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

Very spring botanical forward with notes of apricot and caramel, wonderful maibock. Full review to follow

 

Best Bang for the Buck Doppelbock

At my local supermarket I saw Troegs Troegenator Doppelbock in cans for the first time and even better it was a 12-pack for $18.99. I just could not say no to this!

I am a real fan of Troegenator. It is by no means my favorite Doppelbock (that distinction is reserved for Ayinger Celebrator) but it is indeed a very tasty beer. Here is how Troegs details this beer:

“One taste of Troegenator tells you this is no ordinary beer. At once malty and crisp. Traditional yet timeless. A rebel with a sweet side. This deliciously dark doublebock calls for so much grain we had to custom-build our brewhouse around it. Layered with notes of smooth caramel, stone fruit and fresh toasted grains, ’Nator is a beer for people who love beer.”

The above description it fairly consistent with how my palate perceives this beer.

Served in my Sly Fox Goat Races/Bock Fest Willi Becher glass:



Prost!

 

Here's my lineup for the weekend! Picked up all the bocks at the store I could find, minus Shiner. I've had Celebrator and Chewbocca before. Chewbocca is from a local brewery. They release a Maibock every May Day that I'm looking forward to soon. Really excited to try the two Weihenstephaner's.

Plan for tonight is to taste the Celebrator and Korbinian side by side.

Really excited to read through this thread this weekend and learn a ton about bocks. It's one of my favorite styles, but my overall knowledge is limited due to relatively limited exposure here in central Iowa.

Cheers!

 

Metropolitan is hosting the resurrection of Conrad Seipp's Brewing and The Columbia World's Fair Bock is their second release. Seipp's was Chicago's largest brewery in 1893 when Chicago hosted the World's Fair and they released this beer specifically for the Exposition. I don't know why they chose to start back up, or brew this beer, but I'm glad they did.


Working on the review and NBW post, but this is smooth, a little roasty, an easy, all-day drinking, delicious beer for any occasion. I'm not sure why, but it brings Berghoff beers, and their rye bread, to mind.

 

Fibonacci Brewing (Mt. Healthy, OH) Honey doppelbock - this is an excellent beer that these fine folks brewed for the Cincinnati Bock Fest earlier this year. Picked up a couple bottles thanks to my sister-in-law.

Rich, comforting beer, great head and lacing, caramel candied apples, slightly boozy.

This is from a wonderful little brewery in a Cincinnati suburb that is complete with goats. This beer is named after one of the goats!

 

Troegenator, one of the American classics. Smooth, mild caramel, moderately sweet.

 

weiss and schwarz are black and white. Schwarzbier would be an interesting tasting too.

 

Late start, but well worth it with a last minute addition to my line up
Spring Landscape; a Helles Bock from Industrial Arts.
IA describes it, in part, as:

This bock is really, really good. Slightly sweet with a hint of mint and lemon. Malty with a hoppiness in the background. A dry finish with a pleasant bitter-sweet aftertaste that leaves you wanting more.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/42049/537177/?ba=officerbill#review

There are two pictures here because this beer is so good that I opened danother one while i was writing the review. Spring Landscape showed up sometime in the past week. If you see it , buy it.

 

Figuring out image sharing for round 2.

 

Ok, I figured I'd be going down a little bit for my next beerm but apparently not. As @zid pointed out, Celebrator doesn't carry too hefty an ABV in today's US craft world, but I still figured on this semi-local to come in with a lower ABV.

Here's Bingo Beer Company's (Richmond) Helles Bock clocking in at 7%

This might be my first Bingo Beer though I've seen them around for a while. At the very least I haven't rated a beer from them if I did try any. Most of what I see from them are lagers, though their beer list here has a fair mix of styles.

Amber leaning copper and pretty clear, the white head does a fair job capping this body. Nose has a light honey malt with a little Maillard form toast and a hint of penny that I think I get from this in combination with certain yeasts. There's actually just enough of a lean away from an American lager towards the bock notes to not turn me away.

