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

Ok, today I start truly big - not with a big beer name from the bock styles, but actual big beers... Schneider Weisse Aventinus Eisbock (12%), a local eisbock - Plassenburg from Commonwaealth out of SE VA (9.5%), and Celebrator again (hell, why not start every day with a Celebrator??).

I got the GF to pour these for me, so I will be going in as blind as can be. The Celebrator is in there because when I first tried the Commonwealth Eisbock, it reminded me of Celebrator. I hadn't had a Celebrator in a while, so I'll be finding out today how misguided that claim was.

Or will I?

Note: the Virginia eisbock has been in the fridge over two months waiting for this and I haven't had one in just under that long. I can't recall the last time I had Aventinus Eisbock, and have avoided reading other posting notes on it in this thread.

So I have these lined up (well call them A, B, and C) with A) more clear and ruby-tinged dark brown beer on the left, B) cloudy medium brown beer in the middle, and C) darker, color-induced opaque beer on the right. I already have guesses due to the decidedly non-blind part of this blind experiment, but I'll reserve judgement since these early guesses are often wrong.


A) has a roasty cocoa to coffee to chocolate note. (Hmmm, reminding me of Celebrator's taste from yesterday - already a wrench in my guesses. Told you so.)

B) takes a step towards similar notes and then crosses over with a prune/red wine note before throwing off some banana esters (Definitely has a mostly German vibe to it to me, did Commonwealth pull that off?)

C) is the lightest of the three, with a nutty coffee aroma and a little mineral note. (Could this be the Ayinger with its diminished nose people have been discussing??)

So ok, these three all smell different, so at the very least the nose of Plassenburg shouldn't have reminded me of the classic German doppelbock. But taste is what really matters, right?

A) has light roasted malt notes (cacao) with a fairly smooth feel despite surprisingly light heft. Some breakfast bread notes come out with allusions to dates, raisins and some back end nuttiness. After a few sips, there is a little warming as well. (Hmmm... flavor profile is not clicking, so maybe the one I haven't had in recent memory?)

B) seems more yeast driven, with a banana bread flavor and some hops in the background. There's a hint of alcohol involved, perhaps mimicking or joining some spiciness (this is reminding me of a weizenbock more and more, and I can say for certain this isn't Celebrator. Probably.)

C) more similar than I expected to A after the smell, some light roasted notes yield the floor partially to raisin and fig before regaining hold in the later part of the taste. The slightly bitter, fairly dry ending seems more roasted malt driven than hop driven. (Seems awfully familiar)

These all had their own profile fairly distinct form each other. Sure, there were some touch points, but they definitely seemed more different to me than I expected.

So my original premise that Plassenburg reminded me of Celebrator is suspect. Although... if A and C are these two beers, I won't be too disappointed I thought that. The end glasses were definitely more similar than the middle What does the GF say?

Well she sent me this text:


I did eventually guess right, though A and B had me waffling back and forth a little as to which was which. Eventually the "German character" I was perceiving in the middle glass had me locking in my decision before I asked for the answer from my proctor. It probably should've been easier to pick them out.

As for C, it was too recognizable from yesterday and was an easy guess (though my easy guesses have been wrong in the past often enough, as well). The GF said she liked this one the most. The other two were a toss up, "but probably the other German beer."

Someone mentioned something like charcuterie to pair with these tastings, so I have some meat, cheese and bread to soak up the rest of these (mostly the remaining of the 16oz local beer). Here's to day two of the bock tasting - cheers, all!!

 

When I had one recently, I liked it a lot ! Can only get in a variety pack...

 

Going local with a new lager focused brewery in the western burbs, Goldfinger Maibock.

I so wanted to like this beer, and though it is an easy drinking beer, it is just missing something. A clean 'beer' flavor, and not from the slight soapy note, but a little sweet, no pepper, no floral-ocity, no booze(although there is a warming quality).
I give it a solid okay, and expect to drink more of it.

 

Penciling in collar physique on the newest batch, while pour shapes to a deep strandwolf with highlights in dessert sand and smooth gingerbread. The focus on retention is sturdy, considering a deep lace of construct by period

Layering on malt is a soft build per scent, before a clamped precedence of density. The paradigm leans on Swabian Pretzels with upkeep in Riesen, Wiley Wallaby, and a movement near smoke. Underneath is an earthy presence of hops, but subtle in overall presentation. Nonetheless, attributable to aromatics with a slight bite and kick to wood resin as mid-sense angles. This state is nut building with almond butter toffee & hazelnut bark, while prunes ornate behind the breaded rich malt circulation

Apparent presence of deep malt, without delay on palate, where backing is clean cut and lightly toasted. The scope leverages dark pitted fruit (prunes, plum), which is furthered by the layering found in a Chunky + Rabitos. Furtherance emphasizes sweetened Anadama bread, and a calling for cherry licorice

The route is constant and developmental while attentive to thermal awareness. That awareness ties to pauses, then revisits, which signal the pit fruit to chewing tobacco, char, and cemented embers. There is some cutting on malt, per a tempered bitterness check on sweetness. Nonetheless, interior deportments are warming and leveled, with a lingered dry (cut) spice gravitating near aftertaste

Carbonation is marginally choppy, and jerky around the edges, but acutely leveled in totality = A take that’s richly knotted to malt across a smooth and warming passage




…some going into, and being aged in whiskey barrels

 

Not exactly but I think it's comparable. In Bavaria this is mainly limited to those (maybe wrong translated) cold parts and a few others.

Something like this


or this



Maybe I'm wrong but "brunch" can have any elements of breakfast and lunch/dinner. You will never see a guy having cereals to "Brotzeit" in Bavaria

 

Aecht Schlenkerla Urbock.



Tastes of smoked ham, caramel malt, leather, ash, pepper. Very fine.

