Lost Abbey Isabelle Proximus

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

Delightful aroma of lemons and apricots. Flavor is quite tart yet remains lithe and elegant. Notes of vanilla and yeast, dominated mostly by kumquats. Superb.

750ml bottle. Pours a bright light golden colour with a nice small white head like a gleaming coronet. The aroma is a glorious basket of funky, sweet fruits including peach, apricot, lemon, and white grapes with an ethereal barnyard backbone. I enjoyed this for 10 minutes before even tasting the beer. The flavour is intensely sour but not overpowering, with great barnyard funk, apricot, green grapes, slightly buttery oak, and lemons. The finish has some yeast, musty books, and a lot more apricot. This is a complex and extraordinary beer that I only wish to be able to sample many times again...

Isabelle pours hazy apricot in color with a lively white head that fizzes out like champagne. Before I even go in for the first sniff, it feels like my nose is already immersed in a bath of funken glory. Aroma is riddled with gratuitous funk, nectar with incarnations of peach, apricot, mandarin, and nectarine. Oak, horseblanket, farm, lemon acidity, and grassy straw round out the more subtle side. Flavor is simply explosive and unyielding. Massive tart funky nectar presents with back notes of oak and acidic citrus fruit. Grass, straw, hay and farm abound. Slight acetic acid note presents in the most mild mannered and well placed way possible. Palate is full bodied with extremely fine bubbled effervescence and a slippery oaken finish. A liquid masterpiece.

Hazy dark apricot pour with a thin offwhite head. Aromas are pungent Funk with some sharp horse blanket that then smoothed out by intense nectar fruits, apricots, peaches, madarin oranges, nectarines. Hay abounds. Flavor is an explosion of Sour funk in the beginning of the sip, it tingles the palate. This is then softened by some fruitiness but once again becomes sharp in the finish. A woody funk that threatens to give me wood is apparent near the center and lingers till the finish. Continues to shock my palate with each sip. Happy 21st birthday to CraftyCarl21

Unbelievable birthday present from oteyj; what a man he is. Pours a dark cloudy peach with little to no head. Aroma holds tons of funk, a myriad of nectar fruit including apricot, nectarine, mandarin orange, straw, lemon, horseblanket, and a bit of oak. Not as sharp as a gueuze, but the funk is so graceful and balanced. Flavor is otherworldly; massive sour character, but perhaps the most complex funk I have experienced. It seems like every 2 seconds there’s a complete new phase, be it horseblanket, or oak, or a beautiful earthiness. The palate is heavenly; the tongue seems completely coated with beautiful sourness, and it finishes in a immensely gradual, controlled withdrawal into a smooth lingering mouthfeel. Carbonation is excellent, effervescent almost like a champagne, but not overdone. Absolutely wondrous brew.

Draught @ Brouwer’s Café for rating #2600:   Straw in color, hazy, lively carbonation, frothy white head, a few rings of lacing.   Bright nose, gueuze like, barnish, a little floral.   Dry on the tongue, tart, not as sour as I expected.   Does linger for quite a while though.   Smooth, tingly on the finish.   As it warms it flattens out a bit.   Good, but still would turn to La Terroir or Deviation first.   Body and mouthfeel are moderate.   Yeah, just wished this one was a tad bit bigger.   Wouldn’t turn it down if offered, but, yeah, you know....

Bottle shared by beerbill at Paul’s homebrew session. Hazy golden pour with a dense white head. Citric, dry aroma with some funk- grapefruit, leather, old horse blanket- Guezue-like character in it’s funkiness. Creamy and crisp feeling simultaneously. Tart flavor- lots of citric acidity and lemony like flavors. Some white oak is there with a funky back- nuances of dry leather and horse blanket. Crisp and acidic throughout. Complex as well. Nice indeed.

750 ml bottle shared by Beerbill. Thanks! Pours a hazy orangey yellow with a nice fluffy diminishing white head and some slight stringy lace. Aroma is peachy, stone fruitish, pears, sour lacto, brettish, slight brine-like, mineral- acid-like, lambic, and bretty and you can tell it will be a nice sour. Flavor is mineral- chalky with stone fruits- peachy, similar to festina lente but a bit more complex, labic-like, great acidity, lactic acid, a touch citric, and malic- slight horsey funk, acidic- slateish backbone and good medium body with a long acidic finish- but not too over the top, very drinkable. Had this many times so far and it is still holding up very nicely, perhaps still getting better each time.