Taste is a little more in line with some of the notes I got from Salvator, though it takes a little more of a high road than the more down to earth German Doppelbock. It's got a more fruity aspect on top of a little bit sweet malt base. Grapes with a squeeze of apple in their harder forms comes to mind thanks to the lack of shyness in the alcohol.

The alcohol presence isn't overly boozy, but there is a definite warming aspect there. I think it's pairing with whatever hops were used to add a sort of spearmint/eucalyptus aspect to the beer.

Some good and some bad aspects to this brew. It almost seems like the good aspects get stretched into the the bad by one thing or another. The malt grows sweeter and leads into a near boozy. The hops add a nice counter until they get minty and affect the feel.

Overall I'll be stretching consumption of the next three, probably giving the GF a few ounces of each to help out

 

Hmmm... seems like your beer is similar to mine on the surface with the sweet an hops/mint notes. However, mine didn't come together for me and yours did. I wonder if we'd feel the same if we had each others beers this evening.

 

Goodnight Advocates!
my first beer of this tasting is a

Mahr Brau (Bamberg, GER) - HELLER BOCK - Hell Bock (6.8%)

Mahr Brau is an ancient brewery dating back to 1670 that over time has moved, changed generations of management and modernized itself, surviving time.
In 2007 Men’s Journal named it the best brewery in the world.
Apart from this news note, they have won several awards and is certainly very well known in Franconia.
0.5 L bottle
classic pokal glass
On the label: "To be consumed preferably by 06/28/2021".
Traditional German beer belonging to the "Strong Lagers" family.
Spice and sweet note on the nose.
Gold color, very clean, transparent.
Abundant foam but of little consistency, perfumed, never disappears completely.
Lively carbonation in the mouth, medium consistency body (in perfect style).
Spicy flavors (cloves, slight hint of green pepper), light floral hint (of petal, my impression), hints of cereals followed immediately by a soft note that reminds me of acacia honey (more than caramel).
Rather dry finish, but not bitter, to clean the tongue and invite to a new sip. On the palate there are pleasant and delicate spicy notes mixed with hints of cereals.
I think the draft is another thing for the freshness, but also in the bottle I consider it in excellent shape, it fully reflects the style without detecting the slightest defect.
I consider this beer a point of reference when I drink a Hell Bock.








See you for the next one, in the meantime...
Sláinte !
Cheers !

 

Finally get jump in on the fun. My first bock of the weekend honor goes to hofbrau maibock... 021 U (21st day of 2021)



This one is one beautiful beer, it pours a crystal clear pale shade of amber. Not the most accurate picture of what it looks like. I hope someone else captures it better. Head settles into a nice creamy looking layer of white. Some lacing from initial pour still present.

Smells of lightly toasted bread crust, grains, and spice like aromas.

Taste follows the nose rich crusty bread, some subtle roast and grain. There is some baking spice character to it as well.

Medium bodied beer with a rich feel to it, incredibly smooth clean finish. There is this lingering awesome tastes that is there for a second then gone.

This is a great looking and tasting beer, I’m glad to have found some this year.

 

Considering I only purchased 4 different Bocks for this tasting (IDIOT), I probably have to move on to something else for conservation purposes. But don’t worry, I’ll be Bock tomorrow.

 

And it shows.

And it shows.

Apologies for my lame typo humor.

 

Venturing out of WI now and trying a Vitus. I have had the Hefe Weisse Bier many times but never a Vitus. Oh man, this is good. I can see why so many people like this beer. Perfect match for the soft Pretzel and beer cheese. It is a hard beer to put down. I'll have another Barkeep. Smooth, fragrant, fruity. A perfect beer.

Cheers.

 

I corrected my 2-3 grammar errors due to self-editing, but missed that one

 

I'm certainly happy seeing the love for Einbecker. Everything I have had from them put a smile on my face.

 

From a new favorite to an old favorite.
HB's Maibock. Likely the best known German maibock, even though it looks like distribution was kinda limited this year.

This is a pleasure to drink, but comes borderline to being too sweet for multiple bottles.