So I had heard all these great things last fall about The Bruery Autumn Maple, but darned if I could just never find the stuff. At least not in the season intended, because sometime last year (it might have been December or even January of this year) I finally found a bottle. I brought it home and stored it in my stash and sort of forgot about it, until fall of 2014 rolled around.

And now, of course, I’m drinking it, and it leaves me very impressed indeed. This is a beer perfect for the fall season, a little different and while highly spiced, it is not a pumpkin beer. I will let The Bruery tell you about that shortly, as I quote from website and label. First, though a more complete description of The Bruery Autumn Maple. The bottle calls it:

The Bruery Autumn Maple Belgian-Style Brown Ale Brewed with Yams, Molasses, Maple Syrup and Spices.

So there you go. Yams instead of pumpkins, and more on that from the label:

We don’t need pumpkins in our beer! Big, bold, spicy, and oh so yammy, our delicious Brown Ale is perfect for those cold autumn nights.

And from the website:

Brewed with 17 lbs. of yams per barrel (in other words, a lot of yams!), this autumn seasonal is a different take on the “pumpkin” beer style. Brewed with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, vanilla, molasses, and maple syrup, and fermented with our traditional Belgian yeast strain, this bold and spicy beer is perfect on a cold autumn evening.

The Bruery Autumn Maple has an alcohol content of 10% by volume and 25 IBUs. I paid $9.99 for the bottle which seemed pretty reasonable at the time.

The Bruery Autumn Maple pours to a murky reddish brown color with a thick creamy tan head formation of tightly packed bubbles and a big heady nose of funky Belgian yeast, brown sugar and drying spice. Taking a sip, I get a smooth and seductive creamy palate up front loaded with sweet richness and complex notes of dark molasses and brown sugar.

The vegetal yams come in and really give suggestions of candied yams in conjunction with the molasses and spice. A little bit of Belgian funk, some drying spice (nutmeg and cinnamon) and alcohol warmth at the last are all here in the palate though this is still definitely sweet on the finish. Very rich and full of flavor, a true sipping beer. The irony here though is that maple is the quality I got the least of, though it’s the only ingredient featured in the name. Perhaps a function of the age on my bottle.

The label says “Trick or Treat” on it but I can tell you this one is all treat and no tricks. What a perfect Thanksgiving beer indeed, I can see this matching perfectly with the holiday bird. If I can only find another bottle……