Allagash Victoria Ale

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

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

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750 mL bottle left in my fridge by DYCSoccer17. Well, I got thirsty and caved, so I owe you one. :) Pours out a lightly hazy peachy color, dies down to a thin coating of creamy head. Aroma is malty (bread) with a light amount of roastiness. Lots of yeast character present here: light banana, some earthy herbs like sage and thyme. Flavor is sharp with high carbonation followed by a sort of indecisive maltiness. I can taste the grape influence, although if I didn’t know it was grapes, I would have thought it was honey. It’s an interesting complexity that is the best feature of this beer. Estery yeastiness pervades the flavor to a distracting degree. There is a light amount of sourness present. Finishes moderately bitter with a tacky mouthfeel from all of the yeast byproducts (weird way to describe this, but I’ve gotten it in belgian beers that I’ve made that fermented too high). Carbonation is extremely high, a little uncomfortably so. There are hints of goodness here, but it doesn’t come together for me.

This corked and caged bottled brew from Indianapolis, IN poured a large sized head of foamy fine to medium sized white colored mostly diminishing bubbles that left behind a transparent typically carbonated yellow orange colored body. The aroma contained notes of grapes and malt. The mouth feel was smooth and only slightly tingly from start to finish. The flavor contained mild notes of malts and grapes with a slight acidic hop finish.

These big brews from Allagash are really expensive and not all that great. There is some fruitiness but I can’t say oh gee there is some grape or pear. Overpriced by a long shot.

Getestet beim LCRBM Leicht sauer und hefig. Das prickelnde Bier wird schnell alkoholischer und wirkt sonst recht aromenarm, der (gedämpft) hopfige Nachgeschmack bildet die Ausnahme. Leicht erfrischend, trotz der 9%. Test vom 11.9.2007, Gebinde: Glasflasche Noten: 8,8,9,8,7,8 - 8,10

Bottle at LCRBM3. Cloudy orange/gold, lasting thin white head. Slight sour and hop aroma. Some medicinal character. A golden strong ale with an odd chalky medicine quality to it.

19th April 2009
Cloudy orange - amber beer. Dry crisp palate. Low carbonation. Not sure what this beer wants to be! Mild malt with an underlying spice, a little orange citrus and somewhere in there is a peep of grape freshness. Okay but was hoping for so much more from this beer!

UPDATED: FEB 10, 2009 In short: Excessive sweetness and excessive amount of white grapes. Ok in sampling servings. A full bottle gets gross.
How: Bottle 750ml. Drank when almost 1 year of age, side by side with brother beer Victor of same age
The look: Partly cloudy dark yellow body topped by a little white ring of foam
In long: The nose is sweet and floral but not perfumy like its Victor brother. As with Victor taste is sweet, too sweet. Lots of honey, too much white grapes, white sugar, some gooseberries. The excessive sweetness and the overwhelming white grapes flavour quickly become annoying, even gross. While I enjoyed it in tasting sessions, drinking a full bottle of this mess proved an almost impossible task. So for each bottle sold $1 goes for the restoration of an old mansion, with a crappy beer like this the mansion will get a paint job and that’s about it.

Bottle... Hazy, golden ale with a mid-sized, fizzy, white head. Grainy nose with lots of rank, canned corn and dried jalapeño. Awful smell... totally rubs me the wrong way! The flavor is of honey, dessert wine and spicy hops. Pleasantly sweet. ABV is completely hidden. Medium-bodied and silky with fizzy carbonation. Short, crisp finish. Other than the nose, I really liked this one, but the smell of it makes me want to vomit every time I take a sip. Too bad.

(Bottle 75 cl) Courtesy of Rastacouere. Hazy, amber golden with an off-white head. Subdued aromas of fruit and yeast. Medium body with a very high carbonation, yeast and fruit and then nothing much more. Not pleasant. 090507

On tap at Julian’s - Providence, RI. Aroma starts out very similarly to Victor, but with a slightly tangier edge. Again, a similar presentation. Coarser grain flavors, general pale malt touches, weird yeast, but this time a heightened grape profile. Sadly, it makes this beer worse. This tastes like a bland, sloppy Belgian pils malt beer with Welch’s white grape juice or super cheap white wine added. Detrimental.