Lost Abbey Agave Maria Ale
Ale aged in a reposado tequila barrel. First served at Lost Abbey Barrel Night 2013. Bottled release Spring 2014.
3.6
267 reviews
San Marcos, United States
Community reviews
Pours a very dark, nearly opaque brown with a khaki foamy medium head that dissipates fairly quickly. I LOVE the aroma here, I was immediately reminded of a funky smelling fine old burgundy. Slightly musty with earthy mossy soil. Very vegetal with an underlying sweetness. The burgundy follows through and is what immediately hit my palate, which I absolutely love. It's followed rather unexpectedly by sour! its almost as if the agave undertones - which are certainly there - came with their own lime (sans salt). The sour is citrus but also sour cherry. Its not as sweet as I had expected. There's really no detectable bitterness and, given its color, a surprising lack of toasted/grain notes. The mouthfeel is light bubbles and fairly light with only a little stickiness. The aftertaste remains sour. It's almost like a barleywine. It's certainly an interesting beer, but because of the burgundy aspect, it's going to get an outsized rating from me. Big fan.
Brown with small beige head. Caramel, plums, herbal and some tequila notes. Low carbonated
Bottle shared at Lucky Bamboo share. Pours a deep brown with a finger of foam that lingers. Caramel and fruit forward aromas with tequila aromas. Sweet on the palate with quite a bit of tequila barrel notes. Some oakiness alongside tequila, booze and fruit. Finishes a bit hot with caramel, molasses and spirits.
Deep mahogany color, beige head. Malty taste, coffee, dark syrup, bread, prunes, spicy notes, brandy. Sweet taste, dried fruit, alcohol, coffee, malty, bitter finish. Full body, soft carbonation, oily texture.
7, 4, 7, 4, 15
Murky brown amber with an off-white head. Boozy sweet aroma. Sweet and boozy, solid malty backbone, wood and some light Cherry notes.
Notes: On tap at Lost Abbey Confessional Feb '17)
16 ounce prowler into snifter, filled on 11/4/2017. Pours hazy very dark brown color with a small dense light khaki head with good retention, that reduces to a thin cap that lingers. Light spotty soapy lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation retaining the cap. Aromas of big caramel, brown sugar, toffee, vanilla, honey, tequila, agave, toasted oak, raisin, plum, fig, cherry, and brown bread; with light notes of molasses, chocolate, cocoa, pepper, coconut, almond, smoke, and yeast/oak/toasted earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great balance and complexity of dark/bready malt, agave, tequila barrels, and light-moderate fruity yeast notes; with great strength. Taste of huge caramel, brown sugar, toffee, vanilla, honey, tequila, agave, toasted oak, raisin, plum, fig, cherry, and brown bread; with light notes of molasses, chocolate, cocoa, pepper, coconut, almond, smoke, and yeast/oak/toasted earthiness. Mild herbal/roast bitterness and tequila/oak spiciness on the finish. Lingering notes of caramel, brown sugar, toffee, vanilla, honey, tequila, agave, toasted oak, dark fruit, brown bread, light molasses/chocolate/smoke, and yeast/oak/toasted earthiness on the finish for a while. Awesome complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/bready malt, agave, tequila barrels, and light-moderate fruity yeast flavors; with a nice malt/bitter/spiciness balance, and zero cloying sweetness after the finish. Slightly increasing dryness from bitterness and tequila/oak spiciness. Light-medium carbonation and full body; with a very smooth, creamy/bready/silky, and lightly slick/sticky/tannic balanced mouthfeel that is great. Alcohol is very well hidden; a mildly increasing warmth of 13.5%, with minimal barrel booziness lingering after the finish. Overall this is an awesome barrel aged strong ale! All around great complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/bready malt, agave, tequila barrels, and light-moderate fruity yeast flavors; very smooth and dangerously easy to sip on for the huge ABV. Tons of complexity that increases as it warms. Perfectly balanced yeast, malts, and tequila barrel flavors. Very rich, but not overly sweet. A really impressive and enjoyable offering.
Tap. Hazy brown with small head. Lightly sweet, underlying dark fruit. Some tequila notes. Booze hidden really well. Like the previous beer no funky or tart notes.
