Summit Unchained 16 Herkulean Woods

The Summit Brewing Company is in St. Paul, Minnesota and has been making craft beer since 1986.  This is part of their Unchained Series of limited release special batch beers. Number 16 in the series is a 8.2% ABV lager that is brewed with maple syrup and spruce tips. The ingredient list might make you skeptical, but if you try this beer you are in for a treat.

The beer pours a deep and dark copper and amber in color. There is a tall, thick, foamy, bubbly head of off-white to very light tan. The aroma is pine needles, bright and tangy, toasted and nutty malt, bit of maple syrup. The taste hits the same notes, there is a base of nutty and toasted caramel maltiness, then the rich flavor and touch of sweetness of maple syrup, immediately countered and finished off by the bright, tangy, piney spruce tips and a very dry and quite bitter finish. This is both rich and dry at the same time. The beer has a soft, but intense carbonation and drinks refreshing, especially taking  into account its ABV. Opposing ingredient parts tangle here and result in a very nicely done whole.

(Sorry for the blurry pic, as usual around my house I checked my lens and found a child's fingerprint smudging it.)