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

Starting today with 2 beers of the traditional bock style. As with yesterday, the first beer will be German, and the second will be Minnesota (Schells). I have one more traditional bock on deck for tomorrow - also from Minnesota, but not Schells.

Labeled as the original dark bock ("Ur-Bock Dunkel", if my translation is correct).

Einbecker Ur Bock Dunkel
Bock - Traditional
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: 36



Indeterminate age with a bottle code L4311380 K 12:24

Amber, clear, and moderately carbonated. 1½ inch thick off-white head with good retention and sparse lacing.

Gratefully, there is no skunkiness in the aroma, despite the green bottle. The aroma is moderately strong, with a caramel sweetness, toast, and raisins.

The taste is relatively complex initially. There is the caramel and raisins from the aroma along with a delightful toasted bread maltiness. Malty and smooth in the beginning. A slight bitterness begins in the middle and carries through to the finish. The aftertaste is a very nice intermingling of the dark fruit and sweetish toasted bread. The finish is malty, but not too sweet.

The mouth feel is moderate toward the thin side.

Overall, a very good bock with an inviting aroma and complex toasty flavor that lingers.

L: 3.75 | S: 4.0 | T: 4.25 | F: 3.75 | O: 4.0 | Rating: 4.06

 

Syndicator a 8.2 ABV Doppelbock from Bull n Bear Brewery in Summit NJ. Bull n Bear has only been open since last December and has brewed a number of out standing brews. Unlike most the breweries they don't mostly brew IPAs or chase trends. They brew traditional styles to style and do a good job of it. They must have been tipped off about this thread because Syndicator was just released 1 week ago. I've drank and enjoyed Aninger Celebrator, Troggs Troegnator and other Doppelbocks in the past but don't seek them out.@MacMalt has already written about this beer in this thread, see post #189. I pretty much agree with everything he said except he had a small problem with the mouthfeel which I didn't. Overall a very drinkable and enjoyable
brew. It's a shame most fans of the style won't get to try it.
​

 

Maibock/Bock #6:
Hello to all. Finally set for another day of testing. Picked up 4 more to try today. Yesterday was mainly local small brew Maibocks (other than VITUS). Today I go old school. I mean, when your brewery started in 1589 you know how to make it.

Here is my first HB Maibock. A slightly darker golden caramel color than the local ones. This is a very popular beer around here so I won't go any further (other than, it is really good).

 

Yes, that could be a factor. It has been a number of years since I drank a bottle of Andechser Doppelbock and I had really high expectations based upon the stuff I read in BA posts (and other) and while it was a tasty beer it just was on the hairy edge of being too sweet for my palate. I was not unhappy after drinking the bottle but I did make a mental note to never buy this beer again.

It has been a few years since I had my previous bottle of Celebrator but I can't really name a year. My previous drinking impressions of this beer was "Wow!" but for this last four-pack the Wow-factor was diminished (which I associated) with the aroma being lacking - something which I did not perceive previously.

I look forward to reading your posts in this thread.

Prost!

 

Good afternoon everyone, today will be the locals turn.
Starting with Schilling Beer Co. I have enjoyed a handful of thier offerings prior to this
But Winterhammer seems more a work in progress.
Cheers all

Winterhammer

Bock - Traditional | 6.9% ABV

Schilling Beer Co.
Littleton, New Hampshire

3.88/5 rDev -5.6% | Average: 4.11
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Poured from a 16 oz can dated 03.02.2021 into the mug.
A - Lovely clarity, dark straw colored backdrop, active carbonation yields and supports a rich frothy cap.
S - Sweet malt, with touches of burnt sugar, white bread crust, a bit of peppery esters, and strong earthy hops
T - Each of the aromatics , are involved, then an unfortunate fusel aspect, compunded by a biting hop bitterness that seems heavy handed for the malt base.
M - Start is semi sweet, on a medium body, a slow shift and bitter becomes the prominant feel. Again that fusel and bitter bite take away from the malt display, that the style calls for.
O - I am surprised at this offering being a bit off putting. The color and clarity were welcome aspects, but there is work to do here. I hope the brewer continues to tweek this one.

 

I had that paired with Laphroaig Quarter Cask in the doppelbock/Scotch tasting. Smoke vs smoke...

Schlenkerla Eiche took the smoke title, and the pairing wasn't bad, just nothing was to be added to one from the other that made any sense.

---

My next bock - a doppelbock (unfortunately, that is all I got left) - surprised me. I'd not seen anything from the brewery (out of nearby Gaithersberg, MD) before this, though I liked the matte black label. I think I saw one other person post a beer from Elder Pine recently (and it might have been @larryi86). I liked the first can I had, though I had had... at least as many 'had's in this sentence worth of beers when I popped it, so let's see if my first impression stands up better than I could at that time.

