Back Road Maple City Gold

Brewed by Back Road Brewery
Style: Oktoberfest/Märzen
LaPorte, Indiana USA

This is actually their Oktoberfest, full of rich malts hinting of caramel. Some hints of hops in the finish. Actually one of the fuller Oktoberfests I've tasted this year. I enjoyed it ontap at the Indiana Brewers Guild Oktoberfest tasting.

Ths brew poured a medium head of off-white bubbles of fine to medium size. Its body was a carbonated hazy light brown and its aroma was a nice malty one. It had a small initial bitter bite and a clove malt hop flavor.

This is a complete re-rate, because I rated first as an amber ale, then saw the confusion of other raters, then looked on the Back Road web-site to find that this is indeed a Marzen style lager which certainly makes more sense. The listed style certainly needs changed and some of the rates re-evaluated by their authors (in my humble opinion). Anyway, this is a deep ruby-amber beer with very sweet malts and very subtle hops. The head is light and the flavors dark and very grape-like with a hint of ripe melon. The palate is smooth, the liquid thick. Deep down is a earthy nutty flavor. All in all, it isn't very well balanced or complete. Perhaps it is the over-sweetness or the strong alcohol tones. While it isn't bad as a lager, it is pathetic as an ale.

Bull Shit, I call Bull Shit! Back Road says this is an Amber ale but the body is obviously mahogany in color! I want my money back! Oh wait, this was in a trade from BigBadBear63.
Nice floral nose and the flavor has notes of, plums, apricots, cashew nuts, & caramel, a bit musty and leathery…… Distinguishing and toasty, nice malty backbone that finishes with a crisp bitter English style hop characteristic.
Thanks for the great brews Mike!

Dark amber, small white head. Seet bready malt aroma, slightly metallic. Flavor is medium sweet, nutty, with a light grassy hop bitterness, and some decent bready/cookie malt flavors.

Intriguing heavy maltiness - slow drippingly malty, in fact, and it would get cloying if not for the whiff of hops drying the close. Not sure why the title claims "gold" because it is very nicely red-amber.

leathery red-brown, or cherry-wood gunstock in it's varied dark and fiery gleaming. the head was a factor in my initial impression, a brief sawdust colored frothy display, but, like a movie's opening credits, vanished once the real action began. sweet, melon-like aroma, very ripe meaty plum, raw tobacco leaf, earthy with bock malts. flavor likewise is sweet, awash in strong carbonation, a reasonable gesture of citrus bitterness. the label claims it's a lager rather than an ale, and i believe it. my guess is that it's a tasty, malty bock-- tho not as large in it's body or alcoholic puissance as it's nobler germanic bretheren. everything i know about back road's beers, i owe to bigbadbear, and i thank him.

Ah, nothing beats a nice beer after a hard day of mountainbiking. But I guess this will have to do. Actually, I haven’t had a Back Road in some time and found this to be quite pleasant. Had a nice lemon and orange peel taste -- bitter but with some sweetness, perhaps caramel. Amber hued.