Lost Abbey Gift of the Magi

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

Bottle with the Club. Pours a hazy light cobber with a diminishing off-white head. Smells of alcohol. Sweet and sugary with some bitterness. Slight spicyness and a hint of metals. Medium to low carbonation. Hints of alcohol in the finish.

Bottle. Dark brown beer with a semi strong head. The aroma is florally hopped with a slight sourness about it. The flavour is very dry, strongly vinous and deeply bitter, malty and roasted. Overall probably a little too strong for the style to be a brilliant beer, but good none the less.

Pale amber, slight fog. Faint band-aid and caramel aroma. Lots of character, though somewhat unbalanced. The funk and sticky sweet base work and don’t, like a flawed masterpiece or an aspiring everyday beer. Meh.

Bottle. Hazy orange coloured with a small white head. Sweet and fruity aroma of caramel with notes of spices. Fruity flavour of caramel, spices, hops and pine needles with notes of yeast. Hoppy finish.

Det her er en juleøl. Mørk uklarravfarvet med et hvidt skum. Dufter af karamel, tørrede frugter og noget sødt. Smager af chokolade og noget krydderi. Minder om en sødlig belgier uden gær. Tør humlet eftersmag.

Appearance: Lightly hazy, orangey-amber body with a frothy, off-white head. Smell: Toasted caramel malts with a mild fruit character, spicy-scented hops, and, yes, yes, there’s that underlying funky Brett component smelling of wild, voracious molds eating away the dry wall and alcohol-soaked cotton. Taste: Sweet, toasty, creamy caramel maltiness followed by a light apricot fruitiness. Tiniest bit of lemony citrus. Spicy hops with a medium bitterness compounded by a bitter oil taste and ginger ’heat’. Funky, earthy Brett with it’s barnyard, molded paper flourishes. Grassy kick on the back end. Drying, lightly spicy finish with a bit of alcohol warmth and lingering herbaceousness. Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied. Medium carbonation. Very slight stickiness. Drinkability: Though not my favorite of the Lost Abbey line-up, it’s still well-rounded and reasonably drinkable as it definitely hides its ABV rather well.

Pous a vivid amber/orange color body with a small off-white head. The aroma is a bit spicey with some floral perfumy hops, sweet caramel, and citrus. The flavor starts off with some squash and pumpkin-like flavors followed by some dry earthy and floral hops. The finish has some sweet and bitter citrus with some very subtle but sweet confectioners sugar notes.

Bottled thanks to Phil L at beermerchants.com. It pours an interesting burnt orange body, with a spongy off-cream head folding like a cheap hooker who got punched in the stomach. Yes, Joey, that’s the way I play poker too. There’s orange peel, there’s cinnamon but there’s also an sourness (in a healthy, Belgian way) and a fair amount of Brettyness. I had wondered about laying this down for next year - every other sip says I should have done (lose the sharpness, mellow the brett). Yet every other other sip says GREEN LIGHT GO for the fresh spice feel, raw lemon, more funk than a drummer strung out on Bolivian marching powder. There’s warmed turned earth, yesterday’s pissy straw, liquid bread.... it’s fun to drink but just a little, ahem, challenging on the palate. Truth be told, there are times when it feels like it’s sticking in my clack a bit. Was that warm licorice? A cruel and unusual spice that’s been recently relieved all over? Like beeswax on an old oak table, I figure those Yemen resins are there to lift the beer to a higher plain, not to define its soul. I started off intrigued, became disillusioned and now have grudging admiration for certain aspects of its outlook. Insert your own religious allegory here.