The Lost Abbey to release Veritas 018

San Marcos, CA –The Lost Abbey is set to release the 18^th edition in its Veritas line of beers, with the on-sale beginning on Thursday, October 27th at Noon (PST).   

Veritas has been an ongoing experiment of the relationship between fruit, Brettanomyces and barrel aging.

Veritas 018 will be a redux of Veritas 015, which took home gold medals from the 2015 Great American Beer Festival (Wood and Barrel Aged Beer), The 2015 Festival of Wood and Barrel Aged Beer (FOBAB – Wild Beers w/ Fruit), and The 2015 San Diego International Beer Festival (other sour beer category).

Veritas 018 was aged in oak with Peaches and Nectarines from Masumoto Farms as well as added Apricots. Delicate notes of apricots and peaches, oaky wood, and a balanced tartness come through with a lively character from the Brett present throughout the experience.

Selling Veritas 018 online will also come with a few restrictions. Whomever purchases Veritas 018, 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 those who 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. Veritas 018 bottles will be limited to 4 per person at $41 each.

The pickup for retrieving purchased bottles Veritas 018 will take place beginning Friday during November 18^th through Sunday November 27^th (Closed on Thanksgiving Day).  Pickup will take place during regular business hours.  NO PROXIES ALLOWED

Direct links to the purchase page will be released the day of the sale at www.lostabbeydev.wpengine.com as well as The Lost Abbey’s various social media channels. – Please note the sale will not become live until, Noon PST on Thursday, October 27^th.    

About Port Brewing / The Lost Abbey / The Hop ConceptFounded in 2006, Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey produce an extensive line-up of continental and American- inspired ales and lagers. Under the direction of visionary brewmaster and co-founder Tomme Arthur, the brewery has garnered dozens of awards including the 2007 Great American Beer Festival Small Brewery of the Year, The 2008 world Beer Cup Champion Small Brewery and the 2013 Champion Brewery at the San Diego International Beer Festival. The company’s beers, many of which are aged in oak barrels for 12 months or longer, are universally recognized for their complexity, unique flavors and bold boundary-pushing styles. For more information, contact Port Brewing / The Lost Abbey at 155 Mata Way, Suite 104, San Marcos, CA 92069, telephone (800) 918-6816, and on the web at www.LostAbbey.com

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For additional Media Inquiries ContactAdam MartinezMedia and Marketing DirectorAdam.Martinez@lostabbey.com760-500-9392

Tomme heads North for Seattle Beer Week

Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey's Director of Brewery Operations (and overall nice guy) leaves the heat of Southern California and heads Northwest for Seattle Beer Week 2013! If you're in the area, stop by and say hi! CLICK HERE for a full list of events during Seattle Beer Week.Brewers night with Tomme ArthurThursday, May 16thElliot Bay Pizza4 - 7pmSourfest Thursday, May 16thBrouwers Pub8pm - 10pmBottle Signing with Tomme ArthurFriday, May 17thBeer Junction3- 5pmBottle Signing with Tomme ArthurFriday, May 17thChucks 85th6 - 9pmLost Abbey Tap TakeoverSaturday, May 18thSuper Deli MartAll Day (Tomme will stop by for a beer around 11am on his way to the airport... maybe 2 beers) 

Serious Eats: A Pint With Tomme Arthur

Serious Eats' Maggie Hoffman ran an interesting interview with Tomme Arthur today. If you'd like some insight into The Tomme's style and personal philosophy, it's a definite "must-read".From the article:

Where do you get your brewing inspiration? Inspiration is a crazy thing. Obviously the bulk of it comes from exploring new flavors. It might be a bottle of beer a friend made. It could be an experience in a Belgian cafe. Other times, I might draw my inspiration from conversations with other brewers or even chefs. Ultimately what it comes down to is that my attention gets focused on creating (or recreating) certain flavors in our beers. How we get there is partly due to inspiration and how well I use my imagination.

