Allagash Dubbel Reserve

[744-20071006] 750mL (Batch #58). Malty alcohol aroma. Hazy, dark red brown body with a long-lasting foamy light tan head. Light chocolate and malty wheat flavour. Medium body. Quite nice, repeatable, well-blended.

12 oz brown bottle. Aroma is a mild sweet well controlled hint of strong ale. Gunk on bottom of bottle provides for a swirling brown hazy pour, quite hypnotizing. Big initial alky content impact on the taste buds. More than I like for a Belgy. This is what makes the american belgy styles so different than the real belgies, its the lack of refined smoothness. I have yet to taste an american imitation of a belgy that is really civilized. Overall a little too strong on the alky character than I care for. Has a difficult time hiding the 7% and it leaves a lingering medicinal bite on the palate that hangs around for a while. This cannot hold a candle to Bornem Dubbel or Corsy Pater Brown. IMHO, I don’t feel that american made abbey dubbels should be in the same style as Belgies.

Hmm this may be past prime because I was really surprised at the thin quality of this brew. Pours a brown amber color with little to no head. Smells like great quality malt. Tastes thin watery and has almost no tastes outside malt. I was wondering if allagash forgot to add a few ingrediants. I won’t grade too harshly because of the possibility of old beer but I will say the malt characteristics are really great.

batch #59 pour is dark brown with tint of ruby, large foamy off-white head with good staying power, excellent lacing. smell is of dark fruits, some spices, malt, floral, bit of nuts way in the back. taste is not to overpowering, spice, prunes, raisins, malts, slightly metallic, some nuts, ends dry.

THOUGHTS: The flavor and body were both a little thin for the syle. A very nice dubbel. Noat a huge Allagash fan, so this was a nice surprise. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured medium to dark reddish brown with a small, off-white head that mostly diminished. The aroma was moderate to heavy caramel malt light chocolate and just a little nutty. It was also lightly yeasty with dark fruit and maybe some tobacco. The initial flavor was lightly sweet and acidic and sour, while the finish was moderately sweet, lightly acidic and sour with and average duration. The flavor was of caramel malt, heast, slight chocolate and some nuttiness with a nice sour finish. It was also a little wine-like too. The medium body was somewhat dry with fizzy carbonation and a moderate astringent finish.

Bottle. Dark brown pour with ruby highlights. Medium fizzy head. Spicy aroma. Sweet finish, nuts and caramel as it warms.

Poured a cloudy caramel color with a very thin cream color head that quicly disappeared to just a wisp. Nice slightly sweet aroma and malty fragrance. A very mild flavor that was slightly sweet with a subtle bite that built slowly to the finish, A very clean taste and not real filing. I was a little disappointed in the flavor.

I love Belgian style Dubbels, and while not at the top of the list, this one is certainly on the higher end. I see a lot of 3s for the appearance, I really think this deserves a solid 4.