375ml bottle from Beergium. Dirty dark brown, a bit red beer with small head. Strong aroma has yeast, plum and other ripe fruits + vanilla. Taste has malts, sweet fruits (plum mostly) and alcohol. Tequila is there.
Piana obfita, trwala, zdobi szkło. Kolor blotnisty, mętny. Aromat kwaskowy, slodko owocowy, winny. Smak podobnie, winny, kwaskowy, wyraźna dębina i taniny, owoce kwaskowe jabłka, winogrona, lekko przebija sie mocniejszy alkohol tequila, dość słodkie, lekko karmel. Pije sie bardzo przyjemnie, wysokie nagazowanie ożywia piwo. Ciekawe bardzo dobre, mi podpasowalo.
Pours inky black with billowy porous head that holds well; brett on the nose; tart palate with undetectable tequila notes. Not a fan.
Beautiful tequila aroma on the front end, beer is a little thin and slightly tart. Beautiful rouge color with very little lacing. Even with the tequila aroma, hides the high alcohol very well.
Bottle shared at KyotoLefty’s 10,000th rating celebration. Nose of big alcohol, figs, plums, all lightly phenolic. A melange of sweet fruit flavors, slightly cloying, mild bit of barrel. The tequila notes intrude a little too rudely here. Medium body. Probably too young. Needs to mellow a little more.
375 ml bottle, shared at my 10K rating celebration. Nose is tequila, chocolate, grapes, syrup. black and cloudy with lace. Nicely fruity but sweet and cloying and boozy too. Not my thing.
375ml bottle pours out a amber color topped with a small tan ring of a head. Nose has a lot goin on pit fruit rich malts barrel vanilla barrel notes and a bit of booze. Taste is more of the nice rich malts some toffee pitfruit vanilla from the barrel.
Bottle, almost black redish brown beer, cream colored head fades to a persistent skiff of foam. Aroma is red wine, oak, malt, sour apples, hint of whiskey. Taste is red wine, toasted malt, sour apple and lime, black pepper, and a hint of tequila. The tequila is very subtle, I might wish for more because I like it, but the balance on barrel and malt and sour is quite nice on this. Palate is medium, carbonation about average, very fine.
375ml bottle from Systembolaget. Hazy dark brown, fizzy small head that disappear immediately, leaving no lacing. Tart and woody aroma, apple cider vinegar, dried fruit, oak, red wine and gentle notes of tequilla. Medium carbonated, tart and heavy mouthfeel. Very tart citrus taste, lime, green apples, oak, red wine, herbal, mild tequilla with hints of chocolate in the background, the alcohol is well hidden. Tart and dry finish.
Tricky brew this, not what you expect after reading the description from Lost Abbey’s website "Agave Maria has hints of black pepper, sweet sugar, oatmeal, and oak with an earthy, bitter smoked chocolate on the finish."
Chestnut brown pour with no head. Aroma of vanilla, raisin, and agave. Raisin, vanilla, and agave flavor with notes of caramel. Alcohol warmth on the way down. Very nice.
(bottle) clear, dark brown colour with a medium tall brown head; aroma of raisin, dried fruti, bitter cocoa; balanced flavour, well hidden alcohol, long light bitter and sweet finish
On tap at Hops & Pie. Brown appearance with a lacy tan head. Aroma of caramel malt, toffee, oak, vanilla and a touch of tequila. Similar flavor, rich and complex, adding hints of black pepper, smoke, earth and honey. Full body with a sugary sweet finish. Nice.
Pours a dark body with a thin head. Aroma of wood and vinaeger. Taste is rich, stingy and a bit sour with tones of fruit and malts.
