Avancé
Allagash Brewing Company in Portland, Maine, United States 🇺🇸
Sour / Wild Beer - Flavoured Rotating|
Score
7.64
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Ale Aged in Bourbon Barrels and Finished on Strawberries
Avancé is a strong, sour ale with aromas of strawberry preserves and toasted oak. Berries and more oak continue in the flavor, which concludes with a warm, sweet finish. The beer is brewed with multiple sugars including molasses, date sugar, white cane sugar, and dark rock candi. It’s then fermented with four different yeast strains and aged in oak bourbon barrels for a year with Lactobacillus and Pediococcus. After transferring the beer to stainless we add one pound per gallon of fresh, locally picked strawberries and age it for another six months.
Avancé is a strong, sour ale with aromas of strawberry preserves and toasted oak. Berries and more oak continue in the flavor, which concludes with a warm, sweet finish. The beer is brewed with multiple sugars including molasses, date sugar, white cane sugar, and dark rock candi. It’s then fermented with four different yeast strains and aged in oak bourbon barrels for a year with Lactobacillus and Pediococcus. After transferring the beer to stainless we add one pound per gallon of fresh, locally picked strawberries and age it for another six months.
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8.5/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 9
Flavor 9
Texture 8
Overall 8
Tap at Pizza Port Carlsbad. Hazy reddish amber color. Aroma of concord grapes and strawberries. taste is similar, with a bit of tangerine. Nice.
Tried
from Draft
on 18 Jan 2011
at 16:03
8.2/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 10
Overall 9
Tap at Barcade, Brooklyn. Pours amber-brown with a modest, white head. Fruity aroma with some wood and tartness. Flavor is sour and fruity, but not overly sour, with some mild funk notes. Body is medium to full with light carbonation and a fairly vinous quality. Finishes mostly with linger sour notes, but there is light fruit sweetness and some oak. Excellent.
Tried
from Draft
on 29 Oct 2010
at 12:47
7.5/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 6
Overall 8
Surprising beer, if I were to imagine the Four going into a barrel and strawberries added I would not think this would emerge. It has become a funky beer heading into Oude Bruin territory. The beer pours still with a reddish dark brown color. Aroma is sour-ish strawberry and it has the whole acidic thing working for it. Taste is like a muddled Oude Bruin. Starts light sour and goes oak-y thats comes off as a bit leafy and grassy. Has a long lightly acidic aftertaste. My one issue is the beer is well under-carbonated, which makes it come off as watery and too light. But otherwise a very nice experience and I hope the Allagash guys keep doing the sour thing, they’re good at it.
Tap at Blind Tiger, tulip glass.
Tap at Blind Tiger, tulip glass.
Tried
from Draft
on 29 Nov 2007
at 11:01
8/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
2007 draught at EBF Feb 10th
Dark, moderately hazy brown body has tan edges and a small dull-tan head that fades rather quickly to partial cover, leaving light lacing behind.
Soft, sumptuous malts lick the nose, delivering chocolate, sweet raisins, easygoing vanilla creaminess and only a slight streak of fruitiness that can not be noted as strawberry (which most certainly fully fermented). Oak gives a touch of zestiness, but the vinousness is very controlled, leaving a clean, smooth, Belgian yeastiness on the end. Toffee and more chocolate-covered raisins continue to ease the nose as a hint of acids are notable on the finish, after warming. Refreshingly dry, but extremely reserved (fitting well with the nature of the beer), it only seems to take the light prune/currant vinousness and run with it, adding just a hint of sourishness that is wrapped about dry caramel. Medium to medium-high strength of aroma, but not forceful in any way. Really a shame they arent going to release this. You could really sit down with a bottle and expand your mind! Alcohol not noted, other than some minor drying notes that are folded nicely in with the vinousness and light acidic dryness.
Aroma dosent prepare for the flavor, nor does having had Four or Bourbon Four. This is nothing like it. Not too much like a quadruppel, but maybe sweet enough to put you in the ballpark of something like westy 12. The yeast isn’t quite as refined and isolated in the flavor, as that one, of course, and the barrel adds light molasses/caramel/vanilla notes. But what really struck me the most is the absolute velvety softness of the texture/malt. Medium-sweet chocolate, with light dark fruit/berry notes and soft, comforting oakiness. Carbonation is low, allowing it to really stick to the palate, but a very light yeast tartness on the finish helps give it some balance. All sorts of chocolates, caramels and toffees can be discerned with warming/breathing. Sweeter than I remember four being, with less apparent alcohol and sharp esters. Probably more a Belgian Dark Strong, but the lines blur. 8/4/8/4/17
2014 draught at Publick House, March 14th.
