Allagash Interlude

Brewed by Allagash Brewing Company
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Portland, Maine USA

2005 bottle. A typically fine-looking beer from Allagash, with a deep ruby body, impressive carbonation, and decent head/retention. The nose is pretty impressive by this point, with a mellow dark grape aroma suggesting Syrah (or something similarly blended and mellow). This comes through in the taste as well, with a nice deep fruitiness to the beer (balanced well by the fizz) and underscored by the Bretty funk. Pretty damn impressive.

very nice beer...but for the price im not sure its anything spectacular. that said, i enjoyed the beer in which i definitely got a wine-like juiciness that made it very easy going down. no sign of the 9.5%ABV...i have another bottle aging...hopefully that bottle will show more of the brett character in the future...because i didnt get much of it in this one

Sampled at the Odds and Ends Tasting II on 10/19/07: Deep amber color with a medium thick beige head that burns off pretty quickly. Rings of lace. Aroma of yeast and sour fruit plus some spice. Medium body with a vinous and oaky character. Yeast and fruit flavors over a decent malt base. The finish is is spicy (anise) and yeasty with a fruit aftertaste. Allagash typically does a good job with their offerings and this is no exception.

2006 - Nicely deep toned orangey rusted color. Thickly firm medium sized capping of dusty yellowed foam plants itself well on top for a good length. Keeps a heavy skim and large foamed up collar always present. Thin sheets of lace and long stretchy strings coat the glass with nice decor. Funky Brett sourness pours from the bottle and can be wiffed with ease. But getting past that is hard as its potency is quite booming. White wine, high ended sour stuff with a bit of funky bardyard notes of fresh hay and the animals that eat it. Some apple and berry tendencies emerge as it settles with time and warmth as does a bit of alcoholic warmth. Thankfully the taste is far more balanced and quite nice here. Geez, where to start...its well-rounded, full, bold, spicy, zingy, and full of fun popping flavors. A nice array of mild going sourness and funky spice balances very well together with a pleasingly complex fruit salad of grapes, apple, berries, citric peels, and melon. The dryness is perfect, it lets loose as it finishes letting more of the sweet fruityness shine through along with a bit of soured funk twinge and bite. They balance is amazing and very welcome in a beer like this. Body is quite full, if not more so. Boldly forward and always developing more and more character and body as it goes. Delicately sour and dry, and If I dare say, its very handsome. Another class act brew by Allagash! A truly enjoyable sipper if there ever was one.

Hazy dark golden color with a beige head. Fruity aroma. Flavor of grapefruit and hops. Pretty tangy and good.

Bottle - 2007 January. Slight explosion of cork. Aroma is Iightly sour in an apple way. The color is a slightly hazy orange tinged amber. The white head left very quickly. Lots of tiny bubbles. Thinnish body with very mild carbonation (surprising, given the explosive cork removal.) It is well carbonated, it just is that there is no bite whatsoever. The flavor is sour woody, with some citrus, and some caramel malt floating along in the complexity. It is mildly astringent, and some bitter seems to complement the sour. Really very tasty. With the astringency it does resemble a red wine with wood or tannin. Very good ale.

750ml via trade. (Thanks to whoever sent this!) Pours a hazy amber with a huge fluffy off-white head. Nose is all about the sour. Boy, i just don’t have the palette for these sour beers, as honestly i have trouble detecting much of anything under the sour. There are flavors there, but to me, these sour beers just have such overwhelming....well..sourness, that anything else is difficult to detect. So...i get sour cherries..sour apples..sour oak....even sour strawberries...no malts or hops whatsoever. Body is medium, carbonation is high. As far as enjoyment....it is ok, but i think the oak and the sour flavors sort of work against each other on this one. Maybe aging would help? I have no idea. This isn’t bad, but is nowhere near the enjoyment i have gotten from most of the RR sour beers i have sampled.

Deep golden. Sharp carbonation, nice sticky head. Big bretty nose, with orange rind and citrus. Some sweetness, light red wine (syrah) notes. Flavor starts as a tug of war between sweet malts, red wine notes and brett, which totally takes the prize and leaves a long bretty finish. Very nice.