Allagash Releases & Events

[janeinma]

I picked up Nancy there last Sunday with no limit so something with cherries in it might be there. Tasted great from the sample I had. I think I might prefer it over Cerise which has always been so-so to me.

I felt this year's Nancy was less aggressively sour and much more cherry forward, a definite improvement on last year's Nancy.
I really want more Neddles which I find a really nice easy drinking beer I really hope there will be some left on Sunday.

 

[JBP]

Yeah this batch of Cerise is very good.

 

[janeinma]

Sunday there was Cerise, Nancy and Neddles for sale. They were saying Neddles was selling fast . Neddles was also the fifth tap, dear god I love the nose on that beer. Bad news is they say Victor & Victoria is tap only this year - both are drinking excellent this year IMHO. Topping it off with a trip to Oxbow to see Cavern on tap made an excellent trip.

 

[tehzachatak]

Sunday there was Cerise, Nancy and Neddles for sale. They were saying Neddles was selling fast . Neddles was also the fifth tap, dear god I love the nose on that beer. Bad news is they say Victor & Victoria is tap only this year - both are drinking excellent this year IMHO. Topping it off with a trip to Oxbow to see Cavern on tap made an excellent trip.

I'm really glad you were able to overcome the great hardship of Allagash scheduling the release on the same day as the BA Fest. Always glad when respectful beer people get rewarded for their support.

 

[JBP]

tehzachatak when are we getting full Allagash tasting notes

 

[tehzachatak]

tehzachatak when are we getting full Allagash tasting notes

Hah! I should probably write that up. Okay, watch this thread.

 

[Don2]

Hah! I should probably write that up. Okay, watch this thread.

Haha some of these should be interesting

 

[tehzachatak]

Over the past couple weeks, Don HevvyMetalHippie ShawDeuce22 Ataraxia KevinC and I worked our way through a large part of the Allagash 375mL archive.

Last week we had:

Avance b2 (2014)
Invisible Orange (2015)
Astrid (2015)

Then on Saturday, we went all out and had:

Vagabond (2009)

Coolship Resurgam b1 (5/25/2011)
Coolship Resurgam b3 (6/21/2012)
Coolship Resurgam b5 (4/2/2014)
Coolship Resurgam b6 (1/19/2015)

Coolship Single Barrel One (October 2012)

Coolship Balaton (October 2010)

Coolship Cerise b2 (1/25/2012)

Coolship Red b3 (10/18/2012)
Coolship Red b4 (3/20/2014)
Coolship Red b5 (2/23/2015)
Coolship Red b6 (12/21/2015)

Ghoulschip b2 (2014)
Ghoulschip b3 (2015)

Belfius (2014)

Nancy b1 (2014)
Nancy b2 (2015)

Farm to Face b1 (2014)
Farm to Face b2 (2015)

Pick Your Own b1 (2014)
Pick Your Own b2 (2015)

Tiarna b1 (2013)
Tiarna b2 (2015)

Mattina Rossa b2 (2015)

Midnight Brett b1 (2013)

Century b1 (2015)

Evora (2015)

Cuvee d'Industrial (2015)

FV13 (2013)
Merveilleux (2013)

Helena (2015)
James and Julie (2015)

Emotional Honey (2014)
Hive 56 (2016)

I will provide some notes in a followup post so I don't kill everyone's screens here...

On a personal note, I have now had every beer Allagash has put into a 375 except Gargamel and Uncommon Crow. Pretty much from the day I got into craft beer these were the beers I was most interested in and I'm really glad I've now gotten a chance to try almost every one!

 

[tehzachatak]

Some notes on some of the most interesting and standout beers... As you can tell we drank a lot of these, so I can't give you a blow by blow recap of every single one, I didn't try to take notes beyond what I put on Untappd.

Vagabond: Initial reaction was pretty negative. It (this bottle, at least) was really quite heavily oxidized, which isn't very surprising for a beer brewed like, 11 years ago, but still disappointing. As it opened up a bit, it became more enjoyable; a lot of sherry notes. Definitely tastes nothing like it was intended to fresh, but really exciting to try.

Single Barrel One: I dunno, this beer has been a semi white whale for me for a long time but I was a bit underwhelmed. It was good, but it was kinda like a just heavily oaky Resurgam with some vanilla flavors. I have another bottle - hopefully will open it sooner rather than later. A long time ago Knifestyles said he had never gotten as much bourbon out of a wild as this beer - not sure if this is just bottle variation or if it's age, but I didn't get much "bourbon" beyond the vanilla.

Balaton: This was, IMO, the best Allagash beer we opened all day. Everything I ever dreamed of Cerise being. Cherry pie. 5.5 years after bottling and still a fruit bomb. Not sure I can really say anything else. I wish they would make it again.

b2 Cerise: Not bad, but paled next to Balaton. I think this was the Cerise batch I liked a lot fresh.

b3 Resurgam: Remains my favorite batch ever. Starting to just start to show signs of age. One thing that did seem relatively clear here is that the coolships haven't aged as well as I tend to expect lambic to. Not sure if that's my storage (laid down in a cool basement, probably more light exposure than ideal), bottle size (I tend to drink lambic 750s), or the beer itself.

b3 Red: This blew me away October 2014. Has fallen off from that point but still quite excellent.

b4 Red: Not doing so great.

b6 Red: Juice, very sour.

