Lost Abbey Carnevale (2008)

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

On tap at the brewery in San Marcos. Pours a crystal clear golden body with virtually no head. Just a touch of delicate lacing. Aroma of sweet malts, some barnyard funk, and lots of yeast. Flavor is sweet and fruity with a light acidic citrus. Some melons and peaches and soft spices. Finishes with a wheat malt and a farmhouse spice with some straw hops. Palate is light to medium bodied and dry. Overall, a decent saison. Surprisingly simple and not as robust as I would have hoped for.

750ml bottle from the Sam’s in Downers Grove, Illinois: This poured a slightly hazed, pale straw body with a dinkus head that vanished quickly. No lace. It had a warm white bread aroma with lemon grasses, tart citrus juice, and some soft stone fruit. The flavor is all that with a lot of spiciness and a touch of citrus rind bitterness. The finish is dry and peppery. Really nice brew.

750ml bottle. Pours murky orange with a small white head. Decent carbonation. Aroma is of spice, citrus, hops, wheat, apples, and grass. Taste starts off very spicy with lots of coriander. Lots of assorted fruit in the flavor including apple and banana. Flavor is also full of citrus, hops, wheat, and grass. Has a very nice earthy fruit taste underneath all of it. Lingering apple spiciness with just a small presence of alcohol. Finish is all grass. A very enjoyable, and overly drinkable beer.

This beer was very good. Smooth as silk, had a great cloudy appearance. Flavor was refreshingly ’clean’. I enjoyed every sip.

Pours a medium golden hue, some haze, and bright white head. Nose comes across as sour fruit mix and peach juice. On the palate, this is a whopper of a sour ale with pear flavors, some malt sweetness, a pleasant sourness, and some candy sugar sweetness at the end on the finish.

Bottle at the “Drink for Charity” event at Rattle & Hum. Pours a hazy gold with a thin white head. Lots of coriander, malt, and citrus on the nose. Light sourness. Light dry finish.

Cloudy orange with fair, foamy off-white head / Funky brett nose of citrus fruit, apples, bananas and spices / Light to medium body, moderately tart, with modest fruit and long, dry and biter finish / Sour, bitter flavors of orange, apple, banana, curacao, coriander, oak, and funky brett / Very good, although fruit doesn’t stand up to its structure and bitterness.

2009 bottle. Pours a murky, straw-honey color with a white, average, pillowy head which settle quickly to very small froth and leaves minimal lace. Nose is good but not great with malts of biscuits and light grains, yeast is cobwebs and lightly estery, hops are lightly spicy (white pepper) and lemony citrus, with also coriander and mixed herbs (sage and thyme). Flavor is similar with white pepper, floral hops, light banana bread, light grains, light lemon notes, faint clove, and herb notes are very light (sage). Palate is nice with a moderate warmth, dry perception, creamy texture, nearly medium body, and nearly lively carbonation but does have a prickly acidity. Finishes drying with the moderate bitterness and more white pepper notes taking control of the moderately light, tart acidity from the esters and lemon notes, lingering sage as well. This was a nice American saison with a great palate and nice notes but not the complexity or the uniqueness of the Belgian examples. Very drinkable though, too drinkable maybe.