Ha, had the last one over 7 years ago...wow.
My review seems pretty close to my feelings on the new one. Having not remembered what this beer was about while having it the second time, I was ready to write-off the sweetness as too much both from malt and fruit sugar, but realizing that this, after all, a Quad, it seems a little more apt. Granted, I still think the beer is a bit too heavy on the sweet and sour aspect (with too much acetic/citric acid) but you can’t just look at this as a straight Sour golden with strawberries. Anyways, certainly still enjoyable and seems like it would be even better in 6 months to a year after some of the intensity mellows and things congeal. 8/4/8/3/15.
Score is an average of both years.
Dark, moderately hazy brown body has tan edges and a small dull-tan head that fades rather quickly to partial cover, leaving light lacing behind.
Soft, sumptuous malts lick the nose, delivering chocolate, sweet raisins, easygoing vanilla creaminess and only a slight streak of fruitiness that can not be noted as strawberry (which most certainly fully fermented). Oak gives a touch of zestiness, but the vinousness is very controlled, leaving a clean, smooth, Belgian yeastiness on the end. Toffee and more chocolate-covered raisins continue to ease the nose as a hint of acids are notable on the finish, after warming. Refreshingly dry, but extremely reserved (fitting well with the nature of the beer), it only seems to take the light prune/currant vinousness and run with it, adding just a hint of sourishness that is wrapped about dry caramel. Medium to medium-high strength of aroma, but not forceful in any way. Really a shame they arent going to release this. You could really sit down with a bottle and expand your mind! Alcohol not noted, other than some minor drying notes that are folded nicely in with the vinousness and light acidic dryness.
Aroma dosent prepare for the flavor, nor does having had Four or Bourbon Four. This is nothing like it. Not too much like a quadruppel, but maybe sweet enough to put you in the ballpark of something like westy 12. The yeast isn’t quite as refined and isolated in the flavor, as that one, of course, and the barrel adds light molasses/caramel/vanilla notes. But what really struck me the most is the absolute velvety softness of the texture/malt. Medium-sweet chocolate, with light dark fruit/berry notes and soft, comforting oakiness. Carbonation is low, allowing it to really stick to the palate, but a very light yeast tartness on the finish helps give it some balance. All sorts of chocolates, caramels and toffees can be discerned with warming/breathing. Sweeter than I remember four being, with less apparent alcohol and sharp esters. Probably more a Belgian Dark Strong, but the lines blur. 8/4/8/4/17
2014 draught at Publick House, March 14th.
Ha, had the last one over 7 years ago...wow.
My review seems pretty close to my feelings on the new one. Having not remembered what this beer was about while having it the second time, I was ready to write-off the sweetness as too much both from malt and fruit sugar, but realizing that this, after all, a Quad, it seems a little more apt. Granted, I still think the beer is a bit too heavy on the sweet and sour aspect (with too much acetic/citric acid) but you can’t just look at this as a straight Sour golden with strawberries. Anyways, certainly still enjoyable and seems like it would be even better in 6 months to a year after some of the intensity mellows and things congeal. 8/4/8/3/15.
Score is an average of both years.
Tried
from Can
on 18 Feb 2007
at 21:11
7.8/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
EBF 2007 - this is one of the first beers I tried at this event - unlike some of the other barrel-aged beers these guys brought, this one was not that overpoweringly woody - the regular Four is rather sweet, but the time spent in the barrels mellowed that out quite a bit - there is a gentle tart, almost sour quality to the beer, which most certainly comes from the strawberries (which are quite present, but far in the background), but one might almost mistake it for a little brett character (since it gives the beer a slight flemish sour character) - quite dry, with the wood coming in late - Four is a rather aggressive ale, but after aging on the fruit, it has become quite delicate, with slight white wine flavor (probably also from the fruit) - quite nice.
Tried
on 11 Feb 2007
at 15:39