Online Tasting: Bocks (April 23-25, 2021)

Time to get rolling! Tasting celebrator and Korbinian side by side, first Celebrator, then palate cleanse, then Korb, then back to Celebrator.



Celebrator:
4.85/5 rDev +11%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 5 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.75

A: Poured into a tulip at 49 degrees. Deep, clear polished brown with reddish accents in the light. Small khaki head that quickly dwindles to a quarter inch ring.

S: Stewed dark fruit. Plums and prunes. Semi sweet chocolate. Deep and substantial.

T: Chipper, semi-sweet dark fruit arrival. Dark breads on the development. Great balance between bitter, savory, and malty. A touch of noble hops pop on the finish, which is relatively dry and very bready.

F: Excellent! Medium bodied. The carb makes the feel fluffy or pillowy.

O: This is a sustaining meal in a glass without leaving your mouth sticky or your stomach full like, say, an imperial stout. It has that rare ability to transport drinker across space and time, invoking nostalgic musings of quaint continental villages and quiet country sides. With plenty of fresh bread.


Korbinian:
4.29/5 rDev +1.9%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4.25

A: Poured into a tulip at 49 degrees F. Clear medium - brown with lots of reddish hues. Initially aggressive khaki head recedes into a stable ring.

S: Dark fruit, cola cubes, and dark caramel. Further nosing clarifies the fruit into semi-sweet prunes.

T: Savory and substantial dark bread and caramel arrival. Jammy dark fruits midpalate. Slightlyl umami. Bread crust with a touch of banana and baking spice on the finish which is dry.

F: Medium bodies with peppery carbonation.

O: A well-rounded classic doppelbock

Edit: interestingly, going back to the Celebrator without a palate cleanse brings out a strong, savory chocolate character

 

In my conservation efforts I switched to a Maple Bacon Coffee Porter.

I wish it was a Maple BOCKon Coffee Porter. This tastes so artificial compared to what I just had.

 

Talking to my wife it looks like we have some errands to run close the liquor store with the biggest German beer section by me so I definitely have some ideas of what to pick up for the next two days. Now up is Aventinus. This is a wonderful weizenbock filled with cloves, banana, caramel malts, toasted wheat and some balancing earthiness. Review from 2012 rated a 4.32 and that is still an accurate rating for me.

Cheers!

 

Cedarburg High School Class of '88 here!

I moved west decades ago, but was pleasantly surprised to find the Fermentorium a half mile from my childhood home the last few times I got back to visit my folks -- they've got a pretty broad range and some very interesting barrel-aged experiments last time I was there.

I've actually got a homemade Heller Bock lagering right now. Maybe I'll take a taste sample for this occasion, but I've got a Vitus in the garage that's going in the fridge right now...

 

That's great. Thanks for the info about other offerings they have. I am interested in barrel-aged beers so I will take a look. Cheers.

 

Time for another local, though this time I am dropping in ABV (and by V). Old Ox’s Motor Goat regular bock beer...


Color wise it pours between my other two brews, with head performance at the low end. Nose has a little spice mixed in with dark raisin bread and a little earthiness.

Lighter in feel than the other two, it sits between them in dryness. Its flavor leans a little more towards Celebrator. Simply enough, I might argue it sits on the flavor spectrum similar to how it sits on the color spectrum. In between the pale and dark lagers sits this brown lager with more toast notes, a little brown sugar/clove mix, and a more subtle hop profile than Bingo’s Helles Lager.

Liking it just a little more than I recall liking the first can, which is always nice.

 

Cheers! This is very tasty.

 

Just had my first ever (I think) shiner bock. It’s not really that good, ha.

Wish I had a celebrator doppelbock on hand. That’s one of my all time favorites.

Speaking of bocks....anyone remember that anniversary beer Brooklyn brewery came out with ages ago? I think it was a bock and I remember it being very good.

 

Was it the Brooklynator?

 

Their Helles, with the 2nd hand smoke, is pretty close to ideal.

It's definitely an "American" bock with, as @JSullivan mentioned in his post, a noticeable hop presence. For my tastes it might not really be a very good helles bock, but it is a really good beer

FTFY

 

Bock #2 is another classic, but this time a Minnesota classic.

Schell's Bock
Bock - Traditional
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: 24



Clear dark amber. Highly carbonated. 1½ inch off-white to slightly tan head, thick and creamy. Excellent retention. Thick lacing.

The aroma is not too strong, with dark fruits, tending toward sweet. Caramel. Nutty and floral.

