Not My Gumdrop Buttons!
Farm by Beer Tree Brew Co.

 

 

 

A Pretentious Glass Company Imperial Snifter hosts this murky, dark brown beer with fine particulates in suspension. The particulate may have been remnants of graham cracker. It has a thin, light beige head of creamy bubbles that quickly retreats to a fine ring, leaving no real lacing. Some spots of lace appear after each sip.

The aroma opens with roasted malt and some faint charred malt. The maple is subtle, yet obvious, and comes forward once light gingerbread and cinnamon join the mix as it warms. Caramel and vanilla are revealed with further warmth.

This is sweet with pleasant bitterness, helping to manage the sweetness. Gingerbread and lactose allow light flavors of malt to come through. Cinnamon establishes itself after a few minutes, while peppermint shows up in a long, mild finish.

The body is full and just shy of dense, helping to make the texture softer with a squishy sensation of neoprene. The alcohol seems mild, which is dramatically below expectations. Fine prickly carbonation fills the mouth, while residual sugar builds on the lips.

This is a pleasant Christmas beer. In my opinion, it's more of a Pastry Porter than a Pastry Stout. One or two of these per year is plenty. This one is compliments of a collaboration between Beer Tree and Upstate Brewing.

This one pours a very dark black color, with a small head, and a bit of lacing.

This smells phenomenal - vanilla, gingerbread, cinnamon, caramel, maple, and chocolate.

I haven't had too much from Beer Tree so far, but I know they are supposed to be doing some cool things down Binghamton way. It has a wonderful creamy vanilla cream-esque taste, with a powerful but not overwhelming gingerbread character - bready, caramelly, almost molasses or maple-like. There's also milk chocolate and a touch of cinnamon spice.

This is medium bodied, and very silky, with a great mouthfeel, and a really high level of drinkability. There's no booziness here whatsoever.

This is really decadent, and really well done. Gingerbread-inspired stouts can often go wrong - they can be too dry and spicy, but this nails the balance I would want out of this sort of thing. It's got sweetness where it needs it, and spice where it needs it.

So I rated this a 4/5 only because they expressed in the description it was very potent on the gingerbread however, it was way too much for me personally.