Maibock
McAllister Brewing Company

McAllister Brewing Co. "Maibock"
16 fl. oz. can without production codes or freshness dating

Notes via stream of consciousness: I'm glad to see that McAllister has survived COVID so far and continues on. There's no dating on here but I'm pretty sure it's fresh as it's only March 19th - unless, of course, this is actually from last year, which I doubt. It's poured a clear deep reddish chestnut brown colored body beneath a massive head of khaki colored foam. Maybe it is from last year! I've got more foam in my glass than I do beer! Hahaha! Uh oh, I think it is. I just checked their website and it's listed as retired. Too bad for me, too bad for them. The way I feel is that if you don't date your beers you get what you get. It's not really that hard, all of these labels were printed just for the run, and you can change the label each time. They could have just put "Spring 2021" on it. Moving forward, I've now been able to top it up to a full glass of liquid. It's still got a two finger thick head of foam but that's workable. The aroma is wort-like. It's malty, caramelish and toasty, and seemingly even a little smoky. I'm not sure about that though so let me taste it... well the good news is that it doesn't taste wort-like. As for the smokiness, it does seem a little smoky, which is weird. You can get that from using some of the darker German malts though, and they don't really work on the same kind of scales as English and American dark caramel malts so I understand there can be some confusion when American brewers start using them. Personally I like it, and althought it's neither traditional or expected I find that a little surprise in a beer is usually a good thing in the end. I'm getting some fruitiness in it as well, which is not usual for a Maibock either. It's like sweet white grape and passionfruit. And thinking of that makes me also think of astringency, and it does have some. I hope I'm not making this come off as being bad though, it's actually pretty damned tasty, just not authentic, and with a minor flaw. If this is a year old then they've really done a good job with it. The head is holding up really well and I still have over a half an inch of densely foamy light khaki colored foam. The lacing is pretty good as well. So what's going on here. OMG, I just looked at the label. They're calling this "A traditional, German lager" (probably no need for the comma, there, but, whatever. They then say that it's "brewed with traditional German Haullertau Blanc and Haullertauer Mittelfrueh hops then Dry-hopped with Columbus hops to add a slight American twist...". Firstly, they've spelled Hallertau wrong, but more importantly Hallertau Blanc hops are anything but traditional, they were only released 10 years ago. That's where the white grape note is coming from, and it's not appropriate. On top of that, Columbus hops are certainly not traditional, so I'm not sure why they've even used the word. Back to the beer itself, the label reads "IBU 30" and I believe that. Despite the sweet malt in the nose it doesn't come across like that in the taste, and it's very nicely balanced. It finishes with some residual malt but also lingering bitterness, and grassiness. It's full-medium in body, and gently crisp and smooth once you get it poured. I have problems with calling it "traditional" when it's clearly not, but I also have no problem with putting a spin on a traditional style so in the end I don't really care about the use of the Hallertau Blanc and Columbus. I found the added fruitiness a little weird upfront but I quickly got used to it. I'll rate this more hedonistically than to style because I think it deserves a bit of a break.
Review #7,815