Pizza Port Cuvee de Tomme

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

Old black label: Poured a cloudy reddish brown color. Aroma was pretty tart. This had a pretty weak body to it. New bottle: Poured dark brown with a reddish color. Almost looked still, no carbonation at all. was a little tarter than the older version and had a much better malt profile to it.

Bottle thanks to JohnC. Pours a deep amber brown color with no head. Aroma is dominated by cherries, and some maltiness. Flavor is malty, a hint of sugar, and sour cherries. 5/31/08 ’08 Pours a hazy amber brown color with a tan head. Aroma is funky, oak, brett, cherries, sweaty, and horse blanket. Flavor is cherries, brett, oak, tart, and a funky sweaty finish.

Tried at OBriens, who was generously selling bottles to drink at the bar. My wife was also generous enough to let me drink on her birthday, today. Sampled with a Judgement Day as a comparison. Judgement day is the base beer for CdT. They look the same, and you can taste many underlying similarities, but then the CdT takes over and rules. The aroma of cherries is wonderful, but not overpowering like Lindemans. Very well mellowed from aging. Perfect balance of sweetness and mild tartness. Very drinkable, despite the unnoticable 11% alchohol. A truly well rounded spectacular beer. Oh, I wish I could drink it everyday. 4.4, should be be a 4.5?, probably. Tried again at the Lost Abbey 1st Annual Barrel Tasting. Without aging CdT smells like a young red wine. Deep Red Black color. As if enough red could become black. Very tart also like a young red. After barrel aging, the aroma and flavor differences are amazingly different. Wonderful full oak in the aroma. Tartness has faded. A bit of buttery caramel sweetness that I like. Still is better in the bottle with carbonation and a slight chill. 12/30/07: Tried a 2003 vintage from deftim13. First bottling, but second year of the beer. unnumbered, but labeled CVNV3: CuVee North Vinyard 2003. No pop. Uncarbonated. Burnt amber color. This bottle was stored in the cellar below PP Solano untouched until now. Was told this is sourer than others, but it didn’t seem extra sour to me. 11.5% is unnoticable. Lot of sour cherry aroma. My last beer of the day, and I don’t feel good drinking this. 9,3,8,3,17:4.0.

Rating #900. 375 fresh bottle from Moejuck. Pours completely, totally dead flat. I’d wonder if there were something wrong but other people mentioned it, so I dunno. Aroma is lightly tart cherries, raspberry, chocolate malts and hot alcohol. Not too much complexity. Taste is much bigger, bustling with activity, dark breadiness/pumpernickel and warm malts up front, raspberries along the side of the tongue and a dry, slightly chalky finish. Very chewy and filling with little heat in the taste. Muddled wine and grains skirt the tongue at the fore. I must admit, I’m pretty disappointed with this. It really, really needs some carbonation. One of the most appealing attributes of fruited beers like this is the spritziness they gain from the carbonation, almost like a highly complex and rich soda. This is completely missing that, and really I don’t think it’s that complex, either. With carbonation this probably would’ve done 4.2 or so. I’ve got a black label 750 sitting in the cellar, we’ll see how that one goes.

CT7 Bottle shared by moejuck. Black Label: Dirty brown pour witha light tan head. Aroma of oak, brown sugar, brett, booze and sour cherry. Flavors of sweet malt, sour, and dry cherry. Medium body, bitter/sour/sweet throughout with a dry/sour finish. Awesome!

The new version: Similar in appearence. The aroma held some more bourbon qualities to it and a little less sour. The flavor wasd a bit more sweet as well and perhaps a bit less dry. Still good stuff though.

C-bus 7. Black Label older version: Warm aroma with light sour fruit--nice. Murky brown body. A medium palate lies under tastes of spice, fruits, and yeast with the expected light sour cherry flavor behind it all. Nicely done.

New version: Pretty much the same as the older version, though the alcohol is more detectable for certain and I think it has a more complex flavor actually. I would rate the new version just slightly higher than the old.

Got some slight spice and some alcohol in the aroma.Pours a deep mahogany with a medium off white head.Dark fruits,licorice and alcohol stood out in the flavor.Medium to full mouthfel with a big alcohol finish.

Black label 750 ml bottle and new ’07 375ml bottle shared by Moejuck and Spector...Thanks guys! I think I enjoyed the newer version more, but it is apparent it still needs some time as it is very young and the alcohol is present...but it is very easy to see the potential in this beer. The nose has some yeasty spicyness to it with oak and sour cherries coming through as well. It is also fairly easy to pick up on all the brett in this beer. Overall a great belgian strong ale, and one of my favorite beers from Pizza Port/Lost Abbey.