The Lost Abbey’s latest barrel-aged rarity more than three years in the making
Veritas 009 - May 28, 2011
The Lost Abbey will release the next in its coveted Veritas small-batch barrel-aged beers on Saturday, May 28, 2011. The most complex and time-consuming beer released by the brewery to date, Veritas 009 took more than three years and periods in bourbon and wine barrels to create. With only 100 cases available, Veritas 009 will not reach general distribution and will be available for purchase directly from the brewery only. The 750ml cork-stoppered bottles will be $35 each and strictly limited to four bottles per person.
Veritas 009 is a substantial departure from earlier members of The Lost Abbey’s small batch experimental program, which were generally sour beers aged in French oak barrels for 12 to 15 months. Begun in late 2007 as dark base beer, it was sent to freshly emptied bourbon barrels from Kentucky’s Heaven Hill Distilleries. The beer aged for 15 months before it was moved into French oak barrels previously used for wine (primarily Syrah). Sour cherries were added and the beer was left to rest for another year and three months. Finally, in mid-2010, it was pulled from the barrels, blended, bottled and sent off to condition for an additional 11 months.
“It’s one of the most complex beers we’ve ever created,” Arthur said. “Veritas 009 has strong notes of cherry, red wine, cedar and dark cocoa accentuated by a pervasive acidity that makes for an incredibly deep finish. It’s an amazing beer and easily one of the most cellarable produced at The Lost Abbey. I have no doubt that it will drawn fans from both the craft beer and wine worlds.”
Interestingly, Veritas 009 came close to never being made available to the public. Begun as a private project of Arthur’s, the existence of the beer and the details behind it were kept secret until last year. Even after news of the beer leaked to the public Arthur declined to discuss it beyond acknowledging that he did indeed have a barrel-aging project referred to only as “KT”, a reference to the secretive order of the Knights Templar. It wasn’t until a sampling session that Arthur decided to move the beer into Lost Abbey’s public small batch program and release it as Veritas 009.
“There is so little and it took so long to perfect we actually considered issuing it as a private release, or not at all,” Arthur said. “But after sampling last week, we decided that it was just too good to keep hidden and the public should have access to it.”
A total of 117 cases (12 bottles each) of Veritas 009 were produced. 100 cases will be made available to the public on release day. More details are available below.
Veritas 009 Release Details
When: Saturday, May 28, 2011. 10am – 6pm
Where: Port Brewing / The Lost Abbey – 155 Mata Way, Suite 104, San Marcos, CA 92069 (click for directions)
Or maybe it isn’t. Based on your personal beliefs, May 21, 2011 could be a) your ticket to heaven, b) the beginning of the end, or c) just the third Saturday in May.
Judgment Day is Upon Us
Regardless of what happens, however, we’re hard-pressed to come up with a better way to enjoy the day than with our gold medal winning Judgment Day Belgian quad-style ale.
So all day May 21 we’ll be celebrating Judgment Day with tasting room specials, drawings and events. Here’s just a few of the things on tap for the End of Days:
Judgment Day Specials: Pints – $4, Growler Fills – $12, Bottles (375ml and 75ml) – 20% off
Prize Drawings: We’ll be holding drawings throughout the day for The Lost Abbey clothing, headwear and our cool new Lost Abbey flags
Costume competition: Come dressed ready for the Apocalypse (horseman, avenging angel, demon, sinner, saint — it’s up to you) and be eligible to win stuff suitable for sinners and saints alike!
Judgment Day Art: We’ll have the original Four Horsemen painting that is our Judgment Day label on display. Come check it out in all it’s doomsday glory.
The fun starts at 12pm and carries on until 6pm (by then we’ll probably know if the world is coming to an end or not). Admission is free and open to both Sinners and Saints alike. See you there!
