Lost Abbey Red Poppy Ale

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

Pour is auburn/ copper with a decent off white head. Aroma is tart cherry and wood...a bit of funk. Nice, tart fruit flavor and good body. Pretty dry, but enjoyable.

Bottle... March 08 Tampa Bay Tasting... This beer rocks!... Murky caramel-colored ale with a small, creamy, manila head. Terrific retention. Incredible aroma of black cherries. Also, toffee and caramel richness alongside wet leather and barnyard funkiness. Medium-bodied with fair carbonation. Terrific balance. Lightly caramelly and fairly acidic up front; blasts of acetic and bitter intensity on the backside. The finish is a bit mundane and lifeless, but the impression has already been made. Big-time thanks goes out to Degarth for sharing his bottle of this world class beer!

Shared at Cleveland tasting 3/15 Bottle: Pours a hazy copper with a tan head. Aroma, some light funk with some sour cherries, yeast. Flavor, lightly sour, cherries, yeasty, some funk, but not overpowering.

Reddish brown color with a nice off-white head that retained pretty good. I got some cherries and cherry pits in the aroma, also a fair amount of sourness and maybe a touch of cinnamon. Taste was sour, some cherries, but didn’t really do much to impress me. The complexity of the aroma didn’t translate as well into the flavor for me. It was enjoyable, but again, it didn’t really stand out to me. Fairly light body with medium carbonation. It was good, but I don’t think I’ll be worrying about getting this again, especially not at the price. Thanks to doubleo for the chance to try it.

Cleveland tasting

Thanks to whomever popped this open just before we transitioned to Chris’s house. I wasn’t really expecting to get to try so many Lost Abbey/Port brews in one shot so this was icing on the cake. It’s not the most intense sour ale. I may still have problems finishing up a bottle alone but that wouldn’t stop me from trying.

Aroma / Appearance - The cloudy reddish brown body gave off strawberries, raspberries and cherries. This fruity barrage was undercut by a focused sourness which gave a very bright aspect to the aroma.

Flavor / Palate - The dryness hits the mouth soon after the first sip (much like La Folie). Sour raspberries blend with strawberries and other fruits in a liquid form of sour patch kids. For a sour ale it was easy going and light on the palate. I could certainly take my time with this one and make an hour of it. Lost Abbey has a winner on its hands with this release.

Bottle shared at the Cleveland tasting. Not sure who shared it. Sorry! So this is the infamous red poppy I heard tell of? Interesting brew. Tasted like a cherry sweet tart. Not a big fan of the style, but can appreciate the effort here.

Shared with secretstash. Poured hazy brown an off white head. Aroma of sour cherries and sweet oak. Some sour flavor up front but kind of thinned out. Good amount of cherry in it.

20080315 375ml bottle shared with dmac621. Aroma is promising, fruit forward with clear notes of barrel aging. Flavor is ripe with freshly crushed sour cherries, light funky tartness, and woody vanilla and pitch notes. Finishes sweet and mild with only faint lingering sourness. I wish I loved it more; this beer is no La, although it is so reminiscent it will be inevitably compared.