Allagash Gargamel

Formerly brewed at Allagash Brewing Company
Style: Sour Ale/Wild Ale
Portland, Maine USA

Serve in Snifter, Tulip, Tumbler

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375ml bottle shared by beejay at the first chitown sour tasting... poured a medium amber brown with a thin soapy head... aroma was mostly earthy with a unique and apparent yeastiness along with an odd pervading sense of some chemical vanilla astringency... flavors bettered itself with emphasis on a sour and earthy cherry with a slightly bitter finish. was expecting a little bit more from this one. will need to try again if given the opportunity.

(bottle, thanks Dalzale!) Pours light gold with a medium light tan head. This surprisingly smells like a faro, with a bit of raspberry, but there are stronger scents of apple cider, cinnamon, oak, and tartness. The taste is fairly sour with some raspberry seeds, lightly tannic, and a bit of tomato sauce as well. Everything is fine in this beer until the finish, which displays a large amount of butter that is really unexpected. The mouthfeel is medium. Thanks for sharing Greg!

A generous pour into my large Tripel Karmeliet tulip glass produces a three-finger thick, pale tan colored head. The beer is a richly red tinged, dark amber color that shows a lightly hazed, red stained gold color when held up to the light. The aroma smells floral and fragrantly of raspberries, but there is a lactic note that was noticeable as I was pouring this and if you dig for it there is a fair amount of funky Brettanomyces character in the finish. This last contributes a musty, phenolic soaked blanket note, as well as a touch of musky barnyard character. I like that the raspberry doesn’t completely dominate the nose, but it is still quite strong and most definitely easily the loudest aroma here by a long way.

The beer is quite dry, with a lightly bracing tartness. The beer has a certain lightness to it that I wasn’t quite expecting from a beer of this strength; it almost seems a touch too thin. The raspberry notes in the flavor are held well in check by the overall dryness of this beer; there is still a fleshy raspberry pulp flavor here as well as a bit of tannic raspberry skin character that mixes with tannic oak notes that lightly coat the teeth. The oak also contributes a spiciness to the finish that mixes with a touch of warming alcohol. The raspberry notes are quite floral in some ways and the fruitiness provides a perceived fruitiness to the middle of each sip. The tartness seems to be derived largely from the lactic fermentation, but also from the raspberries used. The tannic notes and spiciness from the oak balance, quite well, with the light lactic acidity. The body seems to pick up a bit more heft to it as time wears on, perhaps it is just my palate getting used to the beer; this doesn’t become heavy, but does pick up a touch of slickness that works a bit more than the almost watery character that I noticed at first. The oak and the alcohol in the finish contribute a touch of peppery piquancy to the finish. Up front some vanillin mixes in seamlessly with the floral raspberry character; how can you go wrong with raspberry and vanilla flavors.

This is not bad; it is nothing like what I was expecting, even though I don’t really know what I was expecting here. It isn’t all I had hoped it would be though either. It could use a touch more sourness (which might actually help balance this beer somehow) and the body seems a bit thin at times. It could use a bit more complexity; perhaps more funkiness whether acidity, Brett or yeasty spiciness; even a hint of sweetness might be welcome. The beer started out a bit on the weak side but finishes with a much stronger showing that ultimately pushes this into the enjoyable category for me. This ends up being a solid first entry to this limited series by Allagash and I can only hope to try the future releases in this series.

Bottle courtesy of someone very generous. Pours copper/mahogany with a white head. Smells of citrus, spicey, peaches, some peppery splashes, light funk. Tastes tarte and dry with some oaky boozy weirdness on the finish.

A: The beer pours amber in color with a short lived, small, off-white head. S: Upfront I get a strange smell of maple syrup, perhaps it’s just the vanilla and oak? After that it’s tart fruits, though I wouldn’t have guessed raspberries. Mild strawberry and lemon aromas with some grassy funk. T: The flavor is nicely sour with hints of vinegar, but primarily lactic acidity. Tart berries, grass, lemon zest, and oak. There’s a mild earthiness to the beer along with some green apple skins. M: Medium in body with a lively carbonation. O: Overall a good but not great beer. It was pleasantly tart, and there were some nice flavors to it, but nothing that really grabbed my attention.

Foxy mahogany. Thin but creamy and retentive white head. Sharp alcohol and oak on the nose, with expressive notes of lactobacillus, peach, vanilla, red wine, and coconut. Muted iron and straw scents along with a pleasant waft of mustiness. Snug carbonation. Initial alcoholic and tannic tingle is offset by a vibrant peach splash and a bouncy straw-tinged malt base. Malt becomes borderline grainy and astringent as it progressively takes on more toastiness. Much more lactic than bretty as the brett merely yields a flash of plasticlike phenols. Fruity esters impart plenty of succulence while a savory blend of lactobacillus and coconut add to the tropical nuance. Poorly extracted malt is nauseatingly husky, and though the oak exhibits some relative restraint, it also manages to exacerbate the graininess. Fierce bite of peppery alcohol creeps in as well. Finishes fairly empty with a simplistic mixture of oak, red wine, coconut and mild vanilla. Does have a fairly pleasant tropical medley going on in the aroma, albeit a fairly simple one. Llittle in the way of depth or character, however, and the malt character is grainy and unclean. Pretty straightforward.

The beer pours an un-noticeable light clear brown with not head or lacing. The aroma is on the lighter side, the front is mostly sour notes, some light horse blanket. The back side doesn’t have a ton going on a little raspberries a tiny bit of oak. The taste is very light in taste and feel. It starts off lightly sour then finishes with a ton of oak and alcohol, its a very creamy stick feel. Overall, ok nothing special for a wild, a lot better than Vagabond.

Bottle shared by Miketd. Thanks!! Pours dark amber color with white head. Aroma was pretty nice. Tart apple, lemon, with some woody oak. Medium mouthfeel with some carbonation. Not over the top. Flavor consisted of tart lemon upfront, moving into wood and oak flavors, then finishing with buttered popcorn. I kept looking in the glass for the buttered flavored popcorn jelly beans! I just couldn’t find them. Oh well. Such a disappointment not to find the jelly bean flavored buttered popcorn in my glass. I could have justified the hype if they were there. No jellybeans = NOT WORTH THE HYPE. This was good. Not great.