Allagash Brewing Cos Curieux - Review by @Robyn_Seto

Nov 4

Nov 4 Allagash Brewing Cos Curieux - Review by @Robyn_Seto

My hometown saw its first rainstorm of the season this past week, and it was a doozy! The wind and rain chilled me to the bone! Luckily, I have a nice back stock of beers that are perfect for warming up and chilling out on a rainy day.

Today we have Curieux by Allagash Brewing Company. Curieux is a Belgian style Golden Ale that’s been aged in bourbon barrels. This aging process adds vanilla and caramel sweet notes, and it also boosts the ABV up to 10.2%. My beer was bottled on January 31st of 2021, so it has had 9 months to age in the bottle which allows the harshness of the alcohol aroma to dissipate. Now that the ackrid nose of the alcohol has subsided, I can smell the classic hops and vegetal nose of a Belgian golden ale, while also picking up a lot of bright caramel. The taste delightfully matches the nose. The sweetness is curbed by a touch of bitterness as the sip dries. I would say this is a light to medium bodied beer. It’s full of flavor, but I don’t think it would compete with a nice salty snack because it has such a present sweet flavor. Definitely not sweeter than a cola or something similar, and I can imagine this pairing nicely with pizza.

I wanted to give a little bit of extra information about Allagash Brewing Co., because they are an establishment in the craft beer community. It was founded in Portland, Maine in 1995 by an enthusiastic man called Rob Tod. Allagash specializes in Belgian style beers, as Mr.Tod found it difficult to find Belgian style beers at that time. Their beers are bottle conditioned, meaning the yeast in the beer will continue the fermentation process after being bottled. I aged my Curieux bottle for 9 months, and I found it to be much milder and sweeter than a fresh bottle. The differences a few months in a cold dark fridge is pretty crazy.

Allagash Brewing Co.’s beers are distributed across 19 states, so depending on where you are located, it may be difficult to find. I highly recommend any of their beers, but Curieux in particular is quite a delight.

5/5 Burps