Sam Adams Chocolate Bock

Let's skip the ice cream and drink our dessert!!

Anyone who knows me knows I live my ice cream almost as much as i love beer. But push come to shove beer can warm a cold night if it has a high enough gravity and beer causes inebreation. If you really try to get drunk off ice cream you just end up bloated and sickly (trust me i've tried). and as much as i like them both there are very few beer and ice cream combos that go together. Ice cream and whiskey that works or beer and pie mmmmmmmmm.

Now that I'm done craving pie I can talk about the beer I'll be reviewing today. If you've been following my beer ramblings for a while you've undoubtedly heard me talk about the sam adams conundrum. Jim Koch the man behind Sam Adam's is a total beer nut, he really knows beer, yet sam adams regular beer (the one tv tells us is ok to drink with your boss at business lunch.) is exceedingly boring. However it turns out if you pay attention to beers other than the regular the company makes some really interesting beers. Today we talk about Chocolate Bock.

Bock is a strong lager which has its origins in the Hanseatic town of Einbeck, Germany. The name is a corruption of the medieval German brewing town of Einbeck, but
also means male deer or goat in German; the word is a cognate of the English
"buck". The original Bocks were dark
beers, brewed from high-colored malts. Modern Bocks can be dark,
amber or pale in color. Bock was traditionally brewed for special occasions,
often religious festivals such as Christmas, Easter or Lent.

The above is stolen from wikipedia and therefore infallible. Bock is a fairly loose genre of beer, in truth this chocolate beer isn't a bock at all it is a specialty beer by international judging standards. Whatever catergory it is, it is delicious. This beer has a wonderful velvety texture that lingers on the pallette. I expected this to be either too sugary, or mostly a stout with some serious chocolate notes. I was suprised by the warmth of this beer it has a nice malt tone without being sweet, like a strong scotch ale. But even more so, the cocoa flavor is full and rich, like a dark belgian chocolate. It has a very chocolatey scent but the flavor does miatain an amount of hops, very backgound, but any more would be just one too many things in the glass.

This beer is so luxurious, the texture really stands out, and the deep chocolate flavor is so rich it seems almost sinful. This beer is really sexy, the warmth the texture, the completley black color and the CHOCOLATE, it just makes you feel like calling someone over and lighting some candles. The want to pair this beer with something drew a blank for me. It is robust enough to stand up to a rich meal, but the flavor is so classic dessert. Fruit would be fine with the chocolate, but wouldn't jive with the equally present full bodied lager. after thinking lond and hard and drinking long and hard I came to the conclusion that the right pairing for this is a cigar. Now if you don't smoke this beer is fine on it's own, but that seems to me the only god pairing.

To find the details of how this beer is made you can go to sam adams top drawer website linked below the bock is listed as an extreme beer. The thing to know if you don't make it to the site is the beer is let rest on wild cocoa nibs from northern olivian rainforest. I know that sounds like I made it up, but it's true the nibs are provided by Felchin a swiss chocaliteir. this use of actual chocalate late in the process is how such a potent chocolate flavor exists without diminishing the classic malty beer. It is a limited edition beer availible in 750 ml bottles. but they've been making it off and on since 2003 in the spring so if you missed 2009 it is hopfully coming back in 2010. I give this a 5.5 out of 6 scoops. an excellent beer for a spring night after a meal or instead of one. And like most chocolate it seems to be an aphrodisiac, so enjoy it with someone pretty you might find yourself taking of more than the beer top.

happy hunting kids

dan



http://www.samueladams.com/world_of_beer.aspx

golden stone amber ale

Ok cats and kitties time to enjoy more beer with me your self appointed beer expert.

A lot of the beer that I'll be reviewing on the blog can be seen live on two guys and a guest, the online show featuring me and Martin Jon of Chicago arts. But right now and with great excitement (note the exclamation mark at the end of this sentence) we will be sampling golden stone amber from Metolius brewing co.! I picked this up on a whim at the store tonight when I Was grabbing a sam adams chocolate bock to review in another post, I realized only after picking it up it was metolius and not metropolian brewery. But, accidentally purchased suprise beer is even more exciting than carefully planned beer. So back to golden stone amber.

Upon cracking this bottle open the hops was pretty noticeable. That faded quickly. The hop nose is present but nothing extraordinary. The beer has a very pleasant color to it. It's a delightful red amber color. A clear beer with a very light foamed head. Nice as the color is this is the rare beer that really seems to be better out of a bottle than a glass. The head as noted is weak, and there is a flatness to it, a low carbonation that might be aided by the bottle. The smell of it also just kind of falls away nothing of the scent stands out as noticeable.

