Marks for Appearance are an average, as beer was sampled in weak artificial light after dark. Sourish lactic nose, sour cherries, Pedio an Brett notes. Cherries taste, both sour & maraschino, some wood apparent. Warming up, light ginger flavour. Lots of backthroat acidburn, very well-carbonated, even spritzy. Another Lost Abbey Special. Maybe a tad harder than most, but nice enough.

Bottled - tasted blind. An unclear amber-brown beer with a lazing orange head. The aroma is sweet combined with some acidity and notes of fruit and black currant. The aroma is sweet with an underlying acidity and notes of woood, berries, and brettanomyces.

Murky brown with medium off white head. Sweet and sour aroma with notes of roasted malt, wood and berries. Sour flavor with woody, berries and malty notes. Ends sour. Lovely.

Blind tasting at Papsoes place, another great session, thanks Henrik! Beer #17: Pours hazy brown with a lacing slight off-white head. Light fruity acidic aroma. Flavour is light orange peel and citric/acidic. Light sweet caramel malt beneath. Light sweet caramel flavour and light acidic into the finish. Nice.

Bottle. Mahogony beer with a light tan head. Big red wine aroma with some backing malt and spice. Red wine flavor with oak, malt, spice, and yeast. Medium body. Lingering red wine and yeast with a bit of other darker malt. Wine barrel notes competely dominate. Nice, but not what I expected.

Bottle shared by Styles. Murky toffee/caramel sediment-laden body, medium cream head. Caramely aroma with pineapple and oak notes. Tart, funky body, with oak and caramel, toast, and spice. Some sharp dark fruits. Spicy and bready. Oak and tart notes dominate the flavor profile. Medium-bodied. Not stellar but still good.

Draught at EBF on 2/10/07
Black cherry-colored body has some light crimson and violet highlights and is topped by a moderate-sized, dark beige head that fades slowly to cover, leaving moderate lacing behind. Clarity is medium to medium-high, though the liquid is quite dark.
At first, wine seems dominant in the nose. Wine tannin, that is. Very dry and grapeskin-like, giving off notes of deep plums, currants and light cherries, though very reserved and not juicy or overly fruity. Even though it seems dominant, as in it accounts for most of the aroma, it still is not overdone or in your face. Cautiously, some dry chocolate, light pale malts and a smooth vanilla note emerge, giving some depth to the lightly tart/acidic tannins. The figs, dates and raisins from the base beer only seem to provide softness in the nose which is underscored on the finish by peppery phenols, some scratchiness (not sure if it is from the dark malt or the barrel) and light fusels (only coming out with warming). Chocolate and caramel sweetness steadily grow with warming, but dry barrel character keeps it mostly in check. The added fruitiness, though not overdone, does lead away from the dubbel style, of course, but I really like how it has dried the beer out and the barrel notes work well with the dark notes of the base beer. Medium strength of aroma, it’s certainly not bursting forth, but some patience and persistence really unlocks a beautiful beer.
Dry and woody at first, with acids and sharpness hitting the palate, but smoothing out this sharpness is some strong caramel sweetness, soft vanilla cream and a fluffy yeast. Moderate amounts of dark, fruity wine flavors and even a light citrus note add complexity. Chocolate is notable, lightly, with warming while a crunchy, lightly roasted note combines with black pepper-like phenols and some light alcohol to produce a dry finish. Really liked this one, the flavors were solid, if somewhat subtle. Mouthfeel was a bit scratchy or bare at times, but I thought the barrel improved the beer, actually, though it’s tough to compare the bottle conditioned bottled version to this draught barrel-aged version. Wish they would bottle this....subtle beers are underappreciated on this site.