Allagash Curieux.....Belgian Style with Kentucky Flare

I enjoy big beers. Big, meaning big in taste, heavier in alcohol and larger in volume. I am a sucker for those 750ml, champagne wire corked, bottles. There is nothing better to me, than on a cold winter night, uncorking a belly warming beer and sipping the two and a half pints away. These are the beers that are meant to be savored a taste at a time, not chugged like a frat boy with a beer bong.

Allagash Brewing from Portland, Maine makes such beers. This brewer is the champion of Belgian style beers and the innovator of a few "new" styles for us to experiment with. One such beer is Curieux. I was spending my typical long amount of time in front of the gourmet beer case of my local beer store, when I spotted Curieux. The first thing that jumped out at me was the price. Any beer that retails for around $12.00 a bottle needs to be picked up and have the label read. The second thing that stood out was that Curieux was secondarily fermented in oak bourbon barrels from Kentucky. This I had to try. Belgium style Tripel Ale aged in whiskey barrels. Every now and then, I sip some Jameson's 12 year Irish whiskey along with a pint of Guinness ( a wee one, they say in Ireland ), so I was interested to see how the Curieux played out and how much of the bourbon taste would be in the beer.

Curieux was not a pleasant surprise. It was a miracle! This beer was incredibly warm, with a tremendous mouth feel. The first sip presented a slight, almost vanilla taste and smell. Very enjoyable. You could feel the 9.5%-10.5% alcohol warm your throat and heat your belly. As the first sip settled in, the taste of kentucky bourbon came through. The taste was actually shocking. A beer that tasted like whiskey. I enjoyed this beer so much that I didn't want to drink the whole bottle in one sitting, I wanted to savor it again on another evening. I used my air-vaccum, wine preserve pump and preserved the Curieux for the next evening. Curieux managed to maintain all of its qualities the next evening even after being opened.

Allagash only brewed a limited number of Curieux barrells this year, and sad to say, they are probably already gone for the year. After I finished my Curieux, I purchased 6 bottles for myself. And since they were dated October 2004 on the label, the same month and year my daughter was born, I plan on saving a few bottles for her 21st birthday. I hope they age well. You can learn more about Allagash Brewery by going to their website at www.allagash.com .