• Read the rest of the story here Via Serious Eats

Lost Abbey gets 2 on Wine Enthusiasts' Top 25 beers for 2009

Wine Enthusiast Magazine has published its list of the top 25 beers of 2009. We're please to find two Lost Abbey beers -- Cuvee de Tomme and Duck Duck Gooze -- made the list, both with excellent ratings of 93 out of 100. Along with our neighbor and good friend Stone Brewing, we're the only breweries to have two beers on the list (the Stone-Nonge-Jolly Pumpkin collaboration, Special Winter Ale, and Vertical Epic 09.09.09 both scored very solid 92's).Here's a selection from the Cuvee review in the article:

...A ton of things going on in the mouth: flavors of bourbon, sour cherry, coffe cream, walnut and more balanced by appropriate acidityto counter the weight and heft of the flavor profile. An infinite finish with minimal carbonation and high abv makes this an ecellent sipper to be shared among good friends or stored in the cellar for years to come.

You can read the full article on the Wine Enthusiast website here (PDF file, via wineenthusist.com).The print issue should be on newsstands shortly.

Libri Divini - November, 2009

Divine Words | Volume 1, Issue 3

In this issue of Libri Divini

• Musings from the Directors Chair - It's not easy being Tomme.. oh wait, yes it is
• Faces of Lost Abbey - Meet Lead Brewer and Eagle Scout, Ryan Fields
• Brewery Updates - The Abbey's got a brand new bar
• Sinners & Saints - 2010 club memberships open on Dec. 1, 2009
• Just in time for Christmas - The Lost Abbey Online Store is now open
• New Beer Releases - What you should be drinking this holiday season

Musings From The Director's Chair

I have an easy job. There I said it, easy. I show up for work at a brewery each day and make decisions about beer. It seems like an easy task and most days, this place runs itself. Sometimes, I am asked to make bigger picture assertions and this past week, we undertook a major redesign of our existing tasting bar.You see, during the week and especially on the weekends we've started to see a major increase in the number of visitors to our warehouse.Over the past 6 months, our original tasting bar just became so inadequate. The cold box also began bursting at the seams as we kept stuffing more kegs in it. So, we made an executive decision to tear it all down and start over.Demolition began on Monday and by Friday evening, we were back up and running. We've added more taps, more bar top space and committed more open space for enjoying your favorite Lost Abbey beer. As an added bonus, we've now got shelving in our cold box and we'll be launching a Vintage Beer List on December 12th. This list will include bottles we've been sold out of and potentially experimental beers we've never made available. Look for details on www.lostabbeydev.wpengine.com.Our beers are always in a state of evolution so it's not surprising that our tasting bar has evolved as well. Mind you, we've kept the comfortable bar stools. And the attentive, colorful language swearing wait staff is still here. Those aren't things you redesign. There's 17 beers on tap right now with room for more! Come on down and see us. You'll like what we've been up to.I promise.

The Faces of The Lost Abbey

Ryan Fields, Lead BrewerThis month we'd like to introduce you to our lead brewer Ryan Fields. At the tender age of 24, he's the youngest brewer on staff, but as a near two-year veteran of the team, he's also the oldest employee (we don't count Tomme).Ryan started with Port Brewing / The Lost Abbey back in January of 2008 as a general brewhouse grunt, washing kegs, cleaning tanks, running the bottler, and all the dirty work no one else wanted to do. Before long he proved himself to be a hard worker and quick learner, and he was promoted to brew staff, initally as a brewer's assistant, then and assistant brewer, and finally to his current lead brewer position.These days you'll find Ryan running the night brew shift, where when, he's not moving beer from one place to another, he hides among the fermenters and pretends to be "the brewery troll" (don't ask).The night shift may not last long for Ryan, however. He made his first appearance as a Lost Abbey brewer at a special event at the Great American Beer Festival this year. Turns out his boyish good looks and humble personality made him a big hit, especially among the ladies in attendance. He ended up signing a lot of bottles and more than a few girl's body parts.Many people ask how Ryan got his first job at the brewery and we like to tell the story of his job interview.One night he walked into the tasting bar and asked Molly the bartender "hey, are you hiring?"Molly nodded to the man sitting next Ryan who happened to be none other than Tomme himself. Tomme turned to Ryan and said "what are your qualifications?""Well, I used to be an Eagle Scout," Ryan answered.He started work a few days later.

