This week we are at a local brewery, Noble Roots Brewing. A fairly new brewery that focuses on smaller, one off batches. Lots of variety here.
Ok the first beer that I’m going with is thier “boils down to this” American stout with maple syrup.
Before I even order this beer I remind myself that it is usually a given that when you mention maple syrup it’s going to have zero maple flavor or taste.
And this is exactly what happens here.
Maple syrup is pretty tough to keep any trace of it in beer, especially pure maple syrup.
(But to be completely fair, I did hear one person who had this on release day who remembers it having maple aroma)
But I’m not going to ding it for not having those flavors/aromas because like I said.. it’s perfectly normal for them not too. That said.. by alluding to it, some essence or extract to give it a nudge would have been have been acceptable here.
But on to the beer its self. They have to call it something. They went with American stout.
American stout. A very roasty, (pronounced..Very Roasty) fullish bodied, bitter stout featuring American hops.
None of that is here. Nope.
Very little roast. Very little bittering,, if any. Just the smidgenest of hop flavor. All in the lightest bodied beer I’ve had in a while.
However. What ever this beer is named, or however badly miscategorized this beer is.. it is delicious.
The light and delicate roasts and hopping was either an obvious attempt to let the maple come thru, or a genuine lucky miscalculation that widely missed but stayed drinkable.
Now I did say that I talked to one person who said it had some maple character when it was tapped. But sadly I did not get any info as to the rest of the beers characteristics.
At my time of tasting, everything of maple had faded completely and left behind a beer that is very thin and very weak in all flavors.
Those weak flavors do let a minerally tasting aspect thru that I would indeed suspect came from that maple syrup. Because to me it has a light maple sap taste. (Maple sap has zero maple flavor. Tastes more like you soaked maple leaves in water)
I could not get a word from either of the Brewers but how this beer sit right now seem very much like a beer that someone who has used maple syrup for the first time.
I’m just gonna make an educated guess here, and you can ask anyone who has used a larger sized quantity of maple syrup the first time…
but I suspect they got hold of this syrup, took a stout recipe they had, and just scaled the recipe back to compensate for the sugar content.
Doing this would account for the much lower roast, and much lower hopping. Plus the syrup ferments nearly out and with a reduced grain bill, would leave a very thin beer with virtually no maple flavor.
Ok..how to give this a score.
As the Maple American Stout they call it.. it gets a 0/5. There is absolutely nothing Stouty nor Mapley about this beer at all. Not much else can be said about that.
But,, as far as how I like it,, it’s ok. Kinda like a very very light bodied, light everything version of a dark mild??? Maybe a reflection of a light light porter?
It’s not a bad beer at all.. just not whats advertised. But I do kinda like it.. so my Untappd score is going to be a 2.5/5
But make no mistake. If I had bought this in the store because of that description, I would NOT be happy about it.
Stoutmaker.beer 