Maple Butter Tart Ale

Maple Butter Tart Ale? That seems like a gross idea. According to the 473mL can, this flavoured beer was an idea developed by folks from Midland Township in small town Ontario and brewed in Gravenhust by the canny folks at Sawdust City Brewing Co. The can of the 5% ale is pretty awesome, featuring a black and white depiction of some kind of eagle or griffin creature holding a colour hot air balloon bearing a gooey butter tart. The can invites the drinker to "crack open a can of your favourite dessert", and reveals that this odd grog is brewed using butter rum extract, vanilla extract, maple extract, and caramel extract. That's a lot of extract!

It's a lovely looking auburn brew--clear, and crowned with a luxurious, fluffy, off-white head. As I expected, there is a cloyingly sweet nose that does, for all the world, smell convincingly like a butter tart baked with maple syrup. The mouthfeel is quite thin, which doesn't work in this beer's favour. Its taste is, given the potent aroma, surprisingly restrained.  There are sweet, buttery caramel notes, as well as slow-rolling maple elements. A bit light, however, on both malt and hops, with only a tinge of bitterness on the back end.

 

This is a curious beer. It smells both potently delicious and a little bit revolting. Because of the strong smell, I expected comparable flavour, though I found it tasted slightly thin. This beer would likely prove pretty scrumptious poured over vanilla ice cream, but as a standalone brew I found it a bit baffling. Too sweet and too thin makes for an unusual combo. Still, the parties involved with the Butter Tart Ale are to be commended for innovating a truly unique beer. Not my cup of tea, but a genuinely inventive ale. 

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.