Brewery News: Tasting Room Updates

If you missed Tomme's blog post on the website the other day, then you haven't heard that we've recently done a major renovation on the brewery tasting room.Our 25 foot long tasting bar, 16 taps and giant cold box have been replaced by a 42 foot bar(that's 13 meters to those of you outside of the states), 29 taps and new restaurant style walk-in with double glass doors for bottles.Not only is new new space larger and swankier, but it also affords us the ability to keep more bottles chilled for purchase and/or over-the counter consumption.Right now we're still putting the finishing touches on the space -- adding the new merchandise displays and bottle cabinets, plumbing the glass washers and re-mounting the big screen TV -- but we're still open for business, and patrons are here enjoying it on a regular basis.We plan on finishing everything up within the next couple of weeks in time for the big grand opening on December 12th when we'll be revealing our new vintage bottle selection. (Bottle of `06 Angel's Share anyone? How about a nice cold bottle of Yellow Bus?)Make sure to check the website for updates and a final list of the vintage bottles that'll be avaialble that day. If you get a chance, make sure to drop by and check the place out. (You'll find our tasting room hours and updates on the website right here.)

2010 Patron Saints and Patron Sinners Club Registration

Yes, this is the long-awaited announcement! Registration for the 2010 Lost Abbey Saints, and Lost Abbey Sinners will open on Tuesday, December 1 at 6am Pacific Time.As with last year's clubs, the Patron Saints will be limited to 200 members, each of whom will receive 14 beers, including the much coveted Saint's "black label" release. The Patron Sinners limited to 350 members, each of whom will receive a dozen of our barrel-aged rarities including the annual Sinner's Blend. Annual membership dues will also remain the same at $160 for Saints and $235 for Sinners.In addition to the beers, members of each club will also be entitled to VIP status for all limited availability beer releases, receive a six-piece set imported Lost Abbey glassware, and get 10% off all non-specialty beers and merchandise purchases. Members of both clubs will also be invited to the annual Sinners and Saints Dinner and Tasting held every October at the brewery.For more information on Patron Sinners and Patron Saints clubs memberships, please visit our website at: http://www.lostabbeydev.wpengine.com/patron-saints-sinners/.NOTE: Both of these clubs sell out very quickly. If you're interested in becoming either a Patron Saint or Patron Sinner, make sure to register as early as possible!

New Online Shop

We're pleased to announce the opening of our new online shop!Now you'll be able to purchase Port Brewing and Lost Abbey merchandise -- T-shirts, workshirts, glassware, tap handles and more -- all from the convenience of your computer. Additionally, if you're a resident of the state of California, you'll also be able to make bottled beer purchases online and have them delivered right to your door.You can check out the new online shop by visiting: http://www.lostabbeydev.wpengine.com/store

Beer Releases For November/December 2009

Here's the current new releases for the holiday season. Both of these beers have been bottled and kegged and shipped into distribution, so if you're in a region in which our beers are available (click here for a map), you should see these start to hit your favorite tap rooms and store shelves any time now.

• Santa's Little Helper, Russian Imperial Stout
• Gift of the Magi, Holiday Golden Ale

Lost Abbey tops new breweries list

Brookston Beer Bulletin's Jay Brooks has a list of the best new breweries that didn't exist 10 years ago. Guess who tops that list? Yep, Port Brewing / The Lost Abbey!From the article:

...many new breweries have seen a phenomenal amount of success in a relatively short time. Undoubtedly, the market has changed considerably from where it was pre-millennium and that probably accounts for more favorable conditions for new craft brewers. But alone that’s not enough to account for it all. Some of these new breweries just stepped up and kicked butt. So for my 20th Top 10 list, here are my choices for the ten most important and influential breweries that began within the last ten years.

