obviously doesn’t have. Funkiness is still at a minimum but still retains the wet hay and light cidery notes. I don’t think it’d hurt to have some more funk. Tartness really starts to build toward puckering as it quickly warms. Some rustic woody and leathery notes form the barrels. Nice light to medium light body with perfect carbonation. Great dry finish that isn’t too tart or abrasive. D: Extraordinarily drinkable. I could drink this all day every day. The tartness and sourness doesn’t linger too strong or long. Very good. Yet again, many thanks to you, Shane. You really made my day and you better watch your back when it’s your turn to be given a milestone beer! And a million thanks to the one that traded this to Shane ;)