PaddockWoodGuy brought me a bottle of Rogue's Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale, as a treat to spoil me, on top of the heavenly Paddock Wood beers he already got me. I've only had two other maple themed beers in my life - Cannery's Maple Stout - which is the best Canadian maple stout out there, and Granville Island's Maple Cream Ale, which is just a bland beer and doesn't taste like anything.
With today being "MERICA! FUCK YEAH!" day, aka Independence Day, I thought it would be a good time to open this bottle and give it a try. Considering that this an American beer, I wouldn't be surprised if the maple obtained in this beer was from Quebec, heck.. the label has pigs and maple leafs in the background, so it must be!
Appearance: When I see an odd coloured beer bottle, generally it's a plastic jacket overtop of the bottle, but in this case - it's a pink beer bottle where the entire bottle was painted pink to give it an interesting look. It pours a maple reddish brown, darker than honey. Very minimal head, at that - it's a off-white beige appearance.
Aroma: DAMN IT! I'm hungry! Open up the bottle and there's a big maple syrup aroma as if you're opening a bottle of syrup. Not only that, the aroma is sticking to my fingers now, as if I was eating bacon and syrup together. It's a very obvious aroma combination of maple syrup and pork - it's very bacony but it almost smells more like ham. It's a bit smokey and a bit salty. The smokiness is slightl present, but it stung my nostril slightly as if I was having their Chipotle Ale.
Taste: Much different than the aroma. Honestly, this is more of a smokey beer akin to Rogue's Chipotle ale, incredibly smoked, as well as a bit of saltiness. There are a few underlining flavours that follow after the smoke - a bit of maple and a bit of pork. The bacon fat taste comes out more than the maple does. Honestly - that's all.
Overall Thoughts: I'm not sure if what they use in this is actual pork, if so - vegetarians/vegans - stay away! I am a bit disappointed as I was hoping for a sunday morning crêpes, syrup, bacon and cinnamon/sugar medley seeing the name. There's no donuty goodness in this, but this beer is quite a smokey beer like their Chipotle ale, but if you like smoked ales but don't want spicy beers - this IS worth trying out. Seeing I am a fan of smoked beers, I really do like this because it reminds me of being around a pork smoker, a nice smokey taste, a bit of bacon and a light amount of maple syrup. Slightly warm on the tongue, but nowhere near as warm as the Chipotle. The ABV of this beer is 7.0% & 38IBU, it's a great beer to share if you want to try something really different and are a bit of a bacon geek, I just had a burp and it tasted like bacon! I would drink this again just because I enjoy the smokiness and the bacon/maple profile in the back, but I wouldn't have advertised this as being a maple bacon beer as the smokiness is the number one taste in this in my opinion.
My favourite maple beer will continue to be Cannery's Maple Stout. Happy 4th of July everyone!
http://www.rogue.com/beers/voodoo-bacon-maple.php
1 comment:
If your interested in a good maple flavored beer try to get your hands on a bottle of Brasserie Le Grimoire's "Désérable". I tried it on tap at a festival in my town last year and it was hands down the #1 beer for us since it has a, as you would put it,sunday morning crêpes syrup taste. But it might be quite a rarity in your neck of the woods though since I have so far only found the bottle only once in Montreal. But I always keep my eye out for it.
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