Allagash Summer Ale
Allagash Speciale Reserve is a refreshing, light-copper colored beer brewed in the tradition of the Belgian ales of Brabant. We brew it in limited quantities each spring, and its distinctive toasted malt flavor, and herbal and fruit bouquet make it a perfect beer for a warm summer day. Suggested Food Pairings: Enjoy Allagash Speciale Reserve on its own, or with a light appetizer. Also try pairing it with shellfish, such as the traditional Belgian dish, Moules-frites .
Serving/Pouring Suggestions: Allagash Speciale Reserve is re-fermented in the bottle in the traditional Methode Champenoise, and therefore contains a natural yeast sediment. Allow the bottle to rest upright for a few minutes prior to serving, then carefully decant the beer off the yeast.
Style: Brabant Style Ale (Belgian Pale)
Available In: 750 ml Bottle - Seasonal
Alcohol Content: 5% ABV
Original Gravity: 1047
Recommended Serving Temperature: 45-60 degrees F
Recommended Cellaring Temperature: 55 degrees F (Not recommended for long periods of cellaring)
Serving/Pouring Suggestions: Allagash Speciale Reserve is re-fermented in the bottle in the traditional Methode Champenoise, and therefore contains a natural yeast sediment. Allow the bottle to rest upright for a few minutes prior to serving, then carefully decant the beer off the yeast.
Style: Brabant Style Ale (Belgian Pale)
Available In: 750 ml Bottle - Seasonal
Alcohol Content: 5% ABV
Original Gravity: 1047
Recommended Serving Temperature: 45-60 degrees F
Recommended Cellaring Temperature: 55 degrees F (Not recommended for long periods of cellaring)
3.4
201 reviews
Portland, United States
Community reviews
On draft at Just Sports. Pours amber with a white head. Aroma of citrus, fruit, and spices. The flavor is citrusy, sweet, fruit, and lots of spices. Good beer.
Nose of straw malt and flowery hops. Pours a cloudy orange. Initial flavor is a nice light sweetness with a good hop balance, giving way to a mellow-sweet citrusy flavor (toned down navel orange). Lively carbonation with a watery texture makes it a great, thirst-quenching summer beverage.
Hazy amber/copper/gold. Small white head. Nose of must, light fruits, spicy herbs, and subtle grainy malt. Flavor adds a generous amount of toastiness followed by some nice funk. Great summer brew. Medium palate balances softness and carbonation very well. Solid brew, wouldn’t expect anything less from Allagash.
Rating for Allagash Speciale Reserve Batch No. 10. Definitive orange hue to the glass. Absolutely huge citrus aromas, with hints of both mango and honey. Has a decently large head and healthy lacing. Citrus flavors clash delightfully with sweet malt, caramel and honey. It has a dry-hopped backend with a medium-bitter finish. This brew is very well-balanced, not heavy, and clean to the palate. It pairs quite well with both thai food and seafood. Nice offering for this batch of Allagash. Extremely drinkable!
Rating for Allagash Speciale Reserve Batch no. 6 (05.04.06) One pint, 9.4 oz brown bottle from DiCarlo’s, Mundelein, IL. 5% ABV. Clear orange with medium off-white head. Soft carbonation. Characteristic Belgium ale spicy fruity aroma. Full bodied Belgium-style ale that starts dry with light malt sweetness. Caramel and biscuit flavors from toasted malt. Finished dry with light malt fade. No characteristic Belgium ale funkiness and sourness. Rich and smooth in the mouth. A delicious and eminently drinkable ale.
Rating for Allagash Speciale Batch #10
Pours a cloudy, copper/amber with a large initial head that fades to a slim film. An explosion of rich aromas is frought with complexity... fruit & candy, pear, cherry, thick caramel and acetic sourness. Light, sugary mouthfeel with yeasty and malty flavors that come across like an Old Ale.
Cardinal Wine & Spirits, Crystal Lake, IL 60014
On Draft at Just Sports. Pours amber\gold with an average sized white head. Aroma of citrus, belgian style spices, and yeast. Flavor is smooth, sweet, fruit, loads of citrus, spices, and some tart acidic notes. Good body, good brew.
12 oz. bottle
Aroma: Lightly hoppy with estery apple and banana underneath
Appearance: Hazy honey in color. Weak head of off white bubbles that did not sustain well except for around the very outer edge of the glass which did not last long either.
Flavor: Roasted malt was present but thin
Palate: Finished somewhat bitter and malty with a hint of hops and citrus at the end
Overall: Not my favorite beer but certainly not the worst either. You could do a lot worse than enjoying a session with this brew. While it was not impressive it was not poor either.
Poured an effervescent golden with a large fizzy white head. Aroma is strong, vinous, and sweet. Taste is light and very dry with some fruitiness, some grass, and some floral essences. Nice fizzy body. Clean and refreshing, though one-dimensional. I agree with the marketing here... it’s truly a "summer" Belgian. Overall though, I’d say the White is better crafted.
This is a nice session beer for summertime but it seems like the weakling child of the Allagash family as there are some nice spicy and fruity flavors which are watered down to make it more of a pleasable beer. I once had a case of this for a June baby shower and it was a hit. Bottle at the Banshee @ Scranton, PA.
batch #7. mightly golden citric aroma almost like a vitamin C tablet. somewhat astringant and mild. Mostly citrus hops to this and the carbonaion was a too much and made the beer too thin for my liking.
"Pour a hazy straw color witha a little head. little sour aroma and citrus. Bubbled in the mouth thin mouthfeel. Good i guess for cutting the grass and what not but overall not that great."
