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Allagash Brewing Company is a

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of b ...

Portland, Maine Portland is the List of municipalities in Maine, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat, seat of Cumberland County, Maine, Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 at the 2020 census. The Portland metropolit ...

. The brewery specializes in Belgian-style beers.

History

Allagash Brewing Company was founded by Rob Tod in

, in 1995. Tod observed that while both German and British style beers were available throughout the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, Belgian-style beers were difficult to find. He established a small, 15-barrel brewery, and began brewing a beer modeled after a Belgian witbier, named Allagash White. The beer gets its flavor from the use of

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

in addition to

barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...

, as well as the addition of

Curaçao Curaçao, officially the Country of Curaçao, is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in the southern Caribbean Sea (specifically the Dutch Caribbean region), about north of Venezuela. Curaçao includ ...

orange peel,

coriander Coriander (), whose leaves are known as cilantro () in the U.S. and parts of Canada, and dhania in parts of South Asia and Africa, is an annual plant, annual herb (''Coriandrum sativum'') in the family Apiaceae. Most people perceive the ...

, and other spices. The brewery achieved certified B Corporation status in 2019 and qualified again in 2022 with a 20-point increase. As of February 2024, Allagash White is the most-awarded witbier in the world, with multiple wins from the Great American Beer Festival, the World Beer Cup, the Brussels Beer Challenge, and the European Beer Star awards, while Allagash Tripel has won the most gold medals combined in competition at the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup. The brewery has won the Great American Beer Festival's award for Brewery of the Year in its category twice, in 2021 and 2023. In 2019, Tod was the recipient of the James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Wine, Beer, or Spirits Professional. Many of the beers Allagash produces are bottle-conditioned. The technique calls for two

fermentation Fermentation is a type of anaerobic metabolism which harnesses the redox potential of the reactants to make adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and organic end products. Organic molecules, such as glucose or other sugars, are catabolized and reduce ...

s, the first in the fermenting tanks and the second in the bottle itself (a process known as the ''methode champenoise''). Before the beer is bottled, a small amount of yeast and sugar is added and a second fermentation occurs. It is this second fermentation which produces a notable increase in carbonation, a softer feel and remarkable complexity. This method of

bottle conditioning Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and #Fermenting, fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with Yeast#Beer, yeast. It may be done in a brewery ...

leaves a small amount of

yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom (biology), kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are est ...

in the bottle. A coolship is used to cool the

wort Wort () is the liquid extracted from the mashing process during the brewing of beer or whisky. Wort contains the sugars, the most important being maltose and maltotriose, that will be Ethanol fermentation, fermented by the brewing yeast to prod ...

for some of the beers. In 2007, Allagash was the first brewery in the US to build a traditional coolship for spontaneous fermentation by wild yeasts.

Brands

Today, Allagash has eight year-round beers in its portfolio, seven yearly releases, and numerous one-offs and keg-only releases.

Year-round beers

*White: Belgian-style witbier *Tripel: Belgian-style Tripel *Curieux: Belgian Tripel aged in bourbon barrels for seven weeks *Hop Reach IPA: India Pale Ale *North Sky: Belgian-style stout *Gatherwell: Belgian-style bourbon barrel-aged stout *Sixteen Counties: golden ale brewed with all Maine-grown grains including: Maine Malt House 2-row Malted Barley from Buck Farms, Blue Ox Malthouse 2-row Malted Barley, raw wheat from Maine Grains, and oats from Aurora Mills & Farm. *House Beer: patersbier-style ale, only available at their tasting room in Portland, Maine.

References

External links

Official website
{{coord, 43.7031, -70.3178, type:landmark_region:US-ME, display=title Beer brewing companies based in Maine Companies established in 1995

History

Brands

Year-round beers

See also

References

External links