Brewery: Lost Abbey
Country: USA
Size: 75cl
ABV: 10.5%
Price: 120kr
Systembolaget: –
You don’t get much more biblical that judgment day. The idea that the wrath of god with signal the destruction of life as we know it is pretty brutal no matter how you look at it. But until the day we see the four horsemen galloping over the horizon to purge us from existence, we get to enjoy great beer. Enter Lost Abbey, purveyors of fine beer from California since 2006. I’m a fan of the quad style so I was intrigued to see what they could create, especially with the added raisins to the mix to crank that fruitiness up even more.
It was deep mahogany in colour and formed a decent beige cap that dissipated slowly. The tones emanating from the glass were a heavy mix of dried fruit, spices, toffee and brown sugar. The alcohol was also noticeable, which is unsurprising for a 10.5% beer. The first sip releases a cornucopia of flavours, with the raisins rising strongly to the forefront. The brown sugar pulled through to form a sort of sweet fruit cake in the mouth. Plums, cranberries, creamy toffee and dark Belgian malts were all in the mix too. The aftertaste was fulfilling but dry, with the focus on the big warm feeling coming from the throat.
This is a big beer in every sense. Big bottle, big flavours, big alcohol content. If you’re looking for something to drink on the day of biblical reckoning, you could do a lot worse than this. I don’t think I could manage a whole one of these on my own, but as a sharing bottle this is perfect.