Steamworks Spruce Goose

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 7

Sampled on 5/29/2009. This ale pours a medium reddish, more red than amber color from a 22oz bottle. Medium sized white foamy head. The aroma is sweet, fruity, piney and sprucey. A medium to light bodied ale. The malts are fruity and sweet, with peach and apricot flavors. The hops are piney. The spruce is more noticeable in the sweetness and a touch in the pine. A nice winter ale. The aroma and flavors really open up as it warms, so let it sit a while before drinking. It is just a touch too sweet. The mouthfeel is full and round. The finish is clean and and smooth. The aftertaste is sweet with some spruce.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 7

An interesting find on clearance. Pour is amber with a medium white head. Aroma is earthy and malty with a hint of holiday spice (nutmeg maybe?). Taste is much the same, a little sweet in the finish. Not bad but not a beer I would seek out again.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Pours a darkish amber with a bit o head. All in all a bit watery for my taste, yet it is interesting all the same. High points for being unique, but ...not sure I want to get it again.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Courtesy of Chef Chad and slowly enjoyed with my wife on a comfortable Sunday evening. A unique brew that impressed us both. Murky amber pour with a diminishing filmy head and streaky lacing. Aroma is very malty with notes of sweetened rolls, candy cane and fresh spruce trees. The spruce is really distinctive. Medium bodied and robust with a mild sweetness. Tastes like cookie dough and evergreen, but the evergreen isn't the typical flavor associated with hops. You can taste that it's real spruce in this beer. Some banana and bakers spices can be detected as well. Very tasty.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

It poured bronze-ish in color. You could smell the spice. The nose actually reminded me of a riesling. I could taste cinnamon and fruit and the spruce all in one sip. It wasn't almost bubbly in the mouth. Just refreshing and wonderful. I can't believe my husband didn't leave me more to drink!

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

I love this beer.. I can drink it a lot. Just so happens there was a bottle at the store the other day and yes I had to pick it up!!! So here is the deal, Steamworks beer lately have not been good, at all. Do not Fear my fellow Beerpalians.. Spruce is here... Drink it now... Drink it in the summer... Drink it as often as you can. Very sweet and yes as Sap said, Peachy with the hint of The black Hills in South Dakota... PINE! Very Fun Beer.....

Food pairing

14-day dry-aged tenderloin of beef with spruce tip bordelaise and potato and onion confit hash..... This is from their website from a beer dinner they Did in Vail, Colorado

I do not ever recommend dry aging tenderloin.. I would Change the Meat to Venison!!!!

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Best By Date March 2008; Sampled April 2008
Pours with a frothy, initially two-finger thick, tan colored head that sits on top of a full, red-amber colored beer. When held up to the light the beer shows a deeply red stained, bright copper hue. The aroma has that characteristic, sweet citrus note from young spruce tips; candied orange peel, meets candied peaches, lychee syrup, and concentrated sweet apricot notes are all quite noticeable. Really it seems that the sweet peach notes are the biggest part of the aroma. As the beer warms it picks up some warming alcohol aromatics that make this seem a bit like peach schnapps.

Sweet tasting with a solid peach fruitiness. Up front notes of orange zest and candied grapefruit peel provide a touch of citrus-like bitterness, the peach / apricot flavors are found throughout though and are really unmistakable. The malt character here really plays a supporting role, it is not overly noticeable on its own, but certainly contributes to the sweetness that offsets the spruce tips so nicely. The malt also provides a nice, lightly chewy body, a sort of buttery mouthfeel and just enough heft to carry the spruce tips quite well. The fruit character somehow picks up a bit of mintiness towards the finish, not the actual flavor of mint, but the fruit flavor here somehow has the feel of mint, if that makes any sense at all.

This is a really nice showcase for spruce tips, sure it is a bit one dimensional, but I look at this as an IPA with spruce tips instead of hops. I am really enjoying the flavors of this beer. This is like a more strongly flavored version of Alaskan's Winter Ale, which I quite enjoy. This is easily the best beer I have had from this brewery, and given that I was expecting so little from this beer, I have been quite pleasantly surprised. Given the overly low scores this beer has received, I wonder if my slightly past date bottle has mellowed into a tasty beer; either way I am enjoying this beer.

Purchased; BevMo, Tucson AZ