Oderbolz Bock
Pioneer Brewing Company

12 oz bottle pours a hazy orange- amber with a nice creamy lasting light brown head that leaves some lacing in my glass. Fruity pear and chocolate aromas, bread, caramel, honey and whiskey flavors, medium bodied with a soft and full mouthfeel, finishes with a mild sweetness, a decent bock.

Maroon/red color, clear, with an off-white head. Some caramel flavors in the nose, combined with light alcohol, and some diacetyl. Taste is very sweet and malty, with a little spiciness in the background. More dry as the flavor progresses, with a moderate hop finish. Mouthfeel is too thin, not too well carbonated. Better than the first two offerings from this beer.

On-tap at Gitchee Gumee Brewfest - Dark firey copper color with a slim to none head, just a whispy skimming.

Aroma is strangely toasted with some blackened toffee and caramel covering some raisiny fig notes.

Taste is about the same with sweetly darkened toffee and caramel coming across as burnt with some darker molasses tones, root beer, raisin, and brown sugar notes.

Feel is oddly clean within a lighter body and has a raspy carbonation that mangles up the sweet burnt notions making it a bit harsh in the finish where it drys off some with burnt raisin toast.

For just a bock this was about what I'd come to expect from the style, but it just had too strange of a burnt taste for me to like it any more then I did.

$1.29/bottle

Pretty nice dark amber hue with an dark orange body. The head was pretty weak immediately and disappeared to nothing more than a scattered film within a minute of pouring. The smell is very pleasing with heavy brown sugar and malt and maybe even some molasses. The taste was a little weak to me. I was expecting more sweetness right off the bat, but instead, it was pretty flat and cardboard-tasting. I honestly think that I may have a bad bottle. It really wasn't all that enjoyable to finish because of my dislike of the taste. I would definately like to try it fresh from the brewery though.

Presentation: 12 fluid ounce with a plain brass colored twist-off cap. Single front label has a picture of three tapped wooden barrels with the word ‘Oderbolz’ above and ‘Bock’ below. At the top of the label, the word ‘Pioneer’ is writ large below ‘Black River Falls, Wisconsin’. It appears to have an ink-stamped date of SEP 17 on the bottom right of the label.

Appearance: Darkish copper body with some orange rust bloom and fresh iron oxide flashes when back lit. A restrained pour reveals no head at first, it only begins to form half-way up the glass, and even then it is positively struggling to form anything other than a thin off-white ¼” covering that looks creamy at first, but this soon disappears to leave a broken surface covering with just a creamy halo ring around the edges. Some carbonation, but it is very fine in nature, nevertheless, a swirl helps to reform a uniform head at times – albeit short-lived.

Nose: Sweet toffee and caramelized malts with some sugar candy notes and fresh lumpy brown sugar aromas.

Taste: Sweet malts with a little toasted cloyness at the start, but this is soon lost as the toffee builds in the middle with some dark fruits and light figs in the back end. Finishes with a lingering toffee-malt and some chewy malts. No bitterness is detectable at all, but interestingly, I noted a very delicate hop character coming through long after the swallow in the after-taste to balance this malty ending.

Mouthfeel: Pretty substantial. The sweet malts, toffee and chewy body all help to make this a solid 4/5 for mouthfeel.

Drinkability: Nicely taken down, even on a hot day. The malts are big and ultimately I imagine may be a tad too much, but I only had the 12oz and it was easily dispatched with little effort. The one bottle was quite drinkable!

Overall: I don’t usually care for the sweeter Bocks, but this is one of the better ones that I have had recently. A little more carbonation may have helped to make this one a bit easier to drink but apart from that minor quibble this is a very nice offering.

An Oderbolz Thanks to BigHuge for sharing this one.

Ruby-tilted copper with a thin tan head.
Nose of candied yams, raisins, and vaguely astringent toasted malts.
Begins sweet. Brown sugar coated dates. Ample raisin and fig notes. Lightly toasty with some chocolate hues deep down. Caramel steps up midway and takes control. A general, well-lagered clean water sense. No real distinguishable hopping, but it ends dry.
Light bodied and quite drinkable. Though it comes across like a sweeter dunkel lager rather than a full-fledged bock. A little more beef and this could be pretty damn good.
Nevertheless, it's a nice quaffer, and one of Pioneer's better offerings.

Re-review-4/11/04-

Cloudier than you'd like in a bock...very malty taste..bready....low caronation...slides down very quickly...highly enjoyable but lacks some depth...solid every day bock...

8/15/02-
This is one of the better Bocks I have had...It is a regal deep, dark copper in color with a small lace...the nose is all malt...sweet, but subdued aroma...great malt load in this one...medium to heavy bodied...I love this bock....If you like sweet, malty bocks this one is for you....minimal hopping and what is there simply helps to balance out the malt and is unnoticable really....

Date on bottle reads: "AUG 13 '02"

This beer is named after the Brewery that was originally housed in Pioneer's building. The Oderbolz brewery operated in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

This clear dark ruby brew throws out a small beige head that recedes to just an edging. Some lacing effect is noted. There is some deep munich like malt on the nose. The taste is primarily clean malt. Pretty good. One of the better offerings I've had from Pioneer. The hops that are utilized serve one function: to balance the heavy malt load. I do not pick up any hop contributions in the flavor, but they are not necessary. I start to pick up some roasted tones on the finish. The body on this beer is damn near full. Very easy drinking and tasty bock.