Allagash

Allagash Ghoulschip

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Welcome to autumn, fuckheads! The much maligned pumpkin beer has seen better days. Once a staple craft beer gateway, I’m sure it still sells plenty, but it’s not quite as ubiquitous or popular as it once was. They’ve always been deeply uncool in the beer dork community, but I’ve generally tried to make room for one or two dips into the pumpkin realm, especially when a brewery does something interesting with it (but hey, there are even standard takes can be perfectly cromulent).

Allagash Ghoulschip is certainly trying to do something different. They get into the season by brewing a beer with fresh Maine pumpkins, molasses, and raw pumpkin seeds (notably absent are the infamous pumpkin spices), then dumping the results into their coolship (see what they did with the name of the beer there?) to collect wild microflora from the autumn air. It’s then fermented in stainless and aged in oak barrels.

They make sure to note that this isn’t spontaneously fermented, but the trip to the coolship does give it souring microflora, which is good enough for us American heathens. When you take the result and apply a gueuze-like blending regimen with 1, 2, and 3 year old beers, the result is certainly something different for a humble pumpkin beer.

I’ve wanted to try this beer for a while now. All the cool kids were drinking it, and it’s always nice to have some seasonally appropriate beer to drink during the Six Weeks of Halloween horror movie marathon. It’s fall, fuckfaces. You’re either ready to reap this freaky-assed harvest or you’re not.

Allagash Ghoulschip

Allagash Ghoulschip – Pours a slightly hazy golden yellow color with a couple fingers of soft white head that slowly recede but don’t disappear for quite a while. Smells great, lots of earthy funk, a little oak and vanilla, hints of brown sugar and some light tart fruit. Taste starts sweet, hits some earthy notes, plenty of puckering sourness, a bit of fruit. Mouthfeel is highly carbonated, crisp, and dry, moderate to high acidity. Overall, I doubt anyone would peg this as a pumpkin beer and it gives credence to the idea that pumpkin doesn’t taste like much (what we associate with pumpkin is the spice, which this beer doesn’t have) and while this isn’t Allagash’s best, it’s interesting and certainly seasonally appropriate. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 8.2% ABV bottled (375 ml caged and corked). Drank out of a flute glass on 10/14/22. Date Bottled: August 2021.

Seasonal posting will continue shortly with a recap of Oktoberfests, hopefully in October proper.

Allagash Coolship Resurgam

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Back in the before times, the long long ago, there were two American breweries that had made a name for themselves by specializing in Belgian style ales: Allagash and Ommegang. I thought it might be fun to catch up with both and see how they’re faring in the current beer scene. Now that we’re awash in barrel aged pastry stouts, hazy slurry IPAs, milkshakes, fruit juice beers, and other stuff that doesn’t actually taste like beer, how’s a traditional Belgian style brewery to adapt in tomorrow morrow land?

Allagash’s flagship beer is White, an excellent, flavorful Belgian Wit that’s been a popular gateway beer for all those Coors/Blue Moon drinkers out there, but doesn’t exactly get twixt the nethers of beer dorks. For those already ensconced in the warm embrace of beer nerdery and thus more fickle in their tastes, Allagash has been building an excellent sour beer program and basically become an American Lambic producer.

They’ve even installed a Coolship at their brewery. For the uninitiated, a Coolship is basically a long, shallow pan that’s used to cool the wort while also exposing it to the environment and inoculating it with wild yeast and other microflora. Only a handful of American breweries have even attempted something like this, and Allagash is definitely one of the pioneers of such projects (at least, in America).

What we have here is an American take on Gueuze, a blend of 1, 2, and 3 year old beers aged in oak. The term “Resurgam” is latin for “I shall rise again,” which has obvious Christian connotations, but it is also apparently the name of a Victorian submarine. Go figure. Now: it’s beer!

Allagash Coolship Resurgam

Allagash Coolship Resurgam – Pours a slightly hazy pale golden color with a solid finger of white fluffy head. Smells great, lots of earthy funk, a little stone fruit, lemons, and the like. Taste hits that earthy funk up front, quickly followed by fruity esters, apricots, lemon zest, finishing with a tart bite. Mouthfeel is well carbonated and crisp, light bodied, moderate to low acidity, dry finish. Overall, it’s a pretty damn spectacular beer. Something about Allagash’s sours always seem to just click with me. Also of note is that this is about 3 years old, which means that it ages pretty well too… A

Beer Nerd Details: 6.4% ABV bottled (375 ml caged and corked). Drank out of a tulip glass on 9/12/20. Bottled: Aug. 31, 2017.

