Allagash Interlude

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

Transparent and magnifying orangish-brass in color with a sudsy & clinging white wrung around the edges and only a spackle & sheaf on top. Aroma is just about as good as it gets. Souring chardonnay with an oaken underlay, lemon peel, sweet mandarin, sour apricots, and nutmeg & anise on lavender. Complexity is key here. Smooth oak appetencies line the mouth by means of flavor. Lemon rinds give an acidic sweetness while mushy bananas (easy on the sugar) help to round it out. Vanilla and cloves help with the smoothing, yet, lest to say, the chardonnay & pinot grape-like flavors pull the ale in a significantly souring manner. Orange and cotton blossoms impart a pillowy floralness with substance. Pepper, lilacs, coriander, lemon chiffon and winey oak keep adding nuances. Effervescence is at its zenith, invoking enjoyable titillations when parried with the margarine-like coating of the mouth. Complexity and perplexity intertwine. Styrian hop bite comes in on the backend, pursued by pepper, clover, oak and orange blossoms for the grand finale. Big thanks to tpkenned for landing me a bottle!

Pours golden with a short lasting tan head. Good lace on the side of the glass. Aroma is quite strong with hints of wine, oak, citrus, banana, cloves, strawberry and cherry. Taste is really nice and quite sweet with the banana, cloves, wine and oak coming out initially. Then the cherry and strawberry come in later. The palate is very creamy and quite sugary. Powerful wine and oak combination on the palate resulting in a good warming effect. This beer is terrific. Too bad it is so damn expensive.

Tap at U Jacks Barrel fest. Pours a hazy orange amber with a small bubbly off white head. Aroma of tart cherries, sour funky notes, tropical fruits and some candy notes. Flavor of tart funky wild yeast notes. Tropical fruits and some malty sweetess.

"Solid beer. Poured a dark amber color with not much head, and didn’t lace. The aroma was amazing citrus fruits, oak, grapes. Flavor was solid as well cherries vanilla oak little funk in the aftertaste. Very complex and very well done."

Cloudy orange-copper body with a small off-white head. Smells fruity and sweet, like some kind of dessert. Taste is very fruity with a lot of tropical fruits and red apples. Honeyish sweetness along with some residual fruits sugar, rather sweet. Nice clean body despite the fruits extravaganza. Some tartness coming from the apples flavour. Warm alcohol presence. This interlude wasn’t long enough.

2005 bottle. Hazy, golden-amber appearance; light head formation, decent retention, attractive lacing. Brett in the nose is balanced with the vinuous qualities: tartness and red wine; full, appetizing, complex nose. The belgian profile underneath seems to suggest an abbey tripel: plenty of spice, pepper, yeast; all of which is well-balanced by the barrel aging and secondary fermentation; the tartness is engaging without being overwhelming (shows the reserve of Russian River); the vinuous qualities are well-blended, showing Burgundy/Merlot qualities, light tannins, and oak. So many magnificent things going on with this beer: a light toastiness, a vinuous profile, a belgian tripel background. All balanced nicely.

I’ll be the first to admit, that I think Allagash is vastly overrated compared to the price cost per bottle. This bottle though is fanfreakin’tastic. Fantastic sour aroma with funky bretty goodness. Oaky, green apples, Zours, with a rich fruit cocktail aroma too. Flavor has a superb sweet/sour/acidic complexity with oak, tropical fruits, dust, nougat with a touch of rum raisins.

hazy, pinkish, fizzy with a small white head. sweet, fruity aroma. very complex taste, a bit tart with some cherry overtones, a bit sweet and citrusy, a wide variety of fruit tastes. some really great stuff. i can’t wait to age some.