Ok so let's get on with the taste right? The taste much like the scent has no stand out elements. Golden stone amber has a slightly astringent flavor, a over boiled malt husk kind of thing. It is similar to a rye character that i have begun to love in rogue's dead guy all, but the sweeter malt here just doesn't jive. Other than that though it is a simple beer, slightly sweet but not overtly, mildly hoppy but not substantially, and no particular outside the box flavoring. It does have a much better body and malt flavor than say Miller Lite, but is just as drinkable. It would easily go down on a hot day or while eating a burger.

The neck of the bottle has a slightly confusing bit of text that describes the beer as the perfect fishing beer. I'll agree a cooler full of this and a canoe full of bugs on hooks, could be a great afternoon. Of course it won't have the nostalgia of the cans of stroh's that we drank in junior high at the creek fishing but it will taste way better. I give this beer two and a half out of five glasses. It ain't anything to seek out, but if it's in your hand it ain't bad.

Metolius is located in Portland, Or. and a five minute google search gives me no link to send you to it.

drink hearty lads,
dan

Half Acre Over Ale: a chicago beer for chicago folks.

Half Acre Over Ale is what we call an American Style Bitter. This deep brown
beer is brewed with six varieties of malted barley and balanced with three
generous hop additions. You’ll find a mild malt body with bitter bones. Enjoy
this beer.

Above is the half acre websites description of "Half Acre Over Ale," it was reviewed live on two guys and a guest on April 11 2009. that show is unfortunately not available on archive due to current technical difficulties but, if you are so inclined find our wide fan base on line and see if anyone recorded it to their machine and will send you a copy. due to our giant and enthusiastic fan base it shouldn't be hard to do ;).

On with the written review. I apologize now for what may be a gushing review of both a company and beer. tune in next week for a Sam Adams chocolate bock review that promises to be more critical. That said half acre over ale is a delightful product. It is a rather clear and fairly dark red brew. It maintains a light head due in part to it's rather low carbonation levels. the low carbonation seems to provide a really honest characteristic. it makes the beer feel like a beer and not some oat based soda the way many domestic garbage beers do. even with the low carbonation the large malt character provides a full and very enjoyable mouthfeel. every sip has a big warm feeling that satisfies. you don't need to drink four of these beers to have an experience of beer.

As for the taste it is a very classic beer. this is what i really love about half acre and am glad it is the first review to be posted on the blog. ( i hope to get some of the past reviews from two guys and a guest written up here as well as all future reviews from the show. if for no other reason than it gives me one more reason to drink beer that i can call necessary and not drunkenness. yay!!) but, as i said i am glad this is a first written up review since half acre is so true to their home. Chicago is a functional city we are not fashionable, we really believe in that "Midwestern work ethic." not that we have no style far from it but, our style results from function in la you can spend more money on fancy clothes because you don't need for separate wardrobes. Half Acre beers fit right in, they are simple honest beers. over ale tastes like beer there is nothing fancy about it or exotic, but it is really good. warm and malty but not sweet. the aroma has a high hop content, but the taste loses a lot of the floral notes such a hoppy beer often possesses it is not in anyway perfumey. the hops (and that should be HOPS) provide a lot of bitter flavor that check the malt but with such a malty and low carbonation beer the hops lose their herbal quality and again become a function. like a cog in a clock. on it's own a beautifully machined shiny brass instrument. but, in the clock just one part doing it's job. balancing such high hop and high malt is a delicate thing and half acre has done an excellent job.

this is a full bodied beer it is for cool nights or rich meals. on its own it would be great because it encourages slow and thoughtful consumption. if you want to have one with dinner get a steak in Burgundy sauce or a rare burger with a1 and steak cut fries. or as we said on the show chicken and waffles. this beer will beat the crap out of a delicate meal.

Finally a quick note about half acre. They recently opened a new brewery in Chicago which is still under construction and only open to brewing, but a tasting room is on the way look for it in may, and expect to see me there at this fine brewing location. my hats off to you half acre. you do the city i love a service by being here. please never leave us like those turn coat retirees who moved to Florida , malort. Below is a link to the half acre website please check them out and buy their beer that way they will stay in business and i will get to drink it.

http://www.halfacrebeer.com/home.php

sincerely,

one guy and no guest

dan