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

My absolute favorite Weizenbock!

I do not often drink Weizenbock beers since the imported versions are quite pricey and while some of my local craft breweries produce rotating/seasonal versions on draft (e.g., Sly Fox) I have not been traveling much for on premise drinking . Having stated that, things will be changing soon in that regard since I got my first Covid-19 vaccine shot last Wednesday. Soon I will be partying like it is 1999!



I am glad that Michael (@TongoRad) started this BA tasting since it gave me an excuse to splurge on a bottle of Schneider Weisse Aventinus. I can’t remember the last time I had this wonderful elixir.

On the Schneider Weisse website they detail:

“Mein Aventinus

A day's reward

For golden moments by the fireplace: "Mein Aventinus" - the wholehearted, dark ruby coloured wheat beer, intensive and fiery, warming, well-balanced and tender. Bavaria's oldest wheat "Doppelbock" - brewed since 1907! Its sturdy body in combination with its sweet malty aroma is an invitation to profound indulgence - an ingenious blend with a strong body. Perfectly matches rustic dishes, dark roasts and sweet desserts.”

And on the back label it states:

“A rich and complex delight from Bavaria’s oldest wheat beer brewery. Carefully selected ingredients, skilled fermentation in open vessels, as well as fermentation and maturation in the bottle guarantee the distinctive taste of this authentic wheat ale.”

Oh man, I am just salivating just reading this stuff. Can someone hand me a napkin or something?

Served in my Kapuziner Weißbier glass (gifted to me at the Philly German beerfest):



Yup, once again this wonderful beer does not disappoint. A complex flavor profile of rich flavors from the dark malts, some chocolate, banana, cloves (and more). And all of these flavors work together perfectly like a World Class orchestra!

Prost!

 

Love that mug, what a guy @thebeers !

 

This is a first ballot Beer Hall of Fame beer for me. An all time top great. Shoulda taken the day off work so I could have started as early as you!

 

And one more GIF:



But 'read' that last word as "bock".

Cheers!

 

Good morning BAs. Starting the day with Ayinger’s Celebrator, a Doppel Bock:



I’ve always enjoyed this beer - malty with a very light brown bread sweetness, hints of prune, and a stone fruit finish. Medium full soft rounded body. Very pleasing rich malty aftertaste. Cheers and have a great Friday y’all!

 

In our day of double digit ABV IPAs, it would probably shock people when they see that this big beer is only 6.7% ABV.

 

Yeah. And no hint of the alcohol. A really delicious beer. Cheers!

 

@TongoRad thanks for starting this

I love Bocks and I'm lucky to have access to most of my favorites.




Weltenburger Asam Bock (7.3 ABV, 18.2°P)

Last year I was shocked because Weltenburger slightly changed this beer (6.9% ABV -> 7.3% ABV) and the label of it (without announcement)

This Bock is heavy on the malt side. Strong, dark coffee combined with bready aromas and a bit of (berry) fruitiness in the end. Alcohol is well hidden, very easy drinking and a long lasting finish!

The newer version is less sweet and I think this is an improvement to this beer.

Prost!

 

FWIW when it comes to the Bock style (especially Doppelbocks) they often are on the hairy edge of being too sweet for my personal palate.

For example I read posts & reviews where plenty of folks are fans of Andechser Doppelbock but that beer is on the hairy edge of being too sweet for my palate. I can drink one bottle of that beer but I am not a big fan due to the sweetness level.

Based upon your statement: "The newer version is less sweet and I think this is an improvement to this beer" I will keep a lookout for this beer. It sounds like it would be in my personal 'sweet spot' (pun intended).

Prost!

 

Einbecker Mai Ur Bock

Hard to find this fresh these days, but I luckily found some. No hint of oxidation or 3-MBT.

Nose is sweet malts. Taste follows the nose, with dark bread crust and slight caramel flavor but it's actually fairly dry. The bread crust is balanced out nicely with a fairly substantial noble hop spiciness. Super drinkable.



Me coming into this bock tasting like:

 

Here are the Bockbiers (and some "bocks") I gathered for the thread. Today I'm starting with this one:



Grimm Maypole

This is an American brewed Maibock. It's easy to miss the name of the beer in the label art. This is the only beer in my group that's new to me. It's also the only "local." It's one year old. I doubt there will be many old canned locals in this thread... age is usually reserved for the imports. I think Grimm deserves more credit for their lagers than they get.

This beer is a gorgeous clear (genuine) amber color. I love a good pale Bock.

A word on Bocks and color - Bocks have nothing to do with color. In Germany it's an indication of strength (above 16º Plato). It's stronger than Märzen. In America, we tend to associate it with darker beer more than anything else.

Here's a nice 1879 painting from "impressionist" painter Édouard Manet called "La serveuse de bocks." Note the glasses of beer on the right.



Back to the Grimm beer:

It has a great head. I'm thankfully getting no aromas of old beer. The taste doesn't reveal any problems from age either, but knowing the brewer, I bet it's lost a good deal of hop character. This beer is still great. The taste is bread crust in a big way... and some firm (balancing) hop bitterness. The beer hits a great spot between sweet and dry, but it leans towards dry.

Even at a year old, this is a wonderful American-brewed Maibock. I'm sad to reach the end of the can.

With the name and label of this beer, this scene from The Wicker Man (incredible movie) comes to mind:

 

Picked up this Lakefront Maibock yesterday on the recommendation of another customer in the store. It is my first Maibock in many years so my review may change as I try the other 6. The color is great. Smells a little stronger than a lager but not overpowering. I am not a fan of bitter and this one is not bitter. Smooth taste with no after taste. It will be interesting to compare to the Capital Brewery Maibock. Wish I could have gotten to Usinger's for Landjager. Instead I have a local Butcher shop "closest thing to Landjager". Soft prezels later.

 

Happy German Bier day to all!

Will do a real check in later.

 

Goldfinger Maibock! Quickly establishing themselves at the top of the lager mountain in the Chicago area IMO. Such delicious stuff!

Sad I was unable to grab Dovetail’s to do a side by side today, hopefully next week then.

 

It might be interesting (I'll let you be the judge of that ) to consider that as per various German sources from the latter half of the 1800s, the term bock had by that time become adopted in French as a loanword which simply meant a smaller serving of beer, regardless of what kind of beer it was, served in a seidel, or small mug (as compared to a one liter Maaß). One source from 1888 claimed that the practise had started with a fair held in 1866 where, presumably (though not described in the book), Bavarian bock beer was served and the term picked up on by French visitors who misattributed the meaning of the word bock (which would only be fitting I suppose given the history of the name).

Similarly I also recall reading somewhere that the term bock was sometimes used in France to denote bottom fermented lager beer in general, also back in the 1800s. Perhaps there is a similar explanation for the Super Bock name, as of yet I haven't come across one however.

 

I'll be trying the Andechser for the first time tomorrow. I expect I tolerate (like, even) the sweeter versions more than you, though. We'll see.

 

How did you know it was fresh?

Seriously... we had a back and forth discussion, even involving email replies from both the importer and the brewer, and were not able to identify the bottled date from anything on the bottle itself. (Although we were discussing the "traditional" bock, and not the maibock variety. I would expect the brewer's date code to be the same?)