Southampton Abbot 12

Brewed by Southampton Publick House
Style: Abt/Quadrupel
Southampton, New York USA

2006 vintage sample at about a year and a half old. Deep brown beer with a thick creamy tan head. Lovely sweet aroma of toast, dried fruit, plums and light orange peel as well. A hint of ginger, heavy clove, anise, and sweet brown sugar. Lightly rummy with a hint of molasses. Lots of spicy yeast and a great bready maltiness. Sweet, but it has dried out significantly in the last year, greatly improving the beer. There is a lightly peppery character and a lovely minty finish on the back. As it warms, the breadiness kicks in adding a silky smooth body on top of the great layers of fruit and spice. Great balance and very tasty.

2006 vintage sampled at the brewpub. Dark brown/orange beer with a thick yellow head. Aroma of dark malt, rye bread, toast, molasses, dark buckwheat honey and a light floral character lingering throughout the whole sweet mass. Flavour is quite sweet and complex, but not terribly harmonious. Sweet toast, strong molasses and brown sugar notes that seem to clash more than these types of flavours should. A bit of burnt sugar. Alcohol is well hidden but it will take awhile for all of this stuff to blend together and balance. I’ll have to try this in a year or two. As it warms some more balance appears in the malts. It is definitely sweet enough and lacks the hotness that I’ve found in a lot of SPH big brews, bit it still need some time to become great. 8 4 6 3 14

2003 750ml bottle shared by Pailhead. Pours a medium brown color with no head. Nose is light alcohol, light chocolate, caramel and a small bit of hop presence. Nothing dominates. Flavors of caramel, dates, light grapes, hints of alcohol. Palate is smooth and creamy with a light bitter finish.

Bottle (2003) : Courtesy of notalush via trade. Aroma of caramel, chocolate, dark fruits, raisin, and the slightest hint of alcohol. Pours a cloudy brown with a small off-white head that quickly fades to a ring around the edges of the glass. Lots of dark fruits, light residual sugar, raisin, and hints of molasses. Finishes with a slight hint of alcohol and minimum bitterness.

The aroma had slight citrus, dark fruit, brown sugar and plum/raisin sweetness. The flavor had dark fruit, plum/raisins, malts, a slight spice and brown sugar notes. The mouthfeel was medium bodied and lightly carbonated.

Sweet aromas of malt, chocolate and nuts. Taste of raisins, cholcolate and a sweet finish.

2002 Bottle: Pours a wonderful but cloudy brown with a thick tannish head. Smells of grapes, nuts, bread, maple syrup and a slew of others I cannot quite place. Tastes of raisins, figs, nuts, and honey with a nice sweet finish.

2002 bottle generously provided (as always) by Eyedrinkale. Sampled July 2005. Pours a drab, olive-brown, with some dark blackish-violet tinged colors and some dark, orangish-tan-brown notes. Interesting color, all told, and quite fair to the style (though lighter overall). A thin film of head covered the beer to start, off-white to yellowish cream colored, but is not long-retained, though it did lace well. There were large protein chunks in the bottom of the glass. The beer was very murky. Aroma smells of concord grapes. Yep, hugely vinous and very strange. Brown malt sweetness that was expected is not there, but there is a dry, raisiny, bitter chocolate note and some beginning notes of oxidation. Flavor was more telling of the condition this was in (not a good one), and was the equivalent of a big dose of moderately sweet, flat, fermented grape juice (not quite the elegance of a wine). Raisiny, moderately sour on the finish, with some sherry and light cardboard. Slick, loose consistency, with a very low carbonation. The body is there, but it is just so vinously grapey that I can barely choke down my glass. The alcohol was not apparent, that was a nice touch, but it just did not do much good. Some vanilla and almond notes try to break in the mix, but the sourness holds it back, while the bitter chocolate/light roast and huge concord grape flavor sap all enjoyment. Everyone remarked how bad and undrinkable it was, and how passed its prime. And I agree. Not sure how anyone that tasted it alongside me gave this over a 3, but whatever, to each his own, I guess.

A note on why I chose to rate this. I know, having personally seen EDA’s cellar that he takes very good care of his bottles and I can’t imagine this to be any exception. Hell, at 10% and this magnitude of malt, it would take a lot to unnaturally disrupt this beer. I love Phil’s beers more than the next guy, but I think it’s only fair to review the bad with the good. I’m sure the much acclaimed 2003 Abbot 12 will be much more to my liking (I hope anyways) and will give it it’s due when I open it. 6/3/4/2/8

2006 bottle from the Hop Devil Grill, drunk on 9/22/06.
Strong beige-ivory colored head perches well atop a deep, brown-auburn-mahogany body, with light violet-crimson highlights on the edges. Lacing is moderate, and retention is moderate as well. Bottle conditioned.
Sweet, sticky fruits in the nose: prunes, raisins, currants, gooseberries, elderberries.....Strong caramel and sweet toffee are certainly not subtle, while a lightly oily/leathery yeastiness, mixed in with some vaporous fusels join the fray on the finish. Banana and vanillin-like notes add some estery drynes, and the dry fruits help balance, but it is still awfully sweet and rather raw.
Surprisingly, I think the flavor comes through somewhat more refined than the aroma. Perhaps the alcohol playing foil to the heavily sweet toffe-breadiness and sticky caramel gives a glimpse of balance. Peppery phenols build up quickly, however, and while there is some soft, banana bread-like chewiness, and a bit of smooth brown sugar, the heavily drying alcohol and phenols overbalance the finish and you get a flavor profile that moves from heavily sweet to heavily dry/borderline astringent, without much in between. Certainly this is due, in part, to its very young age and no doubt this beer should develop much better cohesiveness after a year or so. Dark fruit skins, light cocoa powder and more vanilla round off the finish. Definitely an eye opener, and something to be sipped. Carbonation is very heavy at first, and takes patience to let settle. 6/4/7/3/14. Score is an average of the two years.

Dark brown-yellow. Alcoholic aroma with notes of licorice, chocolate and sweet malt. Sweet flavor with notes of raisins, chocolate and fruits. Round.