Happy Birthday Mark Bolter and Dave Johnson!
Why we chose it: Was rated a 93 by Total Wine. We liked the Allagash White last year, so thought we would try the Allagash Black.
About Allagash Black: Allagash Black is a Belgian style stout brewed with 2 Row barley, torrified wheat, oats, both roasted and chocolate malt and a generous portion of dark caramelized candi sugar. The silky mouth feel is a great balance to the roasted character, coffee and dark chocolate notes expressed throughout this beer.
Description: Belgian Style Stout
ABV: 7.5%
Profile: Dark, Roasted, Chocolate
Serving Temperature: 40°-50°F
Availability: Year Round
Food Pairings: Lamb Burger, Bleu Cheese, Shepherd's Pie, Sweet Cream Ice Cream, Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Case Price: $60
*website: http://www.allagash.com/beer/year-round/black
$60 a case? This beer better {comments withheld due to inappropriate content} and {comments withheld due to inappropriate content} in the morning.
ReplyDeleteI like a dark beer, but this smelled better than it tasted. I'm back to "meh."
ReplyDeleteSarah - you misspelled man.
DeleteNot a huge stout fan, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Nice kick and went down smoothly. A really good winter beer. I can see drinking this at a ski chalet or in a parking lot outside Braddock Park Field #5. I did not do any of the recommended pairings(mmmm bleu cheese), but hopefully it goes well with sushi. I'm sure Ivan will like this one.
ReplyDeleteGrade: Checking my pockets the next day to see how much money I spent the night before
BTW - the $60 a case makes more sense now, but still seems a bit steep. Man I sure would like another one of these. $15 for a six-pack? Sheesh. Off to eat sushi and drink Kirin or Saki. Thats a good pairing with a dark belgian stout right?
DeleteYes definitely a winter beer
DeleteFood pairing seems extreme?? Lamb or Oatmeal Raisin cookies??? Since I am vegetarian and looked for Oatmeal Raisin cookies and realized who the hell actually buys Oatmeal Raisin? You only have them if someone else gives them to you (fruit in cookies??) So I was stuck with pairing this with salad. It was thick, interesting and kinda sweet (just like I like my . . . .). After every sip I tried to determine if I liked it or not and by the time I was finished I couldn't tell. It was just ok but loved the high ABV (beginning to sense a theme with the beers I like).
ReplyDeleteRating 7.3
Okay Joe - we get it - you're a vegetarian. At this point wouldn't it be easier to just change your name to Vegetarian Joe?
DeleteVegetarian Joe!
DeleteShould had a pulled pork sandwich with that great beer!
Tastes like Guinness with a pennies aftertaste. Reminds me of iron vitamins. Giving the rest to Bill.
ReplyDeleteWe all know I've got a long and complicated history with Allagash. I was drinking it back in the last century and one of the brewers now has a restraing order out against me (by the way, he was in Bethesda last week and I smartly stayed away). Anyway, there is nothing wrong with this beer. But I don't care if it's a Belgian stout or a Luxumbourgian stout, every time I drink a stout, I think of Guinness. And then I want a Guinness. So right now I want a Guinness. But this is better than 90% of all stouts I've ever had. The alcohol oontent reminds me that we should get that Dogfish Worldwide Stout that is 18% ABV. Joe would like that.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday Bolter and DJ!
ReplyDeleteAgain, playing catch up, so third beer of the night. 4.8% Köstritzer Schwarzbier then 9.9% Brown Sugga' and now 7.5% Allagash Black, what a great night!
However, I don't think I am going to like this one. I don't like stouts and the looks of this beer are not giving me good vibes. Here we go, first sip, hmmm...not bad. Not as bad as I thought. It's definitely not my favorite style of beer and if at a bar I probably would not order it, but it is drinkable and 7.5% ABV makes me like it tonight. The more I drink it, the more I like it.
Rating: 7 out of 10, C+
Cardinal Puff Puff Puff Puff drinks his last beer of the night. Are you a cardinal? You bet your sweet ass I am.
ReplyDeleteBy the way Joe I buy oatmeal cookies. I did have shepherds pie for dinner. I actually really enjoy this beer. It did have a slight metallic aftertaste. I would buy this again.
Now that I caught up on the beers I just realized that the beef from the Santas reserve post was not beef, in fact it was not a fart at all. I may have sharted slightly. But I am not one to waste. No reason to throw away a perfectly good pair of undies, I'm married, the wife will take care of these for me.
Cheers
A very robust beer with good flavor from start to finish. It's got a coffee taste to it that seems to be a common denominator between a majority of the winter beers. Lucky for me, Cassandra fell asleep during 21 Jump Street and left me half of hers.