N.B. The picture above was taken almost two years ago at a local bar, but the tasting notes were from a different bottle I drank this past September. I just thought the older picture was nicer looking than my standard setup so I used that instead. I’m pretty sure it’s the same batch of beer, so there’s that…

The Coolship program also releases several fruited variants, like Coolship Red (made with raspberries) and Coolship la Mure (made with blackberries), both excellent. There are many others that I have not had, but one of these days I’m going to try and snag a bottle of Ghoulship for the Halloween Season.

Anywho, as hinted at above, I’ve got some Ommegang beers in the pipeline too. They’ve gone in a bit of a different direction, but are still putting out some interesting beer…

Allagash FV 13

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In 2008, Allagash acquired a 2,700-gallon oak foudre and filled ‘er up. For the uninitiated, the FV in the name stands for Fermentation Vessel and though you might think this was their 13th such vessel, it actually wasn’t. They had a whole fleet of stainless steel fermenters and, being superstitious, they decided to skip the number 13. Apparently they managed to get over their Triskaidekaphobia before setting up their foudre.

As befits their first foray into this type of aging, they went through quite a labor intensive process. Primary fermentation happened in one of the lucky stainless fermenters with Allagash’s house yeast strain, then moved to the unlucky foudre along with two strains of Brett, souring bugs (lactobacillus and pediococcus), Sherry yeast, and Allagash’s reserve yeast. Then they waited four years before bottling. Sadly, I missed out on that 2012 vintage, but it’s been another four years, another batch has been dispensed, and this time Kaedrin’s beer acquisition department was ready to pounce.

What’s different this time? Well, it seems that instead of just distributing the entire 2,700 gallons back in 2012, they kept some in reserve and used it to inoculate the next batch. Due to this sorta solera-like approach, each batch will be different (and we’ll have to wait 4 years between batches). If this batch is any indication, I don’t think 13 is as unlucky a previously thought:

Allagash FV 13

Allagash FV 13 – Pours a orange hued golden color with half a finger of white head. Smells quite nice, musty funk, vinous fruit, dark fruit, cherries. Taste hits those notes, lots of fruit notes, cherries, vinous fruit, estery, mild funk, plenty of oak, a nice acetic sour bite, quite balanced. It has a sorta oxidized sherry note to it that is quite nice. Mouthfeel is well carbonated, medium bodied, moderate to high but still pleasant acidity. Complex and very well balanced. Overall, something about Allagash’s sour program hits my palate just right, I guess. A

Beer Nerd Details: 8.8% ABV bottled (375 ml caged and corked). Drank out of a flute glass on 10/23/16. Bottled: May 5, 2016.

As per usual, Allagash is killing it with these sours. As mentioned above, something about these things just clicks with me. One of these days, I really want to seek out some of their Coolship beers (i.e. spontanously fermented beers). Until then, I’m glad Kaedrin’s beer acquisition department has been keeping tabs on these things…

Allagash Double Feature

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We’ve been mightily impressed with Allagash’s seemingly expanded sour program, so we’ve been keeping an eye out for more of this stuff, and fortunately, Allagash has obliged my whims. A pretty steady stream of new bottles has been showing up from time to time, and I’m always willing to take a flier on these, even if they are a bit of a pricey proposition. Interestingly, several of their sour beers are aged on stainless steel rather than more traditional barrels, and I have to say, it doesn’t make as big of a difference as I’d think. I loved Farm to Face, and the better of today’s double feature was also a straight stainless steel offering (of course, it was still aged 2 years, so maybe that’s part of it).

First up is Tiarna, a blend of two beers, one a Brettanomyces fermented ale aged on oak, and the other a Belgian ale aged on stainless steel. It’s a nice beer for sure, but not quite up to their best offerings:

Allagash Tiarna

Allagash Tiarna – Pours an almost clear pale yellow color with a finger of fluffy white head that sticks around for a while. Smells quite nice, typical belgian yeast spice notes of clove and maybe anise, some fruity esters, but also that earthy Brett funk. Taste hits more bready and yeasty than expected, hints of those spicy phenols and fruity esters (not really tart at all), a bit of funk, a little oak pitching in too. Was really hoping for a little more funk and oak here. Mouthfeel is well carbonated, crisp, lightly bodied, relatively dry. Overall, this is like an entry level funky saison. It’s complex and well crafted, but restrained. I have to wonder if the funk would increase over time in the bottle, but for now: B+

Beer Nerd Details: 7.1% ABV bottled (375 ml caged and corked). Drank out of a wine glass on 1/30/16. Bottled: Sept. 16, 2015.