 

The pics you posted could all be served at an american brunch, although there is something distinctly German about them. Brunch in the US is more about socializing and day drinking than any particular food though in my experience.

Now I need to enlist the German beer decoders. The bottle of Korbinian i got is dated as 84 00. Is that the 84th day of 2020?

 

Celebrator
~

~

~
this is the defining bock brew for me, the epitome of a malty no nonsense brew
malty saturday cheers especially to @TongoRad

 

Does anyone know how to decode these dates?

Ayinger Celebrator date code L0322
Einbecker Ainpochisch Bier 1378 L1787

 

I think that means day 322 of 2020, so sometime last november

 

Well, went beer shopping today to pick some things up for the tasting. Got to say, even Specs selection is pretty pathetic nowadays. No Kloster Asam-Bock, or Andechser Dopplebock, both of which I know they use to have. No Ayinger Weizenbock or Maibock ...Ended up with some VITUS which always makes me happy, will post that in a little while. I should have taken a picture of the aisle for the German selection as it is almost bare to what it use to be even a few years ago...sad face all around.

 

first #=last number of day
middle 2#s=week of year
last #=year

So - September 28, 2020

Ayinger:
first #=year
last 3#s=day of year

So - November 17, 2020

Einbecker - I can't really help with that one.

 

What a bizarre date code, especially since its printed as 2 sets of 2 numbers so the middle two numbers are separated by a space. I would never have thought to read them together.

On the bright side, that means its only 7 months old. The celebrator appears to be about 15 months, and the schlenkerla dopplebock is forever a mystery

 

Picked up a few more bocks today, starting with Aecht Schlenkerla Eiche. Listed here as a Rauchbeir but the bottle calls it a smoked Doppelbock so I figured I would posted it.
4.46/5 rDev +8.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

500 ml bottle poured into a mug

A- A clear reddish amber with a two finger tan head

S- Smoky, oak, caramel malts, earthy, hints of dark fruits.

T- Smoky, peat, caramel malts, earthy, bandaid, oak, hints of dark chocolate, some dark fruits.

M- Smooth, medium body.

O- Rauchbeir and Doppelbock come together beautifully. Very tasty and easy to drink.

Cheers!

 

I bought the only two beers labeled bock found on local shelves here. Made by the same brewery, which is also Sweden's largest, both are stronger variants of the two largest selling beers at the monopoly. Both of these are all malt beers and this has been a major selling point for the brewery since the 1980s.



First up is Norrlands Djup. 6.8% abv. Made with pilsner malt, Magnum, Perle and Spalter Select hops (interestingly this is the hop mix used for Mariestads Export, Norrlands Guld Export uses Magnum and Perle only). The light golden color makes me think of Ayinger's Maibock which was sold here a few years back. The aroma is fresh, with mostly lightly sweet pale malt, though it's more concentrated and deeper than in the 5.3% Export version, as can be expected. I can't really make out the hops. The taste is lightly sweet but balanced by a hop bitterness which is probably around 25-26 IBUs or so. There's no stand out hop flavor. There is a slight taste of alcohol which was also present in Ayinger's Maibock at the same level (for pale beers of this strenght completely hiding the alcohol is probably a tall order). It has a medium mouthfeel and isn't thin. The finish is dry and not sweet, the alcohol might be having a drying effect here.

It is quite a clean, straight forward beer, just pale maltiness and a balancing hop bitterness. As a pale bock beer I think it's credible and tasty, and I think brewing it as an all malt beer helps achieve this and give it a good deal of similarity to a German pale bock, even if a good German example might showcase a bit more complexity, for example in terms of hop flavor and aroma.

 

As we use to say in the old LNBA threads, when the individual responses would go all the way to the right, leaving a big black bar getting larger and larger on the left....VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTUUUUUUUUSSSSSS

Double the Vitus this time.


Pours a cloudy but not completely opaque golden/yellow. A dense white head forms and lasts forever. Plenty of lace left down the glass as well.

Nose and taste are similar: Fresh baked banana bread, biscuits, clove like peppery spice. Just an incredible malt and yeast balance.

A medium to full body. With a quick snap of carbonation up front, which later becomes ultra smooth and silky.

Dangerously drinkable, and downed in big gulps. I have always thought this was just superlative. Looking back at my review from 2008, the score is 4.65. Easily one of my top rated beers, and I would still completely agree with that.

Now to enjoy it, while finishing my Chang-Rae Lee novel The Surrendered. Which is stunning as well, I have his most recent novel coming up after this, hoping to start it sometime tomorrow.

 

A few responses before I dive into my second beer for today.

@JackHorzempa : I have not noticed any drop off in quality, aroma or other aspects, the latest enjoyed last Fall.

@FBarber - Cosign on the Revolution Baphomet noted batch improvement year over year. I rarely update OG ratings, unless there was a clear and obvious flaw, but would have rated this year's version 0.25-0.50 higher over my original draft version. I typically prefer draft over cans, only had cans this year so I may have even liked the current year's draft version better.

Second beer today, brewed in Bridgman Michigan, though sold at their Chicago brewpub. This one was barrel aged prior to canning.

Haymarket Cold Dark Night



Full review in New Beer Weekend #40. Long story short, this is all sweet bourbon, any semblance of a Dopplebock was obliterated by the barrel aging. Keeping my second and final can for 1/2-1 year plus longer hoping the barrel mellows and fades over time. This is typically a solid brewer, so I'm giving them a pass. Check out their Claire's Thirsty Ale if you have the chance, and their fun brewpub West of Downtown Chicago (I haven't hit their Bridgman brewery yet).

Have two more bocks this weekend, local, non barrel aged, hoping for a more traditional and enjoyable versions.

 

Thanks Gentlemen (@TongoRad @unlikelyspiderperson @zid