Allagash Gargamel

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

As the kids would say, this is the bomb, a great tasting sour beer that rivals any of the best sours in Belgium. The beer pours a hazy golden orange with a 1/2 inch creamy head. Aroma is yeast, sour raspberries and sour blueberries. The flavour is tart fruit up followed by a little bit of sweet fruit tones and a little graininess. A great tasting beer.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

A generous pour into my large Tripel Karmeliet tulip glass produces a three-finger thick, pale tan colored head. The beer is a richly red tinged, dark amber color that shows a lightly hazed, red stained gold color when held up to the light. The aroma smells floral and fragrantly of raspberries, but there is a lactic note that was noticeable as I was pouring this and if you dig for it there is a fair amount of funky Brettanomyces character in the finish. This last contributes a musty, phenolic soaked blanket note, as well as a touch of musky barnyard character. I like that the raspberry doesn’t completely dominate the nose, but it is still quite strong and most definitely easily the loudest aroma here by a long way.

The beer is quite dry, with a lightly bracing tartness. The beer has a certain lightness to it that I wasn’t quite expecting from a beer of this strength; it almost seems a touch too thin. The raspberry notes in the flavor are held well in check by the overall dryness of this beer; there is still a fleshy raspberry pulp flavor here as well as a bit of tannic raspberry skin character that mixes with tannic oak notes that lightly coat the teeth. The oak also contributes a spiciness to the finish that mixes with a touch of warming alcohol. The raspberry notes are quite floral in some ways and the fruitiness provides a perceived fruitiness to the middle of each sip. The tartness seems to be derived largely from the lactic fermentation, but also from the raspberries used. The tannic notes and spiciness from the oak balance, quite well, with the light lactic acidity. The body seems to pick up a bit more heft to it as time wears on, perhaps it is just my palate getting used to the beer; this doesn’t become heavy, but does pick up a touch of slickness that works a bit more than the almost watery character that I noticed at first. The oak and the alcohol in the finish contribute a touch of peppery piquancy to the finish. Up front some vanillin mixes in seamlessly with the floral raspberry character; how can you go wrong with raspberry and vanilla flavors.

This is not bad; it is nothing like what I was expecting, even though I don’t really know what I was expecting here. It isn’t all I had hoped it would be though either. It could use a touch more sourness (which might actually help balance this beer somehow) and the body seems a bit thin at times. It could use a bit more complexity; perhaps more funkiness whether acidity, Brett or yeasty spiciness; even a hint of sweetness might be welcome. The beer started out a bit on the weak side but finishes with a much stronger showing that ultimately pushes this into the enjoyable category for me. This ends up being a solid first entry to this limited series by Allagash and I can only hope to try the future releases in this series.