Lost Abbey Lost and Found

Brewed by Port Brewing/Lost Abbey
Style: Abbey Dubbel
San Marcos, California USA

The beer pours from the 750ml cork and caged bottle a rather hazy brownish red with a large creamy light tan head that fades away leaving a velum like coating of lace. Nose is rich in sweet malt, fruit aromas; I’d say cherries with a bit of raisins. Start is fruity sweet; the malt presence makes the top feel moderate, touch of alcohol bitterness at the back. Finish has a spiny acidity, alcohol warms the belly, and hops provide some spiciness, dry and long lasting aftertaste, quite a nice drinking beer.

750ml bottle. Darkly sweet, richly fruity aroma, vinous and full of toffee, cocoa and raisin, with notes of date, blackcurrant, yeast esters, faint hazelnut and earthiness. Deep mahogany color with a lasting, very fine, off-white head and thin sheets of lace. Flavor is comprised of a good blend of sweet, lightly toasty, nutty dark malts, dried fruit and mild but insistent spices in the background. Some lingering milky chocolate, orange peel, hop bitterness and very slight medicinal, alcoholic tinges. Smoothly creamy on the palate with a full body. Some stickiness late. Very agreeable interpretation.

Slightly metallic aroma, but mostly caramel and fruit. Nice translucent orangy brown color with little head. Starts with spicy fruit, gets a hit of carbonation and seems to finish with a bit of hop and raisiny fruit. Got to love it. Fruits are less than plummy, and the candy component is well under control. Recommended.

Bottle. Ruby brown beer with a nice lt cocoa colored head. Brown sugar, figs, and plum in the aroma. Fruity (date, fig, plum, banana), yeasty, earthy, malty, candi sugar flavor. Lingering earthiness. Flavor fades a bit too quickly.

This beer features a beautifully rich maltiness that is like sticking your head into a bin of caramel malts. There is a good bit of yeast fruitiness, a good bit of melon and maybe a bit of cooked carrot. Balanced with hop bitterness, but the bitterness is a bit self-effacing.

Sampled from 750 courtesy of dpjuart. Sweet and smooth aroma, with raisin and plum and mild fig. Alcohol vapors, rich malty aroma. Aromatic with some carbonic gaseousness. Rich coppery red-brown clear, with absolutely no head. Medium-heavy watery body with medium-light carbonation. This one is still hot, but with a nice taste to it and oddly, a bit watery/thin. Nice malty flavor with raisin and caramel. Mild sweet malty finish with light chalky bitterness in the after. A tasty brew.

2006 bottle drunk on 2/3/07
Terrific presentation. Deep auburn-tinted mahogany body shows a medium to medium-high clarity, leaving the unfiltered sediment behind. Beige head is large, rocky and well-retained, leading to much lacing down the glass.
Light phenols, dark fruit esters and gentle, sweet, pale malts all come off very subtley, as the barest hint of roast (chocolate malt) creeps in on the edges. A fair amount of breadiness and a definite hard candy-like feel from the crystal malt, which works against the softness, but gives light (and dry) toffee/caramel notes that seem apt for the style. I don’t get much raisin, neither from the actual raisins nor the special B, but that’s fine, as there shouldnt be a prominent note of it anyways. Rather, it is all much more homogenous, with prunes, raisins, and date notes all blending together to give a stickiness that also helps keep the crystal malt from creating too hard an aroma. Black pepper phenolics and just a brushstroke of clove/banana dot the finish, while a touch of alcohol heat is notable upon warming. I really like the grain bill here, though I don’t usually like crystal malts. But they add enough assertiveness to what would otherwise be too soft and possibly mushy.
Concord grapes, chocolate-covered cherries and vanilla cream-like malt sweetness all burst forth in the flavor and then scatter, leaving light peppery phenols, dry crystal malt and hints of roast. Really nice attenuation, being lightly sweet, and very chewy, but also dry enough to be able to drink it quite quenchingly. Yeast dosent pump out much clove, fusel or bananas, which is always appreciated and the carbonation is very tight and engaging. Piquant dark fruits stick to the palate and linger on the finish, being contrasted to black pepper-like dryness and dry toffee/caramel notes. Very complex dubbel. I really like the chewiness and almost waxy-smooth yeast/crystal malt synergy combined with the fruity special b. Reminds me, in some ways, of Westy 8 (though the overall flavors are much different). Maybe a bit on the sweet side overall.

Pours with a cloudy, brown body topped by a medium thick to thick head with little lacing. It’s sweet and malty with a nice banana note and a note of yeast, as well as, a touch of cany sugar. Medium to full bodied, slightly tingly and yet smooth.