ReplyDeleteI was ready to say this beer is gross. But I finished it pretty quickly. So who knows.
ReplyDeleteI'll say this: I really want to hate this beer after those hateful, vaguely racist Guiness Black commercials. Sorry, but not everything is better in black.
Oh and happy birthday Bolter and Dave
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure where to start here....
ReplyDeleteCame home after a long day and Tony is drunk because he played catch up with the three highest ABV beers of the group.
Natty Light's sharting comment above really threw me for a loop, he has to be drunk, right?
Cassandra falling asleep to 21 Jump Street? You know Channing Tatum is in that movie, right?
Anyway, my critique: I drank this from the bottle because I didn't want the dark color to influence my taste buds since I typically don't like dark beers ("not everything in black is better" - touche). The first sip was nasty and I made the face where Tony knows he'll get 2 beers for the night - in tonight's case, that would be 4. I actually continued to drink it and the taste got a little better. Overall, I don't care for the coffee/chocolate taste, but it's not the worst that I've had.
For a Stout lover, I did not enjoy two to three tastes but I grew to like this beer. Coincidentally, I had this dinner with take out Lebanese Taverna tonight. Amy is going to pass on hers so I get two while I switch back between NBA and Casino Royal. My Colonials suck ass!! Twenty plus turnovers tonight vs. crappy Rutgers. I already wished them one but Feliz Cumpleanos Senores Bolter y Johnson!!
ReplyDeleteI found this beer to be amazing. It had great hints of Guinness with a touch of Killians fantastic. However, I was looking for some colorful chatter leading up to my comment. But was a slight bit disappointed to find everyone pretty much said the same thing. I would like to take a moment to wish happy birthday to a fantastic brother-in-law Mark call Boelter and to Tony. This beer hit the spot the label was perfect the color was awesome consistency was fantastic. I love my Beer like I love my women dark and deep. I can only hope that the beer on December 24 that is a massive by the way is just as good. I apologize for my punctuation my talk to text on my iPad doesn't put it in there. Anyways fantastic beer. Cheers to all
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday Mark and Dave!
ReplyDeleteA) Tony I understand you did not give Mark a choice of his birthday beer, which I think is lame, particularly when I see that this beer is a full 2% LESS ABV than your birthday beer. For shame. At least let the guy get his drink on on his big day. (Actually since he hasn't posted yet, it's possible he's enjoying a civilized night of celebration with his family, with nary a high alcohol beer to be found, so good for him in that case.)
B) I just got off a second night of conference calls till 11. Justin is already asleep, so I am taking the opportunity to have the full beer tonight. He will be angry when he gets up, but whatever. I will pay the $15 a 6-pack tomorrow if he really wants to try it.
C) I don't really like Guinness. I know. It has to do with the carbonation - I can't get over the tiny bubbles (that's what she said!). Justin will drink a Guinness any day of the week. So I didn't automatically go into this with a positive attitude. BUT on first sip this has American-sized bubbles, so I'm good.
D) I have recently been won over to porters. So when I have a stout like this, I find it... lacking. When I taste coffee I want full-on coffee. And chocolate. And spices. No flimflamming. Give it to me with full effect. So this beer, while nice, and I drank the whole thing, obviously, I probably wouldn't buy for myself.
E) Instead I would by a Pipeline Porter by Kona and drink that.
Cheers.
I wanted to like this one more, but there was just a bit too much sweetness and not enough coffee. It was OK. Not $60/case, but OK. Grade: 6/10
ReplyDeleteLike Kris, I was AGAIN in a meeting that lasted well past 11:00, so I was looking forward to this beer. I'm a fan of stouts in general, and this one didn't disappoint. My only complaint is that I didn't have five Pipeline Porters to drink with it (after reading Kris' post).
ReplyDeleteGood example of the style. Nice blend of the dark roasts with a classic belgian yeast and finish. Have to be in the mood for a blegian, but when I am I will reach for this again. A-.
ReplyDeleteLiking dark beers, I did like this one. The aspect I enjoyed was it tasted like a good stout, but did not fill you up too much like a Guinness or a Murphy's Irish Stout. Very smooth. Being a coffee drink, enjoyed the darker, coffee taste. For my taste, the best one yet.
ReplyDeleteGreat beer,I will buy that again!
ReplyDeleteExcellent finish and very well balance! Great jobguy finding that oneI love that brewery! Rated 8/10
I'm working my way through this mini-run of stouts and porters tonight. And this was a very good start. Very smooth. Great on a chilly night like this. And, considering Jets-Titans is the night's only football game, the higher-than-average ABV should prove helpful.
ReplyDelete