Phat Abbot Special Reserve
Arbor Brewing Company - Plymouth Taproom

 

This is not a 2015 review. This review is from found notes from tasting this beer shortly after it was released.

Originally reviewed August 23, 2007. 2004 Cellar Select. 750mL. Aroma of speckled fruit, with almonds, apples, unripe nectarines and puckering wildness. Delightful. Pours a golden amber not too tawny. Large soap slide down the glass in white. Flavor is an explosive salt peppercorns, sweet plum, salty ham and all the terrific perfumes of coconut, pineapple and hibiscus. Smacks on a bit of EKG. Delicious. Woody essence and lots of vinous tooth. Besides a little lack of body in the rear, this beer is absolutely deft and one of the best American sours. All the things you want and none of the stuff you don’t. Plenty of unique spice character, great cottony funk, and the Old Ale provide fun malt background. A true gem. Thanks Sean!

Copper colored with amber highlights. Very little head. Strong fruity aroma, much like a young chardonnay. Sweet winey taste as well, again much like a chardonnay but with a day of oxidation this time. Mouthfeel was full, but sweetness and a hint of oxidized flavors overpowers the beer and severely detracts from the experience. It's always disappointing when a brewer leaves a poor beer on tap for unassuming drinkers, and I have top assume that this is what has happened in this case. Nothing at all what I expected. I find Belgian styled beers to taste a bit "funky". This beer is funky, but not in a good way.

Pours a deep crimson with strong purple tones. No head, no lacing, barely any carbonation. Strong color but nothing else to please the eye in a cute little tulip glass.

Smells like, well, a blend of mostly amber with some dark candi sugar and a dull, monotone fruit scent. Very little yeast esters or phenols, something I'd surely expect out of a "Trappist-styled" beer. The malt barely showed itself with a slight bready wave, but only after warming up for at least a half hour. No caramel, prune, or other more exocative malt-derived scents.

Tastes like, well, a blend of mostly amber with some dark candi sugar and a dull, monotone fruit scent. Didn't I just mention that somewhere? Except this time the fruitiness is a bit more expansive barely leaning toward dark fruit, but nowhere near as reminiscent of such flavors as a honest-to-goodness Belgian. Yeast character is, again, lacking. In sum, this beer tastes like sweet caramel with an utterly indistinct fruitiness, possibly call it grape or cherry at best, with a whisper of biscuity malt. Finish is highly sweet as the sugars oompa-lump along without a hop or alcohol burn in sight on a moderately-full mouthfeel that is slick, wide, and completely lacking even a prick of carbonation.

It is fun to drink because its so sweet and simple, but as an attempt at something "Belgian" and with a moniker that denotes a Grand Cru-like status, this beer falls much short. Nowhere the yeast and malt derived complexity of its role models.