The Bruery Autumn Maple

Brewed by The Bruery
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Placentia, California USA

750 mL 2009 batch. Pours dark orange with huge frothy tan head. Very little lacing. Aroma of yeast, clove, yam and a lot of booze. Good sweetness, great brown sugar sweet finish. A bit hot, but still doesn’t taste like 10%. Decent carb and medium mouthfeel. Pretty complex and well made beer. I think I’d like it more with an American ale yeast, but would also like to try the BA version.

Bottle and served in my big ole Karmeliet glass: Pours a deep coppery brown with a fluffy off-white head and left good lacework. The aroma has notes of fig, plum, starchy potatoes, cinnamom, clove, nutmeg, maple syrup, bready malts, light woody smoke and some nutty vapours. The taste is indeed initially spicy and fruity but they don’t overpower has much as I worried about. There is a bit of twangy acidity to help with balance but in retrospect this beer is all about spice, fruit and sugars. Oh, I do spot a bit of booze around the edges which gets stronger as the brew warms. The mouth feel is strange as it is fully carbonated but still seems soft and chalky dry, oh yeah warming upon the chest. Well, not to bad at all and fits right into the holiday spirit but it also something I am not sure I would really want again.

2008 bottle, 750mL. Poured murky, ruddy brown with just a few loose bubbles around the edges for head. The aroma picked up a heavy dose of yams, maple syrup, and brown sugar upfront with some fruity notes behind.. the candied sweetness couldn’t completely mask the alcohol warmth.. interesting stuff. I thought the nose had maximum yam saturation, but oh boy was I wrong.. liquefied yams, brown sugar, and molasses at the core with some cinnamon and nutmeg accents.. yam-inspired tartness around.. finished a bit sour with a thick sweet backing. Medium-bodied with very, very little carbonation on the palate.. the tartness/sourness threw me off a little.. this was a weird beer, but I’d probably drink it again.. not a good one to drink 750mL of by yourself, though.

75cl bottle. Large beige head atop hazy copper body. Aroma is moderately sweet, Belgian yeast, molasses, caramel, some cinnamon, light clove. Taste is moderately sweet, molasses, yam, caramel, some Belgian yeast, clove, cinnamon, alcohol warming. Medium-full body, lightly sticky. Despite the yamminess, comes across much more as a Belgian Strong Ale than a Spice/Herb/Vegetable brew.

bottle, pours dark brown with a medium tan head. Aroma is yeasty with brown sugar and spice. Flavor is a big pumpkin/yam notes with some sweet brown sugar and a cinnamon and clove spiced finish. Really nice.

Bottle. Pours a light hazy copper body with red hues. The head was thin and slightly off-white, but quickly vanished. Nose was more subtle than I expected with cinnamon, clove, banana notes. I was pleasantly surprised by the unique and subtle belgian yeast flavors, which took the cinnamon, clove, brown sugar and all spice notes to a less traditional place. No one spice or flavor stood out too strongly, and there was a caramel matly background that gave some good depth to the beer. I’m amazing at the alcohol content... not even traceable. Not a standout, but very pleasant.

Garnet-brown pour with a clear body, lively carbonation,and a one finger billowy khaki head that recedes into a nice froth. Aroma fills the the airspace with sweetness and spice. Nose is quite spicy- clove, coriander, cinnamon and nutmeg. Sweetness is caramel and molasses in nature with yam notes subtle but evident. Bready dough presents a nice balance, rounding out the yeast character nicely. Deep sniffs incite nasal warming booze and black pepper. Flavor is bursting with warming sweetness and spice. Tons of molasses, maple syrup, and caramel with biscuit dough and further proliferations of the spice character. Palate is medium bodied with a nice pillowy effervescence. Warming and comforting- a treat for sure.

750 ml bottle from SouthBay Drugs (San Diego, CA). Pours a dark copper brown, reddish underneath and fairly hazed, with a small tannish offwhite head atop that stays decent sized, laces ok. Aromas are interesting and surprisingly pleasant, maple syrup and some yammy type cereal sweeter grains, a touch of cinnamon and vanilla, with some clove, a touch of Belgian yeasty spice, and a decent balance. Nothing too absurd. Initial is medium bodied, fairly sweet although with a decent bitterness on the backend. Maple syrup and cinnamon, with vanilla and a decent yeasty Belgian edge, spicey, with clove, yams. The cinnamon is really the dominant spice, with vanilla and caramel behind. The yams, harder to pick out, but then again I’m not a Yam person, and largely, assume they just add some sweet potatoe like sweetness to the malts. Finish is lightly bitter, with cinnamon spice and vanilla, fairy sweet but still very tasty. Who knows if I could drink a lot of this.. But it really is a well constructed brew, and different than expected. Hard to find the alcohol, really. 10 % ABV? Really?