Allagash Interlude

Brewed by Allagash Brewing Company
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Portland, Maine USA

Bottle from Total Wine. Pours a very nice effervescent hazy reddish orange color with a 1 inch light tan head. Aroma is loads of fresh green fruits with a bit of barrely funk and a slight sweet tartiness. Flavor is full and refreshing with a mellow sourness, a good deal of funk, fresh fruits like pears and some citrus, a bit of oak and some tannins. Medium bodied with just a touch too much carbonation, it seems. Finishes deliciously dry.

Flaske årgang 2007: Fantastisk flot karbonering og skumhoved på en uklar dyb orange øl. Duft af hestedække og masser af frugt. Brett står virkelig tydelig frem, men baseøllen kan stadig anes som øllen varmer op. Kan ikke dufte fadlagringen. Smagen er meget kompleks med et væld af indtryk alt sammen bundet sammen af brett igen. Virkelig et lille mesterstykke som desværre blev forstyrret af et styks skrigende datter på 1 år. Oh well, cant win them all.

Poured from the large bottle into a tulip glass to drink. The beer had a cloudy, dull amber-orange color with a lot of rising bubbles, and a smallish bubbly white head that had short retention and light cling. It had a complex aroma featuring grapes and citrus hops, with a mix of caramel malt and maybe a touch of candy. The beer had a bountiful fruit taste, with a mixture of different sweet fruity flavors and some candy-like aspects, and some lively bitterness too. It had a very carbonated, lively body, with a very full and bubbly mouthfeel. The beer was somewhat thin and dry, with some champagne characteristics. It improves as it settles and starts to warm a bit, becoming a very good beer. A great way to mark my milestone of 500 beers... That and the link to the Proclaimers!

Hazy yellowish pour. Aroma has some tartness, yeast, tart stone fruit and wet woody smells. Flavor isn’t as tart as i expected. A bit more yeast and fruit and less funky barrel flavors than I wanted.

2008 bottle. Pours a very near clear glowing orange caramel with a small soapy fine white head. Aroma is sweet and cheesy, lots of barrel but with lots of residual sweetness, hard candy like, famtastic woodiness, some vinous notes from the barrel. Flavor follows, hand candy caramel sweetness, very smooth and well aged, a unsuspected amount of malt oxidation, glassy aged malt sweetness, very round, sourness is medium light, wonderful cheesy woody barrel, not too much vanilla, the brett is very preset but mostly muddled with the sweetness, very good, very drinkable, but the oxidation and the smoothing presence of the malt might be a bit detracting, would love it more if it were dried out a bit, if it dries out a bit. Medium bodied, some syrupiness with light stickiness, sharp fine crisp carbonation that is quick to disapate leaving it feeling a bit flat. A few more years brewing this and this could rival some RR’s... seriously ;) . All the basic elements are there, it just needs some better conditioning upping the sourness and lowering the residual sweetness. [we mixed a bit of this with some homemade cherry vinegar and came pretty close to a Flemish red!]

This just gets better and better every time I have it. Aroma is complex of grain, sweetness, honey, brett, funk, citrus, sour. Flavor is so smooth and drinkable. The right amount of funk and sourness with other nice fruit flavors.

Tap at Rattle n Hum. Off the bat, I am not a huge fan of this beer. Just not my style. Pours a hazy orange with a soft, white head. Floral nose with hints of barnyard sourness. Flavor is tart and somewhat fruity. Mildly sour. Notes of wood and hard alcohol. Tingly mouthfeel with some puckering. Aftertaste is a little sour but still crisp and a bit refreshing. I try to be objective...

Hazy orange/brown with a loose frog spawn of a foam. The aroma contains gooseberry, white wine vinegar and thick cherry. In the mouth it reeks of sweet toffee and fresh baguette. It is very boozy but totally easy. Such a wonderful finish like someone baking cakes in my throat. Warming and sweet, utterly delicious.