Allagash Avancé

Tap at Blind Tiger. Deep brown beer with no head at all and light pinkish highlights. Aroma is lightly berryish over a heavy oaky woodiness. Even more wood here than in the bourbon-aged four. Malts are quite subtle and dried out. A bit of plum and brown sugar, but the oak really clobbers this one to death. I think it was a good idea, but I don’t think it was terribly well executed.

Tap at Blind Tiger. For whatever reason, I got head on my beer, while it was dead for pretty much everyone else. Poured dark red-brown. Aroma was slightly tart with quite a bit of oak character coming out. Taste was pretty similar, very oaky but now overpowering, along with tangy strawberries and malt background. Average palate with a slightly boozy finish.

Draft at the Blind Tiger. Brown pour with a slightly red hint, no head. Bourbon in the aroma, woody, with some dark fruit, sugar and hints of strawberries. The flavor is slightly sour / bitter from the oak but the fruityness of the strawberries and malt balance this well. Bourbon lingers in the finish. Good palate.

Tap at Blind Tiger. Great great stuff. No head. Light strawberries, big oak, buttery and vanilla aroma. Tons of oak and a sweet, juicy finish. A small punch of tartness and a little funkiness makes this really interesting. Reminds me in a way of CL SFTO Wine Barrel. Delicious!

Surprising beer, if I were to imagine the Four going into a barrel and strawberries added I would not think this would emerge. It has become a funky beer heading into Oude Bruin territory. The beer pours still with a reddish dark brown color. Aroma is sour-ish strawberry and it has the whole acidic thing working for it. Taste is like a muddled Oude Bruin. Starts light sour and goes oak-y thats comes off as a bit leafy and grassy. Has a long lightly acidic aftertaste. My one issue is the beer is well under-carbonated, which makes it come off as watery and too light. But otherwise a very nice experience and I hope the Allagash guys keep doing the sour thing, they’re good at it.
Tap at Blind Tiger, tulip glass.

Tap at Blind Tiger: Deep amber pour, with a fading head. The aroma has a lot of oak character. Somewhat boozy and woody, with bourbon suggestions, but no strawberries. The flavor has lots of woody and oakey flavors, with underlying dark berry notes. Later on the palate there’s some toasted toffee followed by more smooth oak suggestions. A nice experiment, with an ideal amount of oak character.

Sample @ EBF 2/2007. Pours a cloudy reddish-orange with an off-white head. Aroma is strawberry and oak with some slight notes of spice and acid as well. Taste is tart but smooth, with detectable strawberry, oak, vanilla, and other subtle characteristics. I absolutely loved this beer and hope they begin to sell it commercially; it takes their excellent Four to another level.

Tap at Boston EBF 2007. Cloudy copper body topped by a small beige head. Unless you piss in the barrels you really can’t make a bad beer if you base it on the excellent Allagash Four. Although this is the Allagash Four aged with strawberries I didn’t get much, if any, strawberry flavours. What I got was my faithful Allagash Four with an added unfocussed fruity tartness and a carbonation that seemed a bit too lively. The drinkability was increased but it wasn’t as round or deep as the original. Still very good but something tells me that it was put together without putting much thought into it. I mean, they even misspelled Avancée…