Next up is James and Julie, presumably named after two people who worked at the brewery or something. Or just two random people off the street, for all I know. It’s their take on a Flanders Oud Bruin, a sour brown ale that is aged on stainless steel with Lactobacillus and Pediococcus cultures. Rumor has it that this is the base beer for Neddles (which is the same thing aged on Rum barrels and named after a former employee), but I’ll be damned if this isn’t pretty spectacular just by itself. It’s not super funky, but it’s got a very nice sourness and balance to it that just works beautifully:

Allagash James And Julie

Allagash James & Julie – Pours a light brown amber color with a finger of off white head that holds its own for a while. Smells of vinegar, tart fruit, sour cherry, maybe a hint of earth. Taste starts off sweet, lots of flavor, sour cherries, vinegar, perfectly balanced amount of sourness here, really tasty. Mouthfeel is medium bodied, well carbonated, perfectly balanced amount of acidity. Overall, intense but balanced, this is a true winner. A

Beer Nerd Details: 7.7% ABV bottled (375 ml caged and corked). Drank out of a goblet/chalice on 1/30/16. Bottled: Aug. 24, 2015. Released: Black Friday 2015.

Always enjoyable catching up with Allagash, and I will of course be keeping an eye out for more stuff, particularly their sours, which seem to hit me just right.

Allagash Farm To Face

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Wherein Allagash cuts out the middle man (you know, those greedy tables) and delivers a fresh fruit sour right to your face. All anthropomorphic jokes aside, I prefer to think of this as a subtle but scathing indictment of the three tier system of alcohol distribution put into place after Prohibition. Viva la fermentación! Well played, Allagash.

It’s also a beer! Farm to Face starts life as a lowly Belgian pale ale, fermented with Allagash’s standard house yeast. After primary fermentation is complete, they add pediococcus and lactobacillus and age the whole concoction on 6000 pounds of peaches. Bucking the current oaky fashion, the aging is done in stainless steel tanks, but don’t let that fool you, this is superb stuff:

Allagash Farm to Face

Allagash Farm To Face – Pours an almost clear golden yellow color with a finger of fluffy white head that sticks around for a bit. Smells amazing, lots of earthy funk and bright citrus fruit, peaches and the like. Taste hits the same notes as the nose, a very nice lactic sour punch, stone fruit, some earthy funk, and yes, more sourness. Mouthfeel is crisp, light, and refreshing, well carbonated, quite acidic, but still pleasant and balanced with the rest. Overall, this is delicious. A

Beer Nerd Details: 5.7% ABV bottled (375 ml caged and corked). Drank out of a charente glass on 11/20/15. Bottled: July 16, 2015.

Another winning sour from Allagash. I shall have to seek out their more obscure offerings on that front. Someday. Someday…

Allagash Cuvée D’Industrial

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Back in the day, my first introduction to good beer was Belgian style stuff, which in America basically meant Ommegang and Allagash. At the time (turn of the century timeframe), they were roughly comparable in their offerings, but Allagash seemed a little more expensive and I was just out of college and poor. Many moons, and Allagash really stepped up their game, especially when it came to their sour program. Ommegang has played with wild yeast a few times, but seems content to put out their old standards and some new Game of Thrones stuff, which is fine, to be sure, but not quite as fun as Allagash’s barrel aged wonders. Allagash was one of the first breweries in the US (citation needed!) to install a coolship (basically a long, wide, open fermenter), open their windows, and invite spontaneous fermentation, lambic style. Then they dump the resulting melange of wort inoculated with wild yeasts and bacterial beasties into a variety of old oak, wine, and bourbon barrels for extended slumbers (sour beers are not for the impatient).

