Peak Organic Maple Oat Ale

Peak Organic Brewing Company
Brewed at Shipyard Brewing Company
Style: Specialty Grain
Portland, Maine USA

Draught at Spuyten Duyvil, New York
Hazy amber color; creamy persistent head. The aroma is too simple, light cereals and malt. It has medium body strength, malt flavor, a bit on the dry side; the oats give a pleasant but very light touch. Ordinary.

(12oz bottle) Medium off-white head atop cloudy amber body. Aroma is medium sweet, toffee/maple, some grapefruit/earthy, light metallic. Taste is medium sweet, grapefruit/earthy, light caramel, maple. Light-medium body, light acidity.

(Draught) Pours a lightly hazy glowing amber body with a small off-white head. Aroma of plastic, cola, caramel, and nuts. Flavor of mild hops, plastic, grain/oats, and sweet maple syrup with a metallic finish.

Pours mahogany with a thin white head. Smells of molasses, maple, sweet malt. Tastes of maple and caramel with some hioney hints on the finish.

Pours a clear apricot body with with a modest off-white head that fades rapidly. Lopsided lacing. Has kind of an APA aroma, grainy malt, a sweetnes that I’ll assume is from the maple (although I can’t clearly identify it as such), and a citric & earthy bitterness. The flavor doesn’t really display any oat or maple characteristics. It has a sweet graininess to it along with bitter soil in lieu of hops. I would neither recommend nor drink this beer again.

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Amber color with a moderate head of off-white bubbles and actually a few lines of lace. Caramel and maple syrup aromas. Smells like a stack of pancakes. Wow, what a plain flavor profile. Dry malt and just a hint of maple. I am assuming the maple syrup sucked out a good deal of sugars leaving a mostly dry amber flavor. Metallic finish. Boring at best.

An amber ale with a thin off white head. A very nice aroma of dark maple syrup, woody notes, and fusel alcohol. In mouth, a sweet malty ale with an oily mouth feel, lots of British hops, and a nutty final. Medium bodied.

22 ounce bottle from City Market in Burlington, VT (March 2008), served a bit below cellar temperature from a Chouffe tulip. No idea what to expect from this sucker, the first "Peak Organic" seasonal, except that being brewed by Shityard, it’ll likely not be something I’ll buy again. But there’s always hope, right? It pours a totally clear copper-brass, with a moderate fluffy off-white head that dissipates rather slowly leaving hints of lace....mild, rather sweet aroma, hints of nutty-caramel qualities; closer to a brown ale with a touch of hops than anything; with warmth an unpleasant mustiness sets in that conflicts with the sugary malts, and the all-too-typical Shipyard house diacetyl comes to the fore....and well, the moment I’ve (not) been waiting for as I put it to my lips: sour, cardboardy, harsh and completely muddled on the tongue, with a hard, dry burnt-woody quality that makes it nearly undrinkable....low carbonation, syrupy mouthfeel. Yep, another winner from New England’s worst brewery....