After our jaunt to IncrediBREW, Mike, Brian, and I had a tasting session of all the beers currently in kegs. These beers included a Strawberry Blonde (which hasn’t been profiled in detail on the site yet), an Oatmeal Stout, a Belgian Tripel, a Scottish 60 shilling (/-) and my Maple Porter.
A few of them weren’t really carbonated yet, but it was interesting to taste them in this early stage. All of them were drinkable and I could go on and on about a few of them, especially the Oatmeal Stout, but this post’s focus is on the Maple Porter.
I was going to go through a large scale tasting description of the beer, but I think it’s too early to do that just yet. So, I will keep it short.
Appearance: Brown with some ruby tones when I held it to the sunlight. It was cloudy, but it may clear up once the yeast settles. No head since it wasn’t fully carbonated.
Aroma: Some maple, some roast, no hop aroma that I could detect.
Taste: Smoky, fruity, with hints of maple here and there. Brian could definitely taste the maple. Mouthfeel was rich, but that may change with the carbonation. Flavor was, umm, complicated. There was a lot going on, but not enough roastiness that one would expect from a Porter. There was some alcohol heat that I could detect. Finish was lingering with maple notes.
After tasting it a few times, I was happy with my experimental beer. Mike thought it was more of a Brown ale than a Porter. I have to agree with him. I probably should have had some chocolate malt in my recipe. I am going to submit it to the New England Homebrew Competition to get some expert notes on it as well.
When it has matured a bit more, we will taste it again. I can imagine this beer will taste good in front of a fire this winter.
Check out my Maple Porter recipe.
Check out the Maple Porter brew day post.
Check out the progress of other beers in our Brew Log category page.
Mike
Just to keep our styles straight. I suggested it seems more like a Brown Porter, not a Brown Ale. Two different styles. Porter comes in three “flavors”: Brown Porter, Robust Porter and Baltic Porter. The Maple Porter sort of presents itself as a Brown Porter but the flavor profile puts it in the Specialty catagory for sure.
John
Got it. Sorry to misquote you. Certainly the gravity readings taken before and after fermentation place this beer into the Baltic Porter category.
I don’t think the beer knows what it wants to be.