Tonight’s beer is Allagash Black. The label calls it a “Belgian Style Stout”. I assume they used Belgian yeast in the brewing of this beer, but here’s my little review.
It pours a black/brown color with a nice 1-2 finger light tan head. Smells immediately of roasted malt and a slight hint of coffee. So far it’s a stout. Tastes like a stout, a nice roasted malt flavor dominates with some coffee flavors as well. There might even be a slight smokiness to it. It’s a nice full bodied beer that tastes just like a stout. It’s a good stout.
Now, the title of this post means something… Beer Advocate calls it a Belgian Strong Dark Ale. Generally, that style has a fruitiness and a little bit of some spice as well. This beer tastes nothing like that. However, my taste buds are shot after the roasted flavors kicked their butt. There could be some of those other qualities in there, and I will admit that as the beer warms, they come out, but so slightly that they’re almost negligible.
Would I buy this beer again? Probably. Susan really liked it, “It’s right up there with Stone Smoked Porter”. That’s her favorite beer. I am not surprised, this has a lot of the same qualities. What I will likely do, since this beer is on the expensive side for a relatively average beer, is buy another bottle and hang onto it for a year. I’d like to see what happens. I have a feeling the other flavors might come out a bit more. Unfortunately, it’s so new that no one has tried aging it yet. I will post on the BA Cellaring forum about it. I’m curious what might happen to it. Worse comes to worse, it may just become more of a stout. I’m hoping some of the “Belgian Style” comes out. It’s about $13 a bottle. I think I’ll pick up another bottle just to age for a year and see what happens. Until then, I rate this beer average for all the hype it got and the price (though it is a good stout, just not a good $13 stout).
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