French Toast
Decadent Ales

This brewery (or rather, "brand imprint," considering their usage of Dorchester Brewing's contracting services for all of their canned releases) has been hit-or-miss for me so far, but the stuff that has been impressive has brought me back for more. Their Double Toasted Marshmallow, for instance, is a really cool and unique beer that straddles the line between DIPA and strong flavored ale featuring a good balance of hoppiness and sweetness. This is itself a DIPA, though it's brewed with maple syrup and cinnamon.

Say what!?

This pours a bright orange color with a pretty-much-opaque appearance to it. The head is rather smallish, never really building up past a finger or finger-and-a-half. The beer does seem to have decent legs, however, and the lace is tiered pretty solidly overall. I'm digging the haze going on here... it definitely has that NE IPA feeling, but I know I'm not going to get the same-old, same-old with this idea.

The nose is dank and chive-forward with some lighter notes of sweet pineapple in heavy syrup and orange zest. Underneath this opening salvo of hoppiness, however, lies cinnamon and maple syrup. Hey, just like the label said! Is that a good thing? Well, it's really weird and certainly seems to appear at-odds with the initial hoppy nose, but I'll just run with it. It smells just like French Toast Crunch cereal here and there, which is definitely a little bit strange. Not bad, just... what? It's just bizarre how this oscillates between smelling like a juicy IPA and a bowl of cereal. It's certainly perplexing. Every now and again, I get a slight sniff of alcohol and some fresh-cut grass with some other herbal stuff going on as well, as if this weren't already super crazy. Ooookay, then.

The flavor profile is much more straightforward about its intentions than the nose, at first anyway. I definitely taste straight-up French Toast Crunch cereal. It's supremely odd, but somehow it kind of works. There's a hit of sweetness, chewy pale malt and an almost oat/wheat like complexion that kinda plays into the "cereal" aspect as well, but the finish is laid-over by immense hoppiness that keeps this in the realm of drinkability. In fact, it's actually a pretty cool drink. I think it definitely functions more as a sipper, but the balance is surprisingly on-point! Tropical fruit flavors and notes of green onion and earthy dankness coalesce pretty well in the finish.

Feel is on the thicker side, especially due to the sugary-ness of the maple syrup, which is fairly present. The carbonation is kept on the moderate side, while the finish definitely does carry an ethanol heftiness to it. Not the brightest beer ever, but given what they were going for, I think that's probably a good thing. This is, well, decadent!

Can't say I hate this one, somehow. It's definitely not something I'd want all the time, and, of course, it functions somewhat more like an oddity than a regular go-to beer, but whatever. I'm impressed and mildly disturbed at how well this beer turned out overall. Now to find some of that cereal I keep mentioning.

16 oz can from Tavour. Hazy pour, orange- golden, small bubbly ring. Aroma is a hodgepodge of scents: maple, vanilla, citrus. Taste focuses on the French Toast, minor smoky flavors represent the bacon. The touch of citrus adds a glass of orange juice to your breakfast plate. Pretty subtle flavors throughout.

 

 

 

 

 

 

-spiegelau ipa glass. Double ipa brewed with maple syrup and cinnamon.

A: A very hazy deep tangerine color show a great deal of unfiltered nature, a mixture of large golden bran flakes dance in the vessel from the carbonation within a dense misty haziness of micro-particles. Very soupy like clarity. A late forming white frothy head is a dense cream coating that provides a lasting coverage til the end of the experience. The glass walls show a full sheet coating.

S: Some semi-dry peaches with back notes of cinnamon. Bready notes, lightly dry maple syrup sweetness with a small hint of french toast, most notably from the cinnamon spicing. Some hoppiness of apricots and pears are almost neipa like.

T; A flavor of creamy oranges and vanilla, almost Popsicle like, sweet with some maple syrup, brown sugar sweetness. Cinnamon spicing gives small hints of the french toast intention, a bit of smokey maple syrup and sausage has a fresh wet hopping of fruity peaches and pineapple. Some kiwi, fresh and fruity wet hopping, again very neipa like, has a spicy bite of citrus and cantaloupe and starfruit.

M: Full bodied, milky depth, milkshake like creaminess is lush with a very low amount of carbonation.

O: Overall this has a lot of fruity and neipa like hopping with some maple syrup and cinnamon spicing. Deep haziness, full of peaches and tropical notes is more at home with a neipa rather a french toast marketing perspective. Most will buy this as a gimmick, it stands out as a very good ipa overall for me, fresh wet and fruity, with a maple syrup twist and cinnamon rather a french toast beer. A hazy delight with a deep lush body and hoppy fruity nature will sure to satisfy as long as you didn't come here specifically for the breakfast angle.

 

 

Pours a straw color. Notes of maple syrup, dough and vanilla are definitely present in both the nose and flavor profile. That said, this flavor combination doesn't really work in an IPA. There is no discernable hop character either.

Nice try but this one is a fail.

Pours golden and slightly hazy with a small head. Aroma and flavor are sweet vanilla, some maple, a hint of cinnamon and dank citrus from the hops. Overall fairly muddled and too sweet.

Interesting brew, jucie up front, maple syrup and cinnamon, bready malts the only way you know this was an IPA by the bitterness in the back end, would of liked to see this as a porter