Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Lost Abbey 2009 Gift of the Magi

Lost Abbey is one of those "cult" beers, beers that get folks all atwitter, especially some of their special releases, like Cuvvee de Tomme. I've had the opportunity to check their small brewery out, just outside of San Diego and tasted many of their outstanding brews. Unfortunately tasting their beers is a few and far between experience for me since they don't distributed to Texas. However they do to Denver so whenever I am in town visiting family I make a point to pick up something from them I haven't had. That's how I got this brew, their Christmas Seasonal Ale. The base of this beer is their Biere de Garde with Frankincense and Myrrh added and bottle conditioned with Brett.
The Beer: This beer weighs in at 10.0% and pours a gorgeous burnished amber with a quarter inch off white almost tan head. The nose is primarily of malts, with some mild barny notes, hops, lemony, and honey. Mouthfeel is chewy and dense. Malty is the first thing that comes to mind, then notes of honey, some citrusy grapefruit notes and a little bit of barnyness. But this barny taste is incredibly restrained and actually gives the beer a balanced counterpart to the malty sweetness. Sweetness is really what defines this beer, but there are notes of spice, clove, mustyness, candied fruit, cinnamon. All these other flavors, along with the addition of the Brett, really creates an outstanding counterpoint to the malty honey and caramel sweetness. Very drinkable, hides the alcohol very well. This gets a happy B+ from me. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.

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