Altenmünster Maibock

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

A careful pour produces a three-finger thick, light tan colored head in my 25cl tulip glass. The beer is a brilliantly clear, copper color that shows a rich gold hue when held up to the light. The aroma is malt and grain focused with notes of cereal grain, sweet-concentrated malt, some cracker-like grain notes, substantial chewy grain aromatics and perhaps something a touch like sweet, green raisins. Underneath this is a light, herbal hoppiness that becomes a bit more noticeable after the initial malt focus. This really has a substantial grain-character to it, much more so than even sweet, toasty malt notes.

A touch fizzy up front from the ample carbonation, this is fairly light bodied for a bock, though it still definitely has a chewy heft to it. The carbonation definitely lightens the effect of this beer a bit. Only lightly sweet, but does have a chewy maltiness to it that while not sweet is rich with complex grain sugars. Flavors of unleavened wheat crackers that are lightly toasty and some touches of toffee round out the malt component. Some light, but just noticeable hop flavors contribute an herbal, slightly menthol hop flavor up front as well as a touch of clean bitterness. Speaking of clean, this beer is nice and clean, with little fermentation character, just like a good lager should be.

Not quite as complexly malty as I might prefer & the boost of hop flavor sometimes found in this particular variation of the Bock style is not here past a subtle hop character. Not bad, but one of those two things would push this to being at least pretty good.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

I've seen this beer in the local BevMo's for awhile now, but just never pulled the trigger and bought one. Well, now that it shows up at a tasting, it looks like I'll really have to go out and get it. A very nice maibock for the spring season.

The beer pours out a golden straw-like color with a nice two-finger thick head. A nice honey-like nose, with grains and a subtle herbalness to it. Flavors had some bread character, grassy-hay like notes, very clean yet soft in everything about it. Very nice spring beer. One I'll definitely get a few more times as long as I can find it.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

This bock pours a light orange gold color from a swing top 500ml bottle. Large sized white foamy head. Aroma is some malt, some grain and a touch sweet. A medium to light bodied bock. The malts are caramel, toffee and biscuit. The hops are earthy and floral. Nice balance. Good carbonation. It starts a touch sweet, with a nice malt middle. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly sweet.