Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale

Rogue Brewery decided to do something different. You know its different right away when you buy it because the beer comes in a pepto pink bottle. You cannot miss it mixed in with all of the dark colored craft beers on the shelf. Rogue did their own collaboration not with another brewery but with Voodoo Doughnuts a doughnut shop known for pushing the boundaries of flavors. I love a good doughnut. I love beer. I should really love this stuff.

The Bacon Maple Ale was 30 IBUs and a reasonable 5.6% abv. It poured out a mahogany brown with a small tan head that went away pretty quickly. It smelled like breakfast... There were huge notes of bacon and hints of maple that could only make me think of bacon and pancakes. The aroma was so potent that every time I went to my glass I got a big ol' wiff of it in my face.

The flavor was very sweet and malty but it had a huge smoked flavor which was different. There were notes of caramel in there, but most of it was drowned out by the heavy sweetness of maple. The smoke and the maple were like two titans fighting above the mortal world drowning everything else out. I thought the flavors may get clearer as they warmed up, but that was just wishful thinking. No new notes came out and the smokiness still overwhelmed the rest of the beer.

It had an almost greasy mouth feel that seemed to coat your tongue and teeth. There was a bitter aftertaste that stuck around as long as the sticky coating did.

The beer was a neat experiment, but not something I am dying to buy a case of. Good for Rogue for going out on a limb, but not my favorite.

I give it a 1.5