My word holy smoke we finally have the long-awaited Rogue Voodoo Maple Bacon Ale! We heard it had hit down at our beloved local beer emporium, Bitter Virtue and rushed down to grab a bottle before it all went, but would it live up to the hype? I’ve been a fan of Rogue Ales for a long time and beers such as the Mocha Porter and the Chatoe OREgasmic are a tough act to follow! With an ingredient listing including Cherrywood, Beachwood & Hickory Smoked Malts and Applewood Smoked Bacon I really really wanted this to live up to the hype and guess what…it actually surpassed expectations! Especially so after the bitter disappointment of Uncommon Brewers Bacon Brown ale and having read many an unfavourable review. I was concerned that I’d built myself up to be let down. It’s a collaboration with Portland doughnut crazies, Voodoo whose idiotic offerings include such delights as Cock & Balls and the Tex-Ass Challenge so you know this beer aint’ gonna be subtle whether that’s good or bad. I started to feel a little happer pouring it out of the bottle, seeing the joyful bright red sunrise colour but one whiff of that aroma confirmed my suspicions about the treat I had in store. What an enormously extravagant hit of maple sending me right back to Canada. The first sip has all of that maple sweetness, but then there’s the extraordinarily dirty smoke like you’re sitting downwind from a barbeque caked with burnt-on bacon that’s been cooking non-stop for 6 hours. Then you get to the salt. I would not be in the least bit surprised if you had enough of this to fill a pool, you would float in it like in the sea, although such wastefulness would be unthinkable. In fact, there’s so much sticky-sweet salty maple caramel I’m surprised it pours from the bottle so much like a liquid! This beer is massive and I suspect a bit like marmite. But more salty. You’ll love it or loath it. I love it. Don’t worry about horse in your lasagne and get some bacon in your beer