Coolship Balaton
Allagash Brewing Company

Coolship BalatonCoolship Balaton
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From:
Allagash Brewing Company
 
Maine, United States
Style:
Wild Ale
Ranked #247
ABV:
5.9%
Score:
93
Ranked #3,041
Avg:
4.23 | pDev: 8.51%
Reviews:
30
Ratings:
82
Status:
Active
Rated:
Aug 12, 2023
Added:
Sep 24, 2011
Wants:
  167
Gots:
  17
Coolship Balaton is a blend of spontaneously fermented beer aged on Balaton cherries. This beer is brewed with Pilsner malt, 40% raw wheat and aged hops, then cooled in a traditional coolship and fermented only with the resident microflora. All of the fermentation and aging takes place in French oak wine barrels over several years, with two pounds per gallon of fresh Maine cherries added near the end of the aging process.

The finished beer is bright red in color with cherry and oak in the aroma. Cherries dominate the flavor, along with funk and hints of dried apricot. The finish is tart and dry. We made this beer once in 2011 and released a new batch in 2019.
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
 
Rated: 4 by atlbravsrno1 from Maine

Aug 12, 2023
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Reviewed by hopley from Massachusetts

4.55/5  rDev +7.6%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5
Bottled January 3, 2019, drank out of a stemmed wine glass on January 29, 2023.

For a guy who doesn’t like sour cherries much, this one blew me away - nothing sour about this, and only mildly tart, more sweet than anything - a very tasty beer. Smelled like sweet cherries, and was really a nice beer. No wonder, Allagash nailed it again!
Jan 29, 2023
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Reviewed by Cashbail from New Hampshire

4.95/5  rDev +17%
look: 5 | smell: 5 | taste: 5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 5
Bottled January 3, 2019.

Pours a bright cherry red. Almost the exact color of a cherry Tootsie Pop. Fizzy pink head while pouring but then dissipating to nothing.

Strong cherry pie filling nose with some funky follow up. Cherries are my favorite fruit and it is difficult to find anything cherry that doesn’t taste like cough syrup.

The cherry flavor from this is incredible. Bright and fresh with a hint of lemon and the ever present Allagash barnyard funk.

Maybe my favorite Allagash Coolship so far.
Apr 03, 2021
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Reviewed by Sheppard from Massachusetts

4.13/5  rDev -2.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
Pours a ruby or garnet hue, the white head quickly dissipates. Musty basement and sour cherries line the nose. It's quite sour in the lemon juice, citric acid kind of way up front that gives way to grounding cherries notes that bring balance and peace of mind to this spontaneously fermented beer. There's some earthiness in this as well. The acidity is somewhat restrained too.

I generally find that Allagash's coolship program tends to err a little too cheesy parmesan in an unpleasant way (I really need to update my Resurgam review), but the fruit treatment grounds what I expect normally in these beers in a positive way. What should we be comparing "American lambic" to? Should it be other fruited sours? Other fruited Amlam? To the king - fruited lambic.

This is listed as fruited lambic and I think it falls short of the goat kriek for me - Drie Fonteinen. But it's pretty damn good.
Feb 14, 2021
 
Rated: 4.21 by Chuckdiesel24 from Illinois

Jul 20, 2020
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Reviewed by Roy_Hobbs from Connecticut

4.44/5  rDev +5%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5
Bottled 1/3/19. Pours a very attractive, fairly translucent medium red. Fizzy head that quickly dissipates leaving behind no lacing (nor was any expected). Smell is fantastic, with more than just hints of the cherries and tartness that I expect I'm about to experience. Taste is lightly tart and funky with the cherry showing up even more in the aftertaste than the initial taste. Low to medium carbonation, which seems about right. Overall, if you are a fan of spontaneously fermented beers, you could do much worse than this one. I'm really enjoying it.
Apr 23, 2020
 
Rated: 4.08 by PhineasMcClintock from Massachusetts

Mar 19, 2020
 
Rated: 4.35 by fthegiants from California

Feb 29, 2020
 
Rated: 3.83 by Massbmx from Vermont

Jan 05, 2020
 
Rated: 4.33 by Blazer22 from Colorado

Oct 11, 2019
 
Rated: 4.74 by mmoore9363 from Arizona

Oct 04, 2019
 
Rated: 4.5 by PprBurke from Virginia

Sep 29, 2019
 
Rated: 4.25 by Budlum from Maryland

Sep 15, 2019
 
Rated: 4.21 by cp45 from New Jersey

Sep 10, 2019
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Reviewed by snaotheus from Washington

3.9/5  rDev -7.8%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
2019-08-27
Served in a weird little glass at my air B&B. Dated 3 Jan 2019.

Pours a pinkish red with no head and not a lot of carbonation. Smell is nice, tart cherry.

Taste is more cherry and a little off sour flavor. Not sure how to describe it. It's not bad, but it's a little odd.

Mouthfeel is light and dry. Overall, it's pretty good.
Aug 28, 2019
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Reviewed by cbutova from Massachusetts

4.31/5  rDev +1.9%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
01/03/2019 bottle.

A- Pours with a wonderful ruby red body that is mostly clear to the Allagash signature goblet. The cleaner glasses have a foamy one finger head that dies down to a tiny ring fairly fast. Spotty lacing, seems like the fruit may have cut into this head a lot in this case.

S- Balaton cherries. Literally tart cherries absolutely dominate the aroma with a ton of great earthy pit character, fresh cherry juice and bitter skin aromas. Cherries dominate a bit too much as the Coolship bugs are definitely overshadowed here. Hints of wine and lactic acid.

T- The cherries are still again the driving force of the beer and the Balaton character is just magnificently strong and flavorful in this beer. It is a bit of a shame because Coolship Resurgam is a truly complex, sour brew and the cherries here are just so dominant. Juicy, slightly sweet and tart cherries, tons of awesome flesh flavors, a bit of bitter skin and pit and then the funky bacteria and yeast do their best to shine in the backdrop. Balaton bomb. Medium level of sourness and hints of vinous oak tannins and grapes.

MF- Light-medium bodied with a foamy and silky texture. Moderately high level of carbonation and a sour, bitter pit feeling lingers in the finish.

Balaton Bruiser Brigade. The cherries dominate your tastebuds, nose and pretty much the rest of the base beer beyond some funk, sourness and vinous notes. Hard to complain about an amazing fruit flavor like this but some more balance would go a long way.
Aug 15, 2019
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Reviewed by GreesyFizeek from New York

4.51/5  rDev +6.6%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5
This one pours a mostly clear light reddish color, with a small head, and not much lacing.

This smells like cherry skin and cherry pit, red wine, lemon rind, and a deep prickly funk.

This is really excellent stuff. The cherry is slightly sweet but mostly pure and funky spicy cherry, with funky overripe lemon, walnut, oak, wine, and must.

This is light bodied, clean, and crisp on the end.

This was excellent, and basically on par with Coolship Red.
Aug 11, 2019
 
Rated: 4.25 by Chico1985 from Massachusetts

Aug 03, 2019
 
Rated: 4.59 by rjp217 from Massachusetts

May 20, 2019
 
Rated: 4.37 by WoolEnthusiast from Connecticut

Apr 29, 2019
Coolship Balaton from Allagash Brewing Company
Beer rating: 93 out of 100 with 82 ratings