Allagash Curieux

<!-- i -->December 2004 bottling.<!-- /i --> Hazy orange body, thin-medium off-white head. Oaky aroma with caramel, white grape, tropical fruits, and biting alcohol. Fruity, peachy body, with coconut and bourbon, pineapple, white grape, and caramel, complex with good oak character. Alcohol not too hot. Some butterscotch. Rich, thick body but not syrupy. Very nice beer- complex and not overpowering.

Mediocre beer to begin with, then aged a couple weeks in Jim beam barrels...this should be great. Yeah, it tastes like pears, Southern Comfort, and caramel Bullseyes! I’m just going to leave it at that!

February 2006 bottling. Clear golden body with no head and sparse bubbles. Sweet, treacly nose full of caramel, coconut, sweet apples, honey, whole grains, fresh dough and luckily, a conspicuous absense of bourbon. The spicy yeast, fruity esters and lively carbonation are all gone, which takes away a lot from this. The body is thick and full with little carbonation that leaves a bit of a sweet film in the mouth. More sweetness in the flavor, with a bit more woody, barrel-aged character of vanilla, coconut and oak to go with the honey, sweet apples and caramel. It’s a real bummer the way this seems almost complete void of all "tripel" characteristics. I know the bourbon-barrel thing is all the rage, but it’s disappointing to find a world-class beer stripped of what makes it good, turned damn-near cloyingly sweet and labeled special. I tend to love Allagash beers, but definitely not this one.

Well-hazed golden with a fluffy white head that hangs around for a short while. Fruit cocktail and apple aroma with a ton of alcohol stimulates memories of underage drinking at weddings and proms... and nubile young ladies intoxicated on fruity, boozy drinks. Flavor slaps down the fun several notches with an overpowering essence of Southern Comfort... a whisky/liqueur that brings to mind puking my guts out on the quad followed by gorilla-sized hangovers. I found Allagash Tripel to be purely mediocre, but sticking it in a barrel creates a truly atrocious concoction.

<font size=-4>Thanks to <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/View-User-14352.htm>Cornfield at a recent meeting of the <a href=http://www.workinlate.com/LoSBD2.html>LoSBD 08/06/06.<font size=-1>

Tipsy had been restraining himself from drinking this since Christmas. Head is gone before you put the bottle down. Bourbon and pepper aroma. Bourbon like flavour with some residual maple or vanilla flavour. Oily body. Liqueur-like but restrained alcohol. Weird and unique. Tastes like the Tripel flavour is reduced to allow the bourbon to come through.

(Bottle) June 2006 Version. Sampled at the Brewery. I’ve had a bottle of the 2005 version of this beer in my cupboard (cellar) for months and finally got to try the new version at Allagash. The smell is sweet and alcoholic, which matches its rich complex potent taste. The color is pale, almost like a chardonay. The bourbon is noticeable with the taste.

(October 2005)vanilla nose with pepper. Pours a cloudy orange-yellow, thin head. Complex flavour with bourbon, hops, sweetness. Dry finish. Alcohol is well hidden. Interesting.

Bottle. Pours a golden yellow with a thin white head. The aroma was sweet fruits, with a hint of oak. The flavor was very interesting. The Tripel flavor came through very strongly, but a nice bourbon/oak finish was very apparent. It was a very pleasant combination.