(Portland, ME) – After a long wait, the release of Allagash Mattina Rossa could be just two months away.

Having covered new beer releases here for over two and a half years, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a beer take its sweet time quite like this one has (beers that traditionally age for multiple years notwithstanding). I first wrote back in January 2009 that Allagash planned to release it in fall of that year. 2009 came and went without a release and much of 2010 has passed without an update…until now.

Says Brewmaster, Jason Perkins, “It should be released sometime in December and will go to the majority of our wholesalers in small quantities, so it will be available in most of our markets.” The 6.9% ABV beer will packaged in 375 ml bottles.

So what exactly is Mattina Rosa? As reported originally, this (base beer unknown?) was brewed with 350 pounds of local raspberries and then aged in French Oak with a variety of wild yeasts and microbes. Now that the beer is nearly finished, the number of raspberries added during aging has toppled 1,000 pounds. By the time it is released, it will have taken two years to get the flavor to where it needs to be.

In his profile on Allagash and its founder, Rob Tod, Maine Mag’s Peter Smith wrote a bit about the project. “After the beer has aged, the brewers hope to blend various barrels to incorporate different fruit flavors and tartness. Then, they’ll mix them in the lab and conduct a blind taste test. ‘It’s not just science,’ Perkins says. ‘There’s a strong human element. The blend is all about taste.'”

“This beer was the dream of Allagash brewer Greg Devito,” notes Allagash brewer/chief mechanic, DeeDee Germain. “He wanted to brew a beer with raspberries, and that he did. A ton of them. He also wanted to call it Red Dawn to celebrate his love of Patrick Swayze movies but that didn’t quite take.”

Look for it this winter.