Lost Abbey Veritas 001

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

Date: 02/09/2007
Mode: Draft
Source: Brewfest, Extreme Beer

opaque dark burgendy, huge creamy beige head, lots of lace, huge tart cherry aroma with a woody cherry pit character, lots of tart cherry flavor, lots of wood character, touch of vanilla hiding in the background,

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 8/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 14/20
Rating: 3.5/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: **4
-------- /> I would like to rerate this beer.

750ml shared by artusory. Pours a purple brown with pretty much no head. Sticky plum and wood nose, along with some sweet brown sugar and toasted bread, bran, plums and black cherries, and even some brandy scented pancake syrup. Mild prickly texture up front, nearly flat, but moderately tart and woody. Stems and pits all over this thing. Thick and viscous with a bretty tartness, dried cranberries and some dried red grapes in the drying finish. Good stuff, but would like to have more carbonation and perhaps more of the brandy character that’s in the nose show up in the flavor. Still, few complaints.

Many thanks to I believe Wetherel who brought this (Bottle 42) to the 2007 PP SAF:

The beer poured a muddy brown with reddish highlights with no head nor lace but was oily. The aroma has notes of lovely funk and cheese, sour grape and cherry, fig, woody and earthy. The flavor displays the same sour fruits along with notes of chocolate, sugar, cinnamom, and wood. The mouth feel is warming and oily with a shapr acidity. Lovely stuff, I dig it.

Thanks to Wetherel for sharing. Bottle #42. Poured a deep red-brown color with an off-white head. The aroma was great. Tart and woody with great barnyard and leathery funk. Some mild alcohol fumes. The flavor was tart with a mild acidity. Semi-dry finish and lightly bitter. Light-medium body.

This Belgian Strong Ale pours a medium dark amber color from a 750ml bottle. Small head (nearly last pour from a bottle that had been open for a while). Aroma is dark fruit, wood and some funk. A medium bodied BSA. The malts are fruity and sweet, yet there is a touch of funk going on. Interesting blend of fruit and funk. Definitely different than the Veritas 002. Nice beer. Would like to sample this one again. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly sweet and a touch tart.

Bottle. Pours a hazy brune body with an off white head. Funky chewy cherry pit, skins pulp and a light woodiness. Lots of cuvee de tomme? A very nice sour ale.

EBF draught on 2/9/07
Near-opaque, strawerry-auburn colored beer with caramel highlights. Old-ivory colored head is large and resilient, producing moderate lacing.
Some dull barrel tannins (nuttiness) mix with a dry, somewhat tart, cherry skin note to set the fruity tone for the aroma. But it’s hardly awash in cherry aromatics, being much more reserved and lean than it is juicy and boisterous. Definite bacterial influences give a tart lime and grapefruit rind kick that really opens up the sinuses. Light vanilla and highly attenuated pale malts allow only the barest hint of chocolate malt which deepens the aroma and adds more dryness. Definite lacto yogurt-like notes and maybe some other oily bacterias. Very complex and difficult to nail-down aroma. Being that there are 3 different Belgian-style beers in here, it’s bound to have a lot going on. I like the dryness and tartness, but it might take it a little bit too far. The lactobacillus, as much as I love that yeast, seems a little overexposed and highly acidic. High strength of aroma, no alcohol noted. Cherryskin adds to the overall dryness.
Low carbonation immediately allows the liquid to well over the palate, with oily aceto/pedio or something like that providing strong barnyard/horseblanket dryness and funkiness. Musty and very tart, as if biting in to a raw cranberry. The cherries come through in the middle, but there is a definite flabbiness to the malt at points, and a wateriness, akin to watered-down cherry lemonade, is notable, though high amounts of brett and lacto quickly assert themselves on the finish, being quite sour/acidic. Dull tannins and/or yeast give some chewiness, but also quite a bit of blandness. Absolutely crazy stuff, a lot going on for sure, but it seems like there are some definite problems with the maltiness of some of the base beers. Some phenolic leather/plastic-like notes are rather unenjoyable as well, though they only come out with warming.

EBF 2007. One of my favorites at the fest. Pours a deep hazy amber/ with woody brown highlights and a sticky lasting head. Aroma is sour cherry, brett, funk, a wierd sugary sweetness, some lacto sourness and barnyard funky- slightly cheesy. Nice tart flavor, wine-like, grapeskin, tannic, sharp sourness with more cherry pit, and almond astringency especially at the end. Good body with a nice sour tart finish and some woody notes. Great blend.