Allagash Musette

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

Serve in Thistle

Sampled at Capones on Allagash night with Stegosaurus. Clear orange/brown pour. Hints of caramel in aroma with some fruit. Strong alcohol appearence in taste. Not bad.

Poured an effervescent amber with a large fizzy/frothy off-white head. Sweet aroma of vinous fruits, cinnamon, coriander, a bit of tart oakiness. Flavor is lightly sweet and citrusy with notes of orange, toffee, perhaps a bit of wood, a bit of biscuity toffee. Alcohol is warming and gives the beer a yeasty dry finish. Overall, I’m not quite sure exactly why this is called a scotch ale, even though the brewery says so. Without being told, I would probably have called this a Belgian Strong. Really doesn’t have any (as far as I’m concerned) "scotch ale" characteristics, as it seems too pale, too alcoholic, and more spicy and dry than sweet and smokey. But it’s still a tasty Belgian, and so I still enjoyed it.

UPDATED: MAR 3, 2008 Brown/orange pour with small foamy beige head. Fruity / wet wood aroma. Has a strong barrel taste that puckers the back of my mouth, like the taste of tongue depressor. Lots of spice overpowers the malt. Body is somewhat syrupy but it is well carbonated (lots of tiny bubbles). Good beer... if just a little strange.

Nothing really makes this beer stand out looks wise. A melted caramel brownish color with a small white head that does carry good retention. Not much imagination otherwise. Sweet black cherry, with a toffeed malt hint and hints of oak. Sweet fig, raisin, brown sugar, and berries also come forth as this beer mingles in the glass awhile. A tad of alcohol also is present. The problem is that all of the aromas are very subdued. Hmmm. Well I’m thoroughly dissapointed in this beer. I’ve been sitting on this for awhile now looking forward too the day of it’s demise. Not sure if it’s a bad bottle or just old but not at all what I expected. Lacking any complexity and not nearly the amount of oak to integrate I was imagining. Well live and die by the bottle:). Again lots of dried berries, hints of toffee, milk chocolate, cherry, and a lackluster attempt at oak aging. An obvious belgian yeast was used in this and I think Allagash may have been better off using a traditional yeast with this one. Thin and watery. As for drinkability; considering it’s price I will never try this beer again. Now I have all of these other Allagash "big beers" in my cellar that I’ve been looking forward too. Hopefully the others will turn out better.

Amber colour with an off white head. Malty, fruity aroma with a vague smoky note. Malty, caramel sweet flavor with a fruity note.

Bottle. Pours a hazy amber color with an off-white head. Sweet malty aroma with caramel hints. Sweet malty yeasty caramel flavor. Has a warming malty finish with some caramel hints.

Hazed to uniformly cloudy with orangy brown coloration and with a thin dense light tan head. Sweet light caramel malt, vnilla, subtle cherry wood oak lightly fruity. Light body but not watery, reasonably unsyrupy. Apple tartness not apparent elsewhere pops up in the flavor. Sweet caramel, though the whole thing is balanced by the Belgian funky apple tartness. Not a bad beer, though a bit overpriced.

very good. I normally don’t like the Belgian beers nor the bourbon aged beers BUT this is damn good. Maybe the two factors are canceling eachother out. Allagash is a preium brew and this beer proves it. Delicious