Maple Porter
Redwood Lodge

 

Wow, is this the same beer that the other three reviewers had? I can hardly think it is, as this offering was easily the best of ALL of the offerings available the day we visited.

A-Deep, dark clear copper tinged brown with a medium light tan head that reduced to a thin film and left decent lace.

S-Roasted malt with some maple sweetness and a nice, light smokiness upon warming.

T-Maple syrup sweetness clashes with roasted malt in a perfectly balanced mix. Very well done. A brew that simply makes your palate dance.

M-Medium body, smooth with long lasting residual sweetness.

D-Simply outstanding! Wonderful balance between the bitter roast and sweet maple syrup. A very well done beer. Not only the best of the Redwood, but was ranked as one of the best brews of our Michigan holiday trip!

Sample from the brewpub: Pours a nearly opaque dark brown color with a thin beige head that has good staying power. Spotty lacing. The aroma is Aunt Jemima all the way. Sweet sweet maple in the nose and nothing else. Light-bodied and sweet, with a maple character that is not as pronounced as in the aroma but it is still very strong. There is some brown sugar and malt in the flavor too, but this skews to the sweet side all the way. The finish is sweet and lingering. An interesting experiment but I would have trouble drinking a pint of this.

Served with no head, very dark brown color, almost black. The maple smell was dominating over any other smell that might exist in this brew. Expect the same from the taste, pure maple, very sweet. I think I might have caught some hints of smoked malts in the mix. It has a nice full bodied mouth feel, very low in carbonation.
If you don’t like the sweet syrup on your breakfast, then stay away from this...otherwise you might as well try using this as a substitute.

Probably one of the few beers I would feel comfortable reviewing after a sample glass....

Nice appearance, very dark brown, almost black in color with a frothy brown head. Man alive, was there maple in that smell! I'm going to have to give it a 3.5 because I would imagine that is what they were shooting for. However, it was hard to pick out any other qualities in the aroma that you would normally find in a porter after the maple syrup blitz my nostrils just received. Imagine pouring maple syrup into your porter and this is what you would have. I was looking for a maple hint to a robust porter, but this is way beyond that. Maybe the brewer was looking for the same thing and got carried away. Maybe he loves maple syrup. Who knows - all I know is you could barely detect a little roasted barley underneath that maple flavor. Less like a maple porter and more like carbonated syrup.

I don't know, maybe if you are in Canada and its the middle of winter, and you are eating pancakes, this might be a good beer. Other than that, it is too overpowering for me.