Allagash Musette

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

Serve in Thistle

Sampled at Max’s American Beer Fest. Pours a translucent amber, brown with a lacing head. Sweet caramel, chocolate aroma with nuts and a little bit of booze. Flavor is the same, nuts, caramel, some milk chocolate. Sweet, crisp finish. A little disappointing as there was very little hop presence and very little wood or barrel presence. Glad I didn’t pay for a bomber.

Pour slow, large foamy head. Nice clean and clear caramel brown color, head leaves behind no lacing at all. Spicy peppery lemon grass& pear aroma. Heavy bodied brew with good warming sensation in the chest. Notes of malty sweetness in the foreground subsiding to a spicy flavor.

(750 ml bottle (March ’08) from Tully’s, cellared for 10 mos. after purchase) Pours rusty reddish-brown with one finger of light tan head. Aroma of fruit, candy, alcohol and wood. Mouthfeel is fairly fizzy, slightly thin, a bit sticky and also a bit dry on the back end. Fine, weepy rings and sheets of lacing. Tastes of dark fruitiness and light chocolate, light hints of wood and bourbon. Some rock-candy sweetness. Light yeast. A bitter pinch in the finish. The barrel-aging aspect is quite low key in the flavor. Slightly hot but the cellaring may have toned it down a bit. Pretty nice but seems much more like a Belgian than a Scotch.

750 ml at home served slightly chilled. Bottled date- March 2008. Last of the birthday beers... Dark brown / mahagony in color, with a rocky head that mellows but never quite disappears. Beautiful aroma of sweet malt, dried fruit, yeast, and a very slight hint of oak. Some alcohol too. Taste is sweet right away, very boozy, no discernable oak though. This beer tastes a lot "younger" than it is- could benefit from another year in the cellar? (I’m biased with the incredible year-old Goose Island Pere Jacques I had last night). The finish of this one is slightly bitter / spicy / peppery but ends a touch too sweet and too quickly. This is a very nice beer, although I had higher expectations of it at $15 a bottle. BUT...I will say now that it’s 30 minutes later, the bitterness has mellowed a bit and the oak and smokiness are both a bit more present, which adds some complexity to it (as well as to the rating). Still a bit too sweet though at the finish. I need to not drink these so damn fast!

Aroma is woody with some smoke, peet and malt. Taste is sweet and very oaky. A hint of spice but muttled by alcohol.

Bottle shared at Trappeze. Poured clear dark brown with a nice big beige head. Aroma of sweet malt, sugar, fruit, oak, almost like a barleywine. Taste is also sweetly malted, fruity, oak, and lightly spiced. Mouth is nicely carbonated and full. Finish is dry. Overall, a very enjoyable brew.

(Des. 2006) 75 cl bottle at Hopheads´ tasting 30.01.09 (Trygve). Brown/amber color, lovely off-white/beige head. Aroma is oaky and sweet malty. Flavor is sweet, oak, whisky... Very interesting, and I like it!

Bottle. Mahogany and hazy. Smells like date sugar, very sweet. Light effervescence. Fizzy but good body. Reminds me a lot of fig jam. Overly sweet.