Girlfriend and I played hooky yesterday and went up to Portland for my Bday. We started off at the 3PM allagash tour. It was absolutely amazing. The tour started with a tasting of the white, dubbel, tripel, and curieux (bourbon oak aged tripel). All were great, the curieux was really great. I made sure to buy a few bottles.
They then brought the group through the brewery. In the back they were packaging the vagabond (http://www.allagash.com/vagabond.htm) for release in a week, An amazingly small run of brew. The tour was a basic walk through, explaining the process. They brought us into the barrel aging room which was very cool. They had lots of wine barrels and one massive barrel that had to be 20ft tall and 10ft wide. I forget what they said was aging in it, I think it was something with their house bret. They were very cool about answering questions. But it really got cool after the tour. They were doing a little wrap-up and I asked a question about the cool ship they have. The brewer was in the room (I think she was the brewer) and she took it as a chance to tell all about their house bret strain that they "found" *infected cough* in a batch. They now use it for lots of limited runs and experimental batches. She then was like "hey, wanna try some of the sour beers." She took out a bottle each of the interlude and the confluence. Both were fantastic. We continued to talk about their aging process, lengths and stuff. Everyone from the tour had left while we were poking around the shop picking out bottles and asking for places to eat. The owner Rob poked his head in and put a small green bottle on the counter, and asked if we wanted to try some. Turns out it was a bottle of the gargamel... an 18th month aged sour beer aged on raspberries. http://www.allagash.com/gargamel.htm It was the previous limited run batch of ~500 bottles. She told us there aren't many bottles of it left and it was a one off batch. It was amazingly complex. I have to sing the praises of the brewery and the people who work there. It was really an excellent experience.
Moral: wait around a really long time and Gargamel awaits
They then brought the group through the brewery. In the back they were packaging the vagabond (http://www.allagash.com/vagabond.htm) for release in a week, An amazingly small run of brew. The tour was a basic walk through, explaining the process. They brought us into the barrel aging room which was very cool. They had lots of wine barrels and one massive barrel that had to be 20ft tall and 10ft wide. I forget what they said was aging in it, I think it was something with their house bret. They were very cool about answering questions. But it really got cool after the tour. They were doing a little wrap-up and I asked a question about the cool ship they have. The brewer was in the room (I think she was the brewer) and she took it as a chance to tell all about their house bret strain that they "found" *infected cough* in a batch. They now use it for lots of limited runs and experimental batches. She then was like "hey, wanna try some of the sour beers." She took out a bottle each of the interlude and the confluence. Both were fantastic. We continued to talk about their aging process, lengths and stuff. Everyone from the tour had left while we were poking around the shop picking out bottles and asking for places to eat. The owner Rob poked his head in and put a small green bottle on the counter, and asked if we wanted to try some. Turns out it was a bottle of the gargamel... an 18th month aged sour beer aged on raspberries. http://www.allagash.com/gargamel.htm It was the previous limited run batch of ~500 bottles. She told us there aren't many bottles of it left and it was a one off batch. It was amazingly complex. I have to sing the praises of the brewery and the people who work there. It was really an excellent experience.
Moral: wait around a really long time and Gargamel awaits