This particular Cuvée is a blend of 38 barrels ranging from 1 to 5 years old. Last time I had one of these Allagash blends, they thoughtfully included a full breakdown of each barrel, complete with tasting notes and even listing barrels that weren’t used because of various flaws. Alas, no breakdown here, but I did notice that they used the hashtag #passwordistaco on their Instagram post, and these barrels have infamously been attracting attention on brewery tours for a while now (apparently since October 2013 if the barrel heads are to be believed). I guess there’s a lot of fans of The League out there.

Allagash Password is Taco Barrel

Other barrel codes you can see in various pictures around the internets include Peterman (2012), Victoria (2009), Lawrence (2011), Nimbus (2013), and Cracker Barrel (2012). This, of course, means nothing (and who knows if all of those barrels made it in the final blend), but I like the goofy names they use on their barrels. Let’s take a closer look at the result:

Allagash Cuvee D Industrial

Allagash Cuvée D’Industrial – Pours a cloudy golden yellow color with a finger of fluffy white head. Smells amazing, earthy funk, oak and vanilla mixed with the barnyard, but also lots of bright fruit, feels almost like a gueuze. Taste starts off with a bright, tart fruity note that quickly transitions towards more earthy, pungent barnyard funk territory, finishing off with a well balanced sour note. Mouthfeel is crisp and refreshing, effervescent, on the dry side with a bright, bracing acidity. Overall, this is some fabulous stuff, delicious and complex. A

Beer Nerd Details: 7.5% ABV bottled (375 ml caged and corked). Drank out of a flute glass on 8/8/15.

I need to find a way to pick up more of these Allagash sours, which have been pretty fantastic so far…

Philly Beer Week Recap

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As per usual, I did not have my act together for this year’s Philly Beer Week, and thus only went to a few events. For whatever reason, this week always seems to sneak up on me and I’m always caught unprepared. I’m the worst. That being said, I did manage to snag a few pretty interesting beers, so here’s a quick recap. First stop was the venerable Philly institution Monk’s Cafe:

Monks Cafe

The event was all about collaborations, most of which involved Monk’s very own Tom Peters… First up was the next entry in the whole PNC collaboration series (last year’s collaboration yielded Firestone Walker PNC, a most spectacular beer). This release comes to us from Maine’s Allagash brewing, and this beer actually began its journey over four years ago (“Brewed in April 2010 & racked into oak barrels on May 25, 2010”). In a nice touch, the little beer menu actually included details of each barrel (including a couple that were marked as “DO NOT USE”, heh). Click for a larger version:

Allagash PNC Broken Elevator Barrel Details

Allagash PNC Broken Elevator

Allagash PNC Broken Elevator – Dark pour, fluffy tan head… darker than I was expecting, but when you look at the barrel details, that makes sense. Smells oaky, almost chocolaty and very sour, I can almost feel the sourness in my jaw (and I haven’t even tasted it yet). Taste is bracingly sour, tart puckering fruit with some dark, chocolaty notes, almost a chocolate covered cherry feel. Mouthfeel is surprisingly full, not like a chewy stout but very big for a sour, which is an interesting feel. Extremely acidic, biting, but still nice… Overall, this is a really interesting, complex, unique, and very sour beer. A-

Beer Nerd Details: 8.1% ABV on tap. Drank out of a wine glass on 6/7/14.

So after that, I sampled a few other brews, including another small glass of Firestone’s PNC stout (still exceptional, no change from my initial review):

Dock Street Trappiste Style Pale Ale – Inspired by Orval, this is obviously not a clone or anything, but it’s nice. It’s got a very dry feel, lots of peppery yeast notes, and some earthy funk in the finish. It’s a fine beer, but not quite lighting the world on fire. I heard that this beer was actually made for last year’s PBW, so perhaps it was better fresh? Not that it’s terrible now or anything… B

Beer Nerd Details: 8% ABV on tap. Drank out of a wine glass on 6/7/14.

Dilewyns Philly Tripel – This is the official Philly Beer Week Collaboration orchestrated by Tom Peters, where one local brewer travels to Belgium to collaborate with a brewery there. This year it was Justin Low from Dock Street who went and collaborated with Anne Catherine Dilewyns from the relatively young Dilewyns brewery (they make Vicaris labeled beers) in Belgium. The result is a relatively straightforward tripel, with some small twists. Pale colored, sticky sweet, lots of honey flavor and fruity esters, less in the way of Belgian yeast spice. This is perhaps not my preferred take on the style, but it’s nice. B

Beer Nerd Details: 8.5% ABV on tap. Drank out of a wine glass on 6/7/14.

