Allagash Four

Courtesy to SoLan (aka Reklaw) for sharing. Amber color. No head with white rim. Great lacing. Nose is caramel and oak. More oak and caramel, slight mint, vanilla, dark fruit, and door meat. Medium carbonation and big body are refreshingly balanced and well-rounded. Great beer.

allagash four deserves a four rating! Great beer dark brown color. great taste with a roasty caramel taste.

Bottle, in the blind quad tasting with tronraner and NachlamSie. Pours murky dark brown, no head at all. Aroma is quite bright for the style. Lots of sweet juicy fruits, berries. A bit of darker fruits come through as well. Flavor is sweetly oaky, lots of berries and spice in the finish. Mouthfeel is oily, probably due to lack of any hint of carbonation. The 10% alcohol is well hidden though.

Bottle in blind quad tasting with NachlamSie and muenster. Pours cloudy dark copper brown with small beige head. The aroma is peach, banana, vanilla, and some oak and raisin. The flavor is smooth and caramelly sweet. Some woody fruit-pit elements begin to come through early, then notes of lemon and banana, and a sweet finish. I pick up some mildly charred notes after a while. A bit of clovey spiciness comes out in the finish and the aftertaste is woody. It’s a bit lacking in the carbonation department, which makes the mouthfeel a little bit dense. Pretty good all around, but there’s better stuff out there.

Bottle split with Tronraner and Muenster in a blind tasting among Allagash Four, Rochefort 10, and St. Bernardus 12. This one is slightly hazy, a bit lighter than mahogany in color, and has only a whispy trace of a head. The nose is noticeably fruity. I’d say this one had the richest suggestions of ripe fruits with notes of plums, banana, cardamom, and other soft, spiced aromas. The mouthfeel is semi dense. The beer rolls of the tongue quickly at first but leaves residual flavors of figs,grapes, cinnamon, bubble gum, berries, and barely noticed chocolate. It’s slightly tart but not quite dry. It’s a soft but complex beer. I liked it quite well, but I found it couldn’t match the complexity or depth of the exemplary, authentic Trappist quads in this tasting. Given its $11 price tag, I’d say go with their Trippel instead or perhaps a St. Bernardus 12.

Bottle. Pours a clear amber with a one finger lasting off-white head that leaves good lacing. Aroma of caramel, sweet cherries, and dark fruit. Taste is the same as aroma. Medium full slightly sweet mouthfeel with a mild mount of bitterness that finishes somewhat dry. A very well done Quad.

pours a deep burgundy brown color. has a brown sugar and dark fruity aroma with some sweet cherries. very smooth and creamy. strong caramel malt flavor with a subtle biscuitness, and finishes with raisins, light spice and alcohol. pretty well balanced but a little simple

Bottle from BevMo. Pours a hazy maroon color. Aroma is sweet and fruity. Some grape, charry and apple. Some darker fruits under the surface. A hint of yeast is also present. Smoothe mouthfeel. Sweet fruity flavors up front. Some of the aforementioned fruits are present in the flavor. Finish has a more roasty raisin quality. Full flavored and bodied, with well hidden alcohol. Good stuff.