Allagash Fluxus 2007

Formerly brewed at Allagash Brewing Company
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Portland, Maine USA

A golden colored brew with a creamy bone white head. First glass poured from the bottle was perfectly clear, subsequent samples were moderately cloudy. Seemingly endless bubbles stream up from the bottom of the glass. Aroma is very floral, with some notes of white grape, a peppery spiciness, and honey. Actually the nose is somewhat reminiscent of a mead. Big, substantial body, with perfect carbonation. Flavor is spicy and sweeter than the nose led me to believe it would be. White pepper, tart grapes, yogurt, peaches, toffee, and cookie are all present, along with a slightly musty yeastiness. A touch of bitterness in the finish, but overall the hops presence is very subdued. Can’t say I know what yarrow tastes or smells like, but this beer was very good...and also very expensive.

Pours out a cloudy golden color with a nice white head. Aroma was rather sweet with notes a malt and some hops to it(which is guess is the yarrow). Flavor was crisp and refreshing. I think this brew is a little underrated, but certainly over priced.

Let’s do this in the wrong order and start with the obvious 5s. The appearance is extraordinary. Clear gold, and carbonation that looks more like champagne than beer and pinpoint bubbles that last and last. Small dense white head and incredible lacing. An easy 5. Ditto on the mouthfeel, an easy 5. Nose of a tripel, although the malting is entirely different. Great nose, with touch of hops behind the malt. Not sure I’m a big fan of yarrow, but the hops provide sufficient bitterness. Really nicer than my dinner tonight, actually.

Bottle from Daniel. I think he won the fucking lottery since he bought a 23 dollar beer. Holy dog shit! Pours out a cloudy brown color with a big white head on it. Interesting color, kind of like creek water. Hopefully it tastes better than that. Smell is fruity, some hints of banana, cloves, alcohol, kind of a mess. Taste is off, kind of weird, with some fucked up nasty adjunct that I cannot get past. This beer also does not contain the typical Allagash (yeast?) flavor that ALL of their beers have. This one is a failure, and this is probably my favorite brewery. Good god get this one away. Anyone want to trade this? I have a bottle of it too. I am not sure what went wrong here. Maybe its Yarrow that I do not like - I cant say I have had it before, but jeez, this one was bad. I may pull the cork on mine soon to see if I can up this rating, but this was a disgrace.

750, corked and baled. Opened March 09, about two years’ bottle age. Pours a dense, burnished medium copper with a dazed-looking, slowly surging off-white head. Leaves gorgeous dryer-sheet clingy layers of foam.
You know, the label, off to the side, away from the logo, says "pour slowly into wide mouth glass." Who are they kidding? This stuff is so goopy there’s no other way to pour it. You can see the cough syrup body as soon as the first dribbles come over the mouth of the bottle. This beer looks like it’s been tranquilized, the way it sludges around in the bottom of the glass--the body is just insane. After you get about 75% done pouring the beer, all of a sudden the carbonation panics all at once and slooooowly pushes through the top of the glassfull and runs for the rim. Delayed reaction spillover. Sigh.
Once you finally get the glass and counter dried off so you can readily drink the beer, it has settled again, and you can play the topping up lottery to see if you gauge the surge correctly this time.
Maybe it’s the yarrow, maybe it’s the yeast. But this beer probably shouldn’t have been aged. Kind of a double whammy of stale menthol and stale bubble gum on the nose. Supported perhaps by a few whiffs of stale eucalyptus. Kinda smells stale, if I’ve failed to make that point. But still sweet and woodsy.
Body is, of course, creamy thick and sticky. I’m almost scared to swallow it, lest it turn to eucalyptus-scented concrete in my colon. In the end, it’s not any thicker than pancake batter.
Doughy, orangey malts, fruitcake, eucalyptus, menthol, and bubble gum on the mid-palate.
Longish orange/eucalyptus finish. Sticky as hell, of course. God, this beer has me feeling tranquilized now, after 5 or 6 little sips. Phew. This is a lot of work to drink.

750ml corked bottle which has been sitting in my closet for the better part of a year. Murky orange-gold colored with a foamy head. Sweet herb and malt aroma, a little sugary. The mouthfeel is a little too mellow and free of effervescence for me, but perhaps that is due to excessive aging. Sweet and malty with some pleasant yeast tones. Some earthy notes from the herbs and Rye. Multi-faceted, but hardly exceptional.

Dark golden in color and cloudy with a generous white head. Aroma is spicy(yarrow) and slightly hoppy. Taste is extremely spicy, slightly acidic and highly carbonated.

Fresh bottle at Sunset Grill, probably a month after release if even that. Lovely looking beer, as usual from Allagash, with a very brilliant bronze-golden hue, minimal haze and a large, well-retained white head. The nose smells gingery, so I suppose yarrow must have some similarity in its aromatic profile. Spicy phenols are also noted and appreciated, with a hint of citrus (orange and lemon) that is perhaps derived from the hops. Alcohol is not noted, probably well covered up by the deep maltiness (honey dough and sweet vanilla). All in all, its not terribly cohesive yet, but is nonetheless interesting to me. Unfortunately, the flavor was absolutely dominated by yarrow, giving a very spicy, challenging ginger flavor that persisted and stuck to the palate, overdrying the finish, while mingling with the slightly underattenuated pils malt (age will dry it out properly, no doubt) in the middle to produce a candy-sweet, near cloying flavor that seems to have little more than some peppery rye malt and black pepper phenol complexity. Probably a great beer underneath all of the yarrow-derived gingeriness, but I could barely choke this stuff down as is. Big, chewy, candy-sweet body is not mitigated by the carbonation.

2007 bottle aged one year. Certainly it has mellowed out and is much less yarrow-gingery than when fresh. Quite nice, but perhaps not as much underlying complexity as I had expected. Almost a pineapple-coconut juiciness right after opening, transitioning in to a more dry, honey dough malt sweetness and finishing with a mixture of light vegetal notes and house yeast mustiness. Still no sign of alcohol, while a light dusting of white pepper phenols is quite pleasant throughout. Enjoyable to me, but the light vegetal nature could have been prevented by using a lot less yarrow, which also would have made the beer more accessible while young. Great sweet/dry balance at this point though.