Belfius: Tastes the same as it ever did, I guess. Overcarbed. Kinda disappointed this didn't evolve more.

Ghoulschips: Weird beers. Still taste good. Not really much to say.

PYO: b2 was much better and more fruit forward than b1. b1 was incredible fresh, kinda surprised it seems to have fallen off a bunch.

F2F: Really ******* sour, both of them. IDK. I was pretty drunk when we had these.

Nancies: b1 surprisingly much more fruit forward and tart than b2. No contest, b1 wins. I didn't love it fresh but really seeming to hit its stride now.

Helena: Really good. I'm really glad they bottled this and I hope they do again.

Hive 56: I think this is one of my favorite dark sours ever, save for like b1 Edith.

Emotional Honey: Really good, right in its prime. Drink em if you got em.

Tiarna '13: Trainwreck, not sure what happened. I loved this beer ~18 months ago, it had really evolved from release.

Tiarna '15: Real good.

b1 Midnight Brett: Awful. I have never really liked this beer and it's gotten real bad. Lucky me, I still have more.

Cuvee d'Industrial: Also has fallen completely apart.

 

[ShawDeuce221]

Some notes on some of the most interesting and standout beers... As you can tell we drank a lot of these, so I can't give you a blow by blow recap of every single one, I didn't try to take notes beyond what I put on Untappd.

Vagabond: Initial reaction was pretty negative. It (this bottle, at least) was really quite heavily oxidized, which isn't very surprising for a beer brewed like, 11 years ago, but still disappointing. As it opened up a bit, it became more enjoyable; a lot of sherry notes. Definitely tastes nothing like it was intended to fresh, but really exciting to try.

Single Barrel One: I dunno, this beer has been a semi white whale for me for a long time but I was a bit underwhelmed. It was good, but it was kinda like a just heavily oaky Resurgam with some vanilla flavors. I have another bottle - hopefully will open it sooner rather than later. A long time ago Knifestyles said he had never gotten as much bourbon out of a wild as this beer - not sure if this is just bottle variation or if it's age, but I didn't get much "bourbon" beyond the vanilla.

Balaton: This was, IMO, the best Allagash beer we opened all day. Everything I ever dreamed of Cerise being. Cherry pie. 5.5 years after bottling and still a fruit bomb. Not sure I can really say anything else. I wish they would make it again.

b2 Cerise: Not bad, but paled next to Balaton. I think this was the Cerise batch I liked a lot fresh.

b3 Resurgam: Remains my favorite batch ever. Starting to just start to show signs of age. One thing that did seem relatively clear here is that the coolships haven't aged as well as I tend to expect lambic to. Not sure if that's my storage (laid down in a cool basement, probably more light exposure than ideal), bottle size (I tend to drink lambic 750s), or the beer itself.

b3 Red: This blew me away October 2014. Has fallen off from that point but still quite excellent.

b4 Red: Not doing so great.

b6 Red: Juice, very sour.

Belfius: Tastes the same as it ever did, I guess. Overcarbed. Kinda disappointed this didn't evolve more.

Ghoulschips: Weird beers. Still taste good. Not really much to say.

PYO: b2 was much better and more fruit forward than b1. b1 was incredible fresh, kinda surprised it seems to have fallen off a bunch.

F2F: Really ******* sour, both of them. IDK. I was pretty drunk when we had these.

Nancies: b1 surprisingly much more fruit forward and tart than b2. No contest, b1 wins. I didn't love it fresh but really seeming to hit its stride now.

Helena: Really good. I'm really glad they bottled this and I hope they do again.

Hive 56: I think this is one of my favorite dark sours ever, save for like b1 Edith.

Emotional Honey: Really good, right in its prime. Drink em if you got em.

Tiarna '13: Trainwreck, not sure what happened. I loved this beer ~18 months ago, it had really evolved from release.

Tiarna '15: Real good.

b1 Midnight Brett: Awful. I have never really liked this beer and it's gotten real bad. Lucky me, I still have more.

Cuvee d'Industrial: Also has fallen completely apart.

 

[tehzachatak]

That AB El Leche was incredible too..

 

[OkayBrendan]

Super disappointing to hear about that Cuvee. I thought it was absolutely fantastic fresh

 

[janeinma]

I'm really glad you were able to overcome the great hardship of Allagash scheduling the release on the same day as the BA Fest. Always glad when respectful beer people get rewarded for their support.

I figure I got punished for attending that fest anyway, maybe it was just me but I drain poured a heap of beers there including some that were clearly off.
Not a festival I would go to again in its current format

 

[HevvyMetalHippie]

Where are the 18 million caterpillars that were crawling everywhere on the deck?

