Portland, Maine-headquartered Allagash Brewing Company’s innovation pipeline will keep flowing in 2021 with a new year-round golden ale and a punched-up rotation of limited releases.
Several of the new offerings have come through Allagash’s pilot program, which sources ideas from employees throughout the organization.
“It lets us tap into the full creativity of our entire staff,” Allagash brewmaster Jason Perkins said during a virtual tasting for members of the media. “So instead of myself as brewmaster and [founder ] Rob [Tod], or myself and a couple of our brewers sitting in a room and coming up with ideas that we like, we instead get ideas from literally everybody. So I really feel like we get a real diverse range of concepts that come to us.”
First up from the pilot program in 2021 will be Kurkuma, a saison-inspired ale brewed with turmeric. The beer is the brainchild of a tasting room employee. Allagash will launch Kurkuma in 16 oz. can 4-packs in February 2021 to its full distribution footprint.
Kurkuma, which shares its name with turmeric’s botanical genus, is brewed with two-row malted barley, oats, a saison yeast descended from the strain used in Saison Dupont, and fresh turmeric from a Maine farm. “Fresh” means the farmer didn’t leave the turmeric in the ground very long due to Maine’s cold weather, Perkins explained.
“The downside is he can’t grow as much of it, but the upside is I think it’s actually brighter in aroma and flavor,” he added.
The result is a 5.3% ABV, straw-colored beer with notes of lemongrass, ginger, green tea, peach, citrus and bubblegum, Perkins said.
In late January, Allagash will release Fine Acre organic golden ale, which will be available year-round in 12 oz. can 6-packs throughout Allagash’s distribution footprint.
Fine Acre is brewed with 100% organic ingredients, including spelt and oats from Maine farms and Nugget and Palisade hops. Allagash ferments the beer with a Belgian yeast strain descended from the one used at Westmalle Brewery in Belgium, which Perkins said imparts subtle notes of banana, clove, allspice, white pepper, peach and apricot.
“To a beer geek consumer, I think it would be reminiscent of some of those classic Belgian blondes, but to a non-beer geek, it’s just a really approachable, dry, palatable beer,” Perkins said.
“We think there’s an opportunity to really connect with consumers who just aren’t necessarily finding as many organic options in the craft space,” marketing director Jeff Pillet-Shore said.
Pillet-Shore pointed to the sixth annual Craft Beer Insights Poll conducted by market research firm Nielsen for the Brewers Association, which found that weekly craft beer drinkers counted an organic certification as one of the top qualities they look for when purchasing beer.
The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association certified Allagash’s processes and Fine Acre’s recipe. In January 2020, Allagash released Crosspath, its first-ever organic beer, which was brewed with oats from fellow Maine-based company GrandyOats.
Allagash’s other 2021 releases include Nowaday, a cold-fermented ale that will launch in May 2021 in 12 oz. can 12-packs. Combined with flagship Allagash White and River Trip, Nowaday will give Allagash three facings of can 12-packs going into the summer selling season.
In late April 2021, the company will launch 16 oz. can 4-packs of Truepenny Pilsner, a pilsner partially fermented with brettanomyces. Like Kurkuma, a one-time shipment of Truepenny Pilsner will go out to Allagash’s full distribution footprint for an in-and-out availability.
Haunted House — a popular hoppy dark ale that was developed through the pilot system by an engineering staffer who wanted to combine Guinness with the hoppier notes of Allagash’s House Beer — will return in September with a wider release. The beer, which debuted in 2015, will be available in redesigned 16 oz. can 4-packs.
“It’s just been really a delight to watch that beer grow year after year, especially in a time when, understandably, so many drinkers and consumers want what’s new, what’s different,” Pillet-Shore said. “That is a beer that people have come back to in larger and larger numbers every year.”
Allagash will round out its 2021 special releases with Nocturna, a barrel-aged stout with vanilla, that will launch in 12 oz. bottle 4-packs in October.
The company will give the core offerings of its limited release series– Kurkuma, Truepenny and Haunted House — more marketing support than in the past, with activations that include food pairings, chef partnerships and sweepstakes.
“We’re putting more emphasis behind these beers than we ever have before,” Pillet-Shore said. “We’re really proud of them.”
In March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of bars and restaurants nationwide, Allagash saw its on-premise revenue dry up, which amounted to about 70% of its overall business. The company quickly pivoted and crunched several years of innovation work into a few months, releasing sparkling session ale series Little Grove and North Sky stout in September.
Sales of North Sky are “exceeding our expectations by a pretty large margin,” Perkins said.
“We’ve had to scramble to add additional brews,” he added.
North Sky checks in at 7.5% ABV and uses the same Westmalle-descended yeast strain as Fine Acre, which creates the yeast esters that are the hallmark of Belgian-inspired beers. However, Allagash chose not to describe the beer as Belgian on its label to avoid consumer confusion, as stouts do not feature prominently in Belgian beer canon.
“You get a little of those esters,” Perkins said. “But stouts have a lot of other stuff going on, of course, flavorwise and aromawise.”
Little Grove checks in at 100 calories and is available in two flavors, blackcurrant (3.8% ABV) and peach and kombucha (3.6% ABV). The line’s “initial reaction has been strong, but it’s hard to gauge,” Perkins said.
Both wholesalers and retailers “are really excited by it,” Pillet-Shore added. He expects sales of Little Grove to accelerate with warmer weather in 2021.
“We’re seeing this, really, as a sort of soft launch through the winter, and then an even bigger push come spring,” he said.
In 2019, Allagash’s volume increased 8%, to 104,103 barrels of beer, making it the 28th largest craft brewer in the nation and the largest in Maine by volume, according to the Brewers Association.
Allagash distributes to California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin, Washington, D.C., and the Chicago area.