Beer for Breakfast?

Sunday, my brewing partner AB* stopped by with two six-packs and two 22-oz. bombers of our most recent brew, I've Seen All Good Maple Bacon Porter. We'd been trying to get together for the past couple weeks to taste it for the first time, but life just kept getting in the way.

*I've been referring to him as just "my brewing partner" for quite some time, mainly because I mask everyone's true identity on this blog with a nickname or pseudonym, and I just haven't been able to think of an appropriate one for him. AB, in fact, are his real initials, but I assure you he's not August Busch.

When we developed the original recipe, our expectation was that it's alcoholic content would wind up in the 5.5-6% range. Unfortunately, the final specific gravity reading we took just prior to bottling told us otherwise. Our brew had only fermented enough to reach 4% alcohol. I'm not really sure why. The obvious answer would be we didn't let it ferment long enough, but by all indications, that wasn't the case.

Regardless, considering its two most unique ingredients are maple syrup and bacon, I'm rationalizing that we intended all along for it to be a breakfast beer. So, the next time KJ makes me bacon, eggs and pancakes, I think an I've Seen All Good Maple Bacon Porter will make the perfect accompaniment.

As far as the results are concerned, the bottles we opened were a bit over-carbonated. Inconsistent carbonation is fairly common in home brewing, so it's possible they're not all like that. Otherwise, in all likelihood, we overdid it with the maple syrup used for bottle priming. That wouldn't be a big surprise, considering it was the first time we used this particular ingredient as a substitute for priming sugar.

Taste-wise, I'm quite pleased. AB says he could recognize a very subtle maple flavor, although I didn't. I did, however, enjoy its full-bodied flavor and pleasant smokiness. It isn't exactly what we expected—although we weren't really sure what to expect—but is another brew that we're proud to consider an AfroDan original.