De Molen Rook and Leer

De Molen Rook & Leer – The weirdest, most unique beer of the night, I’ve never had anything like this before. So get this, we’ve got an Imperial Smoked Porter base that was aged in whiskey barrels with brettanomyces and Rodenbach yeast. Oh, and it clocks in at 11.5% ABV. Um, yeah, ok. The more amazing thing: It actually works. Neither the smoke nor the sourness dominates, leading to an extremely complex beer. Usually high ABV sours don’t work so well for me, but this one is just very well balanced. It’s certainly odd, and I think the fact that this was originally brewed in 2011 has helped the flavors mesh together (and perhaps even mellow out some). It’s a weird beer to rate, but I’ll give it a A-, but maybe I was a bit far gone at this point.

Beer Nerd Details: 11.5% ABV on tap. Drank out of a wine glass on 6/7/14.

By this time, I was doing pretty well, so I slowed down a bit, got a table with some friends and ate some dinner. I did have a glass of Pliny the Elder, which was great as always, though I’m starting to see where the contrarians are coming. Naturally, I had some mussels, and as usual, they were fantastic. We also got a plate of Frog’s Legs, which were basically a lot like chicken wings (I’ve had Frog’s Legs before, but never like this).

At this point, we took our leave of Monk’s and headed over to the Good Dog Bar & Restaurant, which is a great little place about a block over from Monk’s. Well worth a visit if you’re ever in Philly, and they also have great food (I’m pretty sure they’ve been featured on one of them Food Network shows at some point). They were having a Firestone Walker event and included this rarity, which I assumed would never make its way out East:

Firestone Walker Helldorado

Firestone Walker Helldorado – So you know how Firestone does that Anniversary blend where they invite a bunch of local winemakers to their brewery and set them loose on a bunch of barrel aged beers? Many of the component brews are available in bottled form, but most seem to be relative rarities, and Helldorado is one of those. I was shocked to see it at this event and immediately got myself a glass of the stuff. Alas, this is perhaps not my favorite style. It’s described as Blonde Barleywine brewed with Honey, and boy can you really tell. It’s extremely sticky sweet, with that honey coming through strong. It’s supposed to be brewed with El Dorado hops, but I get almost no hop character out of this, so I’m guessing it was a light touch (or just used to balance out that intense sweetness). It’s definitely a big, boozy bomb of a beer, and it’s got a full body. However, something about the way light colored beers react in bourbon barrels is just not as exciting to me as when you get a darker base beer (the picture above makes Helldorado look darker than it was, though it wasn’t super pale either). I mean, it’s good, I’m really happy I got to try it, and everyone else who had it seemed to love it, so maybe this is just me, but I’ll leave it at a B+ and go from there.

Beer Nerd Details: 12% ABV on tap. Drank out of a wine glass on 6/7/14.

Firestone Walker Lil’ Opal – Now this, on the other hand, was way better than I was expecting. It’s a toned down (“lil'”) saison that’s been aged in barrels with Brett and blended with various vintages, and it’s fantastic. Granted, this is right up my alley, but I really loved this beer, a great funky saison, fruity, earthy, spicy, almost quaffable (even at this point in the night). It was a refreshing beer to have right after Helldorado, and it totally stood up to those intense flavors as well. Obviously, I was a little far gone at this point, so I’ll conservatively rate it an A-, but I need to find me some more of this someday.

Beer Nerd Details: 5.9% ABV on tap. Drank out of a wine glass on 6/7/14.

Firestone Walker Agrestic Ale – Firestone has always been known for barrel fermenting and barrel aging, but they always stuck to non-wild styles, and they apparently greatly feared infections and the like. But when they opened up a completely separate facility, that allowed them to play with all sorts of sour bugs, and we’re starting to get the fruits of that labor now (Lil’ Opal also came out of that program). This was a really nice, light bodied sour, it reminded me a little of brighter Crooked Stave Origins. Again, I was a little far gone at this point in the night, but I really enjoyed this. I’ll give it a B+, but I’d really like to try it again sometime.

Beer Nerd Details: 7% ABV on tap. Drank out of a wine glass on 6/7/14.

