Lost Abbey Gift of the Magi

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

A gusher. Pours with a large, dense, off-white head covering a slightly hazy copper body. Good lacing and great retention. Aroma has lots of toffee, butter and caramel with some light spices and some apricot. Taste is pure butterscotch with some light alcohol and yeast. Creamy smooth mouthfeel with light carbonation, slight warming but the alcohol is not very strong in the taste.

In short: A very dry and yeasty barnyard Bière de Garde. Different and excellent
How: Bottle 750ml shared at Dark-Lord-Day party 2008. Unknown generous soul
The look: Cloudy dirty orange with a large beige head
In long: The first thing that stoke me about that beer is how dry it is. This bottle was dry as hell it mostly seemed to come from the dry/dusty barnyard yeast profile and maybe a little contribution from the dry grassy hops. Sitting in the middle of that dryness was baguette bread, some citrus skin, light herbal spiciness sensation, orange peels and blanket that spent five years in the attic. I happen to be a huge fan of dry and barnyard beers so this was right up my alley but this sure is quite different from just about all the Bière de Garde I’ve had, and thus making this confusing style even more confusing to me. Named after a book that teaches that physical possession is not important. The beer had more of an effect on my than the book cause I want a full case of this stuff.

Cloudy amber with a medium white head. Strong yeast aroma with some hops. Flavor had bread, caramel, hops, spices, a bit of funk/brett, light fruit and floral hops. Finished somewhat dry, a bit warming.

Bottle shared at DLD. Pours hazy amber with thin off white head. Aroma is brett, hops, and bready. Flavor is just that with a touch of etoh.

750 ml bottle. Pours a cloudy amber with a moderate linen white head that lasted through most of the glass and left lots of sticky lace. Pleasant aroma of malt, hops and a bit of yeast. The flavor was very similar with malt up front follwed up with some moderate hops bitterness. Medium bodied with the alcohol very well hidden. Although this was a very solid beer, there is frankly nothing special about it.

On tap at 2nd LA party. A smooth and easy to drink beer. It has a bitter end, but works well. Very much like an ipa with a bit more depth in flavor. ReRATE cherry in the nose, slight sourness, odd style.

Cloudy light amber. Full malty aroma - hints of bread, lush caramel. Hints of brett and ester. Crazy oak, rich malts, and a muscular alcoholic finish. Burly hop bitterness keeps it in balance.

Bottle. Pours a hazy amber with a 1+ finger off-white head. Aroma is somewhat yeasty, but with a good dose of malts and hops. Some fruit notes are also evident. Flavor is much the same, malt first, then some of the hops. Perhaps it is because I am not totally familiar with this style, but this almost tasted like a hopped up dubbel. Crisp and very drinkable.