Maplewood Brewery & Lounge

They posted that they sold out of all variants already, and they released 3x as much as they normally do. That escalated quickly.

 

Glad I audibled and skipped; sounds like an 11am arrival would've left me out in the cold!

 

Drove by around Noon, saw the line & made a U-turn. Hope those that stuck it out enjoy it!

 

Creme brûlée Cuppa is tasty stuff. Can’t wait to try the barrel aged Cuppa stouts! Great release by Maplewood brewery; the to go line was pretty fast.

 

I hope they don’t mind me sharing this, but the brewers were genuinely shocked at how hot the release was ( I asked at Fobab). Very happy for them and I’d imagine they’ll adjust going forward.

 

the secret of their cuppa series is officially out, and I'm not sure how smooth of a release they can realistically do at that space.

the lack of square footage both inside and out being the most obvious detriment.

the limits were surprisingly low to me, and if it's true that this was 3x their normal output, then that means we will see a serious uptick of tents popping up at 5am the morning of for future releases.

 

BA Cuppa was my favorite beer at FOBAB.
Them Maplewoodsers make such killah beers!

 

Not quite sure why it was a shocker to them. Three stout variants, two BA. They hyped the hell out of it on social media the whole week with multiple posts..The BA Coconut Cinnamon got really good feedback at MikerFoBAB.. Not to mention the out of towners in Chicago for FoBAB looking to hit up the weekend releases.. Thought it would have been expected

 

One thing I hope they consider for future releases like this would be the lines. Only one line would have been necessary. I felt bad for the people who may have gotten shut out in the lounge line who showed up before others in the to-go line. Since they were selling cans outside the doors anyways, they could have just had one line, let people buy cans and then go into the lounge until it hit capacity. After that, a separate line could have then formed for those waiting for spots to open up in the lounge.

 

This Cuppa series they are doing seems to be getting really popular (or at least hyped). Are they that good? Do they ever pop up on draft at places?

 

They're really good, but not mind-blowing stouts in my opinion. The base is definitely a big, sweet, viscous, sticky stout if that's your jam. I tend to feel that the lactose shines through on them a little too much, but not enough to deter me from trying to get every release they do.

I wanted to see how the Cuppa Neapolitan went up against Henna DR, but it wasn't even close to competing yet.

Just one Maplewood fanboy's opinion.

 

Gotcha, thanks for the opinion! In general, what beer(s) would you compare Cuppa to in terms of similarity?

 

Probably some of Prairie's non-BA offerings, just with a better, thicker base stout. To me, most Prairie stouts with heavy adjuncts are very good, but not quite there when it comes to a mind-blowing stout.

Maplewood does tend to have more prominent adjuncts than a Prairie stout though. It really boils down to this: big, sticky stout base, definite lactose presence, heavy adjuncts. I'd say take that for what it's worth.

 

Funny enough I saw Creme brûlée Cuppa at my store today and grabbed it. Never seen them distributed before so curious to give them a try.

 

Was a bit let down by the Creme Brulee Cuppa I had yesterday. It was definitely good, but not something I'd go out of my way to have again, especially at the price point. I do think the comparison to Prairie is right on the money.

 

To add on though, I did stop by and try BA Cuppa Breakfast on tap today. Now that was an excellent beer, delicious.

 

Cans still available?

 

Left about 15 minutes ago and there seemed to be a healthy amount of everything left.

 

not thrilled with shakey orange. carb is off and has a really strange aftertaste. disappointing, i was really excited to be able to grab some cans of this.

 

I thought it tasted like orange soda mixed with cream soda. Hated it.