Allagash Black

Brewed by Allagash Brewing Company
Style: Foreign Stout
Portland, Maine USA

(bottle) Big, brown head whose bubbles cascade down at first, then stabilize and expand to make big pockets and craters. Body is opaque and black. A roasty aroma, but still sweet; nuts, chocolate, earthy, leathery. There a tad sweetness up front but quickly dries out. Dark roasted, slightly burnt flavor of chocolate and coffee beans. Acidic and mildly bitter. Full bodied.

Pours black with a large head. Aroma is strong, of roast coffee beans, chocolate, and a little licorice. Flavor is about the same. This is your basic stout in style, but a very high-quality one. Very nice flavor, but not at all offensive, and rather smooth. The slight alcohol burn was nice. Overall excellent. Perhaps the best non-Imperial stout I’ve had thus far. Thanks Allagash.

Black in color with a medium sized beige head. Aroma is heavy in yeast with a slight roasty character. Taste is of coffee, yeast, and roasted malts with a slight chocolate flavor.

poured brown basically black beige foam nose is Belgian spices and funkyness, smell is booze some dark malts. flavor is roasty a little thin, some coffee and choc. good beer. very interesting.

750 ml bottle. Pours black with a medium mostly lasting frothy beige head. The aroma is an interesting combination of Belgian yeast and roasted malts with dark chocolate and cocoa. The flavor had baker’s chocolate, roasted malt, caramel, mild coffee, yeast, and wood. This was dry and finished toward the bitter side. Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.

There seem to be a lot of brewers experimenting with "Belgian style" stouts lately...or at least I seem to be trying a lot of them for the first time lately. They tend to fall in one of a few categories: either they are Un-Belgian-y (just stout-like and roasty), too Belgian-y (Buffalo Belgian Stout), or just right (Weyerbacher XIII). I would put this one in the Un-Belgian-y category...there was plenty of roastiness, but none of the mouthfeel or yeast or spice notes that I associate with Belgian-style beer. It was black, it was roasty, it was ot very Belgian-y. It reminded me of a milk stout, and a very good milk stout at that. I would suggest that this beer is not exactly on-target (as far as the description is concerned) but I nonetheless thought this to be a very good beer. I bought this at Rick’s Wine on Duke Street in Alexandria, VA. I enjoyed it with SurlySober and Flyer at a tasting at my house which also included RR Beatification and Westvleteren 12 (quite respectable, eh?).

Bottle 75cl. @ [ Tasting by Maria ].
Clear dark red brown color with a large, creamy, good lacing, fully lasting, beige head. Aroma is moderate to heavy malty, roasted, caramel, chocolate, moderate to heavy yeasty, medicine notes, alcohol notes. Flavor is moderate to heavy sweet and bitter with a long to average duration. Body is medium to light, texture is oily to watery, carbonation is soft. [20081105]

Bottle from Lee’s discount in the ATL and on tap at the Stuffed Sandwich. I must admit to liking the tap better. Very mellow aroma of roasted licorice, coffee and brownie. Taste is the same with way less licorice. Nice and potent mouthfeel like an imperial rather than foreign. An absolute credit to the style.