Two year old vintage bottle bought at Biergenot. A very strong dark ale aged on tequila barrels - I don’t like tequila as such, but I have to admit that this sounds interesting. Irregular, quite loose, pale greyish head reduced to a coarse but stable rim, leaving some nice lacing; hazy dark bronze-tinged chestnut brown colour. Strong bouquet of caramel, kahlua, spicy tequila, soggy brown bread, medlar, overripe pear, dried banana, pomegranate ’jenever’, candied orange, raw green agave or even cactus juice, diluted coffee grounds, fresh chili pepper, biscuit, lime juice or even mojito, burnt sugar, brown rum, damp earth, wet paint, moist oak wood, hint of damp forest floor, fried mushroom, tomato juice, minerals, dates. Sweet onset, lots of residual brown sugar and some candied fruit, fig, date and pear, with a souring blackcurrant-like edge and some thin, beef stock-like umami but subtly so, along with something weirdly ’green’ (raw vegetable), softly carbonated with minerally accents. Thick, ’fluffy’, bready middle, caramelly and nutty, gaining a light chocolatey quality in the end, a tad toasted even, before plunging into the booze, represented by a lot of sweet, aged tequila flavor (as in a brown, barrel aged tequila), heating up the back of the mouth to a high degree but still not becoming overly wry; something weirdly but very notably, souring, lemon- or lime-like appears as well - as if you have bitten into a slice of lemon before pouring down a tequila shot. Drying woody tannins and herbal hop bitterishness, as well as an earthy yeastiness, add further complexity. Ends peppery mostly due to the alcohol, in this case extra peppery because this is tequila... I was a bit skeptical about this but I have to admit that, though very boozy and intense, this is a very interesting, rich barleywine; I guess you’ll either love or hate this but it is in any case a wealthy and complex beer, which has aged graciously, having acquired a light amount of sherryish oxidation on top of the sweet and sourish display of flavors. Full of personality and one to enjoy slowly sip by sip, perfectly fit for a windy autumn afternoon like today. The tequila remains soft yet very pronounced and adds an unexpected ’green’ and spicy layer of flavor to a rounded, sweet, full and demanding basic beer. Not very accessible I think, but intense for sure. I liked it.
Bottle at beertemple. Red color. Aroma of boozy red fruit, raisin, oak and raisin. Rich taste of smooth boozy red fruit, oak, vanilla, spices, cinnamon, raisin, dades and a long rich finish. Another hit.
Bottle. Pours out a muddy brownish color with a small off white head. Aroma is of caramel, tequila, agave syrup, dark dried fruits, alcohol, some barrel. Taste is strange, some tart citrus notes, caramel, dried fruit, tequila, alcohol warmth, some barrel notes and lingering alcoholic heat with some lime notes.
From a bottle shared in Temecula. Pours a murky brown with an ecru head. Aroma of toffee and red wine. Flavors of oak and vanilla. Effervescent mouthfeel. Tart finish.
375 ml bottle. Thanks Euphemos for this!
Dark brown color with a small tan head.
Vinegar, red berries and tartness in the aroma.
Cherries, tartness, sourness, mild sweetness and red wine in the flavor.
You can hardly notice the 13.5%. Amazing flavor.
bottle to sampler and this was a strange tasting but understood the flow of flavors. immediately I got the agave not like the liquid but sinking your teeth into the plant. you get the tequila flavor and the plant flavor and some earth. then it flows to the oak and then the booze. strong flavors all the way through. different but very good.
From notes. Gus cracked this 375 mL bottle at his house for a tasting to sort out the Bruery beers we have to get. The pour is a dark reddish brown color with a small light tan colored cap of head that falls flat pretty quicky. The aroma is really different wit hthis one. There is a definite presence of agave. Less tequila, but the plant is definitely present. There is a good bit of spice to it and a booze for sure. There is a light vanilla that comes in about half way through and just seems a little out of place. The flavor follows suit. There is a heavy agave right at the front. The caramel and tequila roll through a strong woodiness and finish up with a light vanilla, and a little confusion. This is a little messy, especially if you don’t like tequila. The mouth feel is thin and slick with a big time lack of body and a brighter carbonation that feels weird in the mouth. The aftertaste is lingeringly tequila and just not good. This one is something else, that’s for sure.
Big syrupy meltingpot of sensastions here. Pours dark brown with good head and lacing. Caramelized malt is big, naturally, but booze is well hidden. Agave probably does this some good. Sweet finish. Tap at Sovereign Savor event.
37,5cl bottle at home. Very dark brown colour, beige foamy head that leaves a nice lacing. Ripe, alcoholic agave, pineapple, mango in the nose, slightly milky sour note (off note, imho). Taste is more balanced, fruity sweet, nice sour edge, can?t really get the tequila though. Not too balanced. Big body, medium carbonation.
bottle shared at April THT.
Thin ring off white head. Clear deep burgundy pour. Tequilla afteraste