Songs playing at the brewery during the event:
Highway to Hell – ACDC
Still Alive – Portal
I Just Died in Your Arms – Cutting Crew
Dead Man’s Party – Oingo Boingo
Don’t Stop Believin’ – Journey
Mad World – Tears for Fears
Save Tonight – Eagle Eye Cherry
Judgment Day – Van Halen
Semi-Charmed Life – Third Eye Blind
The Final Countdown – Europe
Waiting on the World to Change – John Mayer
We Will Become Silhouettes – Postal Service
Stayin’ Alive – Bee Gees
It’s the End of the World as We Know It – REM
The Call of the Ktulu – Metallica
The Four Horsemen – Metallica
Apocalypse Please – Muse
Everybody Wants to Rule the World – Tears for Fears
Four Winds – Bright Eyes
Fire and Rain – James Taylor
When the World Ends – Dave Matthews Band
Should I Stay of Should I Go – The Clash
God’s Gonna Cut You Down – Johnny Cash
Ring of Fire – Johnny Cash
Don’t Fear the Reaper – Blue Oyster Cult
End of the Road – Boyz II Men
Time is Running Out – Muse
I Think We’re Alone Now – Tiffany
Black Hole Sun – Soundgarden
How Am I Supposed to Live Without You – Michael Bolton
Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye – Steam
Dead – They Might be Giants
Last Dance – Donna Summer
Mona Lisa – Nat King Cole
The Winning Side – Oingo Boingo
Robots – Flight of the Conchords
I Don’t Want to Wait – Paula Cole
Nowhere to Run – Martha Reeves and the Vandellas
Thoughts of Dying Atheist – Muse
O Death – O Brother Where Art Thou
Let the River Run – Carly Simon
Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) – Green Day
Bye Bye Bye – N’Sync
Dancing in Heaven – Robert Plant
I Will Follow You Into the Dark – Death Cab for Cutie
Attending our Sold Out 5th Anniversary Celebration? Not attending but interested in lurking outside and seeing what’s going on? Well, we’ve ordered up some great weather (partly sunny, mid-60’s) and put together an amazing list of everything in store for the day:
All Day Events
official hashtag
#port5th
(tweet it!)
Live Webcast
We’ll be broadcasting live all day! Andy Killion (aka @Metromixsd !) will be covering the entire event live with interviews, chats and fun. If you’re attending, you’re invited to step into the broadcast booth and say hello to everyone. If you’re watching from your computer, tablet or phone, you’re invited to chat with Andy and his guests via our Ustream broadcast channel!
Barrel House Tours
Explore the mysteries of the Lost Abbey barrel archives with Barrel Master & Lead Brewer, Ryan Fields. Ryan will be leading two tours per session. Each tour takes approximately 30 minutes and is limited to 35 people. (Register early to ensure your slot. This fills up quickly!)
Session One Tours: 12pm | 2pm – Session Two Tours: 5pm | 7pm
You must sign up to go on the tour! Registration will be at the entrance to the barrel house.
Live Music
This year we’re pleased to host not one, but two live bands in the brewhouse for your listening pleasure. Session One will be host to the vintage-tinged garage, folk, rock and roll sounds of Kiera and the Lesbians. Session Two will be our favorite lounge lizards, The Professors, and their special brand of surf-styled rock and roll. Music starts at noon.
Food, food, food
Chefs Jason Danderand and Steve Owen will be steaming, smoking, BBQing and frying their way through a whole raft of San Diego-style street foods. Street food not your thing? The magic pizza trailer will also be on hand to cooking up pies fresh and hot! Water and soft drinks will also available courtesy of Dr Pepper.
Food and drinks will be in the outdoor pavilion next to the barrel house.
What’s On Tap
What’s a brewery birthday party without plenty of beer? The brewers have dug deep into the archives to fully stock both bars (the main bar as well as our new barrel room bar) with a huge array of Port Brewing & Lost Abbey beers. All of the following will be on tap at the main bar as well as in the barrel room:
The regulars (1 taster ticket)
Port Brewing
Anniversary – Hoppy, Strong Pale Ale
Hot Rocks – Stein Lager
Mongo – Double IPA
Old Viscosity – Dark Strong Ale
Panzer Pils – Imperial Pilsner
Santa’s Little Helper – Imperial Stout
Shark Attack – Double Red Ale
Wipeout – West Coast IPA
The Lost Abbey
Avant Garde – Biere de Garde
Devotion – Belgian Blond
Judgment Day – Belgian Quad with Raisins
Red Barn – Saison
Saison Blanc – Light Saison with Green Raisins & Pepper
Serpent’s Stout – Belgian Sweet Stout
Ten Commandments – Belgian Strong Ale
The Specialties (3 taster tickets)
Ad Lib (2011) – Special Limited Release Blend made with Rye Barrel Serpent’s Stout, Bourbon Midnight Expression and Bourbon Judgment Day. Only 50 five gallon kegs of this are going into distribution, so this may be your one and only chance to try a legendary Lost Abbey one-off blends!
