Spring House Hickory - Smoke Bacon Maple Porter

Brewed by Spring House Brewing Company
Style: Porter
Conestoga, Pennsylvania USA

Serve in English pint, Shaker

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Tap, Lancaster, backlog. Pours a clear dark brown body with a nice frothy light brown head that faded to a thin ring. The nose has a nice level of smoke and really does evoke images of bacon in my mind. Some sweet slightly burnt caramel malt and light notes of vanilla and maple sugar. The flavor is of smoked meat, light vanilla, and dark caramel primarily. The maple emerges a bit on the finish. Not a whole lot of smoke flavor, but there is a little. It makes for a pretty complex drink because all of the elements are pretty subtle. Medium bodied, a little clingy sweetness, and light to moderate fizzy carbonation. Not bad, but I would go for a bit more smoke personally.

Served on-tap at the new Spring House taproom into a mini pint. A - Pours pitch black with a small half finger tall tan head, dissipating to almost nothing at all, leaving light lacing down the glass. S - Smells of smoke, smoke and more smoke. I get no maple or "bacon" at all, this is all hickory smoke. Some dark roast and a tiny bit of sweetness creeps in as it comes to room temp. T - This is an absolute smoke bomb. It dominates all aspects of this beer. You think you get a faint hint of the "bacon" and then it is gone again, replaced by the ever present smoke. I get no maple at all, just a VERY faint sweetness. Finish is you guessed it, all smoke. I wanted to like it but it was just too much smoke. M - Heavy body and flavor with moderate carbonation. Very smokey feel with plenty of it lingering throughout the finish. The smoke really began to wear on me over the course of my glass. O - I really wanted to like this one but the huge amount of smoke really brought it down a few notches. I really didn’t get any of the maple, and only a faint whiff of the "bacon". I hope they work on this one and try it again.

Bottle shared at the CL Rosso Batch 3 Release (at least I’m pretty sure this was it). Pours dark brown with some light brown head. Huge aroma with roasted malt, bacon, wood, caramel, a bit smoky. Bacon really comes out on the taste with a light maple sweetness. Tasted like maple bacon, this was the perfect beer to have at 8 in the morning while waiting in line.

A deep dark porter with a thick brown head. A pleasant pungeant coffee beans with light peaty notes, smooth and sweet. In mouth, a good bitter chocolate, with smoked notes, very good. On tap at PA Flavor, April 9th, 2011, as Breakfast Porter.