Lost Abbey The Angels Share (Bourbon Barrel)

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

My 1909th rating. The number & name of my all time favorite soccer club/team. 12,7 ounce bottle. Thanks Chris! Opened with a loud pop. Pours dark brown with a small creamy brown head & lacings. Nose is amazing. So much complexity its nearly overwhelming. Dark fruits, coffee, bourbon, vanilla, chocolate, wood and so on. Warm, sweet, vinous, smooth,sticky, velvetly soft. Every drop is priceless! This is why I spend so much time on beer.

Cask@GBBF2008. Very dark brown colour, close to black, small beigeish brown head, which disappeared quite fast. Wow, so where do I begin? Aroma is raisins and sweet wood along with some vanilla at the first breath-in. The following ones bring a lot of stuff, mild notes of alcohol and chocolate, some slight madeiraish sweetness along with fruityness. Some sweetish sour notes of old coffee. Flavour is about as comples, or maybe even more so. The evident notes are wood, sweet fruits and some spices. All this mixed in with a warming touch of alcohol and some slight notes of smoked wood. Long sweetish caramelly and wooden aftertaste in this beauty. This was beer was a real mindblower, and if the various parts of the mouth picking up flavours could get orgasms, this beer would probably be the one doing it...

Cask, GBBF 08. Dark with no head. Aromas are rich roast malts with warming brandy and lots of lqiqourice. Woody and vinous. Flavours are chocolate and coffee with spices and lots of warming alcohol. Smooth and rich with a very long aftertaste. Great.

(Cask at GBBF, London, 5 Aug 2008) Very dark brown colour with foamy, pale brown head. Malty, woody nose with notes of dried fruit, prunes and raisins. Rather vinous, dominated by the wood aromas. Malty, woody taste with dark fruit, raisin, prunes, bourbon and coffee (or rather what we in Sweden call kaffekask - coffee with a generous splash of liquor in it). Long, vinous and woody finish. Very warming. Excellent stuff!

Cask at the GBBF 2008, gravity dispense. Nearly black colour (very dark reddish brown). Intense and lovely aroma of various subtropical woods, winey notes. The mouthfeel has lots of alcoholic warmth as expected. The flavour has notes of oak and fortified wine. Very good.

Cask. Low but lasting off-white fluffy head. Pitch black body. Coffee hops alcohol aroma. Smooth and pleasant port wine like flavor of coffee and just a hint of vanilla with low carbonation, long veneous aftertaste. Alcohol well hidden.

Cask at GBBF 08... WOW i didnt even realise i had the Bourbon version. Deep brown... sweet vanilla nose ... again a light vanilla ... loads od toffeee and sweet malts ... nice mellow ... very warming... didnt really pick up much bourbon... Note were a bit poor as i thought it was a rerate of the normal version. Though i did think it seemed smoother that the normal bottle id tried at RBESG 08 but put that down to being cask.

A Mes rate: Gravicask at GBBF.
How amazed I was when I saw the Angels share on the cask list at BSF. How utterly flabbergasted I was to discover on my arrival at the festival that it was the barrel aged version. A very attractive black red colour with a thin but lasting bubbly tan head. Huge oak, (massive wood?) rich malt, chocolate, slight peaty earthy notes and some stunning pina colada notes from the coconut infusion from the barrel. Absolutely stunning mouthfeel. Loads of length. Huge stuff all round. Maybe a little over the top and it’s not unusual for me to say that about Lost Abbey, but here it really really works beautifully. Superb beer.