Lost Abbey Brewing Co.
Dear Replicator,
Many moons ago I made the trek to San Diego, California (from Minnesota) on a beer-vacation masquerading as a family trip to Sea World/San Diego Zoo. That may be a stretch as my wife and daughter gave me one day to hit the breweries in and around the city. The one stop I had to make, based on reputation alone, was Port Brewing Co./The Lost Abbey. Of all the amazing beer on tap, Ten Commandments really stuck out. Ten Commandments is a dark, farmhouse ale with a notable Brett character. After a few trial batches at home, it’s fair to say I am not even close. Given the complexity, multiple ingredients, and yeast strains, can you help me unravel this amazing beer?
Tom Ferris
Kasson, Minnesota
Tom, you’re absolutely right! Ten Commandments from The Lost Abbey is an amazing beer, which I’ve been fortunate enough to drink, but it’s also devilishly difficult to craft. Even Tomme Arthur, who’s The Lost Abbey’s Director of Brewing Operations and a co-Founder, mentioned to me that it’s a “very challenging beer.” So here’s to hoping that this article sheds a bit of light on this dark, farmhouse ale.
Just for clarity, The Lost Abbey/Port Brewing Co./The Hop Concept all share a roof and brewery space in San Marcos, California, which is just north of San Diego. Despite sharing the 3-vessel, 30-BBL brewhouse, each brand of beer focuses on segregated styles. The Hop Concept focuses on hoppy flavors and combinations thereof without the trappings of having to use specific hop varieties. Port Brewing’s attention is devoted on aggressive San Diego/West Coast beer styles, while The Lost Abbey devotes itself to Belgian-inspired ales. Although The Lost Abbey’s beers are fundamentally derived from classic Belgian styles such as dubbels, quads, and saisons, you’ll find the beers to be anything but traditional. Consider them to be quaffable, culinary experiences.
The concept of The Lost Abbey was the brainchild of Vince Marsaglia’s imagination: Flavorful, expressive brews with a nod to monastic brewing traditions and styles. The one setback was finding a brewer who could pull off such a feat. In 1997, Tomme entered the picture and rapidly began producing flavorful beers at Pizza Port, which was founded by Gina Marsaglia, Vince’s sister and one of the individuals responsible for bringing good beer to San Diego back in 1987 when the craft beer industry was still young.
After several successful years, Tomme and Pizza Port had firmly established themselves in the beer world and began to formulate plans to bring Vince’s idea to fruition. The next step would be the acquisition of a brewing space to support such an endeavor. And as luck would have it, Stone Brewing Co. vacated a space in San Marcos in 2005 to move into another, larger space a short distance away. Gina, Vince, and Tomme pounced. The Lost Abbey’s doors opened in May 2006 and in the following year, Port Brewing was named the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) Small Brewery of the Year while Tomme took honors as Small Brewer of the Year. In 2008, they were similarly awarded again but at the World Beer Cup and the trend of award-winning brews continued for nearly the next decade. Currently, the brewhouse puts out 15,000 BBLs per year to help fill the nearly 1,000 Bourbon, brandy, Sherry, and wine barrels that The Lost Abbey owns.
Despite drinking The Lost Abbey’s beers for a few years, there are several aspects of the brewery that I never knew. First off, look at their logo, which was created by Sean Dominguez. Each arm of the Celtic cross bears one of the four main ingredients in beer: Yeast, water, malt, and hops. The cross is surrounded by a circle that “joins the four points of the cross with a fifth element that we believe represents the spirit of the people that energize The Lost Abbey on a daily basis.” The Lost Abbey also has a version of their Ten Commandments with considerably fewer religious implications. It’s a set of rules that helps to guide them, contains a bit of seriousness and has a sprinkle of humor thrown in. For example, Commandment VIII states, “We believe an inspired life is worth living,” while Commandment VII is, “Passion isn’t something you can buy at the corner store.”
Ten Commandments is a multi-layered beer that changes like a chameleon as it warms. The beer is best enjoyed at cellar temperatures to truly bring out the complexities of flavor found in the beer. It’s also a pseudo-celebration of their anniversary since it usually arrives in stores annually in the June–July timeframe. You can enjoy it on its own or pair with a hardy, robust dish such as a stew. In the nose, you’ll find quite a bit of caramel candy, honey, raisin, chocolate with supportive herby rosemary, peppery spice, and restrained funky notes from the Brettanomyces. The flavor follows the nose for the most part and starts out a bit on the sweet side, which tails off in a long, drying finish. Pepper, funk, caramel, and raisin linger on the palate.
As you could imagine, Ten Commandments is also a fine beer for proper cellaring techniques should you have the patience not to drink it. So, go ahead, brew up your version of it, drink some of it now and savor a portion in the distant future. Cheers!
