The Raccoon & The Bear
Eastlake Craft Brewery

i have to respectfully of course completely disagree with the other reviewer of this one. a somewhat fairly priced bottle from zipps liquor, being a guy pridefully from the northeast, i buy a spruce beer when i see one. this is a cool one too, amber at its base, a little stronger than normal, with a fairly mature and heavy spruce profile, and aged on cedar, i would have tolerated some more of that for sure. red and heady, only a little hazy. very sweet in early aroma and taste, spruce and sweet crystal and red malts well out in front of any cedar wood, its not even there later on, id love more of that element, but if you never told me it was supposed to be here, i dont think i would miss it much. the beer is still sweet, brown sugar and pine, a neat wintery warming aura about it. sweet though, too much so for me, but in the end the residual sugar turns into a maple syrup ditty, and that works for sure. pine and maple, swear i am in vermont right now. carbonation doesnt lag much, and the long finish is welcomed in a beer like this creative and fun on the terroir side of things, woodsy and northern, could be improved with a little more attention to detail and more cedar, but who cares, this beer rules!

 

 

Loved the idea of this brew. But the execution is really lacking. It is described as having fir tips and cedar shavings. I loved Summit's Hurkulean, which had fir tips...so I was really excited to try this. Unfortunately this beer tasted like I was chewing on cedar shavings. It was not subtle at all. And the aftertaste was not good at all. I would not recommend this beer. Go for the Devil's Kettle.