Monday 7th of November 2016 05:47:33 PM

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Ok, all beer geeks know that Allagash is big...nay, huge!

A brewery in Maine with beers that stretch all the way to southern California?

Yeah. Huge.

I've never been a big fan of their beer. For me (and wife Persimmon) the brews have been good. Ok. Fine. Just nothing to drool over.

That being said, our year-long sojourn across the country to visit different well-known (and not so) breweries and brewpubs brought us to Portland, Maine in early November and a visit to Allagash.

First, everybody got "carded." Now I'm 68 (I was at the time) with a bald head (and batches of silver), a silver beard and....well, I look many years older than 21, dammit. So being carded does send a clear and un-pleasant message to me and those of my "kind."

Second, our hands get stamped to show....what? That we're in the brewery? That we're there? That if we leave, we can't come back? What?

Third, the beer was free. Well, a flight of 4 was free...and we could not pick which beers to sample? I'm a firm believer that IF you're making good beer and IF you allow your customers to sample whatever (and how many!) they wish and IF you do it with a smile and a laugh, said customers will buy more than 1 pint thereby costing the brewery nothing. No thing.

But noooooope! Here, the beers were chosen -- an IPA, pale ale, milk stout and a sour.

Lastly, IF you decided to wanted a beer, you bought a growler. Or a bottle. There were no pints poured.

Needles to say, my impression of Allagash and its beers are, for me, well justified.

Go, if you must....or go to your nearest liquor store and buy a bottle. You'll be happier.

Friday 24th of May 2013 10:36:19 PM

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Went to Allagash on my wedding day. As in, before the wedding. Best sampling session ever. 5ish 4-6oz pours out of the bottles. White into Tripel into Curieux into something, then something. Their tour is set up as a free, reserve tickets online, 20 personish group taste run by a couple of bro brahs talking beer and generally joking around, getting the crowd tipsy and having a good time. Unfortunately, no Yakuza on this day, but the Curieux is a year-round, good aging beer with a lot of flavor and punch. A few minutes in the Bourbon barrel room was the highlight of the post sampling tour, I'll never forget the smell. Allagash is a ways out of downtown and is in the same complex as Maine beer company and another brewery/distillery, so a cab might not be a bad idea. Novare Res is the perfect apres spot in the old port, one of the best tap and bottle rooms in the northeast. And from Novare, some of the best seafood in the world within a 2 block radius. Portland is one of the best beer towns in the country. Allagash is the best brewery in Portland.

Wednesday 28th of September 2011 09:13:01 PM

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Very good brewery. I think we were one of the first groups to tour through their newly built bar area. Very roomy- everything seemed brand new. We got to sample 4 beers- the White (which is their most popular), their Tripel, the Curieux (which is aged in Jim Beam bourbon barrels), and their Black. The White, as always, is a very solid wheat beer, and the Cureieux was very interesting. The tour was excellent- most places I've been to in the past don't let you into certain areas, but we got the full tour of the brewery, including the enormous walk in refrigerator where they store their Curieux barrels. Highly recommend this brewery if you're in the Portland area.

Monday 21st of June 2010 09:23:33 PM

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We have been to Allagash a couple of times and it overall is a good tour. Obviously they make outstanding beers and the tour is for the most part educational. The brewery is housed in a warehouse just outside of Porland with several other breweries nearby including Geary's, Stone Coast, etc. They do not have a brewpub to date but are well distributed. When we went our group was the only one there so it was more personal.