Decadent "Vermont Maple" Double IPA

 Decadent is one of those brewers that I've tried enough to attempt to see a pattern of how well they're doing. The first one got a good enough rating, but it was mid pack. The next one was an excellent beer, and I gave it a four out of five. Getting a four on my scale is doing god's work, so the next one was unlikely to meet that, but it still managed a 3.25 out of five which is a very good beer. Then there was the double toasted marshmallow. Everyone's allowed to make a mistake.

The very hazy orange – amber beer doesn't sport much of a head, but what head it has certainly likes to grip the sides. And what this means is my favorite thing about beer - lacing! Of course, taste will win the day, but lacing is what makes a beer's presentation particularly pleasant to my eyes. Maybe you don't agree. Get your own blog. The aroma is sweet and unmistakable maple with oranges and grapefruit backing it up.

First sip is very heavily mapley. I knew going in that decadent was good with their dessert beers, and this is a DIPA, so this was definitely going to be a sweet beer with kind of an over-the-top taste. So, what I'm getting is completely expected. The underlying beer seems to be dominated by that maple, and the citrus is barely peeking out from underneath. But, a sip isn't going to tell us what we need to know.

Tip-in is a gentle carbonation tickle with mostly a bread crust malt. A slight glaze of maple syrup may be on top of that bread, but it's subtle. The middle is pretty tremendous; the maple gives the whole beer a smoothness that combines with a very gentle citrus smoothie and light carbonation prickling toward the back of the throat. The finish is a more pronounced maple, but it's somehow tamped down from what the sip had brought forth. Instead, the syrupy sweetness manages to assert itself just in the trail off.

Bottom Line: When you make a living at dessert beers, some will definitely come out pretty good.

3.5/5