[3/7 Update: Slated for February but clearly delayed as it is not yet available. Probably a March release now?]

(Portland, ME) – I caught up with Jason Perkins from Allagash last week to get clarity on a few rumors. Perkins traveled to Belgium last year to help brew last year’s De Proef Signature Series release, Les Deux Brasseurs.

Allagash Confluence

It is brewed with our house primary strain and our proprietary brett strain. The two are pitched at primary and ferment together. We had to work hard to get the Brett happy enough to compete with our house strain as we wanted both to ferment equally (you can learn all about Allagash and its one-of-a-kind brett strain in last month’s Beervana article). We shall release the beer in February. It will likely be brewed again and released later in the year. [ed: He noted that the above label may not be final…I think.]

Allagash Victor

We did change the grape this year for the Victor to Cabernet from Pinot Noir. We were looking to try another grape for experimental sake and were hoping to get a bit more character from the grape. The Pinot was almost too clean, if that makes any sense.

Allagash Huge Malone

Hugh Malone hopping is not fully determined yet, but will likely be a blend of Simcoe, Amarillo, Cascade and others.

Tentative 2009 Release Dates:

Confluence – February
Hugh Malone – March
Victor and Victoria – April
Interlude – May, September
Fluxux 09 – June (undetermined recipe at this point)
Odyssey – July, November
Mattina Rossa – ? (Wild red ale It was brewed with 350 #’s of local raspberries and is aging in French Oak with a variety of wild yeasts and microbes that will likely be released in the fall, although we will have to see how it progresses)

And then there’s the Lambic-style beer…that will probably still be fermenting away all of 2009…