If you’ve ever been to the brewery, you know that it’s a humble building in the middle of a nondescript industrial park where all the buildings look the same. We used to tell people “look for the grain silo out front”, but even that three story tank was hard to find because it was the same color as the building and tucked behind a tree.
So in April of 2011 we commissioned artist Sean Dominguez (the same artist who does all of the paintings that become the Lost Abbey labels) to transform our silo from a drab off-white cylinder into a 30-foot tall “wooden barrel” that would be nearly impossible to miss. Over the next several weeks, armed with a fistful of paintbrushes, a few cans of paint and an industrial lift, Sean did just that.
In this, the second entry in our new video gallery, Lost Abbey’s multimedia man, Ryan Tillotson, captures Sean at work and collapsing 2 weeks into an interesting 3 minute time-lapse video. Enjoy!
We are skipping the usual message from the DOBO this month as Tomme, world traveler that he is, is out and about being Tomme Arthur. Having just returned from Europe (Scotland, Belgium and Denmark, specifically), this week he’s up in Chico, CA at Sierra Nevada doing a collaboration brew with a few of the other members of the “Brett Pack” (Adam from Avery Brewing, Sam from Dogfish Head, and Rob from Allagash).
Next week he’ll be back home for our 5th Anniversary celebration (more on that below), and then he’ll be heading out to do a coast-to-coast beer week tour. If you’d like to say hi to Tomme, you’ll be able to find him at the following:
May 19 to 26 – Seattle Beer Week
June 3 to 4 – Savor, Washington DC
June 5 to 8 – Philly Beer Week
We don’t have a full list of his appearance schedule just yet, so stay tuned via our Twitter and Facebook feeds. Or better yet, subscribe to our calendar and you’ll get all the updates delivered right to your computer / phone / tablet / etc.
New Faces: Meet Gwen Conley
Gwen Conley
One of the more exciting things to happen here at The Abbey is the arrival of our new Quality Assurance Director, Gwen Conley. For those not familiar with her name, Gwen comes to us from the famous Flying Dog Brewery in Maryland where she headed their QA department for years.
Gwen actually got into the beer business back in the 90’s through what she calls “dumb luck” — more or less wandering into it when she went to work as a microbiologist for Coors in Golden, Colorado. After leaving Coors she went to work for the Ball Corporation (the container people) where she went through their sensory training program and became an expert on how colors, aromas, and flavors work together to create full-fledged sensory experiences. That ended up getting her part time work doing food and drink pairings and eventually earned her the moniker “Sensory Goddess.”
She eventually parlayed her unique background into her gig at Flying Dog where she not only managed their QA efforts, but also conducted educational programs in beer and food pairings. As for her reasons for jumping to the left coast and joining us here at Port / Lost Abbey, Gwen said “It was the opportunity to do the sort of experimentation that goes on here. Working with so many barrels and different beers was hard to pass up.” (She also admitted that living in San Diego isn’t so bad either.)
As QA director Gwen has jumped in and taken over oversight of our brewing and production processes, finally putting all that really cool equipment in our shiny new lab to work. She’s also held a number of sensory sessions for the staff, and we’re trying to convince her to do a few classes for the general public as well (keep your fingers crossed).
Asked what she’d be doing if she wasn’t helping make great beer, Gwen revealed an interesting aspiration. “I think I’d run a snorkel bar somewhere in the Caribbean or Central America,” shed said. Guests would snorkel half the day, then at 3pm the snorkeling stops and the drinking starts.”
