Lost Abbey Gift of the Magi

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

Nice chestnut pour with a solid head. Zesty funk aromas are mingling with some woodsy, oaky touches of fruit and cereal, some biscuit and wet hay as well. Taste differs slightly and provides a nicely balance tango between the vineous farmy nuances and some more potent and warming caramel, raisiny syrupy sweetness. Nice

Chestnut colored with bone colored head. Aroma is mostly sweet caramel with some murky spice notes. Taste is notes of passionfruit, apricot and burnt orange peel with acrid, drying tannic elements into the finish, which turns hotly alcoholic. $5.5/10oz

750mL mag -> trappist glass. pours cloudy amber/copper with a tan head that laces well. Smells like berries, figs and bananas, then metallic, earthy decaying logs. Mmmm, and yeasty. Sweet and sour have formed a great friendship here. At times it is almost cloy. Yeast and brett qualities form the a kind of backbone that are present from sip to finish. There is slight pleasant bitter in the finish. Body is medium and feels oily with soft carbonation. This is very good for an American made Belgian style and I am impressed. Carbonation could be higher, though. Will recommend to friends.

On tap at Toronado. Murky red-brown with no head. Aroma-spicy sweet malt. Flavor-sweet with a slight bitterness. Underlying lemon, clove, brown sugar, alcohol.

pours a very nice ruby color...nice clarity...with a medium sized lt. tan head. decent retention and lacing. aroma is pretty fruity but not sweet...slightly doughy....somewhat barleywine-like...some alcohol, earthy malt, dark fruit (maybe plum?)...not getting much hoppiness. flavor has some ligfhtly spicy and earthy hops up front followed by fruity and slightly winey maltiness. mouthfeel is oily and lively...never thins out. hops return in the lingering dry finish which is also earthy and warming. i really enjoyed this one...so earthy and subtley complex...warming. probably not hoppy enough for hot karl wolliamson.

pours amber-brown with a thin, quicky-dissipating white head. nose is caramel, fig, date, brandied plum, honey nut bread, esters. flavor is bitter, doughy, lots of fruit, heavy alcohol warmth. dry, bitter throughout, brett adds a tasty barnyard funkiness in the aftertaste...pretty freakin’ good.

’08 bottle. Very enjoyable. Aromas of vinegar, red fruits and caramel. Slightly sour taste, sugars, bit of funk--taste is really hard to describe, but good.

Surprisingly disappointed with this one. Pours a clear amber color with a thin white head. Aroma of spice, grain and yeast. Flavor is lots of grain, yeast, and spice. Almost hoppy bitter finish. Less bitter as it warmed.