Illbebock
Brau Brothers Brewing Co.

 

Poured from a bottle into a tulip.

Pours dark nut/mahogany brown with limited head but good lacing.

Aromas of brown and rye bread, figs, raisins, chocolate and faint spice.

The brew hits the tip of the tongue with plenty of malt sweetness, including dark fruits and hints of chocolate, but in mid-stream a very pleasing drying bitter rye bread flavor arrives to balance it out. The brew finishes with some booze, coffee, and molasses.

The brew has an unexpectedly moderate feel for the style. Above medium but not heavy or sticky.

Excellent across the board for the style. The rye bread notes are pretty darn special and help keep it from getting to sweet.

Pours a decent brown color. The head is 2 finger, tan, frothy. The retention is good. Nice lacing on the glass.
Nose is an interesting malt aroma. it has a sweet component to it. There's also a slight alcohol aroma to it.
Taste - A lot of flavors on the tongue. It starts off malty. Some sweetness. Some chocolate. There's a slight tartness on the backside.
The body is average. Not watery at all.
It's an ok beer overall. Not something I'd go out of my way for, but interesting to try.

 

Pours Chestnut with a slight haze and slowly moving bubbles under a 1" moderately persistent cream to light tan foam collar. Illbebock has rich malty aromas joined by a hint of sweetness, mild dark bread, some kettle sugars and light toast. Rich malt flavors with traces of chocolate lead to a light tartness on the finish. A trace of wet carboard suggests that this beer is a little past its prime. The beer is creamy and smooth with a medium full body and moderate carbonation. This is a flavorful bock that is a little long in the tooth.

 

 

Pours a dark ruby-brown with a minimal tan head that leaves almost no lace.
The nose is malt forward with toffee and grain notes as well as a bit of raisin and sweet fruitiness.
I get dark fruit first in the taste with toffee and chocolate and a pleasing lightly bitter finish.
Mouthfeel is medium and smooth.
Very good.

 

A great surprise here. I had never heard of this beer and have had off and on positive/negative impressions of Brau Brothers over the years. But I love bocks and pulled the trigger on buying a sixer of this and am glad I did.

Flavor features a strong, bready maltiness as well as some light chocolate notes, and dark fruity impressions (figs, dates). Aroma brings the breadiness as well as interestingly enough some light cinnamon.

It reminded me of Andechs Doppelbock which is probably my all-time favorite beer so I did a blind taster with these two and Bells Consecrator. Bells was a clear #3. This beer was a clear #2 but definitely had some of the same tasting impressions as Andechs when drinking side by side...the big bready maltiness predominately...

Completely different bock than Schell's. Both are excellent. I still give the edge to Schell's but this is really good. What a find. #2 for American made bocks for me...maybe I'm forgetting something so #2 might be overstating it but this ranks high for sure..

 

Poured from a 12 oz. bottle into a chalice.

Appearance: Pours deep brown with hints of ruby. Moderate amount of bubbles and a slight finger of off white head which settles into a thin patchy layer.

Smell: A toasty and bready malt forward aroma with a scent of biscuit, toast, and caramel. Toasted barley malt with a scent of biscuit, toast, grains, caramel, toffee, nuts, and smoke with yeast. Dark fruit hints of fig, raisin, and dates along with apple. Sweet hints of brown sugar. A pretty solid bready aroma.

Taste: Like it smells, a toasty and bready malt driven taste with notes of biscuit, toast, and caramel. Toasted malt with notes of biscuit, caramel, toffee, toast, grains, nuts, and smoke with some yeast. Dark fruit notes of raisin, fig, and dates with some notes of apple. Sweet taste of brown sugar. A very solid malty taste.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with a moderate amount of carbonation. Creamy and very smooth.

Overall: A pretty good take on a Bock. Good toasty and sweet malt flavor with some nice dark fruit notes.

Brown color with a red tint. A finger of head forms and slowly settles to a thin cap. Heavy spotty lacing is left down the glass. Sweet aroma of prunes, raisins, dates, caramel, and some freshly baked bread. Smells like a bock should. The taste has a fruity flavor with hints of dates and raisins along with malt notes of bread and caramel. Just a touch astringent in the finish so it does not finish strong. Rich body and nicely carbonated. A little bit of a artificial flavored aftertaste. All told this is a better than average bock. It is not going to knock Schell's Bock of the best from MN list, but it is a worthy effort.

Pours a fairly opaque caramel-brown color. I admittedly poured this rather gently, yet the head is unusually small.

Smells predominantly of malt, with some rye intermingled in between the dominating malt-flavor. There is also some subtle caramel sweetness in the nose.

Taste is quite subdued, as one would expect from a German-inspired beer. I get a lot of sweet bread, with some herbal undertones. Also quite a bit of spices, a (or at this time, the) previous review brought up garlic which seems about right. Mouthfeel is solid, with a satisfying aftertaste.

I haven't had as much Brau Brothers recently as I used to, yet this feels like what I expect a Brau Brothers bock to be. It's pretty damn solid. Yet, I feel like it misses something that pushes it into to outstanding category.

Pours a delightful caramel body with a 3 finger head. The head stays put for a minute or two, and then recedes to a ring leaving lace where it was before.

It smells like fresh baked garlic bread, drained and sliced black olives, a touch of rye, and a dash of dark malt.

Taste is surprisingly alcohol forward, with dashes of adhesive. What follows is molasses, sap, dark bread crusts, some of the bitterness of black olive, and orange peels dabbed in coffee grounds. Lackluster compared to the nose, yet not entirely bad.

Feel is spot on doppelbock. Medium-heavy, with a tight body and pasty afterburn.

Overall, I'llBeBock is not one of my favorites, but it's worth a shot if you're curious.