Allagash Interlude

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

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

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Sampled at the 1st annual Stone Sour Festival 2007. Very good flavors of sourness and sweetness. One of my favorites of the day.

Pours a reddish brown apple cider color with a one finger head that disapates almost instantly, leaving a ring of foam around my glass producing great lacing. Aroma of oak, red wine, funk and slight vinegar. Taste is tart and fruity with a finish of oak and redwine. This is a fantastic sour, just behind Russian river’s Consecration in my opinion.

Tasted at Where the Wild Beers Are. Aroma is farmhouse and funky/sour. Taste is light sour, heavy on the funky farmhouse. Nice beer.

Sampled at Where the Wild Beers Are, Brooklyn, 2012. The aroma is sour, leather, farmhouse. The appearance is hazy yellow, off white head. The flavor is tart fruit, spicy. The finish is tart, peppery. Medium in body. Pretty good.

I like sour beers, mostly because they taste like candy. I’ve never encountered one that didn’t have some complexity, that is until I tried Allagash Interlude. The description makes it sound like an absolute winner: a Belgian strong pale ale aged in red wine barrels with Brettanomyces yeast for souring. But the net product is a beer that tastes like little more than an extremely dry cider.

I received a 750ml caged and corked bottle from a friend in a trade (thanks, Joseph!). I split it with a friend. We each poured it into tulip glasses.

Appearance: Bright, almost glowing shade of orange. Peach skin or honey hue. Noticeably cloudy but with plenty of visible carbonation. Forms a small, white, soapy head which retains and laces well enough.

Smell: Strong sour yeast esters with hints of a white grape vinous fragrance (which is ironic considering it’s aged in red wine barrels).

Taste: I’m always looking for a beer to surprise me and Allagash Interlude definitely did with its sour palate. Immediate dry sourness hits the tongue right away, giving way to a tart green apple or white grape flavor and then reverts back to the sharp dry tartness of the beginning. It finishes mostly clean with just a bit of a dryness in the aftertaste. The problem is the palate is simply little more than sheer sourness and not enough fruity qualities or other flavors to balance it out. As it warms I do get a bit of an apple juice or cider flavor, but that’s quite subtle as the dry sourness overshadows it for sure. There’s also an acidic taste here, almost in the league of vinegar. All this beer needs is some fruitiness to balance it out as there’s really not a lot of taste to really enjoy and absorb.

Drinkability: While Allagash Interlude is a pretty big beer at 9.5% ABV it’s not the alcohol that makes it a sipper (although there is some noticeable warmth) - it’s the sourness. A thin, very crisp mouthfeel is an ideal delivery method for this type of palate. But the sheer sharp sourness and dryness had me pulling back on the sip very quickly. The effervescence made it difficult to drink in more than a sip at a time anyway.

This poured a darker red to brown color with a small beiege head. Aroma was dark fruits, light funk, some red wine notes, and spice spice too. Flavor was some underlying belgian characteristic, with red wine laden on top of it, as well as some sicey brett notes and light acidic funk.

Apricot color with thin white head and lightly tart apple pear esters in the aroma. Taste is the same, but it’s very tart, with a light cheesecake into the finish. Like most Allagash beers, it’s very light and effervescent on the palate, and it drinks a bit like champagne. (Celebration: PTR purchase)

Pours a clear and light gold color, with a decent white head. Smell is potent and strong. Lots of fruity funk, lemons, sourness, and hay. Taste is funk dominant. Taste is creamy, malt forward, and crisp. But most of the flavors are funky, spicy, and very sour.

Bottle kindly shared by Sigmund. Vintage 2007, oak aged. Clear golden with a short lived tan colored head. Aroma starts off overwhelmingly funky with oysters and brettannomyces, but aftes a while, more fruity notes emerge. Medium bodied and syrupy with acidic, fruity and sweet flavors. Tongue ends dry.

Poured into a trappist glass from a 2011 September 750ml bottle.

A: Hazy pinkish orange body with a foamy white head with little retention.

S: Slightly tart cherries with a funk to it from the Brett, rather appealing.

T: A nice blend of sweetness and tart of cherries makes up the flavor. There’s a slight funk from the brett at the end with some alcohol coming through, but cherries take up the flavor. This is nice and balanced well. I’m enjoying it!

M: Medium bodied with semi-sharp carbonation at the end.

O: I don’t know if this is classified as a sour, but if it is it’s the first I’m fully enjoying. This is a nice blend of sour and sweet with a nice funk to it. I’m glad I bought it.

Shared bottle at local tasting. Pours cloudy amber with a small white head. Aroma of wood, acidic, yeast and alcohol.Taste is light sour fruityness and yeasts. Smooth and soft body. Lingering aftertaste, quite good. .