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THE LOST ABBEY TO SELL VERITAS 013 ONLINE BEGINNING APRIL 4TH

San Marcos, CA, — The Lost Abbey will be releasing the newest version of its exceptionally rare Veritas Ale this month, continuing the trend of being a sought-after small batch of beers. The latest incarnation, Veritas 013, a blended and oak-aged American Sour with Peaches and Nectarines, will be made available to general public to purchase online beginning April 4^th, 2014.

“While we have made numerous sour beers with Peaches, this is the first one to combine fresh Masumoto Peaches and Nectarines from the Central Valley” Said Tomme Arthur, Director of Brewery Operations at The Lost Abbey. “The combination of the two stone fruits makes for an incredibly refreshing beer”

Starting Friday, April 4th at 11am PDT, Veritas 013 will be available to purchase at www.LostAbbey.com.  Transactions will be limited to 4 (four) bottles of Veritas 013 at $40 per bottle (plus CA sales tax and a $1 convenience charge per bottle) per person. Only 170 cases of Veritas 013 will be made available.

The 13th edition of the Veritas series is an experiment using 3 separate strains of Brettanomyces, before honey, fresh Peaches and Nectarines from Masumoto Farms were added. The beer spent approximately 2 years total in French Oak barrels. Notes of Peaches and Nectarines, oaky wood, brown sugar and Toasted Granola come through with character from the Brett present throughout the experience.

Selling Veritas 013 online will also come with a few restrictions. Whomever purchases Veritas 013, must also be the individual to pick up the bottles… NO EXCEPTIONS. Removing the option of proxies will help get the beer to as many people as possible and will allow a smoother pickup process. Consumers who do not pick up their bottles during their designated pick up time or attempt to use a proxy will surrender the bottles back to The Lost Abbey. A valid ID will be required to pick up the purchased bottles, as each transaction will be tied to the purchasers name. Any duplicate sales to the same name, email or credit card will be rendered null and void.

The pickup for retrieving purchased bottles Veritas 013 will take place Saturday, April 19^th. There will be both a morning and afternoon session (8am – 12am & 12:30pm – 4:30pm). To reiterate – if beer is purchased and not picked up during the designated pick up session, the beer will be surrendered back to the brewery. NO PROXIES ALLOWED

Direct links to the purchase page will be released the day of the sale. – Please note the sessions will not activate until Friday, April 4^th at 11am, PST.

Veritas 013 will be put on sale at 11am on April 4th, 2014 at www.lostabbey.com. Bottles are limited to 4 per person and are $40 (+ $1 convenience charge). The pickup window will be broken down to two sessions (early and late) on Saturday, April 19th at The Lost Abbey in San Marcos (155 Mata Way).

By purchasing Veritas from The Lost Abbey, you are agreeing to pick up your purchased bottles during the session that you chose during checkout. If you fail to pick-up your bottles during your chosen session, they will be surrendered back to The Lost Abbey. We are not allowing proxies of any kind for the pickup (We apologize for the inconvenience, but this policy hasn’t changed and was implemented to prevent individual consumers from ending up with more than 4 bottles). Any attempt to have a proxy pick up bottles will result in the bottles being surrendered back to The Lost Abbey (NO EXCEPTIONS).

Veritas 013 – American Sour with Peaches and Nectarines
The 13^th edition of the Veritas series is an experiment using 3 separate strains of Brettanomyces, before honey, Peaches and Nectarines were added. The beer spent around 2 years total in French Oak barrels. Notes of fruits Peaches and Nectarines, oaky wood, brown sugar and Toasted Granola with Brett character throughout.

With this year’s Cuvee de Tomme hitting the market very soon, we wanted to speak to some of the issues we’ve faced and how we’re going to handle them going forward.

We produce Cuvee the same every year, beginning with our base beer of Judgment Day aging it in Bourbon, Brandy and French oak wine Barrels where it’s spiked with our house cultures and a generous helping of Sour Cherries, Cuvee will spend at least 12 months developing in the barrels before we blend. With practice comes improvement and we’re proud to say that our blending techniques get better each and every year.  Throughout the years producing this beer, one facet continues to become evident: we’re creating a very complex, balanced, and consistent beer that is unfavorable to bottle conditioning yeast.

Let’s look at the 2014 vintage of Cuvee, which may just be the best batch of Cuvee (in our humble opinion) that we’ve created. The 2014 batch has both high alcohol (the highest ever for Cuvee) and a low pH, requiring our bottling conditioning yeast to be Super Hero’s.  We give them substantial new amounts of sugar and then place the yeast in a most inhospitable place and ask them to perform for us. Think about Batman without his gadgets or Superman without his powers having to fight the good fight. They just can’t do it!  What we have found is that a majority of the yeast die within 36-48 hours of being placed into Cuvee.

We have tried many different yeasts, including adding more Brettanomyces, and they all seem to perish before they can give us the magic of frothy effervescence, amounting it to our version of sour beer Kryptonite.

