Review: Fernie Sap Sucker Maple Porter

Review: Fernie Sap Sucker Maple Porter by Cody La Bière
Thanks Rhonda! It was back in the late 90s when I discovered that maple syrup was insanely delicious.. how? Not by eating millions of pounds of crêpes, but by accidentally getting syrup on my bacon, ever since then, I've drooled at the thought of maple... anything. The idea of maple-themed beer appeals to me greatly, because it has a nice sweetness that can make a great dark beer even better. So when Rhonda told me she was sending me a bottle of Sap Sucker Maple Porter by Fernie Brewing, I was drooling at the thought of maple... *drool*

Appearance: Pours like just like any other porter out there, near-black like a black coffee, beige-caramel minimal foamy head and thats aboot it.

Aroma: Well.. um.. where's the maple? This smells like a small town diner's fresh brewed coffee more than anything maple related. Roasted malt, a bit of a burnt aroma to it, slightly sweet, slight "I smell burnt toast" smell to it, but minimal maple syrup at best. The syrupesque aroma is more like cream and sugar aroma you get in a double double than maple, by far.

Taste: It's a sweet porter, kind of sugary, yet very much a coffee influenced porter with rich smokey malts, a sliver of milk chocolate and even more of a roastiness coming from the malts. The more I drink this, the more I do realize there IS maple in there, somewhere, possibly smoked maple wood, but it doesnt have that syrupy goodness we all know and love. It's a very decent porter, but I was expecting a very maple-centric stout, instead of a bit of a smoked maple wood porter.

Overall Thoughts: It's good, but not the best maple porter/stout I've had, my favourite maple-themed beer by far is Cannery Brewing's Maple Stout, which, I once reviewed as "HOLY Fuck this smells like pancakes drenched in maple syrup!"
I really enjoy coffee porters and this is a good coffee porter, but I'm just a bit let down by the lack of maple in this beer, the roasted malt (that tastes like coffee) is substancially much more noticeable than the maple in the beer. But hey, when you make your beer entirely themed around sap and maple, you expect full on cabane à sucre! It is 5.5% ABV

www.ferniebrewing.com/craft-beer/sap-sucker-maple-porter

1 comment:

Jono said...

I prefer Fernie's to Cannery's because Fernie uses real maple syrup. Cannery uses natural maple flavour which is far punchier than the syrup.

When I drink Cannery's all I can taste is the maple flavour which has a very distinct taste and smell I'm not a fan of.