Phew, it’s a very good thing I was taking the train home, and while the above does seem like a lot of beer, it was spread out over quite a long time. Again, I need to better prepare for Philly Beer Week next year, so we’ll see what happens. That’s all for now. Stay tuned for Beer Club tomorrow! (No post on Thursday though, as I didn’t really drink much else this past weekend, for obvious reasons!)

April Beer Clubbing

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Tonight was beer club! For the uninitiated, beer club is a gathering of beer-minded individuals from my workplace who get together once a month for beer and revelry at a local BYOB. This time around, we went to a local Pizza place, got our fill of deep fried pizza pockets and other such delights, and naturally partook in lots of beer:

April Beer Club Selections

(Click for larger version)

For the sake of posterity, completely unreliable notes on each beer are below. Standard disclaimers apply, and other such waffling. Great, now I have a sudden craving for waffles. Thanks a lot. Anywho, in order of drinking (not necessarily the order pictured above):

  • Green Flash Le Freak – Labeled a Belgian IPA, I didn’t get much in the way of hops out of this, but it remained a pretty solid Belgian Strong Pale nonetheless. Nice spicy Belgian yeast character. B
  • Ovila Abbey Saison – Bog standard saison material, nothing special at all, though certainly not bad or anything like that. Still, there wasn’t much to make it really stand out in a setting like this. Mild Belgian yeast character, maybe a hint of lemon peel if you are really looking for it. B-
  • Stone Stochasticity Project Grapefruit Slam IPA – Rock solid IPA that feels like it’s actually made with grapefruit (as opposed to only hops that lend a grapefruity character). I don’t actually know if that’s the case for sure, but that’s what it feels like. Beautiful nose, what seems like Stone’s trademark hop profile, and a heaping helping of citrusy but astringent grapefruit. An interesting beer. B
  • Evil Twin / Crooked Stave Ryan And The Gosling – One of my contributions for the night, this is dominated by funky Brett. This is quite welcome in the nose, and the front end of the taste is fantastic, but the finish is very odd. That funk turns super earthy, almost savory in the finish, which brings this down a bit. Still an interesting beer to try though. B
  • Allagash Midnight Brett – Hey, look at that, a beer I just reviewed yesterday. And it held up rather well in this setting as well.
  • Ken’s Homebrewed Honey IPA – Brewed with a bunch of New Zealand hops, this was quite nice.
  • Sly Fox Nihilist – An interesting take on the imperial stout style, huge carbonation, dryer than I’d normally expect, but a nice roast character, with hints of booze (but not overpowering). It’s definitely a decent brew. B+
  • Kaedrin Bomb & Grapnel – Straight up imperial stout, this one compared very favorably to the Nihilist, definitely thicker and more creamy, less roast, but really quite nice. B+
  • Kaedrin Bomb & Grapnel (Bourbon Oaked) – Interestingly, I feel like the char that came through on early bottles has mellowed out, and the bourbon seems to be lessening the roast as well, making this an interesting blend of flavors. It’s turned out quite well, though not at all like your typical bourbon barrel aged stout. Still, not bad for a first attempt, and quite nice on its own. B+
  • DuClaw Dirty Little Freak – Holy hell. Huge chocolate nose, like powdered cocoa. Less chocolate in the taste, as it takes a back seat to a big coconut character. Surprisingly not super sweet, and it works well enough I guess (certainly a unique beer), though I was a little disappointed. B-
  • DuClaw Cocoa Fuego – Brewed with dark chocolate and chipotle peppers, its the latter that seems to dominate this beer, even contributing a sorta smokey flavor that’s pretty tough to overcome. There’s some peppery heat that takes up residence in your jaw, but it’s not punishing or anything like that. Not the worst hot pepper beer I’ve had, but not a beer that I connected with either. C+
  • DuClaw Hell on Wood – Ah, now this is more like it. This is DuClaw’s excellent Devil’s Milk barleywine aged on bourbon barrels, and it turned out reasonably well. Clearly not a top tier BBA barleywine, but it works really well on its own. B+

So all in all, quite a nice night. As per usual, already looking forward to next month… In the meantime, stay tuned for another .rar wale review tomorrow.

Allagash Double Feature

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This past Saturday, one of my favorite local beer bars celebrated its fourth anniversary. It’s a tiny little place, but they had a rather spectacular tap list for the occasion, so I made my way over there, arriving just a little after opening. It was a total madhouse and took me a while to get anywhere close to the bar, so during this time, I reprioritized the order of desired beers, placing ones I’ve never had at the top of the list. Insanely crowded bars are not really my thing, and a friend I was going to meet was running way late, so we just called it quits and met up later in the day somewhere else.

