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Uncategorized Friday, November 11th 2011 at 3:38 pm

There is a Beer That Tastes Like Bacon and Maple Syrup

And here it is: The Bacon Maple Ale. The beer, now available in a 750ml Pept0-Bismal pink bottle, was the product of an unholy union between Rogue brewers and Portland’s legendary Voodoo Doughnut. If you’re bold enough to want to wrap your lips around this fatty, smokey brew, you’ll have to drop $13 a bottle or $156 for a case. The pricing may be a bit brutal, but that’s the cost of weird, small batch beers.

Oh, and by all accounts, it’s pretty terrible.

Unfortunately, this bizarre beer is only available through the mail and at select Oregonian locations. However, that might be for the best, as just about every outlet that has got their hands on the beer since its release in late September has been less than enthused.

From The Maple Daily:

It generally tastes like a dirty, ashy smoked beer without any of the subtlety of the finer Bamberger rauchbiers. The maple syrup notes pop up now and again, but the smoke flavor, along with fatty hits of unwanted bacon, dominate.

Portland’s Willamette Week had a variety of opinions about the beer, but none of them were positive:

“Smells like a candied ash tray.”

“Well, it is what it’s advertised. But that doesn’t make it good.”

“I need a cigarette to get this taste out of my mouth.”

“If they wanted to make this taste like a bacon maple bar—the bacon isn’t particularly smokey, it’s the salt that stands out. So it misses the mark in addition to being a foul abomination.”

Anybody have a counter opinion, or am I going to have to buy this myself?

(Rogue via BuzzFeed, Beer News)

Relevant to your creamy, delicious bacon interests

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  • http://www.facebook.com/justnoldhyp Joni Ziegler

    bold enough and the bottle is so lovely :)

  • Chris

    This is how I feel about most Rogue beers. Nothing special.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Arlene-Mcbearson/100002628811569 Arlene Mcbearson

    Never had it, but if you want to try something else like this, there is a weizenbock from Left Hand called TNT. I have never had a beer that has confused me like this one.

  • http://www.radiodiffusion.net/ Stuart

    I am a big fan of Voodoo Doughnuts Bacon Maple bar. So I was pretty excited when I found out about the collaboration with Rogue brewery… I ran out and bought two bottles as soon as I found out about the beer. Unfortunately, those reviews are quite accurate. The smoke flavor obliterates any of the other flavors. If you drink enough of it, you eventually become numb to it, and start to taste the maple – but not enough to make it enjoyable. Also, when you get to the bottom of the bottle there are black chunks of God only knows what… Burnt bacon bits? I don’t know, and don’t want to know. 

    I need to figure out what to do with the second bottle… Because I sure as Hell am not going to be drinking it.

  • 3394momo

    Thanks for “saving my bacon,” guys.  Was all set to get this for my home-brewing son in law, who would prefer beer over “stuff” as a Christmas gift.  Any other suggestions for something unusual that is not generally available outside the Portland area? 

  • Max Eddy

    I might be interested if you’re still looking to unload that extra bottle.

  • http://www.facebook.com/kchandlerz Kimberly Chandler

    I bought this online prior to reading any reviews and I took two sips and couldn’t stomach to taste anymore. I wound up pouring the rest down the drain. Fail. 

  • Anonymous

    How can you resist trying this product?

  • Barbara

    I actually felt like it had enough of a smokey bacon bite to it. What ruined the experience for me was the strong maple scent and after-taste. 

  • Celtek

    I saw this beer down here in Florida at a Total Wine!!! I had to pass.

  • http://www.premierclaimsplus.co.uk/ Tena Brinson

    Also, when you get to the bottom of the bottle there are black chunks of
    God only knows what… Burnt bacon bits? I don’t know, and don’t want
    to know.

  • Anonymous

    It’s also on shelves down the block at BevMo, here in the South Bay.

  • Blair

    This is amazing! Everyone must try it!!!

  • Süleyman Okan

    Commendable effort. Fail harder.

  • Duder

    Rogue has a terrible reputation for the way they treat their workers. I wouldn’t buy this even if it did distribute in my area.

  • http://www.facebook.com/AllanRobinson2012 Allan Robinson

    Drinking my breakfast? Hmmm, not so sure i like that idea. Not knocking it, just not so sure i wish to order a side of bacon and maple syrup in a bottle. lol

  • http://www.jatheon.com/why-jatheon/why-archive/email-archiving/ email archiving

     Me too ! Please reply. I have never tasted this and am very interested to do so !

  • http://twitter.com/PlutoOfPluto Joe K

    The beer isn’t great, but I’ve had much worse. If they’d drop the smoke, it’d be a lot better.

  • @MarkMiller30

    We have it on the shelf in Buffalo, NY. 13.99 I don’t know if I wanna try it at that price though.

  • http://www.facebook.com/bradgreenwood Bradley Greenwood

    The Pepto-Bismol-colored bottle would make me nauseous BEFORE trying this abomination.

  • http://rayvellest.com/ Ray Vellest

    Can’t believe I haven’t thought of that all by myself before!

  • Beer Guest

    Tastes great reduced and poured over pancakes.  Not joking.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_LUMEZBAEFOMBJOLO245AFIQYVE Mark

    Voodoo Donuts in Portland….their theme is they serve their donuts in a pink box, therefore the horrendous color of the bottle.

  • Dawgweenr

    Cost $109 a case so u better like maple bars….bacon n/a cause everyone likes bacon..oh and their beer is god awful!

  • Emil

    I wouldn’t trust a beer that is in an opaque bottle, as a Brit who like his beer done properly, ie not tasteless lager, (please note i dont hate lager, just am picky about which ones i drink), i prefer to have a brown translucent bottle!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1375098240 Tom Mefford

    At first this stuff was strained through real bacon!!

  • Anonymous

    At least this beer is better than the swill that comes from the big beer companies.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/WTOPDI7KV7ADYZQMT7FN7QYSUM Mark

    I’ve also tried a bottle of this…. beer.

    It’s almost as if they were more worried about getting the smell as exact as possible and forgot to make it taste good.  When you open it and smell it, it smells just like a fresh batch of the Bacon Maple Bars.  But the taste….  oh the taste.  As others say, the “fake-con” taste is just awful.  It’s that same crap you get whenever you buy things like bacon mints, bacon gum, bacon toothpaste, bacon mayo and anything else that is purported to have bacon in it.  All these supposed “bacon” products don’t actually have real bacon in it, they just have that awful fake smokey.  That is what’s in this beer and it’s all you taste when you take your first swig.  It’s like drinking a big bottle of liquid smoke.

    To be honest, the maple flavor is quite good.  After you get past the initial shock and horror of that awful smoke flavor, the after taste is of the maple flavor and that was really tasty and what kept me from dumping the whole thing out right away.  I got through roughly a glass of it and shared some with friends.

    Overall, it’s a fun buy if you’re curious and have some friends over and can subject them to it as well.  But as a good beer, I wouldn’t recommend.

  • http://www.FiveBucker.com/ FiveBucker

    From the sounds of it, this beer won’t be making it through the years. I recommend anyone that has any unwanted bottles of it to sit on it. This has the makings of being a collectible item or even an urban legend since it is such an abomination.

    Ha! The reviews of it are hysterically funny!

  • JoMama

    It’s not good and the smell is very off putting. I felt like I was drinking a ham steak. Waste of 14 bucks if you ask me.

  • http://twitter.com/dysfnctnlalchlc nate

    I enjoyed this beer. it cost 20 dollars in the store here and I felt that with buying only one bottle it was 20 dollars well spent.

  • http://www.facebook.com/determined.salmon Determined Salmon

    Duh.