FOUR - Bourbon Barrel Aged
Allagash Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

( 44/50, 10% alc/vol, Holiday Inn, San Diego) Deep mohaganey color, clean and clear. Looks like a brandy in the glass. It also has a thin beige head. As soon as the bottle opened I got delicious apple-cinamon pie on caramel-maple sugar syrup. Delicious vinous and sweet nose thick with a herbal hops and a good belgian cherry alcohol from it's yeast. The crunch is honey-maple and brown sugar. Very sweet, yet the english-style hops liken the ale to their barley wines. Very sweet and oaky. All this, yet it is not dry, but rich and very warming. Tremendous flavours for a nitecap. Has dandelion, syruppy and grass-like bitterness. Very strong, vinous quadrupel. Feels more like a barleywine in my book though. Tops as a nitecap, very warming and sticky. Brandy quality in a smooth 10% alc./vol. body.

From the tap at Thirsty Monk in a Belgium stem glass....Pours a bright amber with a light tan head. Smells of belgian yeast, coriander, and alcohol. The taste is complex - belgian yeast and sugar, coriander, and light maltiness. The ABV is very well biried. The finish is surprisingly clean.

Extreme Beer Fest 2/15/08: After really enjoying the regular version of this beer, I was excited to try the bourbon barrel-aged version. However, all the things that I liked about the Four (Belgian fruits, lightness) just did not mesh with the bourbon and the bourbon completely dominated this beer.
6/3/7/3/13 (3.2/5)

At least for me, this was the beer of the evening at the Allagash event at Max's the other night.

The beer pours a toffee brown color with very good head retention and sticky lacing. This beer looks extremely attractive and impressive. On the nose I get a boat load of brown sugar and chocolate, with a hint of underlying citrus. On the palate this beer is very rich, with a moderately sweet combination of cherry, vanilla, sherry and wood. The flavor profile of this beer is quite complex, and quite delicious. This beer is fairly full bodied, with a soft, plush, very long finish. The abv. is pretty well disguised for the most part, though one gets a noticeable warming sensation after a bit.

This is just an excellent beer from Allagash. Not sure it differs all that significantly from the regular Four, but whatever, it was just delicious.

Try as I have recently to find something I like about Allagash beers, being local (ie new england) and all, but they seem to fall flat more often than not. No suprise that this has been retired and sadly, no suprise that this one is no different than their other brews.

Although not indicated above, this quad is 10% abv. My taste came from a 750 ml undated bottle. Started out kinda nice with a cloudy, sunburst orange appearance in my Czechvar tulip glass and with a nice two finger and creamy head and webby lace.

All down hill from here. Very mild aroma (of beer ingredients anyway), but I had to do a double take when I swirled it and noticed it was phenolic with plastic and rubber scents eminating from my glass. Possibly an older bottle? I 'll never know.

Taste was also phenolic and mediciny. No esters to speak of which is hard to fathom for the style. Carbonated and slightly buttery though as it warms up.

Carbonated mouthfeel and slightly buttery and creamy in the finish.

Only a mildy impressive showing overall. I can taste etoh but only slightly and in the finish. It did improve as it warmed up, and it is drinkable but hardly a quad worth shelling out $10 for.

A snifter served at the Allagash promo night at the Blind Tiger in NYC.

A: Much like the FOUR with strawberries, the barrel aged version is a dark quad color, thick and brown. A bit of head hangs on perilously at top of the snifter.

S: The nose has lost its quad edge, instead taking on a softer malt body that is nicely coated by an oaky, buttery sweetness. The nose is to die for.

T: The oak aging has transformed this big hulking beer into a genteel beer well worth its weight in gold. The oak creates a buttery soft flavor, softening the malts and their bite. As a result, the is a dangerously drinkable ale and well worth seeking out. The finish is buttery with vanilla notes and a distinct sweetness. This is how a good beer should taste.

M: The barrel aging has done wonders for the beer, taking away all of the harsh malty quad elements and replacing them with the softness of an oak barrel. This is another winner in Allagash's barrel aged stable.

D: The abv is at least as strong as the FOUR, which tops 10%, so beware. I had two glasses and was feeling it at the end. If you see this anywhere, get there and try a glass. You will not be disappointed.