Block House Double Chocolate Bock
Pittsburgh Brewing Co.

 

An interesting beer indeed...

On the one hand I really loved the smell and taste of this thing - it smelled of dark chocolate, caramel, malt, and just an attack of sweetness to the nose - delicious really. The taste mirrored the smell, for the most part, but it was muted mostly. Mouthfeel was light and a tad watery, but overall this was a solid brew, and I think I would not hesitate to get some more next year to have on hand for the holidays.

 

 

 

Not surprised at the reviews all over the place. Many will not feel this is beer, some will not want to admit they like it, and some will enjoy it. Looks pretty, smells nice. Kind of reminds me of a Russian drink called Kvas with a bit of alcohol present...I like Kvas, I didn't mind this. Perhaps a guilty chocolate cola pleasure like experience, one is enough, but, I liked it when I was drinking it.

This stuff is pretty gross. Everything about this beer says lemon/lime soda with chocolate syrup and grain alcohol. Really, if you have those three items at home in your kitchen, you're in good shape to mix up a sampling of this brew.

Dark brown color. Nearly non-existent head. Thin, broken collar. The carbonation is high. Thin body. Very sweet. Bitter Finish.

My sister left a couple of these with me. I'm under the impression she really likes it. The last two beers she gave me were Mad Elf and Warlock so I thought she had better taste. Sorry, sis. This one is a huge fail.

 

 

 

I am actually beginning to embrace the winnowing down of the Bottle Backlog here at Chez Woody! Not only am I rediscovering semi-forgotten beers, but I have a growing collection of bottle caps for a local Countian who uses them in her art. I am also gifting duplicates, pairing like styles or breweries & generally doing what I should have been doing in the first place.

I really dig the crossed keys of the label, since they look like my U.S. Navy rating of Storekeeper (SK), which was repair parts supply, as opposed to retail sales, during my abbreviated career from 1983 to 1998. I took early retirement as my now-late Pops had been diagnosed with a terminal illness & I wanted to come home. Home is Lancaster, PA, about 300 miles east of Pixburgh, but I have been a Pixburgh sports fan since the tender age of 9 y/o. I got accepted into Pitt during Pops' lifetime, but he passed between my Junior & Senior year. No matter. I made it & I love the homage to the now-defunct brewery that used to operate in Lawrenceville. I knew it when it was "Lawless-ville" where it is now the next up-and-coming gentrified area & I am okay with it. I was a teaching intern at Arsenal Middle School & now, Arsenal Cider House is just up the hill from the school. Prosit!

I put the key in the keyhole (the cap has a keyhole as a part of the design) & Pop!ped the cap. Grrr! A screw-top. I was gentle on the pour as this one was creeping up in age & no sense rousing any potential lees. An in-glass swirl raised a brief finger of fizzy, foamy, light-tan head that quickly reduced back to wisps. Color was Dark Brown to Very Dark Brown (SRM = > 27, < 34) with garnet highlights. Nose was very sweet and quite chocolaty, living up to its name. Mouthfeel was medium, at best, kind of thin for the style. The taste was not only very sweet and chocolaty, but it also had a fruitiness, like cherry or raspberry. Hmmm. A friend was just mentioning Black Forest Cake & this would be a close approximation. Finish was sweet (duh!), probably too sweet for my refined hophead taste, but it might make a good dessert beer or I could even see mulling it with a double boiler.

Well... the first taste was... interesting. Subsequent sips were still interesting, but not in a good way.

To be fair, some people seem to really like the strong taste of chocolate (sometimes with peanut butter) in their beer. My taste buds just do not. Thus, I feel a bit bad about giving this a low rating. For example, I hated "Sweet Baby Jesus." Apparently, quite a few people really like it.

Anyway, I found the chocolate to be too strong AND too sweet. I think chocolate flavor can work - if it's a hint of the flavor - and NOT sweet. Otherwise, it just tastes unnatural to me. Like adding pickle juice to beer. Here, it tastes as if chocolate syrup was added during the brew, or afterward.

The smell was at least truthful. It tastes almost exactly the way it smells. Like a beery chocolate shake.

Also, the feel of the beer was rather watery. Maybe more carbonation would have made the flavor a bit more palatable, though I doubt it.

Overall, for those who actually like sweetness with their beer, go ahead and give this one a shot. But for me, when the inevitable "strawberry milkshake stout" enters the world - I will give it a pass.

Easy to sweet. Melted artificial fudgecicle

 

 

 

 

Heavy chocolate on the nose. This seems like it is hardly a bock. So much chocolate it over powers anything else going on.

 

 

 

 

 

Great beer, good one to throw into the mix.

 

OMG. This is horrible! I bought a quarter barrel and am suffering buyers remorse. Let there be no mistake, this is like drinking chocolate syrup diluted by beer. The flavor of beer is completely masked by cloyingly sweet chocolate, with none of the rich mouth feel that might be expected from unfermentable sugars. I've been feeding it to the dogs because I don't want to waste $65 of beer. But the dogs won't drink it anymore. I'm literally going to have to return a 3/4 full keg to Shangy's in Emmaus, PA because it's just absolutely undrinkable. If you see this stuff in a beer distributorship, just run. Run. I mean it. This beer is just awful.

