Allagash Fluxus 2009

Brewed by Allagash Brewing Company
Style: Saison
Portland, Maine USA

Bottle at a tasting. Pours a hazy copper body with a thin off white head. Spicy pepper yeast y tones, some earth, sweet caramel and rye, with a mild warming. Nice ale.

Thanks to whomever the guy at Redlight was who shared this with me. Aroma is fantastic. Just about perfect for a saison. Lemons, wheat and smoothing vanilla. Flavor wasn’t quite as good as the aroma would suggest, and I can’t really notice any sweet potato. This is overall a great saison flavor, though. Very good beer.

Draught at Ginger Man, NYC
Hazy blond color. The aroma is lightly spicy, and dirty water. Good body strength, strange sweetness, the malt flavor is a bit flowery; correctly bitter. Nothing special.

On tap at the Bavarian Lodge in Lisle, IL. Pours a hazed, golden-orange body with a finger-width, delicate and creamy, white head that dissipates slowly and leaves a nice lacing. Aroma has some yeasty spice and pepper up front with a paler malt sweetness. A little bit of a flowery lemon, earthy fruit as well. Flavor is a light malt sweetness up front, a touch of dough, and some candy-ish fruits. A soft peppery yeast and spice become prominent towards the finish where it finishes dry with a slight earthy twang. Lingers for a shorter duration of pepper and lightly sweetened fruit malts. Nice soft, medium body with a light carbonation and light flowery bitterness. Overall, a solid saison. A soft body, light fruity sweetness, and a distinct, but balanced pepper made this enjoyable.

2009-11-27. Lightly hazy golden yellow body with a small white head. 3+ Aroma is yeasty at first, mild overall. Flavour is spicy, pepper, light pale malts and alcohol presence. 7+ Average plus palate. 3+ Pretty decent, but the pepper is a bit too prominent to be overly repeatable for me. Bottle from Binny’s, Chicago.

[2611-20091127] 1pt9.4floz bottle. Burnt paper wood yeast aroma. Hazy, light orange brown body with a quick foamy white head. Some spicy or peppery yeast flavour with more wood notes. A little peppery but nice.
(w/ blankboy, garthicus, GregClow, HogTownHarry, jerc)

750ml from Sam’s, Durham. A typically nice-looking pour from Allagash, lustrous light orange with a fluffy head, decent retention, and nice carbonation. Sharp dry nose reminds me that this is a saison, and there’s very mild spice and a hint of sweetness (somewhat indistinct, definitely not much you could specifically ID as the yam). Nice prickly body and smooth drinking. The flavor seems, aside from the dryness that’s certainly there, very reminiscent of Allagash’s fine tripel (proprietary yeast strain, yada yada). Nothing wrong with that, but there’s not enough in there to summon up the sweet potato, and certainly not enough pepper for my tastes. I was hoping for something a bit more challenging and weird. As is, a solid and very enjoyable beer but I’d call it stasis.

750ml bottle, consumed with Thanksgiving dinner 2009 edition. The pour yields a beautiful looking, cloudy, golden-orange body that’s topped with a thick, mountainous head of pure white froth. The head lasts for ages, and leaves insanely thick, impenetrable sheets of lacing all over the glass. This is what a beer should look like. The nose sports a dry, bready malt backbone with notes of sweet yeast, baked yams, straw, and white pepper. Hints of glazed cereal and wheat lend a little more sweetness to cut through the dryness and earthiness of the yeast profile. The flavor shows very much the same, with the caramelized malt and doughy bread proving to be the perfect level of sweetness to support the peppery, spicy yeast and savory sweet potato elements. There’s a grassy, hay like hoppiness on the back end, along with some wildflower and citrus rind notes that are really interesting. The palate is quite substantial, sporting a fine but lively carbonation, finishing very dry and zesty. Saison through and through, yet ingeniously inventive in its use of unique ingredients, this beer is a Thanksgiving match made in heaven. I loved it.