From
Michigan comes the whole
Saugatuck line. I'm not sure this is going to go in their favor this time, though. I mean, a blueberry maple
stout seems like the kind of thing that will just come out wrong, doesn't it? Either this won't taste like beer or it will be some kind of zombie beer with flavors slapped on top. But, I've found things like a
chocolate chip cookie beer that was actually very good, so maybe this will turn out okay.
Vaguely ruby at the edges, the very dark beer has a slightly off-white head that dissolves into nothingness very quickly. The resulting beverage looks almost lifeless, but the aroma of toasted blueberry bagel with faint maple sweetness in the background makes me wonder if this would be a better stout for breakfast than the terrible coffee-based beverages that brewers think is good to start the day with.
First sip is, indeed, blueberry and maple sweetness like that blueberry-maple syrup you can get at some restaurants (or when you mix their blueberry and their maple syrups behind their backs). I may have stretched it with the bagel parallel in the aroma, as the malt isn't really the hard bread that it would need to be for that. It's a relatively sedate, easy beer that reflects its reasonable 6.0% ABV.
Tip-in is sweet blueberries with a bit of charred grains around the fringes. The middle sloshes in with the maple joining the blueberries and the grains becoming more muted. The finish is an abrupt end of sweetness for a little bitterness before the blueberries remain for a trail-off.
Bottom Line: If non-beer-like beer is what you're going for, this may be a winner.
3.25/5