That being said, I managed to snag a rare Allagash sour while I was there, and was really happy that I got to try this (there was a brewery-only bottle release not too long ago, but thankfully a keg made its way down here…) Avance is a strong sour aged on Strawberries in bourbon barrels for a whopping three years. Strawberry is not a particularly common fruit used with beer, so I was pretty stoked to try this out. Realizing that I’ve not been particularly attentive to Allagash’s sour and wild beer program, I also cracked open some Midnight Brett that I had laying around; it’s a dark wheat beer fermented with Brett. All in all, this was quite a nice Saturday!

Allagash Avance

Allagash Avancé – Apologies for the craptacular picture, but I was lucky enough to be able to extend my hand that far in this place, which was pretty obscenely crowded. Nice bright orange brown color, with a finger of bubbly head and great retention. Smells of oak and fruit berries, with the strawberry actually coming through rather well. Big sour twang in the nose too. Taste hits with a massive wave of sourness up front, tempered by oak and jammy fruit in the middle, the strawberry character less here than the nose, but still present, then returning to an intense sourness in the finish. Mouthfeel is well carbed and very acidic. This is very intense, and reminds me of high ABV sours like Consecration or Riserva (and yep, now that I know this is 10.8% ABV, that makese a lot of sense. I thought the board said 8% when I ordered it, but it turns out that I neglected to notice the “10.” ahead of it!) Really nice stuff, intense, oaky, delicious… perhaps just a hint too intense, but it’s still great. A-

Beer Nerd Details: 10.8% ABV on tap. Drank out of a goblet on 4/19/14.

Allagash Midnight Brett

Allagash Midnight Brett – Pours a dark brown color with amber highlights and a couple fingers of tan head with great lacing and retention. Smells of musty, funky brett yeast along with a fruity, vinous aroma that suits it well. Taste has a very Belgian dark feel to it, dark malts but not a lot of roast, maybe some chocolate though, definitely spicy, fruity Belgian yeast that is offset by some earthy, musty, fruity funk. An almost chocolate covered cherry character that really suits this well. Mouthfeel is highly carbonated and effervescent, smooth, and almost creamy. A little bit of tartness and acidity, but very low on that scale. It’s a very nice tweak on the Belgian dark style, and a very worthy beer. B+ but very close to an A-

Beer Nerd Details: 7.3% ABV bottled (375 ml caged and corked). Drank out of a tulip glass on 4/19/14. Date Bottled: Oct. 16, 2013.

So there you have it. I’ve never been supremely impressed with Allagash’s wild beers before, but I also haven’t had many of them. Both of these are significant improvements over something like Confluence, though of course, you’ll have to pay for the privilege (Allagash is great, but their prices are on the high side).

January Beer Club

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I’ve more or less run out of beer puns for beer clubs, so you’ll just have to deal with it. I know, you all love puns, so you’re all broken up about it, but you’ll just have to deal. Beer club is a meeting of beer minded individuals from my work who get together for a meal and lots-o-beer once a month. As per usual, this gathering is anchored by a core group of stalwarts, along with assorted return guest stars. So it was a solid turnout, lots of beer, good BBQ and just an all around good time.

January Beer Club 2013

(Click for bigger image)

In accordance with tradition, my thoughts on each beer we sampled are recorded below for posterity. Standard disclaimers regarding non-ideal tasting isolation conditions apply, so all you pedants better stay frosty, as nearly all of this will be untrustworthy/awesome. Roughly in order of tasting (not necessarily the order in the above picture):

