Barrel & Bean
Allagash Brewing Company

Hazy, golden color. . Medium-sized, white head. The aroma of Belgian yeasts, flowers, wood, and coffee. Not a usual combination. The taste is on the sweet side. With notes of Belgian yeasts, vanilla, bourbon, and wood. Warming finish. Very interesting beer.

12 oz. bottle from 2019 showed up today in the $1/bottle discount area at my favorite store. Pours a cloudy golden orange with medium sized creamy white head and excellent lacing. Aroma has vanilla, oak, estery Belgian yeast, roasted malts, and some caramel. Not as boozy as I had suspected. Taste goes from sweet and malty to sour to bitter. Body is full. This one would be a great barrel aged tripel even at five times the price.

 

Pours a hazy golden color with a fluffy white head that lingers and provides a cap on the body and a nice bit of lacing. Looks great in the glass.

The nose features vanilla, caramel, a bit of the estery goodness Belgian beers are noted for, and some roasty malt, with a bit alcohol from the barrel.

The taste follows the same profile, with the barrel an alcohol warming at the back of the palate, following a nice balance of the vanilla, caramel, and roasty malt, with the estery flavor providing a bit of effervescence to the mouthfeel.

This was a pleasure to drink, and a beer I’d gladly try again.

 

12 ounce bottle, bottled 07/21/22, thanks to Brutaltruth for this bottle! Served in a Teku, the beer pours a hazy dark gold color with not quite an inch off-white head. Head retention and lacing are both good. I like the aroma, the brew smells like coffee, vanilla, bready malt, and some orange peel. I think the taste is similar to the aroma, but with the addition of some oak, bourbon, caramel and a bit of dark berry flavors. I think the coffee stands out here, but the bourbon and vanilla show up more as the beer warms. Mouthfeel/body is medium, it's smooth and easy enough to drink with a moderate amount of carbonation. I liked this one, would like to try a fresher version of this sometime but I think it did age well. Worth a try for sure!

Poured from bottle into Luttisch glass. Clear with a medium foam head. Smell of diet, coffe, leather, dark fruit and banana. Taste of coriander, banana, coriander, coffe and leather. Very nice balance with the triple and coffe to give an overall feel of banana and coffe cake with an adult feeling

 

From the 12 oz bottle in a snifter via a friend from work----Cheers Chris!
This unique brew pours a hazed golden with a moderate head of white foam that
settles down to a thick ring, thin clumping layer, and sport some light lacing. Nose
of coffee, orange zest, candy sugars, and subtle herbal Belgian spices. Flavors
surpass the nose with nicely pronounced coffee, Belgian candy sugars, orange
zest, subtle clove and coriander, faint cream, and VERY subtle oak and bourbon.
Mouth feel is medium , medium light effervescent carbonation, and a coffee and
candy sugar laced balanced herbal finish.

Overall, unsure what to say about this hybrid other than it is unique!

Cheers

Poured from a bottle into a snifter
Appearance – The beer pours a lightly hazed golden color with a small head of white foam. The head fades rather fast leaving tons of foamy lace on the sides of the glass.
Smell – The aroma is a blend of coffee and standard triple aromas. There is a nice bready and cracker malt backbone aroma mixed with notes of coffee and oak. Along with these smells comes some coriander and clove as well as some light candied sugar and yeasty smells. With a touch of apricot and peach and a bit of white grape a rather interesting and inviting aroma is produced overall.
Taste – The taste starts out with a crisp cracker malt flavor paired with a touch of sweetness of a apricot and white grape flavor mixed with a touch of a bubblegum like flavor. There are also notes of yeast and coriander and clove, with the spice flavors growing stronger as the taste moves forward. While lighter upfront, some coffee and oak also join in. Although these flavors are light in comparison to what the nose would have let on, they do add a nice accent to the brew. At the end, the coffee really surges, leaving one with a nice crisp coffee triple like taste to linger on the tongue.
Mouthfeel – The body of the brew is crisp and light with a higher carbonation level. For the tastes and the style, the feel is great and makes for a very crisp clean sipper.
Overall – A nice triple. The coffee and oak flavors add a nice dimension to the triple nature of the brew. Although I may prefer their normal triple over this, this certainly is a nice brew to try, and if a coffee fan, this may be right up your alley.

 

 

 

Im sampling this 12 oz bottle poured into my snifter at cellar temperature. I picked up the bottle at the brewery in October, bottle don date of 7/21/2022.
The beer pours a bright golden hue with just a hint of haziness to the beer. Bleached white creamy dense head of .5 cm foams up and sticks around as a surface covering throughout the tasting. Really dense lattice on the glass from a swirl or when I take a sip.
Aroma is a bit of bourbon notes mixing with Belgian yeast sort of fruity notes and also some light coffee bean notes. Actually a little bit of a green vegtal note on the aroma here too. I guess that could be a hop character. No hints of the ABV at this point in the sampling.
the first sip reveals a medium body with fine yet tingly carbonation. Texture is smooth and very easy to drink with just a bit of drying out on the swallow.
Flavor is some sweet fruity notes mixing with a bit of spicy yeast and then coffee rolls through to the finish. Although the sweet fruit shows up again on the finish too. No ABV warmth here and the bourbon that was faint on the nose is absent on the flavor :( .
This is a good beer with a better concept, but the bourbon isnt enough present in my opinion. Its a fine beer, Id drink it again, but wouldnt go looking for it.

 

 

An interesting coffee taste, but not all that great.

From the side of the label: "BOTTLED ON 10/28/21 18:41"

Appearance: The body is a medium-gold color with a very murky appearance. Very fuzzy shadows are only just visible through it. The head is white, creamy textured, and short.

Aroma: There is a pleasant coffee aroma that has a slightly earthy note.

Taste: Up front there is a Belgian yeast character that immediately comes through with a strong coffee flavor. As it rolls over the tongue it picks up a bit of clove character and a hint of black pepper. Towards the back of the palate there isn't much flavor development, and there isn't a lot of aftertaste.

Mouthfeel: Carbonation is somewhat high which is good. It has a body on the upper edge of light with a slight smoothness.

Overall: The label says that this is a "BOURBON BARREL-AGED GOLDEN ALE blended with COLD-BREWED COFFEE." The coffee character comes through in both the aroma and flavor which is nice. The coffee adds an interesting note to the Belgian yeast notes and it creates a pleasant twist, mostly in the flavor. Unfortunately the advertised barrel character is completely absent. There is no bourbon flavor or aroma and the same can be said for any kind of wood notes. It's disappointing to have a major component of a beer be entirely absent. As a whole I liked what was present in the beer but I wouldn't buy it again given the lack of any barrel or bourbon character. I wouldn't recommend it given the lack of advertised flavors and aromas, but if you're just looking for a coffee beer with a nice Belgian character to it then this does a nice job.

Bottled 5/22

This didn't sound good to me, morbid curiosity prompted the purchase. Danged if it isn't good.

The balance is nice here. Belgian yeast esters and coffee commingle nicely up front. Like having a cup of coffee alongside spiced banana bread... sort of. The barrels are subtle and finish is kind of muddled, but this works overall.

Pours a lightly hazy golden color with a small white head and a lot of lacing.

Smells of yeasty bread, coffee and sweet fruit.

Tastes of bread, sweet fruit, oaky bourbon and coffee with a bit of spice and a warm boozy finish.

Medium body with light carbonation. Lightly lush and syrupy mouthfeel.

This is an excellent re-envisioning of the traditional Belgian Triple. The addition of aging, bourbon and coffee to the mix make it a great sipper. Well done!