A snorkel bar? Sounds like a pretty good plan to us.
Our fifth birthday party is Saturday, May 14, 2011 — just a little more than a week and a half away — and we’re inviting all our friends, fans and members of the faithful to drop by and say hello!
As with last year, so everyone has plenty of room and can enjoy the food, music and (of course) beer, we’re dividing the party into two sessions — an early one from 11am to 3pm and a later one from 4pm to 8pm.
Items on tap for our daylong festivities include specialty kegs from the barrel archives, bottled beer releases, special barrelhouse tours, amazing street food from our in-house chefs, and live music from our two special guests — Kiera and the Lesbians and The Professors.
The $15 ticket includes a commemorative glass, 8 beer tasting tickets, food and live music. Tickets are very limited, however, so if you’d like to attend, you should buy them sooner rather than later.
Speaking of our Anniversary Party, we also have two beer releases from the Port Brewing side of the house coinciding with the party. On May 14 we will issue the following beers:
Anniversary Ale – Our annual hoppy strong pale ale. Older Viscosity – Old Viscosity aged in Bourbon oak barrels for a year.
No need to worry if you can’t attend the anniversary party. Both of these beers will reach our full distribution network. Look for them on shelves and your favorite pubs and eateries in mid-to-late May.
Upcoming Events
Mark your calendars (or subscribe to ours) — the following events are coming up!
May 16 to 22 – American Craft Beer Week The annual nationwide ode to American craft brews. We’ll be kicking it off a couple of days early with our anniversary party, but you can expect some fun in the tasting room May 20 – 22 as well.
June 16 to 18 – National Homebrewer’s Conference The NHC is here in San Diego this year and we’ll be rolling out the red carpet all week long for our homebrewer friends. Tomme & Co. have already brewed a special beer for the conference, and we’ll be extending tasting room hours to accommodate all the folks who will be in town earlier in the week. Details will be posted on our calendar and website as we get closer to the dates.
July 16 – Christmas in July Our annual celebration and fundraiser for Toys for Tots will be a little earlier than last year (so people can go to ComicCon and our party). As with previous years we’ll be releasing Santa’s Little Helper aged in Bourbon oak barrels, Santa will be on hand for photos, and there will be live music and food. Oh, and it’s all FREE (except for the beer) if you just bring a new, unwrapped toy worth $15 or more! Last year we raised close to $10,000 in cash and toys for the Marine Corp’s Toys for Tots foundation and this year we’d like to do even better, so make plans to attend.
Amarillo is Back!
Amarillo holding court in the tasting room
For those of you who follow our Twitter and/or Facebook feeds, you’re probably aware that one of our brewcats, Amarillo, disappeared a couple of weeks back, much to our dismay (the tasting room just isn’t the same without him holding court on the bar or the barrel tables).
We are please to report that last Saturday night he suddenly re-appeared. Skinny, disheveled and exhausted, he ate two cans of cat food and a whole bowl of dry food in a matter of minutes, and spent the entire next day “talking” to anyone and everyone who came into the tasting room (usually his sister, Cascade is the talkative one).
We’re not entirely certain what happened (nobody here speaks cat), but we’re pretty sure he had a quite an adventure. All we can say is everyone — Amarillo included — is happy that he’s back.
Thanks to all those who put out the call that he was missing (he even made it on a local TV news broadcast), sent kind words, and brought him treats and gifts since his return. You guys are the best!
This is the first of our “behind the scenes” video series where we show how we make some of our beers. In this segment Tomme talks about how we make Hot Rocks Lager, a “stein bier” style lager made by super-heating chunks of granite and adding it to the wort. Enjoy!
Celebrate our 5th Birthday with food, live music and new beer releases!
Come party with Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey and celebrate our 5th Anniversary on Saturday May 14, 2011.
5th Anniversary Celebration
Like last year we’ll be breaking the party into two sessions and limiting the number of guests so everyone can relax and enjoy themselves.
