Allagash Black

Brewed by Allagash Brewing Company
Style: Foreign Stout
Portland, Maine USA

750mL bottle purchased at BevMo in Vacaville, CA. Very pleasant aroma with lots of roasted and chocolate malts in the nose. Lightly metallic, lightly sweet. Quaffable and pleasant. Mostly opaque mahogany body with a nice, creamy khaki head that leaves good lacing and is pretty strong. Creamy, slightly sweet start. Has some chocolate notes and a ton of good roastiness in the middle. Very tasty and roasted. Finishes with just a bit of astringency and a bit of belgian estery flavors. Very drinkable and impressive.

Corked and caged 750 ml bottle from BevMo. Interesting slightly sour aroma with dark toasted malt; perhaps a chocolate piece. Very black color with a decent tan head that laced a little. Surprising fresh and fruity flavor (with a tad of sour) over very dark malt. It’s rather full bodied and coarsely creamy in carbonation. The flavor is complex; seems to have bits of everything dark. The finish is pretty dry, and there seems to be floral hop. It is just exceptionally tasty. Smooth. Don’t miss this.

Sampled at the North Park Belgian Beer Party at my house on 3-29-08. Pours with a dark brown to black body topped by a medium thick, off-white head with some lacing. It’s slightly sweet yet malty with a tough of bittersweet chocolate. Full bodied and tingly on the tongue.

Sample tasted at "Spring in the new year with brett" at fordests house. No brett in this one obviously, but a nice break. Was ok.

Tasting, courtesy of Fordest’s event. Beer #7. This was a transition beer away from the lambics. And in that capacity it failed. The sours had pretty well taken over our palates by then. Poured a black color with a creamy beige head. The aroma was light and understated with roasted malts and some yeast. The flavor had burnt malts and spices laced with a funky Belgian yeast. "Guinness’s on crack" is how toncatcher described it at the tasting, and I don’t disagree. Overall; an interesting, but not a great, brew.

Aroma is molassas and burnt caramel heavy at first,roastedness and bakers chocolate trail behind and followed at last by some hop spiceness. Taste is initialy sweet,like a old fashioned chocolate soda with not enough chocolate and a little to much seltzer,this slowly becomes dominated by hop and choclate bitterenss and this becomes the major player the rest of the way. Has slight carbonic bite, alcohol not really noticeable, oatmeal didn’t get the job done in smoothing this out. Points for being a little different and enjoyable

Tried at Fordest’s tasting. Dark brown color. Big cork pop, but not over carbonated. Small head. Dry roasty, slightly sour aroma. I don’t think I’m going to like it from the smell, but I prefer sweeter beers. Taste is ashy, kind of like burnt cigarette butts.

750ml caged&corked bottle. Pours a dark brown (almost black) that isn’t quite opaque - it has ruby and deep brown highlights in the light. The foam pours up light tan and very thick and pillowy. It slowly fades to next to nothing. The aroma has lots of funky esters - pungent cherry, hints of sarsaparilla. The smell of alcohol is strong considering the beer is less than 8% abv. There are also roasty -almost meaty- notes, too. The flavor starts rich and roasty. It has almost ashen notes of roast that fade with each sip until it instead resembles a slight peppery mustiness combined with coffee. There is also a very pleasant residual sweetness that balances the bitter roasted grains nicely - like mildly sweetened coffee or dark/semi-sweet chocolate. By mid-palate, the esters come into play - funky fruit, hints of bubbles gum. All the while there is a nice dark roasted grain character - grainy yet espresso-smooth. The finish is surprisingly dry with a nice, earthy hop bitterness - and more roast with hints of burnt toast. The mouthfeel is very nice - silky and luxurious but at the same time vigorously carbonated. Overall - wow, a great stout!