
Allagash Tiarna
Allagash Tiarna is an American Wild Ale, 7.1% ABV. Bottled 09/16/15, opened 02/28/16. From the bottle: Tiarna is a blend of two beers, one aged in oak and fermented with 100% brettanomyces and the other fermented in stainless with a blend of two belgian yeast strains.
The beer pours form the bottle with a lightly golden color and a big white head. These kinds of sour ales usually loose their head quickly and often dissipate to nothing, this one is really sticking around. Excellent aroma, getting notes of apple cider vinegar, lemon, SweeTart candy, and just a hint of oak/vanilla. This tastes nothing like the aroma, huge curveball here. The taste is rather bready and funky with a lot of classic Belgian barnyard and hay, a slight bit of sweet citrus in the way of some orange and ruby red grapefruit. Just a hint of tartness on the sides of the tongue at first, but this is much more dry and funky than sweet and sour. Lots of woody oak on a lingering dry finish.
As good as all of their wild ales have been, it is really nice to see something from Allagash that is so different than their normal wild ale taste profile.