Items on tap for our daylong festivities include specialty kegs from the barrel archives, bottled beer releases, special barrelhouse tours, amazing street food from our in-house chefs, and live music from our two special guests — Kiera and the Lesbians and The Professors.
Brews, Food, Tours and Entertainment
Brews:
Following our anniversary tradition, not only will we be loading all our taps with the latest and greatest of our beers, but we’ll be releasing Anniversary — the fifth release of our hoppy, strong pale ale from the Port Brewing side of the house.
DOBO Tomme Arthur will also be delving into the storied Lost Abbey barrel and bottle archives to give guests an opportunity to sample rare brews from the past half-decade. (Look for special bottles, and secret taps all day long!)
Food:
For those of you who enjoy five star food, this year chef Jason Danderand will be heading the outdoor kitchen and barbequing, steaming, smoking, broiling and baking his way through a stunning assortment of street foods with a unique “San Diego” culinary spin.
Special Tours:
Lead Brewer and Keeper of the Barrels, Ryan Fields, and our new QAD, Gwen Conlley (née Flying Dog), will be hosting tours of our famous barrelhouse, giving guests an opportunity to see where our beers await the angels on high (and possibly learn a few of the secrets behind one of American craft brewing’s most famous barrel programs).
Music:
We’ll have two bands playing this year. The first session will feature the vintage-tinged garage, folk, rock and roll sounds of Kiera and the Lesbians. The second session will play host to our favorite lounge lizards, The Professors, who will be performing their own special brand of sophisticated Surf Music.
Time(s)
Two sessions — the first from 11am to 3pm and the second from 4pm to 8pm. For $15/session admission guests will receive a commemorative tasting glass, 8 beer tasting tickets and food (additional taster tickets are $1 each). Ticket sales will be strictly limited for each session.
Tickets
Remember, we’re limiting admission for each session, and last year we sold out completely, so make sure to get your tickets early! (It’s unlikely we’ll have any at the door.) 21 and older only please. ID will be required.
This is the release date for the 2011 vintage of Older Viscosity, our American Dark Strong Ale aged in used bourbon barrels for a year. To celebrate we’ll be tapping this year’s release as well as previous vintages in the tasting room.
Release Details:
Format: 375ml cork stoppered bottle
Price: $15
Purchase Limit: None
NOTE: This is a general release and will reach our full distribution network in both bottle and draft formats.
By the time you read this, Mike and I will be somewhere in Europe. We are embarking on a long beer infused journey. I am very excited about the places and people we are off to see.
We’ll start the tour proper when we land in Aberdeen, Scotland. We’ll meet up with Jeff Bagby (Pizza Port), James and Martin from Brewdog, spending two nights dodging the Loch Ness Monster and warming our bellies with the finest Speyside and Highland Malts available. Should this leave us cold, we’ll Sink a few Bismarks attempting to warm our bellies.
We have a visit scheduled with their cask supplier. It is my hope to find types of barrels and wood expressions currently lacking in our barrel program enabling us a wider range of flavor possibilities. We’ve also scheduled a pint night in Aberdeen at the Brewdog pub. We shipped over some Mongo, Wipeout and others. I think the peeps will be quite pissed when we’re done with them.
Friday we hope a plane from Scotland over to Brussels. Mike and I will set out to taste a ton of Lambic and sour beers hoping to remind our taste buds that not all beer should be hoppy. Saturday will find us stalking the halls of Cantillon. I am excited to see what the new expansion looks like. We’ll throw back some beers with Jean at Moeder Lambic if all goes well.
Sunday is hope the train day. St. Niklaas here we come for Zythos (the 24 hour Belgian Beer Festival). This will be a great chance to see what’s new since I was there last. Monday could very well be the high point of the week (beer wise). Henrik(who handles our beer in Europe) has set up a plan enabling us to go blend a batch of Lambic with Armand from Drie Fonteinen that will sold in the European market. This will afford Mike and myself a real look into the blending process that we have never seen. It promises to be exceptional.
