Allagash Curieux

Brewed by Allagash Brewing Company
Style: Abbey Tripel
Portland, Maine USA

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip

Tap, City Beer Store. Beer pours a hazy but bright golden color with a nice white head that sticks around well. The aroma is milder than expected. There are some light stone fruit and caramel malt notes. The oak note is one of the best parts but a bit too refined not to get pushed out of the way more than I’d liked. It also seems somewhat vinous, though it’s a bit hard to tell under the bourbon. The bourbon is fairly harsh and there’s too much alcohol heat. The booze really hits in the flavor. I think that I might like the base beer and I might like an aged bottle/keg, but this is too harsh for me fresh.

one of the best i ever taste and feel. not too much oak. Perfect, that’s all.

Bottle - Had this at a tasting and didn’t get the year. Pours hazy yellow with a small pillowy head. Sweet grapes and light sweet fruit commingle with light spice, yeast and oak. What a beautiful smell--it took me forever to sip it because I wanted to smell it all night. Taste is light and spicy, with some wheat and a bit of heat on the finish. Nicely carbonated with a medium bodied. I think the barrel-aging mutes the spicing that I usually don’t like in a tripel, but this was very, very good. Sad that we don’t get Allagash in WI anymore.

Jan 2010 Bottle. Slight Sweet & Sour aroma. Golden body with thin, lasting head. I am not a big fan of aging in bourbon barrels, but this beer was well done! The flavor of the tripel is still intact as the bourbon flavor is light and helps to provide a slight sour finish. Overall a great beer that I will have again and will have to try aged!

Oh ale aged in bourbon barrels, how doth I love thee…

Brilliant oranges and ambers shimmer under a soft haze of pithy foam. A steady stream of carbonation lazes its way up to the surface where they release a spiced wooden bourbon assault unto my nose; I’m not complaining. Spice, wood, and bourbon warms from my tippy-toe to the tippy-top of my head. Boozy mango and oranges with skin soak in every last ounce of bourbon while marmalade, cinnamon sticks, and nutmeg compliment a dry woody nose. Whole coconuts sweet and earthy at the same time round the corner into raw honeycomb. Delightfully dry, spiced, and wholly bourbon, I lick wet lips and dive right on in. A thick mouthfeel sticks to the roof of my mouth and all porous surfaces, opening the way for bourbon to soak me to the bone. Amazingly she manages to be sweet, dry with wood and spice, and warm with bourbon all at the same time. Warmth immediately fills the back of my throat while mangos, oranges, and fresh chunks of coconut steep in a bourbon bath. Raw cinnamon sticks and nutmeg are scattered throughout while raw honeycomb sticks to my lips with each quaff; most detectable as a subtle undercurrent, she carries me through each quaff right back to the beginning and back again. Not overly complex but very tasty, the Allagash Curieux was a warm bourbon delight from start to finish. It’s amazing how the time spent in the Jim Beam barrels changed the original character of their Tripel.

Why choose between one or the other when you can have both. A limited seasonal release, grab a bottle or two of Curieux while you can, and if you really wanted to have some fun, do a side-by-side comparison of the Allagash Tripel and the Allagash Curieux.

This is one of the few beers that I’ve had in recent years that has really knocked my socks off. The bourbon-oak-vanilla flavor marries perfectly with the sweetness of the triple. Why don’t more brewers do this?! An astonishingly tasty beer drinking experience, and a must-try beer for all Belgian ale fans.

16oz wide mouth glass, the aroma is very woody, you can smell the high percentage of alcohol, nice solid layer of foam bout 1/4 inch, Vanilla taste that stands out, amber, clear, frothy, medium sweetness, lightly bitter, lightly sour, medium body, slick feel, lively, one thing for sure is that the alcohol at 11% hides very well and it hits you good! cheers!,

Draft at redlight redlight. Pours a cloudy gold with a frothy lacy white head. The nose is a nice combination of bright spices and subtle bourbon notes. Some of that bourbon is lost in the flavor and I would definitely like to see more of it. A little sweet, pretty floral. Has a slight crispness and a good easy drinking quality.