A'OK Maple Barrel Aged
Gruner Brothers Brewing

pretty neat beer here, strong marzen lager aged in maple whiskey barrels, there was some confusion when i was in about this, they had a wyoming whiskey barrel aged edition as well, no maple, but one of them was out or something, pretty sure i got the right one here. neat to see a marzen lager as the base for this kind of barrel treatment, a rarity indeed, but it makes good sense and i was impressed with both the concept and the execution of it with this. nice low glow amber color to this, very little head at all from the tap, unfiltered looking but not cloudy or messy, a little leggy in the glass but still with some visible carbonation too. it smells awesome, red apple cider, nutty kilned german malt, earthy minerals, baked bread, mild maple but all wrapped up with quality whiskey, not overtly sweet to me, and still with some old world lager yeast evident through all of this, dynamic and cohesive and totally new to my senses in this combination. the flavor is similar, the maple is mild, again more whiskey than straight maple but the sweetness there is real compatible with the sturdy caramelized malt base. the whiskey is strong, the alcohol a little exposed, some corn sweetness perhaps pushing up against the sweet grain, which somehow has enough body to handle this. lots of oak, brown sugar, vanilla, light char, still a german essence to the whole thing, the lager yeast hanging on, a little more carbonation than it shows in the glass too. overall this is quite remarkable, more fall than summer obviously, but a cool offering unlike anything else i can recall ever having!