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

Weihenstephaner Vitus
Intense clove and fruit aromas. Well balanced fruit hop flavors that seem more nuanced than regular weizenbier. I love sitting outside on a beautiful spring afternoon drinking this.
4.56/5 rDev +6%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

 

No hate, all love brother. And they're tops on my list to visit as well. I was only able to secure a six of Troegenator for this weekends festivities. I should probably post one of them eventually today!

 

My take as well
Cheers

 

x-post with the NBW thread. Received this one from @Victory_Sabre1973 as part of our most recent BIF. Good, easy drinking beer.

A healthy pour resulted in two fingers of foamy tan colored head, 80% of which disappeared relatively quickly with the remaining quarter inch hanging on for a couple minutes ultimately leaving behind a razor thin layer. Translucent, golden amber in color. Overall a nice looking beer. Aroma sweet and lightly malty. Taste largely follows the nose, although the malt is subtle. Just a little bit of hops to balance things out. Light, refreshing and very, very easy drinking.

 

Springbok Heller Bock from Utepils, in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood of the bigger city.



Excellent nose: Crispness and some sharpness from the hops, along with both biscuit and lighter grassy notes from the malt.

Very, very good on the first sip, with all of the biscuit plus plenty of richer (and sweeter) dark malt character (Munich, or possibly melanoidin).

Sweetness is the soul of this one, but it is smooth and light at the same time, and never feels heavy, even for its relatively higher strength.

Definitely cut from the cloth of a bigger, lager beer style, but much easier drinking and much more full of character than the lighter bodied “blahgers” which have predominated in the marketplace and the collective, cultural view for far too many decades.

Springbok holds its own with the best in the pale Bock sub style.

Cheers!

 

Final bock of the weekend for me, from one of my favorite local breweries. This doppelbock gets released late February or early March every year and is accompanied by a festival at the brewery. Thanks again to all who made this tasting happen!

3.8/5 rDev -3.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75

L: Polished mahogany with reddish copper tint. Poured at 48 degrees F into a tulip. Light tan head dissolves into a solid ring.

S: Doughy, bready malts. Is it redundant to say both doughy and bready? Baked figs, caramel, and hint of chipper hops.

T: Slightly winey fruit and snappy hop arrival, moderate acidity with building honeyed sweetness mid-palate, with caramel and fresh bread on the back and into the finish, which is syrupy and slightly earthy.

F: Burly and slightly syrupy

O: This is a solid local craft example of style that I really enjoy every Spring. It's just missing the balance that the really great doppelbocks exemplify. It verges on cloying late in the development on the tongue, and the mouthfeel is awkwardly syrupy.

 

Enjoying the “finest Bavarian double bock”
Given this beer rich and complex malt character being balanced buy a wonderful earthiness it is hard to argue with the title they give this beer, cheers!

Have to say I do love the little plastic goat that comes with this GOAT!

 

Why not close out with a Champion,
So much has been written, and for good reason.
Thanks @TongoRad for the nudge to get our collective focused on Bocks.

Cheers all

 

Drinking a unique and very pleasurable local beer by Off Color Brewing.

Beer for Burgers



Full review in the New Beer Sunday thread. This is a "Helles Bock Style Beer" blended with Bourbon Barrel Aged Lager. Bourbon sweet and heavy on the aroma, but the taste reveals a nice complex enjoyable beer with a wonderful malt (Vienna, Pils and Munich) and hop (Hersbrueker and Magnum) combo. The bourbon pilsner comes through as well. Nice bread, dark fruit, cracker and bourbon taste. Stronger than the 7% abv, but stays reasonable. Will definitely pair this with a burger again.

Thank you @TongoRad for your great concept, planning thread and of course this event, and thank you all participants for your great takes and selections. Yet another great BA Online tasting event to participate in and enjoy.

Cheers!

 

Maybe you and I purchased the same batch and this particular batch was sub-optimum? Or maybe in some manner during the long shipment from Germany to the US it got mistreated?

I will buy Celebrator again over the next year or two and for this next purchase I will take note when the beer was bottled.

Cheers!

 

Still at it today. One local and one classic.

 

#2 (of 3) from Minnesota today, and the 2nd maibock.

Utepils Springbok Heller Bock
Bock - Maibock
ABV: 6.8%
IBU: 36



The brewer labels this as a Heller Bock ("pale bock" - extra credit for the proper spelling). It is entered in the BA database as a Bock - Maibock. IDK if there is a real difference, but probably not.

Aroma of bread, somewhat sweet caramel, a little spice. Hints of fruit, but only hints - imagination? - something airy, though, perhaps floral.

Moderately carbonated crystal clear light amber (not as dark as the photo might indicate). 1 inch white-to-off-white thick head with OK retention, leaving a thick coating of lacing down the glass.

The taste has a great malt flavor, bread, a bit sweet - almost honey; perhaps hard cookie (i.e. English biscuit). The initial taste starts out smooth and reminiscent of an all-malt pilsner, but without the pils hops. There is a very mild tartness/bitterness in the middle and through to the finish, but it has faded before the aftertaste. The aftertaste is bready malts, a little sweet and coating with just a tinge of tartness on the back of the tongue.

The mouth feel is smooth and with a moderate body.

Overall, a very tasty spring beer; a nice transition beer from the heavy beers of winter to the crisp beers of summer, which I suppose is what a heller (mai) bock is. Very nicely done.

L: 4.0 | S: 3.75 | T: 4.25 | F: 4.0 | O: 4.0 | Rating: 4.04

 

Zwei
Aecht Schlenkerla Eiche Doppelbock.
8% of oaky woodsy smoked bock delight. It can be a little one note because of the smoke but the aroma is killer on this. Smells a bit damper too than their Urbock from day one of this tasting. Anyway.... prost and great online tasting as always.

 

Good afternoon & happy weekend , Bocknoscenti & Bock-curious

Ooops thought I had reviewed this, but apparently not. Guess I'll have to have another ,as soon as I'm done with a couple of time-sensitive tasks.
Short version : toffee & caramel, smooth & easy-drinking. A bit less sweet than many of its fellow-travelers .

 

Troeg's Troegenator


I lived in Germany for a few years, this thread is bringing back some real good memories. That said, I will not be giving away my mug. But thanks to @TongoRad for giving me a chance to show it off.

 

Hey, who said you could use my "stein"?? Ha!

 

So I had a brainstorm and dug through my "cellared" stash because I knew I had some Capital Bock beers from years past. The one duplicate was Eternal Flame from 2011, their 25th anniversary, IIRC. Still being brewed by Kirby Nelson at the time, it was -- nonetheless, not a favorite. The beer is based on their Autumnal Fire, which was always a go-to.

Capital Eternal Flame: 2011? Capital Square Series. 9.1 ABV.
Poured into my Libbey flute. Twist-off cap was almost glued in place.

L -- Clear, deep copper with a meager, cream-colored head. 3.0

S -- Big caramel notes, light earthiness, peppery alcohol. Touches of milk chocolate back. 3.5

T -- Caramel and light chocolate. Hot, peppery alcohol. Chocolate and caramel hold forth. 3.5

M -- Mouthfeel is soft to creamy with a robust body. 3.5

O -- 10 years ago I didn't like this beer much, and I half expected it to be worse today, but it seems to have aged very well.

Not exactly to-style for a Doppelbock, and could probably win points as an Old Ale, but surprisingly drinkable. 3.75

 

A classic - and always good! Love it....