Sprucette
Maplewood Brewery & Distillery

 

Foggy pale pastel yellow, topped with two fingers of rocky head. Spotty lacing around the edges, lasting surface coverage.

Sulfur is big in the aroma, yeast forward and a mild raw grainy fruitiness behind that. Not much identifiable spruce.

Taste has a little bit, but it’s subtle. Grainy and yeast forward, a little resiny spruce green bitterness in place of hops. Earthy aftertaste is nice.

Light to medium bodied, well carbed, creamy feel.

Overall it’s ok, less sulfur and more spruce would be nice if my opinion meant anything.

Maplewood #78

2024-07-21
16oz can served in a curvy Monhegan pint glass. Canned 12/15/2023. Bought it at Orange & Brew in Downers Grove three nights ago.

Pours lightly hazy, light yellow, big fluffy, coarse head, settling slowly and webbily (is that a word?). Lots of carbonation. Smell is mildly tart, mostly lemon, some grain and hay and a little earthiness. Some saison funk.

Taste is bitter and earthy first, lemon and tart second, quite powerful, not simple, but straightforward.

Mouthfeel is light, clean, crisp. Overall, I'm really digging this at 4%.

 

Canned 2/10/23; drank 3/17/23 @ the Yarchives.

Cloudy pale yellow appearance.

A rough pour yielded a HUGE white head; strong, frothy lace.

Fresh pine needle, artisanal soap & some wheat notes in the nose.

Medium thin mouthfeel.

Artisanal soap, fresh pine needle & soft wheat flavors.

It's a bold and flavorful; not really my profile but I could enjoy this one.

I've asked BA Monitors to have Sprucette changed to a Grisette as BA added that style well after the first release of Sprucette. And since then, my guess is Maplewood also improved Sprucette as I rate it better than the previous average.

Sprucette Looks slightly above average; it has a decent and lasting foam, but is clearer and blonder than grissettes typically are. But the lack of lively Looks is made up for with Smells that balance tree fruits (apples) and a nicely subtle spruce. Tastes also are balanced. (I also like the rye spicing up the malt.) This makes for an interesting contrast because I associate spruce with winter warmers, yet this is a light blonde; often associated with summer. Despite being interesting, I must say Sprucette is light in the mouth... but at 4 ABV, that is to be expected and gives it a better than average Feel.

Reading the ABV, I drank Sprucette with lunch. Since I didn't finish the food (no good leftovers!), Sprucette got the meal done. I will try Sprucette again with another lunch. I suspect we have a good table ale here.

I'm glad I found Sprucette. I had two previous Maplewood Belgians a few years back and the last one I panned and told them to stick to IPAs. I'm glad Maplewood did not take my advice and they re-released a pretty good farmhouse ale. Good enough that there are 44 check-ins on UnTappd this month.

I'm also glad I went on Maplewood's website which I described as cryptic several years back. They are now 9 years old and have matured their website, in fact it may be too fancy for a Luddite like me to find my way. In their second decade, Maplewood should consider building a food menu if they want to be the complete neighborhood watering hole.

3/2/23 Had a second can while preparing dinner and saved some for a plate of pesto on cheese ravioli. Actually, the twigs go with the basil and pasta, less so with the cheese. Still, I'm finding this a very nice table ale, have edited the above and hope to buy more. A Sante' !

Tasted in a pint glass from draft at Emil's Tavern on December 23, 2018. A Belgian style table beer brewed with a large portion of rye which lends body and spice. This beer was conditioned on Colorado grown hand picked spruce tips which add a woodsy character and depth to the fruit and spice notes from the yeast and rye malt.