Allagash Inoculator

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

[Draft @ Max’s] Poured a hazy, orange color with a small, off white head that left nice lacing on the glass. Aroma of brett, sour cherries, some toffee, and some toasty dough. Taste of more sour cherries, with earthy, yeast, some toffee, and a sour finish. Soft mouthfeel.

Draught at EBF 07. Very cloudy yellow body with a long-lasting off-white head. Aroma was wild, very wild, in a blind test I would have guessed some kind of lambic-fruit. Taste was a cross between a lemony tripel and a fruity lambic. The added cherries didn’t overtake the beer but the barrel character really showed-up. Wild active yeast, very oaky, all kinds of tropical fruits, rather strong sourness and lemony tartness. Lively carbonation. The Allagash Tripel basis was barely recognizable. Somehow that barrel aging with cherries totally mutated the yeast character. Wicked wicked beer. Boston’s EBF was probably the wrong venue for that kind of beer with its crowd mainly looking for over-the-top IIPAs and Super Imperial Barley Wines. My mother and my school principal were right, getting inoculated is good for me.

On tap at the Blind Tiger. Hazy amber in color with a large off white head. Aroma is very complex, funky and sour, with alot of brett, fruit, got apples, and plums/cherries. Taste is awesome, alot of brett, tart fruit, light horseblanket funk, oak, and light malts. Clean and tart finish. This blew me away.

Draught at EBF on 2/10/07
Easily the most unique, wacky beer I’ve had in a long time.
Like some of the brett saisons I’ve been seeing a lot of recently, this one shows a freshly polished brass-golden body with light peachy tints and a huge, frothy white head that is slow to recede and is plastered to the sides. Medium-high clarity, but a strong chill haze and moderate carbonation running through it.
Hmmm, how to describe the aroma and flavor??? Funky, for sure. Lightly oily, moderately acidic. Definitely a hint of light cherries, but surprisingly reserved in that category. Lots of resemblance to Russian River’s barrel-aged beers. Though not much brett, and not much lactic hardness. Definitely not acetic. I told everyone that I thought it was pediococcus. It’s got that oily, sort of indescribably strange, vaguely fruity, sort of nutty and sour thing going on. Wow that makes almost no sense. But that’s about as much as I can say about it. Definitely bacterial, very tart and dry, very lambic-like, though without the intense sourness. Light hints of vanilla and bits of oily woodiness. Very strong aroma gets in your nose and sticks to it for a while. No alcohol noted at all.
Very tart and dry, but immediately some sticky/chewiness is noted in the texture, giving it a strong, supportive body right away. Not sure if it’s just a lot of neutral wood tannin or maybe just a highly dextrinous wort (that seems unlikely), but it helps gobble up some of the acidity and leaves a very nice balance. Though it’s still moderately sour and very dry, with a strong mustiness and very funky esters/phenols. Oily oak notes and bare wood character meet the cherry notes on the finish, with a fair dose of acidity, but the bacterial influence carries on as well and leaves me at a total loss for what I just drank. Not any real isolated, singular yeast flavor that you can find, the malt is highly attenuated (though mostly pale, lightly biscuity and softly wheat-like as well), the carbonation fluffy and engaging and the cherries very tastefully done. No alcohol perceived and no diacetyl either. Awesomely awesome and I actually sat my glass down and pondered what I just had drunk, after finishing it (and then got about 3 more samples). When allagash Trippel is a component (and wild yeast is involved), it’s hard to produce a bad beer!

On tap at blind tiger. Wow! Fantastic brew. Super yeasty aroma with tart cherries and other fruits. Good complexity though I didn’t take notes so i can’t remember specifics. Purely a delight for the nose. Flavor is bready, sourdough cherry with gorgeous oak. I wish I could sit down with this one in my living room. I pray they’ll bottle this.

Cloudy amber bosy with white head. Aroma is medium sweet, cherry, medium sourness, oack, some Brett, light mint. Taste is medium sweet, cherry, oak, some Brett/sourness. Smooth medium-full body.

Update from Blind Tiger. Has aged better since a couple months ago at EBF. SOmehow in a short period of time, this has gotten better. Either that, or my palate was more fresh when I had it last night. Awesome stuff. Even more sour than I remember. EBF. This stuff was intense. Almost every kind of bug going on in this one. Pours a muddled hazy deep yellow/almost orange with a thin lasting white head- kinda looked like a gueze. Aroma is tart and sour with some citric and lacitc acids, cherry must and skin, tons of funk and farmhouse crap coming through. Lots of funk and farmhouse in the flavor with a lively malt rpofile- turned funky of course, with some cherry pie, astringent cherry pit, light toasted almonds, lemon peel tartness and a nice refreshing tart finish. Damn smooth.

Tap @ SD. Poured a hazy amber with a small off-white head. Amazing aroma of yeasty funk. Leather, strong vanilla and a hint of cherry. Light malt flavor quickly followed by acidic citrus, leather and a dry Belgian yeasty finish. Nice warmth in the chest.