The Lost Abbey Brewing Company’s Ten Commandments clone
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.089 FG = 1.006
IBU = 34 SRM = 33 ABV = 11%
Ingredients
10 lbs. (4.54 kg) 2-row pale malt
1.5 lbs. (0.68 kg) crystal wheat malt (55 °L)
0.75 lb. (0.34 kg) Special B malt
0.75 lb. (0.34 kg) melanoidin malt
0.75 lb. (0.34 kg) flaked barley
0.4 lb. (0.18 kg) Carafa® II malt
1.4 lbs. (0.64 kg) corn sugar
1.4 lbs. (0.64 kg) honey
6.75 AAU Amarillo® hops (90 min.) (0.75 oz./21 g at 9% alpha acids)
3.25 AAU Magnum hops (45 min.) (0.25 oz./7 g at 13% alpha acids)
5 oz. (142 g) blackened raisins (see Tips for Success)
0.5 oz. (14 g) sweet orange peel
0.026 oz (0.75 g) fresh rosemary
WLP565 (Belgian Saison) or Wyeast 3724 (Belgian Saison) yeast
WLP650 (Brettanomyces bruxellensis) or Wyeast 5112 (Brettanomyces bruxellensis) yeast
1 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step
Mill the grains, then mix with 4.4 gallons (16.7 L) of 166 °F (74 °C) strike water to achieve a single infusion rest temperature of 152 °F (67 °C). Hold at this temperature for 60 minutes. Mashout to 170 °F (77 °C).
Vorlauf until your runnings are clear before directing them to your boil kettle. Batch or fly sparge the mash to obtain 7 gallons (26.5 L) of wort. Boil for 90 minutes, adding hops at the times indicated above left in the boil. At 15 minutes left in the boil, you can add Irish moss or Whirlfloc as kettle fining agents.
After the boil, add the corn sugar, honey, raisins, orange peel, and rosemary. Whirlpool for 15–20 minutes before chilling the wort to slightly below fermentation temperature. Pitch saison yeast. Start fermentation around 75 °F (24 °C) and ramp up as it goes. Ferment to completion, which may require a bit of patience and time. Bottle or keg the beer and carbonate to approximately three volumes using Brett Brux yeast.
The Lost Abbey Brewing Company’s Ten Commandments clone
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.089 FG = 1.006
IBU = 34 SRM = 29 ABV = 11 %
Ingredients
5.5 lbs. (4.54 kg) extra light dried malt extract
1.5 lbs. (0.68 kg) crystal wheat malt (55 °L)
0.75 lb. (0.34 kg) Special B malt
0.75 lb. (0.34 kg) melanoidin malt
0.75 lb. (0.34 kg) flaked barley
0.4 lb. (0.18 kg) Carafa® II malt
1.4 lbs. (0.64 kg) corn sugar
1.4 lbs. (0.64 kg) honey
6.75 AAU Amarillo® hops (60 min.) (0.8 oz./23 g at 9% alpha acids)
3.25 AAU Magnum hops (45 min.) (0.25 oz./7 g at 13% alpha acids)
5 oz. (142 g) blackened raisins
0.5 oz. (14 g) sweet orange peel
0.026 oz. (0.75 g) fresh rosemary
WLP565 (Belgian Saison) or Wyeast 3724 (Belgian Saison) yeast
WLP650 (Brettanomyces bruxellensis) or Wyeast 5112 (Brettanomyces
bruxellensis) yeast
1 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step
Bring 2.5 gallons (9.5 L) of water to roughly 152 °F (67 °C). Steep all the milled malt in a nylon bag for 30 minutes then remove. Allow the bag to drain back into the kettle. Add enough water to bring the total volume to 6.5 gallons (24.6 L). Add the dried malt extract, stir, and finally heat to a boil. Follow the all-grain recipe for remaining boil, fermentation, and packaging instructions.
Tips for Success:
Ten Commandments will surely test your faith in microbiota. The brew day should be relatively straight forward except for the blackened raisins and rosemary. A subtle hand is needed for the rosemary addition as too much of the herb will unbalance the beer; The Lost Abbey uses 4 oz. (113 g) in 25 BBLs (775 gallons/29 hectoliters) of wort. As for the raisins, you’re looking for a pleasantly caramelized character that you get via brûléeing the raisins. Lost Abbey uses a large torch to accomplish this task but feel free to use safer alternatives such as a broiler.
The other major difficulty with this beer is the fermentation. The DuPont strain is notorious for stalling around 1.030. However, with a bit of patience and heat, it’ll start back up and finish fermenting. Note that the strain can tolerate fermentation temperatures up to 90 °F (32 °C). Finally, the beer is carbonated and conditioned using Brett Brux yeast. If you decide to keg the beer, you may want to consider using a funky, dedicated Brett or sour keg. Tomme recommends patience…all the flavors in the beer take months to meld together.
