I butter my bread using Lost Abbey as an easy target from time to time. In this instance, I can’t grist many yukyuks out because they have been on their shit so thoroughly lately that it is almost frustrating from an entertainment perspective to see them do things so well. Some of you may remember the OG New Belgium Falling Rock on the Original top 100 White Whale list from when BeerAdvocate was still relevant. Falling Rock was a beer that I chased for seven years and never locked it down and I am sure it’s an Aquanet acetic nailsalon mess at this point, but perhaps my grapes have soured from lack of punchdown. Enter the b2 Fallling Rock, a component blended, fruited wild from Lost Abbey. My balloon knot tightened when I saw this in both anticipation and expectation that this would be some intensely acidic affair like so many of the fruited Veritas offerings. This was easily one of the best Lost Abbey beers I have had in years and has this distinctively American riff that was both complex and that shredding gauche ‘raise truck Silverado panache that American runs on brett trois can produce.

The fruit profile is muted and instead provides fondant for what is oak driven through and through. This is dry and has an allusion to gum buckling but never gets to that level. It oddly through the merger of all these different barrels you end up with some kind of Biere de Garde hybrid. Part Norma, part OEC cum de BFM. There’s a smattering of grapefruit pith, clementines, CUTIES (if you fuxxx w them), and a long apple skin type of closer coupled with Jura wine that discerning consumers with 13.1 stickers on their foresters were obsessed with last year. This isn’t the pillowy soft wheat driven beer that is in vogue right now, it’s classic American wild ale on all fronts of the AWA acronym. The musk is like a super fresh Doesjel except with carb and you’re actually jazzed to drink it. All the Lambincels about to get rattled. This is a fantastic window into what Lost Abbey is up to on the club aspect, their retail shelf offerings being left alone for the time being. This is absolutely worthy of your contemplation, a fantastic reimaging of the spontaneous cheer days past. I am considering this a WW100 tick, ZFG, take it up with DDB customer support.