I apologize, I don’t recall how this beer came into my beer cave.  I know it came as part of a trade…. None-the-less, I’m surprised I still have room for more beer after the amazing showcase of Iron Brewer beer I had earlier tonight.  But, it is here and it’s time for this Lost Abbey Red Poppy to met its maker!

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This is the second of a couple ciders that Crispin Ciders sent me to review.  As I said in my last cider review, I’m not a huge fan of ciders, mostly because the cheap homogenized macro beer versions I had tasted like crap.  I told Crispin Ciders this, but would keep an open mind to trying their ciders. The last one I tried was Crispin Honey Crisp Artisanal Reserve.  While I did enjoy most of that beer, this one is very intriguing to me, because it is made with a Trappist Ale Yeast with maple syrup.  Yup that right, a Cider fermented with a nice strain of beer yeast.

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I’ve been looking forward to this beer for a LONG time.  So I figured this night was a great night to try it, why?  My birthday of course!   Besides a limited release, this bottle was special to me.  It was unexpectedly sent to me by a person I have an immense amount of respect for and I’m glad I saved it for a special day.  Thus, I’m going to selfishly have this beer by myself!

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The thing I’m quickly learning about Cigar City with the two beers I’ve had from them, throw out all your preconceived notions and put on your driving gloves for a ride.  This time up is Cigar City’s 110k+OT, batch #3.  Batch #3 diverges from batch #1 and #2 and dives into the world of big IPA.

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I don’t think I’ve ever had, let alone heard of, an Imperial Flanders Red.  But, what the hell why not. Every other friggin’ style has an imperial this or double that, why not a flanders red?  Going into this beer I though It would have come across as a sour, but the aroma is like a tropical fruit salad smothered in bubblegum.  If someone had just handed me this glass and said, “Sniff it and tell me the style”  I would have said an IPA, hands down.  But that is the spirit of a collaborative beer.  You get two or more brewers together an hopefully the best of both come out in the beer.

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I’ve been looking forward to Lost Abbey’s Framboise de Amorosa since seeing it on New Brew Thursday’s podcast with Ladies of Craft Beer, Taylor Shaw.  They all seemed to be enjoying the beer so much; I wanted to jump through my screen and join them!   Two months later, I have a bottle of in in hand, thanks to my buddy Scott for sending it eastward.  Hopefully this will live up to the hype I’ve built in my head.  You have to remember that Lost Abbey beers are not available in NJ, so this is a 400 case brewery only release beer took a bit longer to get.  So lets taste away!

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