Corked bottle, batch #9. Dull light amber with a loose tan head. Lightly yeasty, spicy aroma with some apple esters. Crisp and effervescent upfront. The mouthfeel is a little watery though. Musky, caramel flavor with some bitterness in the finish.
Light and citrusy. Some hop spiciness. Not as much yeast as in the aroma. Good amount of carbonation. Generally a lemon/citrus flavor and some spice of corriander and clove. Reminds me of a wit with a some more depth.
12oz bottle. Pretty flat pour. Almost no head whatsoever. Rather light aroma, yeast, citrus, some spice and some vinyl. Better flavor than aroma. Some corriander and orange peel up front and a bit of yeast and malty sweetness at the back. It’s good, and refreshing, and it’s nice to see a summer ale that’s neither a Hefe or a Wit.
A woderfully cloudy appeaance within a gold color with a thick, tight head when poured but dissipates into a thin, white layer. Big clovey spiciness at the forefront of the aroma with lemon and a slight soapiness. Flavor is big belgian spiciness not unlike a saison with clove, ginger, pepper, lemon, cedar, and an earthy mustiness....yum. It is dry but there is also a silkiness to the overall palate. The flavor is much more complex than the aroma, but this is a nice beer and deserves extreme kudos for this level of flavor and that low of an alcohol content. This ale has the balance of Dupont Moinette and less alcohol than Dupont Saison.
Interesting, I felt like this one was almost there, just lacking a little something. There were some great aromas and flavours present, but there was also a very strong bitter malt mouth feel and taste that turned me off. Typically I like belgian ales to be not heavy on the obviously malty side. This one disappointed. It was bitter which is fine, but it seemed to be an offensively bad bitter. Loads of yeasty goodness. Still well crafted, maybe just not up to my expectations.
12 oz bottle pours an off white creamy head, color is hazy apricot. Aroma is sweet malty, followed by a like taste. Nice carbonation. Very similar to their White Beer.
Poured orange with a thin white head. Descent retention. Smell had orange,citrus, banana, cloves and a touch of alcohol. Taste was very nice with quite a bit of wheat. Mouthfeel was my favorite part with the orange working quite nicely. Citrus came in strong at the end. I have to get more into Allagash because I was pleased with this.
Clear golden copper with a quickly diminishing white head. Aroma of clove, citrus and a touch of hops. Flavor has notes of clove, orange peel, lemon, spices yeast and some bubblegum. Moderately sweet with a little hop bitterness at the end. Medium to light bodied with lively carbonation. Solid.
12 oz. bottle from Williston Beverage Warehouse, Williston, VT. Pretty light orange with small, coarse, white bubbles; light lacing. Great aroma: Very spicy with the trademark Belgian yeast smell; extremely citrusy, mostly orange; cloves. Flavor is faily light but not overly so: Yeast and heavy orange; the orange drops off extremely quickly (which is weird) and leaves just barely a touch of what I perceive to be hop bitterness; barely a wheat/hay aftertaste. Medium body, not sticky, and heavily carbonated. Great light Belgian.
Bottle. Speciale Reserve batch 9. Amber with a nice white head. Some citrus, yeast, and spice in the aroma. Lot’s of wheat and clove flavors with some citrus. Way too much cloves. Heavy carbonation. Some sweetness, but also a wheat bite. Finishes with a bit of cookie sweetness.
Bottle. Orange/ golden color with decent white head. Cloves dominate nose, with some orange and other citrus and wheat aromas coming through. Lightish body. Cold, the spiciness of the cloves are a bit much in the balance. At room temp the grainy malt body and citrus tang are much more present. Hoped for a hops bitterness at the end which wasn’t there. Very drinkable.
Pours a hazy radiant yellow with tinges of gold. 1/2 inch off-white rocky head and lots of lace. Smells of citrusy orange peel, light spice and wheat malt.
Tastes of orange peel and lightly sweet wheat malt. Grainy and sweet. Lightly bitter spice. Peppery finish. Sweet and sticky mouth surprisingly. Nice stuff. Good summer brew from Maine, for a change...
Pours a cloudy amber color. Still Belgium in aroma but leaning more towards sweet and and citrus. Light candied malt with good carbonation and quick finish. Sweet aftertatse. I have a hard time imagining anyone not liking this beer.
12oz. bottle. Hazy orange/amber color with a small white head. Spicy aroma of citrus, banana and clove. Flavor is a bit citrusy tart with some banana and clove in the background. A bit thin and overly carbonated, yet refreshing.
Allagash Speciale Reserve, I guess these are the same. It’s a good middle of the road belgian, nothing stands out, but it’s very drinkable.
A light amber color, pours without much head and leaves no lace. Yeasty nose. Light bodied, no doubt this is a summer ale, it would be easy to pound down a few of these after working outside. Label has "Belgian Style" - what kind of Belgian is a summer ale? Good mix of hops and malt, some sweetness with yeast overtones, a very slight hoppy finish. $1.69 for 12 oz bottle from Tulley’s Beer & Wine Wells, Me.
Fruity, medium-light and unremarkable. Probably a good choice for New England summers but the dullest of the Allagash brews I have tried.
12 oz bottle-thanks to singlelensref for ths one. pours a hazy orange hue with a small sudsy white head. aroma has notes of sour lemons, bananas, and light grains. this beer is light in body, but quite refreshing. flavors of lemon, banana and light grains. not much on the finish makes me think that this bottle maybe from last summer. i would love to re-rate a fresh bottle sometime soon.