Autumn Maple - Pine Cones
The Bruery

 

 

Thanks to MustardKrautFan for what is usually a DONG.

Pours hazy amber with a small off-white head.

Aroma is sweet caramel, pumpkin, pinecone, spices, and lentils (two first time aroma notes there).

The flavor is spicy and yammy, fairly sweet, with pinecone and loads of pumpkin pie spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice).

Medium-full body with a smooth mouthfeel and medium-low carbonation. A little syrupy, like regular Autumn Maple.

Probably a little better than regular Autumn Maple overall, but not too impressive. I didn't want much of this.

On the hand pump at the Bruery.

Pine cones? Srsly?

A: The pour typical of Autumn Maple, maybe a little more haze than usual. But what do you expect when you add the reproductive organs of a conifer?

S: A sniff in this case is more to warn of potential danger that might follow. Surprisingly (but maybe not), very similar to Autumn Maple. Vanilla, caramel, toffee, and pie spices. Lots of pie spices, actually. I don't get any inherent "pine cone" aroma.

T: Sweet malts with a light caramel nature to them. Again, plenty of spice and vanilla. There is a bit of a woody almost rosemary character to the beer, which I assume is from the cones.

M: The body is medium with a low, but smooth carbonation--typical from the Bruery's cask beers.

D: Okay, this was not horrendous like I was anticipating. It was not quite as good as the regular thing (or especially the vanilla version they had previously), but not bad.

Poured a dark brown with a thin layer of green sitting on the top very little head and a little lacing sticking to the glass. The aroma was pretty nice consisting of malts, allspice, yams, and cinnamon character which are the regular ingredients but it did have pine and earthy notes to it as well. Like the nose yams, gingerbread notes, spice, and malts are from the base beer put the pine cones did add accents and some dimension to the original version od AM. The brew was medium to full in body with a moderate amount of carbonation which had a spice, malty, earthy, slight sweet, and boozy finish. It drank really good and was glad to catch a different variation of this brew that I already think is a good beer though I still prefer the barrel aged version out of all of them.

On cask at The Bruery,

A: Pours a murky dark amber with a soft off-white head, fair retention. Almost opaque.

S: Autumn spice, nutmeg, hint of pine, pretty much the original with the light pine.

T: Of all the Autumn Maple offshoots, this is the most subtle in its change. The pine is rather light in the flavour, I only find it as a light astringency and herbalness at the finish. For the most part classic Autumn Maple flavours, orange starchy vegetables, nutmeg, allspice, the works.

M: Full-bodied, relatively smooth, a very firm beer, it carries it's own, pretty much the same as the original, though it is a tad thinner I found and a bit more astringent as I mentioned.

D: I already like Autumn Maple a lot, so it's no surprise I like this beer. Before trying it I thought we might have an Autumn Maple IPA hybrid on our hands, but it's really just a slight tweak. A tasty beer, but nothing to go out of your way for since the change is so minor.