Lakefront My Turn: Matt

Lakefront Brewery's "My Turn" series is another one of those "every employee matters so everyone gets to brew whatever beer they want". I'm a big fan of these types of things because it's just a cool thing to do, and it gives the brewery an excuse to explore different ideas and styles. Lakefront is no exception to this rule, with beers ranging from today's Oak Aged Farmhouse Red to Vanilla Maple Dopplebock to whatever a Weinachtsbockbier is.

My Turn: Matt is an Oak Aged Farmhouse Red Ale, which is 100% the reason I bought it. I've never seen that combination of words in a beer style, so I figured it had to be interesting. The beer is delightfully oaky, almost sour. It had a strong fruit aroma that died down a lot in the flavor profile, and had a spicy ester finish. It definitely tasted like an aged farmhouse and it was delightful.

Prep/Cooking

For all the richness that the beer has in liquid form, the batter lost almost all of it. It did pick up a bit of a biscuity flavor that beers tend to get as batter, but there was nothing notable about this batter.

Results

Wow, okay. These might be the most complex pancakes I've had flavor-wise. Layers and layers of flavor come through. The earthy, spicy, oak characteristics of the beer come back with a vengeance in pancake form and it's great. Or, as my notes say, it "comes through like whoah". I could've easily eaten more of these pancakes just to try to dissect the flavor more.

The Decision

• Pancakes: Yes. Without a doubt. The beer is delicious in its own right and the pancakes are incredible.
• Syrup: Yes. This is one of the few pancakes whose flavor has completely stood up to the sweetness syrup usually provides. The syrup added layers to the flavor but masked some of the complexity.

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