Ploye Division
Mast Landing Brewing Company

 

On tap at Novare

Canned on 4/29/20

Pours a deep mahogany body with slight maroon edges and two fingers of dense, foamy, pale beige head; great retention leaves a rocky, quarter-finger mound of cap, a frothy, expansive collar, and massive chunks of thick, soapy lacing ring around the glass.

Aroma bursts with maple-slathered waffles from the start, soon inviting slick, toasty malts beneath a wave of vanilla and dark fruits over time; caramel features briefly over the middle as lactose pronounces a whipped cream edge to the finish.

Taste offers maple and lactose dominating upfront and rounding over the mid-palate; figs, raisins, and baker's chocolate contribute an appreciable depth into the back end before the presence of buckwheat and fresh pancakes provide a more defined note to the finish.

Mouthfeel brings a light-medium body with a fluffy, airy, higher-end carbonation; a wispy grit prickles intermittently through the mid-palate and stabilizes mostly onto the back end, where an almost thin, syrupy texture leads to a moderately sticky finish with a drying, semi-slick swallow.

One-dimensional, though in a sincere and inviting sort of way, this porter belies a more traditionally bitter profile in favor of embracing an outright sweetness to play off of a delicate malt profile; in the end, the maple syrup does come off as more Aunt Jemima than raw Vermont, and being central to the profile, becomes what really holds this one back from being more than a clever, solidly executed, adjunct-forward take on the style.

16 oz can - dated 04/29/20 - poured into an ale glass at 38°F.

Thank you to Novare Res for generously gifting me this one.

Pours a medium brown colour, sitting very clear dark brown in the glass - black from some angles, with bright maple-mahogany highlights near the edges. The beer is topped with a finger of light tan head with okay retention, which recedes to a film, leaving a fine collar of lacing behind.

Nose: So here's the deal. I haven't had the likes of Mornin' Delight, KBBS, or any of the heavy-hitter maple stouts, but this right here has the,most maple-forward aroma I've ever encountered. There's a base of typical stout roast, and then the maple just wafts out of the glass. Deep, rich, sweet, almost smoky maple with undertones of pecan pie and bourbon. It smells like maple fudge. No sign of raw, grainy buckwheat, but that maple is divine.

Palate: The beer greets the palate with some mild roasty porter malt, along with a hearty fullness that I'm going to attribute to the buckwheat. There is some malty barley sweetness, but it's perfectly balanced - not sticky or sappy or cloying, but it also isn't too dry. This is key, because what follows is an amber wave of maple syrup. No, not even maple syrup - this is straight up maple fudge. Not in terms of sweetness, but that concentrated smoky maple flavour - almost like maple bourbon. If you aerate the beer while it's in your mouth, it really ramps that maple up to 11. There are also subtle hints of vanilla bean, bourbon, caramel, butterscotch, and cocoa, but they only peak through the shroud of maple and roasty malt. As the beer warms, the maple opens up even more, as do the maltier notes of caramel and butterscotch. Into the finish, there's very little bitter roast, although there is some there, and it works nicely to dry things out. The restrained sweetness subsides, yet the maple gets even more intense. A whisper of bittering hops lend an earthy note, and then finally, the signature dusty buckwheat note poles through, before everything fades in a shockingly clean, dry finish.

Mouthfeel/Body: The beer is squarely,medium-bodied. Now, compared to most maple stouts, many would complain that this is thin, but for a porter (and it is a porter), I'd actually call it full-bodied. I'd call it a stout, were it not lacking thw roast. The maple, and whatever makes they used do add,aome noticeable heft and even a touch of viscosity, but it remains extremely fluid, balanced, and drinkable, albeit a bit filling. It's wholesome. Effervescence is great - not so lively that it's thinning the beer, but not lacking in any way. No stickiness, no acrid char.

Overall: For me, this is one of those, "Man, was I totally wrong about this!" beers. I expected to hate this. I figured it would either be a sappy, sticky mess devoid of any and all trace of maple, OR it would be a milk porter (I hate lactose in beer). No and no. This is a damn fine, though stout porter, definitely no lactose or stickiness, and the maple influence is second-to-none. You think CBS tastes like maple? No no no, this puts the maple character of that beer to shame. I don't know what a Ploye is, but I do like Joy Division, and I absolutely love this beer.