Heritage Maple Bush Lager

Brewed by Heritage Brewing Limited
Style: Smoked
Carleton Place, Canada

Bottled sample via boutip. Pale amber in colour with very strong and fizzy carbonation. Maple syrup aromas dominate, along with some sour citrus, caramel, and mild smoke notes. Flavors are of maple, tree bark, and under ripe orange. Very dry. There’s an odd sourness here that isn’t quite "off beer", but is still somewhat disconserting. Hardly seems smokey enough to be classified as a smoked beer.

Tasted sour with a sweetness that didn’t do anything for the style. Not a good beer.

Poured a nice copper color aroma of maple and caramel ..... taste of caramel malt and slight maple a good average brew wasn’t too sweet a good brew very enjoyable for this style

I know, you see some of us beer obsessives fervently researching on their PDAs whatever’s in front of them at the store or on the tap list. OK, maybe you see just my dorky @$$ pullin’ that $#!+. Well, sitting outside at Volo with the Beautiful Bride on our anniversary, I tossed caution to the wind and said, "serve me up a Maple Bush." Let’s just say this wasn’t one of those Costanza moments where doing the opposite of your first thought will meet with incredible success. Allow me to explain this offering served up in an Imperial pint glass off the tap... OK, it’s not all bad of a first impression. It actually pours a nice dark honey with a rather light head dissipating rather quickly. Could be much worse. Looks like it could be promising with a little maple color and cloudiness. At first this has a slightly sour taste - is this infected After a while I conclude that no, it’s not infected. At least that would give it an excuse. There’s a little maple sweetness. A little earthy stewiness with noble hops. Not what we’re looking for. First impressions: Tastes like dirt underneath a maple tree running with sap. The BB says it’s like "licking a shoe." Very slatish. Sourness dissipates but still tastes like dirty lines for a while. Or, more accurately a messy, poorly-constructed beer. The blessing: goes quicker than it tastes, ’cause I’m rushing. There’s still a slight sour earth feeling, but this isn’t making the taste buds dance...it’s making them run. Grassy, dirty, maybe some noble hops pucker up the palate a bit? Please make this go away. This was my mistake. Sure, maybe there are degree of difficulty points for Canadian tap lists since I’m quite unfamiliar with the lesser-known local offerings but the information was there and I didn’t use it to the best of my abilities. This is a dirty-tasting musty offering. Next.

For a maple lager, this was fairly good. It tasted almost as if they took their premium lager and put in hints of maple. It was very pleasant. Taste of maple and citrus highlights.

650mL bomber from Yong and Summerhill LCBO. Pours a very nice deep copper with a red hue, no head to speak of. The aroma is interesting, a strange mix of mildly smoked malts, subtle peat, maple syrup, sourness (very minor), and sausage. Smells strange at first but it kind of grew on me. Flavour is a nice blend of all those aspects, but coming in waves which makes it actually somewhat complex. Has that same sort of malt body all Heritage products seem to have. Maple comes through in the finish as well as some smoke. A touch of dry woodyness is in there too. The mouth-feel is actually somewhat thick, almost a slimy feel in the aftertaste to it which is odd but not gross. This is actually pretty enjoyable, weird yes, so maybe that’s what put some people off in the lower ratings. I would buy this again if it were available in my area and wasn’t $5 a bottle (which is staggering for a bomber of OCB beer for those who aren’t familiar with LCBO prices).

Bottle: Poured a clear copper color lager with a medium foamy head with average retention and no lacing. Aroma of light maple taste with some good caramel malt notes. Taste is a mix between some light fruity ester, some light maple syrup and some caramel malt notes. Body is average for the style with some average carbonation. Not too bad for the style but turn bad when gets too hot, this one must be drank cold.

Slightly cloudy amber with off white head. The aroma is a bit musty with a light malt and a little smoke. Flavour is malty sweet with faint maple sugar background and light hints of smoke. Palate is okay no too watery.