In sticking with traditional bottle conditioning practices, we are starting with virtually no CO2 in solution of the beer (1.5 vols of Co2).  For each beer we bottle condition, we have different “yeast cocktails” for scenarios (i.e. higher alcohols, lower pH’s, etc) that will allow for the desired CO2 levels to be reached in the bottles.  Desired carbonation level will vary depending on the style of beer.

Bottle conditioning, the process of adding a calculated amount of new sugar and new yeast to the beer prior to it being packaged into bottles, is one we’ve refined greatly over the years. Yet Cuvee remains our biggest problem child.  Bottling yeast should convert the extra sugar into carbon dioxide, just as it does during primary fermentation.  When the pH of the beer is too low (acidic), the yeast slow or stop CO2 production. In addition, yeast also converts sugar into ethyl alcohol during fermentation.  As the alcohol percentage increases in the beer, the yeast slowly die from the alcohol. In other words, many die in Cuvee before they can even get started!

Over the years, we have been fortunate enough to stock our lab with advanced tools to help us better understand the environments inside our bottles.  We have tested previous years of Cuvee de Tomme and found it to have lower levels of CO2 in the bottles than previously thought.  Since traditional bottling conditioning doesn’t seem to work for Cuvee, we are investigating other techniques to increase the carbonation level in future bottling (We prefer re-fermentation methods for its aging properties).  Until that time, if you want to taste Cuvee with a higher carbonation level, we suggest comparing the bottles to draft. If you’re enjoying Cuvee de Tomme out of a bottle, we would recommend serving it at 55F to enhance the depth of the oak and red wine character in the beer. We really love the flavor of the 2014 Cuvee de Tomme and hope that you will too.

Our Director of Brewery Operations Tomme Arthur is heading back out on the road to sunny beautiful Seattle, Washington. If you live in the surrounding areas, or you want to make a last minute trip, join him at:

Thursday, December 12th @ 99 Bottles Beer Store
– 4pm – 6pm
– Pouring: Merry Taj IPA, Deliverance, Saint’s Devotion, Carnevale, Gift of the Magi, Board Meeting, Santa’s Little Helper and Mongo IIPA

Thursday, December 12th @ Bambino’s Pizzeria
Pig Roast with Tomme Arthur
– Starting at 6pm
– Pouring: 10 Commandments, Lost and Found, Santa’s Little Helper, Framboise de Amorosa, Cuvee de Tomme

Friday, December 13th @ Pike Brewing
– 11:30am – 1:30pm
– Pouring: Merry Taj IPA, Santa’s Little Helper, Gift of the Magi

Friday, December 13th @ Beer Junction
– 4:30pm to 6:30pm
– Pouring: Judgment Day, Merry Taj IPA, Old Viscosity, Mongo IIPA, Serpent’s Stout and Angel’s Share

Friday, December 13th @ The Pinebox
A Night with Tomme Arthur
–  5pm
– Pouring: Angel’s Share, Mayan Apocalypse, Merry Taj IPA

Saturday, December 14th @ The Burgundian
Breakfast with Tomme Arthur
– Starting at 10am
– Pouring: Angel’s Share, Old Viscosity, Santa’s Little Helper and Framboise de Amorosa

Saturday, December 14th @ Chuck’s Hop Shop
– Starting at 12pm
– Pouring: Older Viscosity, Red Poppy, Santa’s Little Helper, Judgment Day

• SALES MANAGER: 
• Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey, located in Northern San Diego County produces an extensive line-up of West Coast ales and lagers as well as continental and Belgian inspired beers.  Founded in 2006 the company has earned a reputation for the wide range of beers produced as well as the extensive barrel aging program which focuses on experimental flavors and techniques.  Our brands are currently distributed in 9 states represented by 13 wholesalers. Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey is looking to add a new Sales Manager to assist with our current distribution partners as well as future expansions opportunities.
• The Sales Manager will be tasked with growing our brands and footprint while at the same time working to ensure the needs of our distribution partners are being met at the highest levels.  This position will be based at our brewery in San Marcos and will involve hiring and overseeing a staff of sales personnel and brand ambassadors.  Some travel will also be required.
• Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey is seeking a candidate for the following needs:

• – Develop sales programs for both on and off premise channels
• – Recruit, interview and oversee staff of sales and brand ambassadors
• – Assist in developing and producing sales material and distributor training information
• – Formulate sales objectives and strategies for both brands
• – Oversee budget for Sales staff and Department
• – Call on Distributors regularly to ensure programming, pricing and brand priorities are being met
• – Travel to territories to conduct distributor training as needed
• – Prepare monthly sales reports and meet with company Directors about goals and expectations
• – Control inventory levels at distributors to ensure freshness goals and seasonal rotation are met
• – Establish Sales Goals both at a company as well as street level for sales staff for both brands
• – Expand breadth of distribution territory as needed and directed

Candidates must possess beverage category management and preference will be given to those candidates who have worked within beer, wine or spirits areas.  All inquiries for this position should be directed to Jobs2@lostabbey.com