Thanks for the nod, Jay. And thanks to all of you for helping us make it to the top!» Read the full article here (via Brookston Beer Bulletin)

Libri Divini - September, 2009

Divine Words | Volume 1, Issue 1

In This Issue

• Musings From The Director's Chair
• New Faces at The Lost Abbey
• Brewery Updates
• Third Annual Barrel Tasting Night
• Fall Beer Releases
• Upcoming Events

Musings From The Director's Chair

Greetings from Your Director of Brewery Operations.I'm sure many of you wonder what I actually do around here. Me too. It's kind of strange being a Director. I mean I don't yell "Cut." I don't "frame scenes" in the air with my hands and I most certainly don't hide behind the lens in a Directors Chair. Nope, what I do matters around here. I show up each and every day (except Sundays, that's family day) and I support the brand.What this means exactly know one knows.Like today, I am being asked to support the Lost Abbey brand of information communication by writing this piece. Tomorrow, I will show my support as Mike and Ryan stuff body bag after body bag of Fresh Hops in the dry hopping tank. On Thursday, I'll make some beer (it still won't be enough brewing for me) and on Friday, I'll settle into the bar and rehash the week with each of you.Being a Director is still very weird to me. It's like having Business Attention Deficit Disorder. I always have things to do but seemingly never get any of them done. But at the end of each and every day, there is always beer. So I guess, I should get used to life as a Director as long as there's all this beer around, it can't be that bad.Can it?

New Faces at The Lost Abbey

One of the reasons we can now restrict Tomme's activities to his actual job of "directing" operations (as well as company figurehead and sex symbol) here at Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey, is we've got a couple of new folks handling our brewing operation. They actually joined us back at the beginning of the year, but we've all been so busy that we haven't had time to introduce them properly. So we're making ammends now. Allow us to introduce our new faces:Mike Rodriguez, Head BrewerMike hails from Kansas City, MO where, prior to joining us, he was a brewer and cellarman for the famed Boulevard Brewing for the past six years. Before that he was head brewer at The Power Plant restaurant and brewery in Parkville, MO.Mike's wealth of skills and experience from his time at Boulevard is the driving factor behind our ability to scale production upward to meet the growing demand for our beers nationwide.When he's not running the brewhouse, Mike loves to play rugby and, in true Kansas City native style, BBQ just about anything that fits on a grill.He also has an encyclopedic knowledge of the lines from just about every romantic comedy and action-adventure movie made in America since 1975. If you ever have a chance to drop by the brewery or see him at an appearance, buy him a beer and ask him to act out all the characters in Die Hard.Gordon Gerski, Brewer & Bottling Line WranglerLike Mike, Gordon, or "Gordie" as everyone calls him, comes to us from Boulevard Brewing and The Power Plant before that.One of Gordie's jobs while at Boulevard was to run and maintain their bottling line, a skill that's come in handy here at the Abbey since our shiny new bottling line is of the same make (albiet much smaller than Boulevard's). As anyone who's ever run a bottling line can tell you, keeping one of those Rube Goldbergian contraptions running smoothly is no simple feat, so his knowledge of which dials to turn and knobs to fiddle with (or which panel to kick) are invaluable to us.Outside of the brewery Gordie's an avid cyclist who enjoys climbing and decending our local mountains on a bike with ridiculously thin tires. He's also got a very large husky named Molly who can bark her ABCs.