Nice mix of flavors. Nutty and sweet. Touch of honey. Caramel and dark fruits. Solid bready grainy malts backing everything up. No bitterness at all. Very smooth and easy drinking. The finish continues with the mix of flavors, leaving a pleasant aftertaste. Malty and very good.

Mouth feel is on the thin side of moderate, clean and smooth.

Overall, an excellently brewed bock, adhering well to the German style. I always enjoy this when bock season rolls around.

L: 4.0 | S: 3.75 | T: 4.25 | F: 3.75 | O: 4.25 | Rating: 4.07

 

Things to do tomorrow morning. This might be my last one for the night so I'll close it out with a big-boy beer.
Schlenkerla's Urbock
Root beer with a ruby tinge, thick and rich. You and your friends sitting around a campfire on an early Fall evening. This is the beer version of comfort food.

 

Remember their Burton Ale? My mind was blown drinking that.

And what's up with their 1878 Einbecker Doppelbock? What is the story behind that?

 

Alright so that MBCP just wasn’t doing it for me, so I said Bock it and decided to bring it Bock to the old school. Fortunately for me the local Total Wine delivers so by tomorrow morning I will have a new supply of brews for the rest of the tasting weekend.

Bottle number: L2660, which I assume is the Julian System to make this beer approximately 7-8 months old. Another new to me beer, which makes this another double dip between this thread and a check off the Beers of Fame list.

Pours a dark amber color, fully translucent clarity particularly when held to light. A large and dense light tan head hangs around for the entirety of the drink. Nice lacing. Beautiful beer. Aroma is a malt bomb. I get notes of sweet bread, caramel, some dark fruits, earthy spicy hops. Taste is big dark fruits up front, caramel malts in the middle, and earthy moderately bitter hop notes on the finish. Other characters I get are subtle unsweetened cocoa, and some herbaceous but not quite floral notes. Mouthfeel is full bodied with a nice smoothness, perfect carbonation, and good drinkability. Overall a great beer. I’d put it slightly above the Korbinian I had earlier tonight.

5/4.25/4.25/4.5/4.25

 

Pretty beer/glass/pic combo.

 

I would have loved to have a Celebrator after my (slightly enthusiastic?) Korbinian post down here (certainly noticed yours, but of course didn´t edit mine).



The aroma is more complex than I was expecting with a nice balance between the sweet toffee malts and slightly acid dark fruits, with a nice spiciness on top. Also subtle roasty/ashy notes and some warming alcohol. Fantastic, and certainly deserving of more experienced noses than mine.

Taste follows pretty much to the line, the creamy chocolate and biting berries dancing together towards a nicely fruity finish winning the game by the end. Mineral notes, again some alcohol in the post, and of course more things I am not able to grasp because the half-liter is gone. Very nice!

Immensely drinkable for a doppelbock I think (at a decent 7.4%). It starts pretty light/watery in not a bad way, then the creaminess and elegant carbonation by the end round it all up nicely.

I´ve had many Korbinians and this one was surely one of the best, but still “overall” feels like the most difficult part to tell as this is suddenly pretty different to other doppelbocks. It drinks like water until you feel the heat in the stomach right after the sip. I love that it never went cloying this time as it happened before, and I am missing let´s say a Celebrator/Asam Bock to put it against. I missed a second, AND THEN some competition.

 

The first 3 #s = day of year. The last # = year. (according to what I've read)
So: Sept 23, 2020

 

Fantastic beer that I got in a trade from @Bierman9 over 11 years ago. Enjoy!

 

Troegs Troegenator - a local favorite "Double Bock". I had kind of forgotten about how good this beer is, especially for being so accessible to me. The stats:

Grain: Chocolate, Munich, Pilsner
Hops: German Northern Brewer, Magnum
Lager Yeast, 8.2%

Pours a nice darker Ruby color with a generous head. Smell is a bit sweet and almost reminds me of Mad Elf ever so slightly. Taste is on the sweeter side but not overbearing at all (at least for my palate) and some dark fruits coming through a bit, nicely balanced for a big beer and alcohol is well hidden. A very nice sipper and as it warms it opens up a bit but it's not a beer that you would not want to drink too warm.

Good stuff, when I am in the mood for a bigger Lager I need to reach for this a little more often.

 

Ethan, have you had Celebrator in 2020/2021? If so, what do you think of the contemporary Celebrator? Is it as vibrant, bold, bodacious as the 'old time' versions?

Cheers!