ALLAGASH WHITE, THE NEW NORTH AMERICAN WITBIER STANDARD

Do you keep a list of “must-try” beers? Do you wish you did? Well, I do, because I’m a obsessive-compulsive doofus. If you want to join me in said endeavor, I suggest you get ALLGASH WHITE on your list. It was sitting on mine, and the other night it popped up on the we-have-it-on-tap list at Berkeley, CA’s JUPITER, the same night we tried that GREEN FLASH EXTRA PALE ALE we didn’t cotton to so much. But that was in the future; ALLAGASH WHITE (from Portland, Maine’s ALLAGASH BREWING) was the first beer of the evening, and man was it a good one – just like all the blogs & such had said it would be. I liked it better than the UNIBROUE BLANCHE DE CHAMBLY and the RUSSIAN RIVER LITTLE WHITE LIE we talked about a couple of weeks ago, and scanning through the ratings this 8.5/10 champion is the best wit/white beer I’ve had from my continent. Hooray!

This beer not only has really a noticeable taste of orange, it pours a completely opaque & stunning orange color as well. It does not, to my taste, have that bitter, peppery flavoring/mouthfeel that many witbiers do, in fact it’s quite a bit lighter and more “fluffy” in that sense. I don’t remember there being much of a head on it, and it’s not very yeast-heavy to the tongue. It’s not a strain to drink it fairly quickly, in other words, but hanging back and really enjoying it is definitely the recommended way to go, as it’s well-constructed like few beers are, and definitely a big cut above the norm. Loved it. Again, 8.5/10, and available in big bottles at your local specialty beermeister.