Brewery Updates

Beyond just new faces, we've also been growing our brewery like gangbusters. Earlier this year we acquired two new fermenters, Heaven and Hell, named for what had to be moved to get them into the brewhouse (See the photo album here). The aforementioned bottling line is now up and running (most of the time) which has increased our bottling capacity from a couple hundred cases a week to well over 1,000.We also acquired several hundred more oak barrels, pushing our total to over 500, and signed a keg contract that'll allow us to significantly increase our draft accounts across the country (read: more fresh beer for you).As you might guess, all of the new stuff has significantly increased our storage requirements, so we also added 10,000 square feet of warehouse space to handle our rapidly growing distribution.And in the coming months you'll be seeing even more changes. This fall we'll also be adding cold storage to our warehouse allowing us to move shipment-ready kegs out of the brewery, tear down the exiting coldbox, and build a brand new tasting bar complete with a fancy refrigeration unit to keep some of the rare stuff chilled and ready for tasting. So when you visit the brewery, you'll not only be able to sample our regular fare, but you'll also be able to experience some of our epic beers from the reserve (2006 Cuvee de Tomme anyone?).Finally, just this past week, we added a new feature to our tasting hours -- food in the form of Marty and his amazing hot dog cart. Marty's the real deal, and his authentic New York hot dogs, brats, cheesesteak sandwiches and other streetside eats are simply amazing (inexpensive too). So the next time you're down to the brewery for a tasting, or a new beer release, make sure to grab a dog or two -- you'll be glad you did!

Third Annual Barrel Tasting Night

Here's an event you won't want to miss -- Each year a limited number of guests are invited to join the Port Brewing family as we delve into the barrel archives to sample a few of the specialties waiting within. Barrel Tasting Night is limited to 125 lucky people who will be the first to taste craft releases aged as long as two years by brewmaster Tomme Arthur and crew.This year is our third annual Barrel Tasting Night which will be held on Saturday, November 7 to coincide with the kickoff of San Diego Beer Week.The event is from 7pm to 10pm and includes a number of incredibly rare beers coupled with hors d’ oeuvres and fine foods prepared by The Lost Abbey chef in residence, Vince Marsaglia.Tickets to the event are $80 each, $150 for a couple, and are guaranteed to sell out quickly. If you're going to be in town that week, this is definitely a "can't miss" event.You'll find all the information on our website here. Tickets are available online here.

Beer Releases For Fall 2009

Here's what on tap for release over the next few months (please note that all dates are estimates). If you're in an area in which we distribute (click here for a map), you should see these start to hit your favorite tap rooms and store shelves in 7 to 14 days after release.

• Sept. 1 -- Panzer Pils, Imperial Pilsner
• Sept. 18 -- High Tide, Fresh Hopped IPA
• Oct. 19 -- Santa's Little Helper, Russian Imperial Stout
• Nov. 2 -- Gift of the Magi, Holiday Golden Ale

Upcoming Events

Here’s a list of upcoming events for the next few weeks. You can always find a full list of events, appearances and releases on our website.

• Sept. 24 - 26 -- Great American Beer Festival, Denver, CO
• Oct. 9 -- Beer for Boobs fundraiser, Port Brewing & The Lost Abbey
• Oct. 10 -- Sinners & Saints Party, Port Brewing & The Lost Abbey
• Oct. 29 -- Port Brewing Dinner, The Crossings at Carlsbad
• Oct. 30 -- Boos and Brews Night, Port Brewing & The Lost Abbey
• Nov. 7 -- Third Annual Barrel Tasting Night, Port Brewing & The Lost Abbey

Click here for our full calendar of events.

Lost Abbey is "Beer Country"

CNN.com/travel has a story today on how craft beer, like wine, is now a travel destination. Lost Abbey is one of the breweries featured. From the article:

...while "all of California could be considered the state from which the innovators of craft beer came, San Diego specifically grabbed the golden ring from the merry go round and ran with it," said Matt Simpson, a craft beer consultant.So when you're talking San Diego-style beer, for most beer geeks you're talking about The Lost Abbey. "The most notable guy right now is Tomme Arthur at Lost Abbey. He was one of the early adventurous brewers in Southern California," beer tasting expert Mosher said.Known for Belgian-style beers and a "flavor first" philosophy, beer expert Beaumont said "they're doing some really innovative, interesting stuff in terms of barrel aging and unusual fermentations, beyond basic brewers yeast."

You can read the rest of the article here:» Raise a glass to 'beer country' (via CNN.com)

See Tomme this weekend at Stingaree Restaurant

More details here: http://www.lostabbeydev.wpengine.com/appearance-craft-beer-cooks-confab/