5th October

Brickskeller: Lost Abbey’s Red Barn Ale

by admin | Posted in California   1 Comment »

Red BarnThis evening after work I went down the street to Brickskeller, which this week is celebrating its 53rd year in business (!). To honor the occasion, this week Dave, the proprietor, is breaking open his cellar and selling Tomme Arthur’s Red Barn Ale by Lost Abbey, which is difficult to find in this area.

I had a bomber bottle (22oz.) of the 6.7% Belgian Saison-style ale, and it was truly a great beer. It was a bit of a hit to the wallet ($20 for a bomber, ouch), but I don’t regret it. Saison (French for “season”) style beers are generally bottle-conditioned, meaning they continue to ferment and mature once bottled and can safely age when cellared just as a wine might, and are intended as a refreshing late summer/harvest-time ale.

I didn’t take any tasting notes, but it gets an A- on BeerAdvocate, and is ranked #15 for the style. I don’t have too much experience with Saison-style beers — my other exposure mostly being Ommegang’s Hennepin, which is not my favorite beer that Ommegang brews but which I still enjoy. Hennepin is listed as the #1 example of the style on BeerAdvocate, coincidentally.

Brickskeller is also serving shaker glasses (American-style “pint” glasses) of Stoudt’s Pale Ale and Dogfish Head’s Festina Peche (peach) for the cheap price of $3.50 until the kegs kick, so if you’re in the area get down there before they sell out.

Also currently on Brickskeller’s tap:

    Brooklyn Brewery’s Post Road Pumpkin Ale
    Lagunitas Gnarleywine 2008
    Sierra Nevada Triple
    Founder’s Breakfast Stout
    Lindeman’s Framboise lambic
    Rodenbach brown ale
    Unibroue Ephemere
    Woodchuck amber cider
    Hoegaarden Witbier
    Flying Dog Double Dog pale ale
    New Holland Ichabod Ale

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 8:50 pm and is filed under California. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “Brickskeller: Lost Abbey’s Red Barn Ale”

  1. Beltway Beer » Blog Archive » Rare beer at Bricks tonight Says:
    October 26th, 2009 at 5:03 pm

    [...] beer Brickskeller put out for sale, Lost Abbey’s Red Barn, which I wrote about in an entry here. The email from Dave seems to imply that they’ll be making rare beers available as a [...]

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