Lost Abbey The Angels Share

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

2008 750ml bottle. pours a dark brown with a light copper ring around the glass. no head. aroma of chocolate, brandy, caramel, medicine, booze. flavor is much the same with some light alcohol burn on the old throat. this could use a bit more carbonation, but the aroma is pretty tight regardless.

2008 vintage. Very dark brown with small ruby edges, basically opaque. Absolutely no head, no lacings, nothing happens when I swirl the glass. A decent amount of boozy brandy aromas. Fudge, caramel, vanilla, wood and brandy. You can really tell that the beer suffers from the lack of carbonation, it’s like the aromas are stuck without the ability to hijack the carbonation and escape the liquid. Too bad, but still a good smell. The taste is better with more things going on. It’s very sweet with lots of brandy notes. Vanilla, fudge, dark caramel and nice oak barrel flavors. Some fruit aromas and raisins. The finish is really boozy with a brandy-like character. Quite an intense flavor, that’s just slightly too boozy. Full-bodied, sticky texture. Absolutely no carbonation, completely flat. Although it obviously suffers from the lack of carbonation, it’s still a really good beer. Perhaps it could have been slightly less boozy, but the brandy flavors give it a rather rich character. Serving type: bottle (Copy of old Beer Advocate review) NOTE: I’ve tried two more bottles of the same batch, both during late fall/winter in 2009 and in both of them there seem to have developed a strange tartness that I did not pick up when I tried it the first time. So it seems like some infection might be going on in this batch.

Bottle, 2008 vintage. Dark brown, reddish colour with virtually no head. A bit pungent, alcoholic and very sweet aroma with a lot of raisins and oak. Taste is quite sour, with some sweetness and a lot of oak barrel. A bit of alcohol, but mostly sourness and notes of unripe grapes. Not quite how I remembered this.

Pours deep brown with a thin head and no lace. Alcohol is heavy in the aroma along with chocolate and raisin. The taste is bourbon, brandy, raisin, chocolate, vanilla with an intense warming ability. Yum.

2008 version. Pours a very thick mud-like brown with no head. Smells of brandy, vanilla, coffee, and wood. Tastes is quite thick, almost shake thick, and you get flavors of some fruits, wood, and a big blast of booze. No carbonation whatsoever. Definitely not worth the $30.00 price tag.

Edition 2008. Dark brown colored brew. Aroma and flavor is sour. Maybe infected, molenbrouwer (thnx!) was thinking of an infection maybe. Must re-rate it. And have older versions!

2009 Bottle from jessup plaza. Poured a murkey brown color with no carbonation at all. Aromas jump from the glass and bottle with tons of earthy oak aromas as well as dark fruit, alcohol, spices, vanilla. Taste is huge amounts of oak and dark fruit, raisons, dates, alcohol. Mouthfeel is silky smooth but this one warms as it goes down. Great flavors all around on this one. The lack of carbonation did not hurt this at all. Great!! Might have to lay one down for a couple years as well cause this one is still young.

2008 375ml thanks to Odeed. Pours a cloudy brown with no visible carbonation. CARAMEL, raisin booze, cherry, soy sauce, maybe some vanilla aromas show up. Flavor is sweet, malty, and somewhat salty, finishes with malt flavor that reminds me of the color red. Mouthfeel is thick and syrupy with an inkling of carbonation. Overall it’s very good, but hasn’t blown me away.