Hop Cakes

How is it compared to hopslam? I've never had it but am planning on grabbing some

 

I much prefer Hop Cakes over Hypeslam!

 

I don't think you can really compare the 2, but Hop Cakes is very good.

 

Hey @Immortale25 are we gonna be seeing any of this at the vinter?

 

Think maple syrup in place of honey. It was good last year, but a touch boozy, I thought.

 

Very different beers. Maybe I had a bad 4-pack last year, but I got almost zero maple. It tasted like a maltier version of HDR.

 

Same here. The maple was severely lacking and was just disappointing after seeking out and getting one can.

 

Come on guys, this is beer 101. Maple syrup and honey ferment completely out so you shouldn't get any residual sugar left to actually taste much/any of it. It does dry it out so it will have a different color and mouth feel than a similar IPA). This isn't aged in maple barrels or anything or have the syrup added in the secondary tanks.

 

While it's true that maple syrup and honey are both 100% fermentable, marketing 101 teaches us not to put something on the label unless it's detectable in the beer. Don't call it a maple flavor IPA and expect ppl to be OK with zero maple characteristics.

I've had it the past (2) years and thought it was a decent IPA. I prefer it to HopSlam but I don't really like HopSlam. I think regular HDnR is better. Even the wonky, uncertain cans you get the past year+.

 

It is marketed as an imperial IPA made with maple syrup (which it is). No where is a called a maple flavored IPA (at least not from the brewery).

 

From the YouTube video , the brewer says 'all the sweet flavors, just from maple syrup. Hot cakes are a superior delicious treat, I think you should consider Hop Cakes"... Then all of the lumberjacks are commenting about maple.

This seems slightly misleading marketing as stated above, especially to those that are not 'craft crazies'. NoDa seems to be making big hype about the sweet and maple characteristics of a beer that has minimal maple characteristics.

 

I am not a brewer, but just because the sugars in honey/maple ferment out, that doesn't seem to necessarily mean that there would be no flavors imparted by that process. But I could be wrong.

 

Maple syrup does impart flavor in beer but not the sweetness you're accustom to. The sugar ferments out so you're left with a woody, earthy characteristic.

Last year's Hop Cakes was the first beer I remember noticing NoDa's oxidation issues with. I drank the first 4 pack fresh and it was a decent DIPA. The second, which I started a month later, had zero hop flavor/aroma and had that wet cardboard/overly oxidized malt component to it.

Obviously they're still having the issues since they're apparently serving oxidized HDnR in their own taproom.

 

I agree, I mean the can has a picture of syrup being poured on pancakes, it's nearly impossible not to expect a maple flavor.

Hopslam advertises it is made with honey (which ferments out too) so you could argue it is also misleading about its honey flavor. But Hopslam is made with both honey and honey malt which does impart a honey like sweetness to the flavor. So I feel like Hopslam delivers on its advertising a little better.

 

Maybe they have that image on the can to advertise the buttery flavor in a stack of pancakes

 

Well played, dgfair!

 

I understand that things like honey and maple syrup are fermentable and should theoretically not impart extra sweetness, but it sure seems like they still do to me in most instances. Pretty much every hoppy beer that I've had that had one of these type of things added has been too sweet for me, although I have not had Hop Cakes yet. Hopslam is legitimately bad IMO though. I just don't really get why you would want to add any extra sweetness to a hoppy beer, but I guess some other folks have different tastes than mine.