Lost Abbey Carnevale (2008)

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

Draught Fully hazy orange beer with an ochre shine; very slim white head. Very estery, meaty ester, fruity, citrussy, spicy and even vegetable - everything. A bit of a jumble. Citrus, orange, coriander; good sweet-sour balance, but again high temperature fermenting signs. Would be a lot more refreshing with less coriander, IMO. Not my L.A. favourite.

North Raleigh tasting! Pour is orange with fluffy white head. Lemon-grass on the nose. Orange and spices up front with floral finish

3-24-08 bottle.
Average orange yellow pour with an okay head. Funky sour smell that is actually nice. Flavor is a hint watery, or rather, it is delicate. Has a floral and slight lemon flavor in there. Smooth mouthfeel. Quite drinkable.

Thanks to the STL guys for sharing this Lost Abbey with me. Pours copper / orange with a small off-white head. The aroma is spicy and earthy with lightly toasted malt and dry-ish caramel. Medium / light body with lots of graininess and some underlying tingly carbonation. The flavor starts off lightly sweet then it dries out quickly with lots of spices (cloves, cinnamon, pepper). The graininess I like to see in saisons is here as well along with some light caramel malt. The finish is peppery along with spicy and piny hops showing. This is a very nice American version of a saison.

750, caroked and baled. Thanks, Foolish_Mortal! Super murky coppery medium amber with a towering, if short-lived, bubbly white head. Lots of cottony white lace as it settle, but pretty soon it’s just a thin layer of beaten egg whites. Lovely lemony, grassy nose. Creamy medium body with soft tiny carb. Tangy lemony, har-like, grassy mid-palate. The american hops promised by the label really don’t show up. There’s a little funk blast of them right when the cork comes out but that’s it. This is a hell of a saison, though, probably worth aging. They definitely know what they’re doing.

750 thanks to the LA Saints club. Light gold with a small fluffy head and very carbonated. Nose is Dr Funkenstein, spices, barnyard-YES. Taste is pepper, spices, funkiness, tartness, dry, and bitter with little/no alcohol presence. the bottom is the best-very hazy, full mouth, yeasty, chewy. This gets better as it warms and gets to the bottom. Well done traditiional Belgium style Saison.

Nice foamy white head that dissipates quickly to ring the glass. Aroma is slightly sour, some strange spiciness, lemon. Taste is dull funky spiciness, brett, medicine, sweet. A little too sweet for me as a saison.

Bottle from South Bay. When the bottle popped there wasnt much of a sound, and I thought: oh shit. I figured my bottle was flat. Poured it out, and it wasnt at all. Oh well; golden colored with a thick white head on it. Smell was grassy and full of fruity flavors some spices, and citrus. Taste was smooth and fully carbonated with a nice little hop bitterness. Very earthy and grassy tasting. Downright a pleasure to drink. This could easily pass as a Saison from Belgium. Awesome beer.