Next day: My unbelievably wise better half suggested a solution (literally, a solution). Janet says, why not mix it half and half with Guinness Foreign Extra. Maybe that will make it drinkable. I did. Frankly, it damages the otherwise unadulterated Guinness, but it permits me to consume this otherwise unconsumable swill (I don't use that description lightly).

Best chocolate beer I have had yet.

 

Love this Brew, cant find it out West tho.

 

I enjoyed this from the bottle shared with octopus87.

The color is dark brown with hazy appearance and light tan head with fine bead and retention is good. The smell is fruity with a cocoa odor w/strong caramel and toffee like malt scent. The feel is sweet with creamy texture and toasted with dry nutty quality and medium body with light bitterness and semi-sweet finish.

The taste is a good caramel type sweet entry with raisin-like flavor with fruity yeast and light cocoa in the background and mild dry nutty tinge as it fades with a sort of sugary sweet element. This is not bad but nothing to seek out either-a decent bock but sort of syrupy cocoa accent.

12 oz bottle poured into water glass

A: a semi dark brown with good clarity almost no head

S: chocolate for miles very sweet smelling 

T: pure chocolate pretty sweet too I might get a little toffee at the end but mostly just chocolate 

O: if you want something that tastes like chocolate this is it not much complexity here just lots of chocolate 

Just shy of three fingers worth of active lush creamy light khaki colored audibly fizzy froth with a bit of a waffled top... Modest retention gives way to a most full but slightly lopsided veil of lacing with a thin to moderate collar... A few quickly paced carbonation bubbles rise throughout... The color is a somewhat murky medium brown... The nose smells like melted dark chocolate... Very sweet... Very intoxicating... Each subsequent whiff makes think I'm smelling a twix bar... Tastes exactly as expected... Bursting at the seams with chocolate, caramel, and pure sugar... I'm not surprised that the finish on this one is exceedingly cloying... Medium bodied... Light and crisply carbonation... A bit sticky... A bit chewy... It's an interesting take on the style and not as bad as some of the reviews, but this is not something I would recommend unless you were curious... I likely will skip in the future...

Yuck1 This stuff is rotten

To be honest it's awesome

P- Giant Beer garden in Enola,pa

A- dark reddish black with minimal head and no lacing. somewhat opaque.

S- cocoa powder and chocolate sauce. no malts.

F- this tastes almost like Hershey's chocolate milk. Sweet with a metallic malt finish on the back end. I actually like it.

M- medium bodied and somewhat carbonated chocolate. Smooth and easy to put back.

O- most people gave it such a low score but I actually find this to be a good chocolate bock. I mean its not exceptional but definitely above average. this would be good with some cake!!

 

Block House Brewing "Double Chocolate Bock"
12 oz. brown glass bottle, coded "3484 0321 1"
$2.50 @ The Beer Shoppe, Ardmore, PA

Brewed & bottled in Latrobe, PA by Pittsburgh Brewing Company - Iron City meets Rolling Rock, since 2009!

Appearance: I'm a little bit surprised by the haziness of the dark mahogany brown body but given the style I guess I can give it a pass. The creamy dark khaki head holds fairly well and leaves some nice lacing behind on the glass. It could be better, and certainly should be better.

Aroma: Chocolate. Sweet chocolate. Bright and sweet... uhh... ...artificial chocolate. It actually reminds me of some of the "chocolate" that I used to get as a kid at easter - there was the real chocolate, and then there were the hollow bunnies and eggs that were "chocolate". It's not particularly unpleasant, but the artificial note is distracting.

Flavor: The bright and sweet artificial chocolate found in the nose returns in the flavor, and monopolizes the flavor profile. It's sweet but somehow balanced so that it doesn't finish cloying, perhaps because it's simply chocolate flavoring. There's not much bitterness to it, just enough I guess. I don't find anything particularly interesting in the malt, and in fact, I find what's there to come off almost like Ovaltine. It finishes with a lingering note of creamy, semi-artificial milk chocolate. The alcohol, at 6.5% abv. is never noticeable.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with a moderate carbonation level, it gentle caresses the tongue. Any less carbonation would leave it dull, and any more might counteract the chocolate representation. At least in this regard I can say they've nailed it.

Overall: With the exception of the artificial note in the chocolate, I would say that this is a great dessert beer - and even with it in, I'd still say that it can easily work as a super chocolatey and sweet dessert beer. I'll make a note to myself, "this will compliment, rather than contrast, most sweet desserts". And on that note, it's great. As a beer to drink, however, I feel it fails miserably. It's one-sided, it's overtly sweet, and it has an artificial character that distracts.

Way to sweet for my taste..took about 5 sips before dumping it out....God awful