Allagash Curieux

On tap at Moon River Brewing on 5/17/08. Pours a cloudy dark golden color with a one-finger white head. Aroma is strong spice, whiskey, and a slight honey sweetness. Flavor is nutty smoothness and bourbon with a creamy mouthfeel and dry finish. Alcohol seems to be present throughout, but definitely comes through on the finish. Overall, a very different and enjoyable tripel style ale.

750 ml bottle, Dec. 2004 vintage, stored in my cellar since summer of ’05. Nose contains a good bit of oak, also plenty of honeyish sweetness, the bourbon present here as well along with some toasted malt notes and dried flowers. Clear light-medium golden color with an amber cast, head is almost fully subsiding. Flavor profile is a nice blend of fruity sweetness and honeyed oak, some melon and white grape, finishing with stronger notes of bourbon and oak tannins, bitterness is fairly minimized overall by this point in time. Some faint, lingering peppery alcoholic fire. Mouthfeel is low in effervescence and lightly syrupy, body is of course quite full. Satisfying and flavorful, certainly no worse for the wear after its slumber.

Had on tap at Newport Pizza and Ale house. Pours a hazy golden color with a white, creamy, lacing head. The aroma is bright and fruity with apple, citruses (lemon), honey, oak, various spices and yeast is evident. Great chewy body with lively carbonation. Has lots of layers of flavors. The fruits range from pears, green apple, lemon. There’s a nice sweet Belgian malt back, which is graham cracker-like, with tons of peppery spiciness to balance. The alcohol is very well hidden in the flavor, yet it still has a nice warming character. There is the bourbon-oak present, yet it’s subtle and comes through more as it warms. The finish is nice and has a flowery dryness with prolonged spiciness that helps balance the sweet fruitiness and rich body. A very nice Tripel.

750ml bottle. Dec ’04 bottling. Oak and bourbon very prominent in the aroma with some sweet maltiness far in the back. Very tannic. Taste is oaky, light fruits, spicy at first followed by lots of tannins, more oak, sweet honeyish malt, and some spiciness.

750 ml bottle picked out by The Beer Wench. March 2008 vintage. Pours a cloudy yellow. Medium sized, bubbly white head. Good amount of lacing around the glass. Big aroma of bourbon, citrus, and some spices. Medium sized body, a bit sticky. Flavor is initially sweet. As the beer warms a bit, the bourbon flavors are really accentuated. Vanilla and some banana notes are also present. Finish is very dry with noticable warming alcohol.

5/2/08 notes: on tap, Eli Cannon’s. Pours a deep golden color with a small head. As I have found with other Allagash offerings, flavors tend to be subtle and mellow. Amazing how they were able to accomplish this at 11%! Curvieux has a nice smooth flavor of spices, fruit and sugar. It was certainly tasty, but did not contain the distinctiveness of say, Duvel, Unibroue’s strong offerings, or even Ommegang’s bold blend of spices. A little lost in the middle, there are better offerings out there.

I was expecting something a little more complex actually. Pours a greenish-orange with a thick 3/4 inch head. The booze is very apparent here and overpowers the rest of the brew. This is strong but suprisingly boring. Not worth the $15.99 I paid for it at Beverages And More!.

Bottle. Not to fond of this one. Cloudy dark golden pour with lots of carbonation. Weak bourbon flavor, wood, and citrus. The flavors clashed a lot.