 

[bearsonacid1]

This must've been an awesome tasting. Gargamel had declined quite a bit the last time I had it in a similar 375ml tasting years ago (a lot less bottles back then). Balaton was also my favorite and still the best Allagash sour I've had. Pretty amazing it's still that good

No Vic Franc? It used to be a stand-out but could see it was starting to suffer from oxidation at the tasting I had.

 

[tehzachatak]

This must've been an awesome tasting. Gargamel had declined quite a bit the last time I had it in a similar 375ml tasting years ago (a lot less bottles back then). Balaton was also my favorite and still the best Allagash sour I've had. Pretty amazing it's still that good

No Vic Franc? It used to be a stand-out but could see it was starting to suffer from oxidation at the tasting I had.

Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Too many at once, but whatever, I was done holding onto these.

No Vic Franc, drank mine in ~October 2014 last time I did one of these big Allagash things. That one was already pretty heavily oxidized though. jonbonbrodie opened two right around that time period and said they were both great, so I must have just had a less well stored bottle.

And yeah, I really have a hard time understanding how Balaton is/was that good and Cerise isn't.

 

[JBP]

Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Too many at once, but whatever, I was done holding onto these.

No Vic Franc, drank mine in ~October 2014 last time I did one of these big Allagash things. That one was already pretty heavily oxidized though. jonbonbrodie opened two right around that time period and said they were both great, so I must have just had a less well stored bottle.

And yeah, I really have a hard time understanding how Balaton is/was that good and Cerise isn't.

Had new Cerise yet? Prob my fav of them so far.

 

[KevinC1]

Speaking of new Cerise, did it sell out?

 

[KevinC1]

I want everyone to know I walked right up the yard to this exact scene about 5 hours after they started and ShawDeuce22 said "Have you ever had an Allagash beer? Go."

 

[tbub18]

Speaking of new Cerise, did it sell out?

^ This

 

[bearsonacid1]

Speaking of new Cerise, did it sell out?

Reports say no

 

[tehzachatak]

Had new Cerise yet? Prob my fav of them so far.

No. Hope it's still there Friday.

 

[bearsonacid1]

Little Brett could be the most crushable summer beer ever. Perfect mix of low-ish abv, little bit of band aid funk and juicy hops

 

[KevinC1]

Little Brett could be the most crushable summer beer ever. Perfect mix of low-ish abv, little bit of band aid funk and juicy hops

Haven't had it yet, but things like this make me believe I'll love it.

 

[jonbonbrodie]

Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Too many at once, but whatever, I was done holding onto these.

No Vic Franc, drank mine in ~October 2014 last time I did one of these big Allagash things. That one was already pretty heavily oxidized though. jonbonbrodie opened two right around that time period and said they were both great, so I must have just had a less well stored bottle.

And yeah, I really have a hard time understanding how Balaton is/was that good and Cerise isn't.

I was just lucky because the two bottles that I had last year were both stored in the same cellar (a proper root cellar) since their release. I doubt there are many of those out there that were untouched, we had rub some serious dust off those bottles. Same with the Gargamel and Vagabonds we had.

Helluva share tehzachatak, absolutely beautiful stuff man. I miss readily available Allagash, that's for sure, nevermind all the limited 37,5's.

 

[tbub18]

Reports say no

Allagash just said on instagram that Cerise is still available

 

[GuzzleMcBrew]

Great notes tehzachatak! I feel like I just drank a lifetime of Allagash after reading that.

As you may remember from our chat a while back, my impression of the little taste of Coolship Single Barrel One was that it was just absurdly sour and marginally acetic. Vanilla actually sounds pretty cool!

 

[tehzachatak]

Great notes tehzachatak! I feel like I just drank a lifetime of Allagash after reading that.

As you may remember from our chat a while back, my impression of the little taste of Coolship Single Barrel One was that it was just absurdly sour and marginally acetic. Vanilla actually sounds pretty cool!

Yeah, this definitely wasn't acetic at all and really not super sour either (at least in context).

 

[HevvyMetalHippie]

This must've been an awesome tasting. Gargamel had declined quite a bit the last time I had it in a similar 375ml tasting years ago (a lot less bottles back then). Balaton was also my favorite and still the best Allagash sour I've had. Pretty amazing it's still that good

No Vic Franc? It used to be a stand-out but could see it was starting to suffer from oxidation at the tasting I had.

Well Don and I had 120 beers at the BA Microbrew Invitational the night before, and then went to 2 bars afterwards...it was a struggle for sure, and by the end of the Allagash, even tehzachatak had the fuckkits.

I feel bad for KevinC, cause by the time he showed up, the rest of us were hurting pretty bad. He was fully torqued and ready to plow.

 

[Don2]

Well Don and I had 120 beers at the BA Microbrew Invitational the night before, and then went to 2 bars afterwards...it was a struggle for sure, and by the end of the Allagash, even tehzachatak had the fuckkits.

I feel bad for KevinC, cause by the time he showed up, the rest of us were hurting pretty bad. He was fully torqued and ready to plow.

KevinC and I killed 6 big bottles after y'all left and I went to bed at like 2, ZFG