Mike Duggan #19 Maibock
Duggan's Brewery

On-tap at the brewpub. Served in a pint glass.

A - Pours with a creamy off-white foam that has excellent retention, and eventually settles to a cap and glass-coating lace. Body is a transparent amber color, with some slow-moving bubbles.

S - Nose is very understated. Sweet malt and fruit character - smells like a lager. I think I liked The Invasion more. You should really let this one warm up.

T - Taste is a step up as it has more flavor. Caramel and toasted malt flavors with a lightly bitter finish.

M - A touch grainy and gritty, with zesty and not overdone carbonation. Light-medium body that is sufficiently big for a Maibock.

D - Much slower drinking tan the Asian Lager, and not as rewarding. Not really one I'd bother having more than once every May.

On tap at the brewpub.

Pours a lightly hazed amber/orange, copper highlights, thin off white head forms and settles to a thin ring around the glass, a few lace spots stick.

Smell is nice, very malty, some toasty and biscuit malt notes, caramel, a bit of fruit, on the sweet side, alcohol, relatively clean aroma, simple but nice.

Taste is similar, very sweet and malty, caramel, some honey, toast and biscuit, a hint of nuttiness, alcohol, some fruit, balanced in the finish, just enough bitterness to keep it from being cloying.

Mouthfeel is light to medium bodied with medium carbonation. Goes down pretty easy, a bit of warmth from the alcohol.

Not sure what to call the serving size, a sleeve? Arrives a burnished copper color with just a thin head which leaves it looking a little naked.

Malty caramel, toast, minerals, hint of hopping and a touch of booze on the nose.

First sips are a little underwhelming as the rich malt feels unsupported by the rest of the beer, just a light hop bite and surprising amount of raw alcohol in the finish for the ABV. As it warms it integrates much better and adds some depth, a light nuttiness, grassy hops, alcohol is less evident.

Perhaps still a touch raw but not a bad beer overall, slick mouthfeel, could have easily had another. Tasty.

On tap at the brewpub and consumed alongside a distinctly underwhelming bratwurst plate at Duggan's Maifest.

Pours a rich dark gold with a finger of white head that dropped to a film and left some uneven rings of sticky lace on the top third of the glass. The aroma is a touch on the restrained side, but as it warms up, caramel, toasted bread, sugar and light alcohol all become apparent, and it smells more or less as I would expect a maibock to smell.

MALTS. Its all malt. Huge caramel and toasted bread flavours dominate everything. A significant residual sugar presence mingles with light alcohol to give the impression of a hot finish. Big fruit notes beef up the malt body yet further, though a mild grassy bitterness just about reins things in to an acceptable level. The body is medium and slightly sticky, with a moderate carbonation, which seemed to suit well.

This beer actually reminded me a lot of Mill Street's Helles Bock, but with a more appropriate carbonation. Its certainly big and malty, but I think this makes for a pleasing and chewy lager. Probably not something I'd drink pint after pint of, in part because of its sweetness and too apparent alcohol, but its enjoyable as a stand-alone.

On-tap at Duggan's Brewery, in Toronto.

I'll have to double check my German-English dictionary, but I thought 'helles' meant 'light'; despite its transparency, this beer's deep, dense copper colour isn't exactly an exemplary depiction of a 'light' looking beer. Its toasty amber tone is not utterly dark, per se, in fact it is rather lavishly full of colour. Its head isn't large but it is persistent.

The aroma is nothing if not malty, although it is surprisingly short-changed in the melanoidins department; there is far more caramel and sugary fruits than there is toasted bread. The inkling of hops fuses with the alcohol to make a considerably spicy quality. Although this heat is far from destructive, it does come across a little belligerent.

This Bock definitely has way more fruity esters than is customary for the style; notes of apple and dried cherry edge their way through the toasty, rich flavor of continental European pale malts. Hops, too, seem more apparent than is typical; they instill a hawkish bitterness and long, lingering grassiness. A touch of peppery alcohol is definitely noted.

Indeed, there is a useful word which describes how the alcohol measured in the lab actually hits the senses: hot. Although this isn't a scorcher, you do feel an instant heat on your breath afterwords. It doesn't help that those grassy, peppery hops nibble a bit on the finish and the bitterness (not the malts) lingers foremost in the aftertaste.

Nothing says spring like budding flowers, chirping birds, lengthening days and, naturally, bock beers. The name 'bock' also means 'billy-goat' in German and indeed these lagers, with their succulent malts and undaunted potency, are perfect spearheads to the season that celebrates a valorous Earth and the coming of hot weather.

German Fest at Duggans. paque cloudy yellow with 1/4" of white foam head. Neutral aroma, a tad cheesy. This was very lace. Initially, the taste is a decent bitterness, creamy alt secondary. Carbonation above average Decent enough but merely fair for style. Burning the insides meant a less that satisfactory experience.