Okay, the name of the beer is way too long... Every Red Heart Shines Towards a Red Sun. Although apparently its an album from a "post-rock band" and after looking it up, be glad it wasn't named any of the songs on said album (though it's not hurting my ears listening to it).

This beer is dark, I would say somewhere between the Plassenburg eisbock and Celebrator of my last tasting. The head leans more towards the Virginia beer, which is the wrong direction for beauty in the eye of this beer holder.

Nose initially rivals Celebrator... in the wrong direction of being pretty subdued. It might even be lighter. There's a little weak coffee and maybe some dark berry, a hint of mustiness, perhaps. Time is a friend here, and while the beer has quickly become still-looking, the nose gains a little strength, bringing a bit of a red wine note into the fold.

(okay, this doesn't seem to be going well in the repeat-of-goodness vein)

The taste makes up for a lot, though. It also seem to lean more towards Celebrator with some darker notes. It's not quite as roasty, and brings in more fruit notes - all dark. Some raisin, grape juice, and a deep cherry red wine come to mind (oh, did I forget to mention this was aged for 6 months in an oak foeder?). On the lighter side, there is a little mineral or metallic note in there (I get this with German imports often), and a little cola note as well.

Ok... there isn't much complexity here. It's lacking in some qualities or aspects, but what it is giving me (in taste) is quite enjoyable to my palate. This will likely be one of those beers that rates a 3.5 or so in individual categories but a 4+ in overall for me. Sometimes it just works out that way.

 

Celebrator by Ayinger

Thanks @TongoRad for hosting this event! Super psyched for this!! First time trying this beer and brewery. Poured with a thick head and slowly settled to what is shown in the pictures. Loving the maltiness, caramel, and breadiness characteristics this beer delivers in each sip. Bottled on 11/17/2020 or L0322.

 

Onto the second bock beer of the evening. The Old Ox has a light copper tint to it instead of being light golden like the Norrlands Djup, no doubt the result of Munich malt (I'm guessing around 20-30% of the grist) seeing as how the Export version uses Pilsner and Munich malt. The aroma is of bready malt with a light sweetness. The taste is again bready malts with a telltale Munich malt flavor. The bitterness is again a balancing flavor and is probably also in this beer around 25-26 IBUs. I can't really smell or taste the hops in this beer either.

It is similarly lightly sweet as was the first beer, it also a similar mouthfeel to Norrlands Djup. The finish is dry and the finish has some more of the bready malt flavor. The alcohol notes are less apparent in this beer however, the added malt flavor from the Munich malt seems to prevent the alcohol from being as present as in the paler beer.

These two beers are very similar to one another, the only real difference is the added malt flavor of Munich malt in Old Ox. Colorwise I guess Old Ox is harder to associate with a particular style of bock, since it's not pale like a pale bock, and not as brown colored as a regular bock. So it's a bit of an inbetweener colorwise. But the Munich malt flavor at least pushes it in the direction of a regular bock. Both beers are tasty and well made I think.

 

A new beer, and new to me brewery this afternoon - Bayboro Brewing, St. Petersburg, Maibock:



Pale amber with excellent clarity; off white head, poor cap retention; thin ring and a few spots of lace initially. Caramel malt nose. Caramel malt, light bready sweetness. Medium full body, moderate minus carbonation; no warmth from 7% abv; dry, dusty feel to the finish. Overall, a pleasant caramel malt aftertaste; fine drinking for the style.

3.75 | 3.75 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0

 

I felt short-handed having only 2 bocks for the tasting this weekend, so I made a last minute run at finding at least one more. Got lucky and found some of this year’s Hofbrau, which had been absent everywhere else in my area. For good measure I grabbed the Korbinian just because it’s been a while since I last had some. It’s 14 months old, but how bad could it be?

 

Enjoying one of the top rated (and one of the best of the more readily available) doppelbocks:



Cheers!

 

Nice to know I'm somebody!

 

Would have to partake again! I do recall having one maybe a few years back and still enjoyed it very much... but now I am wising I bought a bottle for this weekend... oh well time will come.

 

I had their Winter Bock in the winter and it tasted most excellent. Could it have been the one from 2019? Possible but not probable.

 

If that's your first from the brewery and you liked it, I'd encourage trying a couple more from them and see what you think and feel free to report back in any appropriate thread here.

I'd perhaps specifically suggest their Oktoberfest.
And even though that's a couple seasons away, they should start hitting the shelves in another two months or so, but enough about seasonal creep

I saw Old Ox and did a double take, as that's a local brewery for me. But that's not their beer, obviously

 

Is your border open yet to foreign travels? Because I have some vacation days built up and if that second photo paired with a good beer or two is what you guys do in the early afternoon then I’m ready to book my flight.