Tuesday morning has us jaunting off to Denmark (my first trip to Hamlet’s home). We’re going to be hosted by NOMA which in 2010 was named Best Restaurant in the world by Restaurant Magazine. Now, I’ve done a ton of AMAZING dinners but none of them come close to the prestige of this restaurant. I feel blessed we get to do this and honored to be represent American Craft Beer in such a special way. Look for pictures of this on my twitter side of things.
Thursday we fly back to the states. Mike will return home. I on the other hand will be detouring through Boston to spend some time with the Alstrom brothers attending the Extreme Beer Fest on March 12. It’s going to be a crazy trip. One that promises to be filled with some serious beer and fuzzy mornings.
It’s the longest trip away from home and the brewery in a long time. So I hope things are okay in my absence. I suppose that’s why I hired all these new people in the last 2 years?
Carnevale Masquerade 2001 Recap
This year’s Carnevale Masquerade celebrating the annual release of Carnevale Ale was bigger and better than ever. Despite rain, hail and near-freezing weather almost 300 folks showed up in their finest masquerade accoutrement to celebrate with live music, great food and (naturally) fantastic Lost Abbey & Port beers.
And speaking of the food, in the spirit of the real Venetian tradition that inspired our Carnevale, Chefs Vince and Jason took it up a notch this year by smoking two whole pigs stuffed with whole chickens stuffed with sausage, potatoes and onion. Accompanied by the crab salad, slaws, vegetables and fresh bread pudding, we can say without hesitation that all the evening’s guests were in “hog heaven”.
If you’re interested, we’ve posted a photo album from the evening’s fun. You’ll find it on our website here:
And if you’re looking for our GABF award-winning Carnevale ale, draft kegs are heading into our distribution network right now, and bottles should be available within the next few weeks.
Beer Release: Framboise de Amorosa
March 19, 2011
Framboise de Amorosa, our lusty, barrel-aged raspberry sour makes her second appearance in the Lost Abbey tasting room on Saturday, March 19.
For those who aren’t familiar with Amorosa, she begins as Lost and Found poured into red wine barrels and tarted up three times over a period of 12 months. The result is a fruity, round, luscious beer that is sweet and a touch sour perfectly softened by smooth oak characteristics — a real delight from first sip to last.
As with last year, the 2011 Framboise de Amorosa is a very limited release so bottles will only be available for purchase in the Lost Abbey tasting room. (Draft versions of the beer will reach limited distribution.) Bottles are 375ml size and $15 each with a six bottle maximum per person.
We do expect Amorosa to sell out quickly, so if you would bottles, you should probably arrive at the tasting room earlier rather than later. All the details on the release are on the website here:
Mark your calendars! Our 5th Anniversary celebration has been set for May 14, 2011!
Once again we’ll be breaking the party into two four-hour sessions (11am-3pm and 4pm-8pm) and providing food, music and, of course, great Port / Lost Abbey beers. We will also celebrate the day with two beer releases — Our spring seasonal IPA, Port Brewing Anniversary Ale, and a new (still secret) Lost Abbey Anniversary release.
The 5th anniversary being the traditional “wood” anniversary you can also expect DOBO Tomme Arthur to delve into his barrel archives and pull out some truly amazing stuff to tap.
Tickets will be $15 per session. Guests will receive a commemorative tasting glass, food and 8 beer tasting tickets. Additional tasting tickets will be $1 each. Look for tickets to go on sale on the Lost Abbey website in early April.
Speaking of calendars — if you use Outlook, iCal, or Google calendar, or you’ve got an Android, iPhone, iPad or Blackberry, you can add the Lost Abbey events calendar to your own and get updates on all our releases, appearances and events automatically. The process only takes a minute and you’ll be connected to everything that’s up at Port / Lost Abbey!
Here’s the first in several series of photos from our Carnevale Masquerade last Saturday. (If you missed it, you missed a good one. Live music, masks, great beer, two whole pigs stuff with whole chickens stuffed with sausage, potatoes, apples and spices… ah, but we digress. Anyway…)
We’ll have more to post later as we sort through them looking for the best (as well as photos of all our masquerade winners). If you’ve got photos from Carnevale, feel free to send them to us or post them on Facebook and tag us in the photo. We’ll make sure to add them to our gallery!
