Wine Affairs, a little neighborhood wine bar located on the Alameda, is fast becoming a little jewel of craft beer in San Jose. I wish I could take credit for their ever expanding line of craft beers, or for the recent installation of their taps, but the truth is that their customers are the ones driving the change and I couldn’t be happier.
Last night was the first in an upcoming series of tastings at Wine Affairs. Hosted by the Wine Warehouse‘s Kurt Belluomini, we were able to sample several Lost Abbey beers for a very reasonable $8/person with bottles available to purchase for “take home” use.
Here are the beers we tried and my brief notes on them all:
Lost Abbey, Avant Garde, 7.0% ABV
Avant Garde is an example of the Biere de Garde style of Belgian beer. What separates Biere de Garde from other Belgian beers is that it is lagered. This isn’t to say that all Biere de Gardes are made with lager yeasts, only some of them but they are cool stored as opposed to just aged. In the case of Avant Garde, a “house” lager was used with this beer and then fermented at ale temperatures.
This beer has a primarily malt-forward flavor profile that is biscuity in nature; the hop bitterness is medium-low/medium with a yeast-driven fruity character. Our least favorite of the tasting, which isn’t to say it’s a bad beer, there were just much better beers that night.
Lost Abbey, Carnevale, 6.5% ABV
A example of a Belgian-style Saison, Carnivale differes from its European counterparts in the use of dry-hopping with Amarillo hops. Upon first smelling this beer, I found it to have a funky, sulfury yeast note that reminded me of, this is going to sound really bad, a restroom. Once those aromas volatize away, I smell an earthy, floral hop character that is echoed in the flavor as well.
Despite the initial funkiness of the aroma, we ended up purchasing a bottle because it tasted good.
Lost Abbey, Gift of the Magi, 9.5% ABV
Gift of the Magi is another Belgian-style ale from Lost Abbey, in this case, a Strong Golden Ale. Given it’s name because of the use of Frankincense bark as a bittering agent (and a little bit of Myrrh), Gift of the Magi appears to be a gruit (hopless beer) as opposed to a traditional beer. The use of botanical herbs in brewing has a long history, more of which can be found here.
Gift of the Magi has a slightly sweet malt aroma with some spice character and noticeable alcohol. These qualities extend themselves into the flavor of the beer as well, with the finish exhibiting more of those herbal qualities as opposed to a lingering hop bitterness. The high alcohol also helps to balance out the sweetness of the beer.
Lost Abbey, Red Barn Ale, 6.5% ABV
This beer was supposed to be the second beer we tasted but Kurt though he forgot to bring this beer with him. He eventually found it and we were able to try it. I’ve already reviewed this beer (not coincidentally also at Wine Affairs) that you can read about here.
Lost Abbey, Judgment Day, 10.5% ABV
Judgment Day from Lost Abbey is their take on a Belgian Dark Strong Ale. When we were poured this beer, the first aromatic that jumped out at us was “raisins”. While this is a common descriptor used in many Belgian-style dark strong ales, this is especially apt for Judgment Day as raisins, and dextrose, are used to make this beer. Lost Abbey’s use of raisins is particularly interesting as instead of just dumping in a few pounds of raisins into the brew kettle, Lost Abbey head brewer Tomme Arthur noted how they caramelize the raisins before hand by taking a huge flamethrower to them. Dextrose, on the other hand, is a yeast-friendly sugar that ferments cleanly and is sometimes used to increase the alcohol content of the beer without adding any flavor.
In addition to the prominent raisin flavor of the beer, Judgment Day also has caramelized malt flavors and dark chocolate undertones.
Lost Abbey, Angel’s Share, 12% ABV
This beer is one of the prime examples of why I really love barrel-aged beer. This beer has a rich, malt flavor that is sweet with a deep caramelized character. The bourbon really comes through in the aromatics in the beer and as a secondary flavor characteristic while the wood manifests itself in the vanilla and slight coconut flavors. The wood also lends a slight astrigency that is partially masked by the noticeable, but not hot, alcohol character. We ended up purchasing a bottle of this.
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