2007 bomber shared with SuIIy on 4/26/07
Light tan head gushes up, only to recede rather quickly back to cover. Moderate retention at that point, minimal lacing. Filtered and all, with a dark cola-mahogany brown body.
I must say, for a maple beer, I was expecting a lot more odd esters and phenols and surprisingly enough, it’s quite clean in the nose. Seems a bit meaty at first, making me think of DMS, but if that is indeed what it is, it’s fully passing after 30 or so seconds. Leafy/soily/earthy hops are the extent of hop aromatics, with reserved bitterness. Light coffee layered atop chocolate and dry maple with a firm acidity on the end. A bit stale/oxidized already, probably owing to the filtration and medium malts. Not overly hard, despite the more dry, bready malts; lots of residual base malt sweetness is there, creating some stickiness on the nose. Cinnamon-like phenols are lightly noted on the finish, while alcohol is mostly contained. Medium strength of aroma.
Lots of caramel dumped in, with more a brown sugar flavor from the maple (and combination of caramel and base malt). Sweet, vanilla cream flavors slowly meld in to a strong maple fudginess that grows quite sweet and has some stickiness to it, despite also carrying a trace of thinning on the finish. Flavors do not last long, as they are cut short by a coffeecake dryness that adds breadiness and acidity. A bit stale overall, no doubt suffering from the filtration. Carbonation, though forced, isn’t obnoxious, and while it’s not overly tight, it also isnt too loose. No alcohol perceived. Almost finished my glass, but not quite.

Bottled (thanks Degarth). Nutbrown colour with beige small head. Aroma is maple, malts, caramel, nuts and some slight syrupy notes. Flavour is maple nuts, some caramel and slight roasted malts. Quite watery.

Bottled (bottled 06/2006)
Reddish brown color, small off-white head. Cracker malty and hoppy nose, hints of milk chocolate and toasted nuts there too. Very watery, nutty malty flavor. Mildly syrupy and chocolaty. Quite light and a bit sweet beer. Easy to drink, easy to forget.

Bottle. Color is a dark golden color. Aroma is malty, with fruits and caramels. Flavor is okay, though I didn’t really think it was in any way wonderful. Malts power the flavor, with small hits to hops. Was better as it warmed.

Bottle. Ruby color with a low off-white head. Roasty aroma. Roasty, caramel flavor with slight plum/raisin. Medium body. Lingering caramel/dried fruit.

Bottle. Amber beer with an off-white head. Orange/caramel aroma and flavor. Easy drinking. LIngering caramel. Somewhat lighter body.

Poured deep amber with lasting tan head. It has sort of a Barleywine aroma with dark fruit, hints of caramel and some alcohol. The flavor starts out with dates, plums and raisins. Midway the maple becomes noticeable. Toward the finish the fruitiness returns with hints of nuts and alcohol. This beer seems to end weak. It feels watery and not more than alcohol into the after taste. Too bad, it started out rather nice.

Aroma initially started out fantastic, but soon got a slight sour/metalic aroma as it warmed. The same can be said about the taste, it was initally fantastic when it was really cold, but I let it warm too long (though it was only about half an hour) and it ended up being a chore to finish.

22 oz. bottle. Big maple smell when opened. Pours dark brown, thin soda head. Smell in the glass adds some coffee roast porter malt. Taste is pretty sticky and sweet. That’s unfermented maple at work, I guess. For a high-test beer, seems to be lacking a big taste. Can’t find much alcohol here, but sometimes I get that maple again, or some brown sugar. I’ve held on to this a couple of months, this is probably as good as it gets.