Allagash (2020)

Coolship & Clay Pot Inoculation - Terration Vinha

 

Oh cool. I picked up their Terration Pomar (spontaneous with cider) a couple of years ago. Love to see breweries do something different or bring something to the beer world.

 

No question + looking forward to their take/concoctions they pull outta the concrete egg fermentor

 

I'm excited for Terration Vinha, but holy hell we should be talking about THAT growler list! Wild golden ale aged in concrete and Tequila barrels, Dry-Hopped Resurgam and Resurgam aged in Apricot Brandy barrels?!?!? All sound amazing, may need to set up a trade.

 

As if @mrmattosgood needed another reason to yearn for a Portland visit...Coolship Red
https://www.instagram.com/p/CMNul23BG50/

 

That's fine- I will take all the coolship red and split the resurgam with you.

 

So with the quarantine loosened, I’ve got a day to zip in / out of Maine and I’ve no doubt got a growler of dry hopped Resurgam on my mind as well as those clay pots...but am curious to know if anyone has tried any of those Hop Pilots? #630 and #472 I’ve actually never had their House beer! I’m thinking these are good ole can’t go wrong Allagash saison / table beers? Any thoughts?

 

I've had the House Beer and Hop Pilot #342. The House Beer is nice, very simple but very solid. I probably wouldn't go out of my way just for the House Beer. I really enjoyed Hop Pilot #342, I wouldn't say its your typical Allagash beer since, well, its hoppy . I think it really depends on the hop they add and I haven't had #630 or #472. The House Beer is simple enough that the specific hop they use is what's really the biggest part of the flavor. They used to also have Hoppy Table Beer which was ok and I think very similar to the Hop Pilot concept, the obvious difference being that they use different hops. I think they've refined it a bit as well since Hoppy Table Beer. If you like hoppy beers then its a well done hoppy saison, in my opinion.

As a comparison, if you ever had Mystic Brewery's Table Beer then I'd say Allagash House Beer is not nearly as good. I personally loved Mystic's Table Beer, one of my favorites. Mystic also did a dry hopped version called Wave Break. In that case Wave Break was a let down. Taking a great Table Beer with lots of flavor and adding hops just took away from the beer. House Beer is much more simple of a beer so I think lends itself to dry hopping more.

So to sum up, I think its worth it to get a single or 4 pack of the 2 Hop Pilots to try but I wouldn't load up on them unless you have the chance to try them first. Hoppy Saisons can go one of 3 ways; better than the original, worse than the original, or "this is no longer a Saison and why didn't you just make an IPA instead?". The first one is pretty rare, Hop Pilot #342 hit that mark.

 

Without knowing why I was asking, you couldn't have answered my question more perfectly and to the point! Thanks so much! I've specifically been searching for a replacement to Table Beer and Wave Break since I had my last ones maybe a year or so ago! I actually liked Wave Break, but not as much as Table Beer, and was a late comer to Mystic, but no less of an enthusiast.

As to Allagash, I've been in and around their beers for years, as I guess have most on this thread, but to be honest, I've gotten a little lost with their can releases over the past few years. And with the pandemic this year, even more so. And I do love IPAs...living so close to Trillium, I find it irresistible to not want to try so much of what they put out, not to mention the rest of the other great IPAs on the market. And that's just the Boston market - take a trip up to Portland and that's another world up there! So then I get up to Maine which is where I spend much of the year, and after I get stocked up with IPAs, Oxbow and Allagash bottles, etc. - there's little room left for Allagash cans (regretfully the same can be said for Oxbow cans... ).

So I'm planning to carve out more room this year to try more of their cans to see what I've been missing. Those Hop Pilot's seem as good a place as any to start with, especially given their low ABV and the potential similarity to those Mystics that we all love and miss so much! Anyway, more info that you needed but do appreciate the time and perspective. Cheers!

 

If you miss Mystic then I highly suggest checking out Amory's Tomb in Maynard. They make great Saison's as well as, in my opinion, the best hoppy Saison's out there. Their offerings do run the gamut from classic Saison's to more modern Saisons (for non hoppy). For hoppy Saisons they also run the gamut from subtle hops to the nearly IPA level Saisons. They have a good mix of beers but they mostly focus on Saison's, Grissettes, and Sours. They usually have an IPA or two in their lineup. I'm looking forward to trying a new IPA they just released which they claim harkens back to the bitter IPA's from a few years back. I may like them more than I liked Mystic.

 

Will do and thanks again. I’m back from Maine now with a car load of good Maine beer, including all those I mentioned in my above note and more...and this time I made a specific point not to give short shrift to those Oxbow cans and grabbed a four of that Winter Wheat which I was curious about. Will report back on some of my findings vis a vis the Hop Pilotsand look forward to checking out Amory’s Tomb soon. Cheers!