Joseph Holt of Manchester – Maplemoon

ABV 4.8%

Despite the colouring and scent this ale remains me a lot of some of the darker lagers out there, not a bad thing, as the ones I am thinking of are excellent in their own right. Very easy drinking ale and I have the feeling that on a summer’s day and slightly chilled this would be a sheer pleasure to go along a bbq with friends. As winter time goes, it works well with sweeter chocolate so I would recommend having this on hand for those chocolate selection boxes that are so popular at this season. My fear was this was going to be too sweet with the maple as most maple influenced drinks I have tried ignore the dry maple flavour and go straight for the sweet side but rest assured while it is a sweet ale but not that sweet with the malts and hops rounding it off nicely. The maple comes though but as the sweetish top note and the dry finish which makes this quite a moreish ale.

Looks-wise the ale pours nicely out of the bottle with a dry sweet note from the maple coming though the light hoppy scent of the beer. A good rich head which settles down to light foaming in the glass and the colour is a medium golden-ish brown which looks appealing too.

This was my first time of trying beers from the Holt brewery and with this as an indicator I will be trying to source a few more bottles from them soon.

For more information http://www.joseph-holt.com/