Otter Creek World Tour: Mud Bock
Otter Creek Brewing

Flashback #196

 

 

 

Deep, dark chestnut brown with a fizzy, tan head and decent lace.

Rich hazelnut, molasses, sweet malt, and little to no hop aroma.

Interesting blend of caramel malt and some strange fruity tartness like sour apple or cherry. Moderately dry finish with some faint cocoa.

Mouthfeel is light-medium with moderate carbonation.

An interesting brew with a fruity flavor that I found a little odd and off-putting. Was hoping for something a little maltier and with more sweetness.

Pours clear, dark brown in colour. Nice creamy mocha head on top but vanishes too quikly. This beer runs almost flat a few minutes after serving!

Nose is quite malty. Nuts and fruits which sour apples dominates certainly. Brown sugar and molasses smell are present too.

Mouthfeel is ok, average. Carbonation is fizzy, somewhat bizarre for a brown beer. Unfortunately, flavours feels a bit artificial.

Pours a three finger light tan head that fades slowly to a thin layer leaving some lace. Brown/black color. Medium carbonation and medium bodied. Malty nose. Flavor is sweet and sour apple almost medicinal. Different bock. $3.99 for a 22oz bottle from Manchester Wine & Beer Manchester, CT.

The pour gave a dark amber color with a thin head of small bubbles that dissipated completely after a short time. The smell is extremely malty with little else apparent. The taste is immediately tart with a sour-apple flavor shortly after. The feel is well carbonated and rather light compared to the flavor and appearance suggest. The sour/tartness lasts a long time and covers any other finishing flavors.

It's an interesting variation on a bock, but it is not one that I really appreciate. If there was more balance in flavor then it would be more acceptable but the apple tartness is just too overwhelming to be very drinkable.

Poured into a pint glass on 7/22/09

A - Hazy brown with caramel-colored highlights. A porous 1/2 inch head dissipates quickly, leaving hardly any lacing.

S - Toasty caramel malts. Subtle nose.

T - Surprisingly enough, the most poignant flavor I am picking out is an odd tartness; to say sour-apple would be an overreach but it kind of reminds me of cider. There is a bit of baked bread & roasted coffee; something grassy, as well.

M - The crisp carbonation well lends itself to the tartness. Medium body & mouthfeel.

D - A shade too tart for me; at least for a bock. I did find the flavor more enjoyable as the beer warmed, as the malts were more prominent.

"An election is a moral horror, as bad as a battle except for the blood; a mud bath for every soul concerned in it."

--George Bernard Shaw

Dark copper penny with generous orange highlights... that becomes dark crimson when backlit. The coffee-with-cream colored crown has a whipped mousse texture and looks even better as it starts to melt. A good bit of glass coverage is a positive as well.

The aroma suggests that this seasonal ale will be darker than a pale bock and lighter than a dark bock. It's earthy, somewhat nutty and even has a little butterscotch. Maybe the slightest hint of cocoa as well. Expectations are now higher than they were before the crown was cracked.

Otter Creek Mud Bock is a surprisingly bitter and surprisingly complex version of the style. I've never been a big fan of the primarily pale-malted, hop-deficient bocks because they lack a flavor hook. This one has hooks galore and is a much better beer for it.

Regarding the flavor: if pale is a '1', toasted-earthy-nutty is a '5' and chocolate is a '10', this brew weighs in at about '7'. Specifics include brown bread sprinkled with tea leaves, flower petals, chopped peanuts and cocoa powder. There's still some dark butterscotch, but we're not talking a ton of diacetyl. The back end balancing bitterness is fantastic.

The mouthfeel is a tweener where score is concerned. What was a 3.5 in the top half of the bottle just manages to eke out a 4.0 in the bottom half. A pleasurable lagery smoothness is its finest feature.

Otter Creek/Wolaver's has rarely blown me away. Mud Bock doesn't either, but it's still a well-crafted version that is more complex than most. I was going to come up with some comment about otters and 'dam' good beer, but nothing comes immediately to mind. Oh wait, that would be beavers, wouldn't it. Go buy this one. Now.

Appearance - a deep brownish red beer with great clarity. A fat finger of light mocha holds for a few minutes before settling to a thin cover and collar. Some thin lacing in broken patches.

Aroma - good roasted malt scent on the pour, some nuttiness as well.

Taste - good malt roastiness outta the gate. A solid nutty flavor supports the malt very well. The expected brown ale sweetness up front is balanced by some mild prickly hops on the swallow. Great balance, a slight twang on the finish. Ends roasty with hints of coffee.

Mouthfeel - bigger than average body. A little over-carbonated at first, let it sit and warm a little to release some of those bubbles.

Drinkability - a very sessionable brown ale, I could see this as a great fall beer.

Picked this up on a recommendation from someone who told me that it is comparable to Celebrator - I may not trust this person's opinions again :( Poured from the bottle into a pint glass.

Appearance: Pours a nice cola brown with some slight amber highlights; comes with a huge 3 finger head (but to be fair, I did pour quite hard) that fades to a pretty thick skim and leaves a fair curtain of lacing on the sides of the glass as it dwindles; body shows some light carbonation and is fairly clear.

