Allagash Brewing
Allagash Shiro’s Delight
Allagash Shiro’s Delight is making an
Style: American Wild Ale
Rejoice! Allagash White is finally in cans
The best news you’ll read today comes from Portland, Maine. For the first time in 24 years, Allagash White is finally available in cans.
Early last year, Allagash released their first canned offering, Hoppy Table Beer. Yes, the fact that it wasn’t White shocked pretty much everyone. We needed to know why.
When the brewery opened in 1995, founder Rob Tod only had one beer in his arsenal – White. In the years since, Allagash White has become an icon in craft beer, in more than just the 17 states you can find the brewery’s beers.
Allagash has very stringent quality standards for their success. Almost daily, the employees take sensory tests in order to judge and maintain their beer’s quality. So much of that process surrounds White. Sure, it would have been easy to hook up a brite tank of one of America’s best witbiers to the canning line and let it run. But for Rod Tod and team, they decided to take their time with transitioning White to cans. Per Jeff Pillet-Shore, marketing director for Allagash, “That beer defines us. When we were ready to release the cans, we would simply know”. “We had to get it right,” he adds.
Initially, 16-ounce cans of White will be available at the brewery and then surrounding areas, like New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Western/Upstate New York – eventually becoming available in all 17 states where Allagash is found.
If you ask our opinion, Allagash White is absolutely one of the best offerings in American craft beer. White belongs in aluminum. Now it can now truly go every you go.
It’s a great day.
Images: Beer Street Journal
Allagash FV 13 (foudre aged wild ale) resurfaces this weekend
Allagash FV 13 returns to the brewery once again this weekend.
A Belgian-style golden ale is the base for Allagash FV 13. The beer is fermented in stainless steel with the brewery’s epic house yeast, then transferred to a 2,700-gallon French oak foudre (exactly like the one on the label).
What is even more unique about FV 13, is that a portion of the previous batch of this beer is used to inoculate (ferment) the new edition. A little bit of the old makes the new.
This year’s beer features an aroma with notes of graham cracker, lime zest, and vanilla. The flavor blends sweet and tart with notes of grapefruit and raspberry, and finishes with a cleansing bitterness.
Allagash FV 13 is a 375ml bottle release. Each release takes four years to brew, ferment and condition before public release.
Style: American Wild Ale (w/ White Cane Sugar. Oak Aged)
Hops: Tettnang, Hallertau
Availability: 12.7 oz bottles
Latest Return: September 2018
8.8% ABV
Fresh strawberries and bourbon barrels. Allagash Avancé returns July 14th
Allagash Avancé will be available in the brewery’s taproom again on July 14th.
Back in 2013, the Portland, Maine based brewery started purchasing fresh strawberries from Dole’s Orchard in Limington, Maine. The fresh fruit was combined with a strong ale brewed with four different strains of Belgian yeast, as well as multiple sugars including molasses, date sugar, white cane sugar, and dark rock candi.
Avancé is a strong, sour ale with aromas of strawberry preserves and toasted oak. Berries and more oak continue in the flavor, which concludes with a warm, sweet finish.
Allagash Avancé is available in 12.7-ounce bottles in the brewery’s taproom July 14th, alongside Coolship Cerise.
Style: Belgian-style Strong Ale / American Wild Ale (w/ Strawberries. Date Sugar. Candi Sugar. Molasses. White Cane Sugar. Barrel Aged. Bourbon.)
Hops: Perle, German Tradition, Tettnang, Saaz
Malts: 2-Row, Malted Barley Blend, Munich, Caramel, Carapils
Availability: 12.7oz Bottles
10.8% ABV
Mosaic & Wild: Allagash Little Brett is back in action
Allagash Little Brett being released again today, Allagash Brewing’s first ever 12-ounce bottled Brettanomyces yeast beer.
Little Brett was born into the brewery’s pilot program a few years ago. Besides the Mosaic hops used in this newbie, the house strain of Brettanomyces really the star here. If you ask us, this Allagash house strain is legendary. When you combine that yeast flavor with the tropical, fruity, Mosaic hops, you’ve really created a wild beer perfect for the coming warmer weather.
Allagash Little Brett is both hopped and dry hopped with 100% Mosaic hops and is completely fermented in stainless with our house strain of Brettanomyces yeast. Little Brett is a hazy, straw-colored beer featuring an aroma bursting with pineapple and notes of bread crust. Pineapple continues through the flavor with additional notes of fresh cut grass. A mild tartness in the finish is nicely balanced with a pleasant hop-bitterness.
Allagash Little Brett is a draft and 12-ounce bottle offering, in limited distribution starting June 1st.
Style: American Wild Ale
Hops: Mosaic
Malts: 2 Row
Availability: 12oz Bottles, Draft. Limited.
Debut: May 2016
Latest Return: June 2018
4.8% ABV
Image: Beer Street Journal
Allagash is ready to release cans for the first time & they aren’t starting with White
Portland, Maine based Allagash Brewing will debut their first ever cans this spring, starting with 16-ounce cans of Hoppy Table Beer.
Why not Allagash White?
When the brewery opened in 1995, founder Rob Tod only had one beer – White. It’s become an icon in craft beer, especially in the 17 states you can find Allagash. The brewery can thank their very stringent quality standards for their success.
Carrying over those same high standards of quality and flavor, Allagash has acquired a small can line and soon will branch out into aluminum.
As much as fans most assuredly want to sip tallboys of the famed White, Allagash has chosen Hoppy Table Beer for the maiden can voyage. HTB debuted as a year-round release in January of 2017. The lower alcohol by volume release boasts Chinook, Cascade, Comet, and Azacca hops, plus the brewery’s famous house yeast. The beer literally pairs with everything.
Initially, Allagash’s cans will be limited to the brewery. At least for now. There is no doubt the intention is to ensure the cans live up the brewery’s high standards before expanding production.
A date for the can debut has not been set.
Image: Allagash Brewing Company
Allagash James Bean (with bourbon & coffee) returns
Allagash James Bean has finally been bottled. The beer has been a draft-only offering in the past.
The base beer for Allagash James Bean is a Belgian-style strong ale with pure white cane sugar, that has been infused with cold pressed coffee after fermentation. The brewery chose Ethiopia Amaro Gayo beans for the brew, which boast flavors of blackberry and blueberry. The finishing touch on this big beer is the bourbon barrel aging.
Have you ever put bourbon in your coffee? If you do, drink this. If you don’t. Drink this. Coffee is bright and the bourbon a beautiful compliment to the boldness that James Bean is. Coffee, vanilla and bourbon dominate the aroma. Flavors of caramel, coffee, bourbon, and oak present themselves throughout this full-bodied beer. Think coffee, oak, caramel, and bourbon with a touch of berry. Start to finish.
Bean is further proof that coffee and bourbon work together (it’s been our breakfast of choice for years). Bourbon and coffee dominate this beer, but you can’t count out the Belgian-style golden ale base. Thats’s where the complexity really shines.
Allagash James Bean will be available 750 milliliter bottles debuted in early July at the brewery in Portland, Maine. Distribution has been slow and steady throughout the summer.
Style: Belgian-style Strong Ale (w/ Cane Sugar, Coffee. Barrel Aged. Bourbon.)
Hops: Tettnang, Hallertau
Malts: Allagash 2-Row Malted Barley Blend
Availability: 750ml Bottles, Draft.
Bottle Debut: 7/2/16
Latest Return: April, 2017
10.4% ABV
PIC: Beer Street Journal