  • Crabbie’s Original Alcoholic Ginger Beer – Things started off on a bizarre note. It’s basically alcoholic ginger ale, which is fine for what it is, I guess, and definitely attracts the non-beer folk due to it’s high sweetness and ginger spicing, but I found it kinda poopy. It’s actually good that we had it in this sort of setting where I only had to try a tiny sample, but I’ll give it a D, because fuck ginger beer. Seriously guiz.
  • Belhaven Scottish Ale – Belhaven is supposed to be one of the top Scottish ale styles out there, but man, we must have gotten a bad bottle. It has that gross diacetyl buttery flavor that I get out of a lot of British pale ales and have grown to hate. I’m not sure if that’s just the beer, or if it’s the clear bottle, or what, but it felt kinda skunky too. Not totally undrinkable, but I was again glad that I only took a very small sample of the stuff. D
  • Abita Jockamo IPA – While a big improvement over my first two tastes of the night, this strikes me as being a fairly unremarkable IPA. It reminds me of the sort of thing you’d get in a John Harvard’s brewpub, circa 1998. Totally an improvement over BMC (or, since we’re talking about my college years, Natty/Beast), but nothing special at all. A nice hop aroma, but a taste that fell a little flat and bland. B-
  • Old Forge Overbite IPA – Ahhh, now that’s more like it. A really nice semi-local IPA, lots of that citrusy, floral hop goodness, maybe a little pine too, was a real breath of fresh air after the first three beers of the evening. It’s not a world beater, to be sure, but these guys are totally making a name for themselves in the Philly area, and this makes for a pleasant enough IPA. B+
  • Birrificio Del Ducato Nuova Mattina – Guest star Steve contributed this very nice Italian beer to the proceedings, a Belgian style pale with lots of sharp carbonation, sweet and spicy (lots of spices used in making this, and they contribute, but not overwhelmingly so), bready, with a touch of light fruit. Overall, it’s got a really nice rustic quality, an almost quaffable beer, really enjoyable. B+
  • Widmer Brrr – A totally solid winter warmer, pretty light on the spices actually, though it works well enough. It’s not the sort of thing that stands out in a tasting like this, but it’s totally serviceable and would probably get the job done if needed. B
  • Kaedrin Christmas Ale (2011) – A vintage bottle of my very own homebrew? It’s still doing pretty well, actually, though I do believe it has peaked and is now on a bit of a downward swing. It’s still retained that sorta creamy vanilla caramel base, and the spices are still there, particularly clove with a hint of cinnamon, though those are diminished from last year. It’s held up about as well as I could have hoped, though it’s not quite as fantastic as it once was. B+
  • Allagash Fluxus 2012 – Another of my contributions for the night, it’s a totally solid Belgian pale ale, actually quite similar to that Nuova Mattina beer, though with less carbonation. Still, a very nice Belgian yeast character, spicy and biscuity. Not especially a standout, especially amongst Allagash’s lineup, but a solid beer nonetheless. This could be tasting fatigue setting in, but I’ll go with min instinctual rating of a B
  • Traquair House Jacobite – Ah, now this is a Scottish brewery I can get behind. Of course, this is a slightly stronger style, but I like me some Wee Heavy/Scotch Ales, and this is a pretty superb example of the style. Big rich malt character, brown sugar, some fruitiness, a light booziness, and all of this is very well balanced against each other. Truly a solid beer, and widely available too, well worth checking out for the Scotch Ale fan and a contender for best of the night. A-
  • Lagunitas Imperial Red Ale – Once again, this might be tasting fatigue setting in, but I was expecting more out of this. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a totally good beer. Not very red in appearance, but it certainly smells/tastes like an imperial red, big, well integrated citrus and pine hops mixed with those crystal and red malts. Very nice, would like to try again in better conditions. For now, we’ll give it a provisional B+
  • DuClaw Sweet Baby Jesus – Perhaps the strangest beer of the night, but it worked surprisingly well. You could say it’s gimmicky, it being a “Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter”, but this is quite possibly the perfect beer for a tasting like this. Exclamations of “Whoa” and “It smells like peanut butter” all around the table. It tasted like peanut butter brownies that were perhaps a bit overcookied so that you got that roastiness. Kinda like the edge/corner piece (which, you know, I love). It worked surprisingly well in this setting. I have no idea how I’d react if I were to drink an entire bottle, but I’m feeling generous enough to hand it a B+ (though it’s probably more of a B)
  • Victory Oak Horizontal – Another of my contributions for the night, it’s just as good as I remembered it. The bourbon, while prominent, was not overpowering at all, which endeared it to some folks who don’t tend to like bourbon. Still an A- and a fitting end to the evening.

So there you have it. After a shaky start, things livened up quickly, and this sort of ratings distribution is actually quite nice. I mean, this isn’t the most exclusive of beer clubs, after all, and only a few of us a really huge beer nerds, but it’s a lot of fun and I always look forward to beer club. February’s meeting will come soon enough!