Smell: Smell is of warm toasty malts with some slight hints of burnt sugar -- not much beyond that and the nose is just a tad weak.

Taste: Taste is fairly weak and I'm not overly impressed - there is some toasty and grainy maltiness and there is a faint hoppy aspect that holds an amount of grassiness/earthiness to it that comes across as a little stale.

Mouthfeel: Body is watery and there is a mild carbonation that keeps it a little lively; there is a mild stickiness that is left on the back of the tongue and roof of the mouth.

Drinkability: Overall, it's not bad, but the flavor doesn't strike me as something that I would intentionally seek out.

Looks rather amber when pouring out of the bottle, but is stout-black in the glass, topped by a loose brown head. Mostly dark malt in the nose with a hint of hops, maybe a little toffee. The taste, however, was a winner: dark and roasty with a pleasantly medium body, but the surprise was the fruity hops that were totally masked by the malty aroma, evident almost exclusively as an aftertaste. The hops were very much like those found in ales from England, like Bluebird or Harviestoun B&T-- lemony, not grapefruity. Very smooth, and very much worth a try.

Poured into a mug a dark brown with a finger of head. Head quickly evaporated to a film on top of the beer. Some light hop scents, which originally threw me off a bit, as it didn't seem characteristic of such a dark ale. Taste is slightly sweet, not quite chocolaty in nature. Slightly malty with a bit of hop bitterness to go with the earlier smell. Much lighter and smoother than I would normally expect from a brown makes this one very easy to drink.

22oz shared with my uncle. poured from bottle into champagne glass.

at first sip i was tempted to rate 5's across the board but i realize that would not be fair. only points deducted because of SLIGHTLY weak smell, and SLIGHTLY light, SLIGHTLY watered down body. an amazing beer that i had low expectations for but was surprized! BUY ONE!

a- dark but clear, golden amber/ruby, decent head leaves minimal lacing. looks very alive and inviting.

s- mostly chocolate and some coffee, roasted malts, slightly hoppy.

t- chocolate! taste like sweet chocolate, notes of coffee and roasted malt. . . . pleasantly bitter finish.

m- fairly light body, smooth sweet finsh, med - high carbonation.

d- goes down amazingly smooth, crisp/ refreshing, decently priced. a beer i WILL come back to again and again.

12 oz bottle with bottled on date on neck. I reviewed this thinking the whole time that it did not resemble a bock, and was more of a brown ale. Well, looks like I'm right according to BA. Makes my original review commentary about bocks useless. Oh well, looks like I'll need another one of these.

Pours a dark mahogany with a red hue around the edges. Head is creamy and boned color with great lacing.

Light, milk chocolate on the nose with herbal hops detected. Very good. Taste also has an unmissable cocoa character. Malty beer but surprisingly light bodied. Malt sweetness is in the middle while the hop bitterness pleases but fails to wash it out.

Mouthfeel is light bodied and while the beer has great malt character it doesn't have the richness I'd expect. But I say that as a good thing. Drinkability is insane. This is a great session beer, and the price is definitley right. I need a six pack of this. Don't think your getting a bock with this beer, but do expect something great.

The beer pours a translucent dark brown color with a thick frothy tan head that slowly fades to lacing. The aroma is good. It has a wonderful crystal and roasted malt scent that's dry and toastey. The taste is good. It has a smooth caramel taste with a bone dry roasted finish. It's an easy drinking beer with a well balanced malt bill. The mouthfeel is fine. It is a medium bodied beer with good carbonation. This is a very good brown ale. The mix of sweet and roasted flavors is superb.

22oz bottle purchased as a single from the brewery in Middlebury, VT.

Poured into an imperial pint glass, formed a 1/4" tan head over the clear dark reddish copper brew. Head is promptly down to an uneven layer of bubbles, with goodly amounts of lasting lace. Aroma is nutty malts and light hops character. Taste follows the nose, with the depth of malt flavor very nice, countered by moderate hopping. Mouthfeel is smooth albeit a bit prickly from the hearty carbonation, and drinkability is excellent. Glad it's back, even if only for a visit.

Otter Creek Mud Bock - World Tour
22 oz brown bottle
Served in a 20 oz tulip glass

Pours a chestnut brown with nice trails of sticky lace.

Nutty and malty nose with whiffs of fruit.

Milk chocolate, malty flavors dominate the palate with hints of chopped nuts. The finish is interestingly acidic and the mouthfeel is just too thin for what I like in this style.

I was hoping for more. Maybe I am being overly-nostalgic here, but I remember the OC Mud Bock Spring Ale being much better. Nevertheless, an enjoyable offering from Otter Creek.

A) Brown color, some reddish hue. Pours with a thick and creamy head that settles a bit but still holds strong.
S) Sour citrus aroma with just a touch of yeast and malty sweetness.
T) A sour, floral taste, similar to some Lambics, in the nose. Then the brew shifts to an earthy flavor.
M) Creamy, medium body. Feels a little thin initially but moves to a fuller body feel.
D) A nice, bock-ish brown with some interesting flavoring.