Elixer Bock
Mad Fox Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

Had on tap. Clear bright orange with a white cap. Sweet malts: cereal and caramel lead the smell, with apple phenols and flowers. Taste is much the same, add some pear here and biscuit there. Feel starts decently grainy but dies off quickly, just watery malt by the finish. Solid but nothing to write home about

 

 

 

I had this at Mad Fox last month. Review from notes almost verbatim.

A: Poured a clear, red-orange color, with a soft, sawdust-like head with a speckled white disposition.

S: I didn't get much on the nose... maybe a bit of malt and fresh filtered water.

T: I got a good bit of honey upfront. This was pretty sweet, but delightful in a chilled breakfast cereal kind of way. Very spicy with a nice bitter slap on the tongue.

M: Sweet, but sort of in a high grade sorgum kind of way and the lacing left on the glass was almost nill.

O: Bocks usually aren't my thing overall due to their low drinkability in my opinion. This one WAS drinkable. Win!

A bottle left over after GABF judging and given to me as a reward for all my volunteer efforts. Pours a two finger lightly oranged head over a brilliant dark copper liquid. Smells earthy hoppy during the pour. To the nose, dark earthy soil, waxy dry hop grassiness, light-colored caramel, toasted grains, mild alcohol, and split-top honey bread.

Tastes like a bock should taste. Wow, this is yummy. Wonderfully smooth malt with strong hop presence and a drying finish composed of grassy hop bitter, phenol (likely from grains, not yeast), lightly acidic carbonation. Malts are toasted and munich with some deep umami caramel, cherry sour, and nut. Hop flavor is earthy noble with a rising herbal oily in the finish. Hop bitter is grassy and rough and accompanied by a noticeable clean alcohol sting.

Really well balanced, complex, and very drinkable (especially on the first snowy day of the year). Medium light in the mouth with carbonation that's a bit too strong.