Surly Doomtree

Doomtree is one of those beers that people ooh and aah about when you show up at certain events. Maybe it's the shiny can, maybe it's that it's a "one-off". I picked this up on a whim because I heard good things about it. But, of course, any beer that enters this house must become pancakes.

Doomtree is, according to Surly themselves, a "bastardized style". BeerAdvocate calls it an American Pale Ale, which I guess I agree with. The beer has a delightful malt backbone with hints of sweetness balanced by notches of hops. As Surly puts it, it's "dark gold, toasty, aromatic, subtly spicy, bitter enough, dry-hopped brew".

Prep/Cooking

Doomtree batter took on some interesting characteristics. Notably, it got a lot sweeter. Or, possibly, it lost some of the malt and hop bitterness to balance it out, and some of the spice came through a bit more. It had a somewhat bready feel to it. The other interesthing thing was how thick it got once it sat for a little. I'm guessing that has something to do with how heady the beer is, but I don't think I've ever seen anything like it.

Results

For all the pomp and circumstance the beer gets, and the potentially interesting batter characteristics, the pancakes themselves were underwhelming. The hoppiness died off completely, but there was a sense of subtle malt in the aftertaste. Otherwise, there wasn't much going on with these pancakes.

The Decision

• Pancakes: No. Stick with the beer – it's not my favorite, but it's still better than pancakes.
• Syrup: No. Syrup didn't change much here. The aftertaste lost its subtlety and picked up some bitterness. Otherwise it just washed out any other flavors.

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