Amber’s Sap Vampire Maple Lager

Brewed by Amber’s Brewing Company
Style: American Dark Lager
Edmonton, Canada

"Taste like pancakes. Beer body is a burnt orange and has zero cap, not even a single small bubble is floating on the surface. All I can smell is syrup this smell very sweet and mapely. Taste is mostly maple syrup with some bread and a mild hop presence if you search hard enough. Taste is very interesting and unique however you get sick of it before your done half the bottle. If you combine this pancake beer, with Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Marzen (the bacon beer) and a nice coffee stout you’ll have yourself a nice breakfast. "

Bottle: Poured a medium copper color ale with a small foamy head with minimal retention and not much lacing. Aroma of maple is more dominant then I had expected and more enticing then I would have hoped for. Taste is dominated by the maple with some very small amount of residual sweetness which is surprising when you think of the amount of sugar in maple syrup. Very surprising and at least tasting of maple instead of so many other maple beer tasting nothing like maple – but then again I am still wondering if maple should be mixed with beer.

Pours a coppery red with no head. Smells like that french toast crunch cereal I had as a kid, crazy sweet and artificial smelling. Some sourness in there as well, caramel. Tastes very similar to the smell. Yuck! French Toast Crunch cereal, artificial and super ridiculously sweet. Flat, no carbonation. Leaves a sticky residue in my mouth. Sucks I have 5 more of these.

Pours a dark copper colour. Thin white head. Smells of maple. Tastes of maple syrup, caramel, malts, wood. Light. Very unique. Highly recommended.

This pours almost dead from the bottle-- very low carbonation, like a cask ale. Deep amber brown, clear. Sweet maple candy aroma. The flavour is all maple syrup and vanilla; very very sweet. The low carbonation and the over-the-top sweetness lend a syrupy feel to this beer, which is saved somewhat by a dry short finish. Maybe this is what they were going for?

Bottle. Really need a vigorous pour to get any kind of froth. Dark amber. Aroma of maple fudge, suggests a very sweet drink. Except for viscosity it is like drinking a bottle of syrup. Not as sweet as the aroma but still sweet. The first sip is surprising, unique and interesting. Each successive sip is less unique and more obnoxious. More of a dessert beer for a couple of sips. I am a big fan of a small company experimenting and putting out unique beers.

Draught sample at Edmonton International Beerfest ’08. Poured a hazy brown colour. Fading white head. Mapley aroma. Flavour was initally sweet with brown sugar and maple notes, some caramel malts, finish was a bit woody wand dry.L ight bodied.