Review: Allagash Little Grove Freshly Pressed Apples & Cranberry
Fruited Session Ale
Grains: 2-Row Base Malt Blend, Local Oats and Wheat, Oat Flakes, Roasted Oats, Carapils
Hops: Nugget, Triumph
Yeast: House
Spices/Other: Freshly pressed Apples, Cranberry
MSRP for six pack $11.99-$12.99
There’s a lot of preconceived notions I have about cranberry and apple in beer. One notion is that apple doesn’t work in beer. Let cider have that glory. Every apple beer I’ve ever seen (and I’ve never seen that many) always seems like a weird autumnal plot to subvert pumpkin’s reign as king of fall. The coup attempt has thus far been unsuccessful.
And then there’s cranberry- a fruit that everyone THINKS will work in beer and yet it always falls flat. I’ve never had a cranberry beer I’ve enjoyed. I mean that. If cranberry is added to a sour beer style, the natural acidity in the cranberry fights the lactic acid and creates a mess and if it’s a clean beer, the tartness of the cranberry lacks expression. It’s a downer.
But if anyone can add apple and cranberry to a beer and make it work, it’s Allagash, whose beers are some of the best beers in the country.
Allagash’s Little Grove series of beers is what they call a “sparkling fruited ale” which doesn’t really tell people what it is. For some reason, I thought this line was sour and was surprised when it wasn’t. I’m not really sure why that is. The calories and low ABV are front and center, catering to a health-conscious crowd. They’ve released a blackcurrant flavor and a peach/kombucha flavor before this newest iteration. This beer is brewed with cranberry and then blended with fresh apple juice. So the newest drink is essentially a light/diet-fruited version of Graf (a beer/cider hybrid created by Stephen King for his Dark Tower series of books).
Taste
Let’s dive in: The aroma of the beer is one of a farmhouse orchard bakery- spice rack, pear, apple, slight cranberry. I picture this orchard bakery to be on Cape Cod because of the spritzy, lightness of the aroma. The aroma is comforting, and I don’t know if I’ve ever experienced the aroma of a beer that did that. Can an aroma hug you? I believe this beer just did.
As for the flavor, I don’t get any cranberry in the least. Like I said, cranberry is a difficult fruit to work within the context of beer. The apple overpowers the cranberry wholly, not that it’s a bad thing, but it left me wanting more tartness. Other flavors included clove and other pomme fruits like pear. There’s a thinness to its body that felt like Allagash had made a “Diet Witbier” and then added fruit to bump up the flavor. I don’t say these things in a derogatory way; it sure was incredibly refreshing. These cans go down quite easily, and I think that’s the point.
Target Audience
Where do I see drinking this? It would make for a killer tailgating beer (4% ABV, similar to a light lager) on one of those warm September days where summer isn’t ready to relinquish its crown to the invading autumn. This is the type of beer that can go toe to toe against other autumnal beers and work because it stands alone. I can’t name a single beer I’ve had that reminds me of something like this.
Warm fall days, you’ve just met your best friend. Stock up.