Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The Lost Abbey - The Angel's Share (Brandy Barrel Aged)

As you may remember, The Lost Abbey is the brewery that makes good vs. evil beers. One of their "good" beers is one called Angel's Share. As you may or may not know (I didn't until my friend Brian told me), the "Angel's Share" is a term given to the alcohol that evaporates through barrels during the fermenting process. What I didn't know until doing a little research is that the average barrel of fermenting alcohol loses 2% of it's alcohol each year. This particular beer is a hefty 12% and classified as an American Strong Ale. It's usually pretty hard to find, but Toronados happened to have it on tap this weekend. Score!

The beer pours a flat looking black color with milk chocolate colored tinges on the edges. The smell was all raisins and pretty overpowering. As the beer warmed a little, I could definitely detect some brandy and maybe even a little bourbon.

While the smell is a tad one dimensional, the taste of this beer is not. There is a lot of raisin here, but it's paired with some dark fruits (fig and plum) and there are also hints of toffee and leather. There's also a hint of carbonation that keeps the beer from being too syrupy. In the end, it was still a little too syrupy for my taste, but the end result was a pretty well balanced beer. I'm definitely looking forward to enjoying more of The Lost Abbey's beers in the near future.

Final Grade: B+

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