The Lost Abbey - Veritas Raspberry

Tomme Arthur, Head Brewer and legend in his own right in the craft brewing industry, offered us this extremely rare Lost Abbey gem after realizing that the original beer slotted for this special offer was no longer available. In a stand up manner to make good on the error, he offered us something from the brewery’s line of Veritas blends which are uber rare and highly sought after. From the pen of Tomme: “Our line of Veritas blends has always given us a blank canvas to channel our inner mad scientist. For Veritas Raspberry, we took an enormous amount of this marvelous fruit and married it to a blonde sour with our house cultures. The result being a dream-like sequence of Raspberries, Brett, and Oak. We hope you enjoy this batch of Raspberry Truth.”

Lost Abbey’s been making their small-batch reserve series of Veritas beers since the brewery first opened back in 2006. Production runs are frequently less than 100 cases total, with only the very best barrels being selected for the Veritas line. For their recently debuted beers like Veritas Peche, Veritas Kriek, and Veritas Raspberry, they’ve chosen to wait until almost the very end of the aging process before adding copious amounts of fresh fruit. These beers are already in their final blended form when the fruit is added, and everything gets aged inside of stainless-steel vessels for the final step—providing a brightness and depth of fruit expression that’s so brilliantly showcased in these Veritas fruited releases.

Veritas Raspberry is packed with expressive citrus acidity, warming vanilla and almond notes from its time inside of oak barrels, and an exhilarating raspberry character that permeates all aspects of this beer. This Veritas pours a bright pink color capped by modest white foam, as a potent impact of tart lemony citrus and pulpy red fruit lead the aromatics. Lots of lambic-like complexity throughout this sour raspberry release—as Tomme put it, “One whiff of the nose, and you’ll be instantly transported to the Senne Valley.” There’s expressive Brettiness plus a nicely warming oak presence keeping everything on course. That complex raspberry character continued to unfold as we allowed this one to warm up a bit in our glasses. Lots of rounded, fresh raspberry balanced by a lemony, lambic-like tartness. Generous with its fruit, ferment, and oak, Veritas Raspberry concludes with a welcome peppery and raspberry finish.