Hop Kitchen #01: Hoppy Bock Lager
New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins, Colorado, United States 🇺🇸
Bock - Heller Bock Series Out of Production|
Score
6.96
|
|
Meet the first in our new Hop Kitchen series: A German-style springtime lager brewed with rye then loaded with Hallertauer, Perle and Fuggle hops for a spicy, earthy aroma. This Hoppy Bock Lager offers a medium body and slightly sweet malt character perfect for your spring hop-fling.
Sign up to add a tick or review
7.4/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
Location: 22 oz bottle from State Line, 5/9/13
Aroma: The nose has some earthy and spicy hops, floral notes, biscuit, caramel, and a bit of citrus
Appearance: A clear golden-orange color with a thick froth of off-white head and heavy lacing
Flavor: Tastes mid-sweet, with a nice malt presence, spice, earth, and a clean, hoppy finish
Palate: It has a medium body, lively carbonation, a really clean mouthfeel, and a dryish finish
Overall Impression: A Hop Kitchen series? That sounds like something I might be interested in. As for this beer, I like it. It's a really quality, well-made hoppy lager. It is quite crisp and enjoyable. It really emphasizes my favorite aspects of some of the better examples of golden colored lagers (specifically the crisp, clean hop feel). Very solid stuff. Rating this one right after Nick, but not with him. Good to see you rating again buddy!
Aroma: The nose has some earthy and spicy hops, floral notes, biscuit, caramel, and a bit of citrus
Appearance: A clear golden-orange color with a thick froth of off-white head and heavy lacing
Flavor: Tastes mid-sweet, with a nice malt presence, spice, earth, and a clean, hoppy finish
Palate: It has a medium body, lively carbonation, a really clean mouthfeel, and a dryish finish
Overall Impression: A Hop Kitchen series? That sounds like something I might be interested in. As for this beer, I like it. It's a really quality, well-made hoppy lager. It is quite crisp and enjoyable. It really emphasizes my favorite aspects of some of the better examples of golden colored lagers (specifically the crisp, clean hop feel). Very solid stuff. Rating this one right after Nick, but not with him. Good to see you rating again buddy!
Tried
from Bottle
on 09 May 2013
at 15:15
6/10
Tried
on 03 May 2013
at 05:47
6.2/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6
Pours a clear, sparkling, golden-yellow, with medium-sized head. Not much to the aroma, really--some grass, some floral elements, but pretty muted. The flavor is a combination of hops with the traditional dry malt flavor of the bock--kind of an odd mixture, actually. It’s kind of like a light IPA or something, with a stronger underlying sweetness than one might usually find in that style. Not sure this is an entirely successful experiment, but worth trying.
Tried
on 22 Apr 2013
at 14:49
8.3/10
—
Appearance 10
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
22 ounce bottle into signature globe glass, best before 6/16/2013. Pours slightly cloudy golden straw color with a 2 finger dense white head with great retention, that reduces to a nice cap that lasts. Nice dense soapy lacing clings around the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation. Aromas of big grapefruit, pine, grass, floral, pepper, biscuit, toast, spicy rye, light caramel, and herbal earthiness. Very nice and unique aromas with good balance and complexity of earthy/spicy hops and malt notes. Taste of grapefruit, pine, floral, grass, biscuit, spicy rye, pepper, light caramel, toast, and herbal earthiness. Fair amount of pine bitterness on the finish; with lingering notes of grapefruit, pine, floral, grass, biscuit, toast, spicy rye, pepper, light caramel, and herbal earthiness on the finish for a good bit. Very nice complexity of spicy/earthy hops and malt flavors; with a good malt/bitterness balance and zero cloying flavors after the finish. Medium carbonation and medium-full bodied; with a lightly creamy and fairly sticky mouthfeel that is nice. Alcohol is very well hidden with only a slight warming noticed after the finish. Overall this is an excellent hoppy maibock style. Very nice balance and complexity of hop and malt flavors; and very smooth to sip on. A very enjoyable offering.
Tried
from Bottle
on 16 Apr 2013
at 20:47
7.4/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
Bottle with a best before of 16 June 13.pours with a filtered, crystal yellow hued body with a rotund and lasting white head with good lace. Malty and biscuity aroma with huge noble hop spicy, earthy and subtle fruity qualities. Hay, fresh cut grass. Fresh smelling overall. Flavors are bitter, clean, crisp an hoppy, spicy, herbal, noble, mild peanut butter, quenching, spicy. A pretty solid lager, but not very heller bock like in any traditional sense (Strong Lager). Floral, medium-low bitter, clean, crisp, dry, low body, medium carb. Solid
Tried
from Bottle
on 03 Apr 2013
at 20:42
7.2/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 8
22oz bomber courtesy of Anndiesel. Filtered orange-yellow body. Soapy white head laces the glass. Really well done Heller Bock, no cheap tones often found in authentic versions. Doughy golden malt, nice incorporated fruity yeast tones. Not really so hoppy, more so than a classical European example I suppose. A little too clean and mineral dry, something most NB beers suffer from.
Tried
on 31 Mar 2013
at 22:28
6.2/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 7
Bottle. Golden beer with a whitish head. Mineral and light spice aroma with light grain. Mineral and bready malt flavor with light citrus. Medium bodied. Mineral and bready malts linger with citrus.
Tried
from Bottle
on 20 Mar 2013
at 09:19
7.1/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 4
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8.5
Bottle. Pours a clear golden color with a good 2 finger head that leaves some moderate lacing. Aroma is of light earthy hops. Flavor is bitter earthy hops, some sweet grain, some lemon. Medium bodied Very nice example. I cant wait to see what else is in the Hop Kitchen.
Tried
from Bottle
on 11 Mar 2013
at 15:28
7.9/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8.5
Bomber. Pours a clear deep old gold with a medium white head with great retention; it laces pretty nicely. Aroma consists of citrus powder drink, lemon, earth, wet river rock. Taste is lightly sweet and ends on a fairly bitter (for a heller bock) note. Flavor is earthy, biscuity (has that Fat Tire signature taste) and hoppy. I seem to be really into straightforward and simple, yet well-made brews lately. This falls into that category.
Tried
on 09 Mar 2013
at 15:16
6.6/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 6.5
Clear light gold - soapy head - moderately honey sweet nose, with fairly potent fruity and floral hallertauer - some spicy and slightly husky rye kind of muddle things - light to medium body - moderate carbonation - medium sweet, but quite hoppy and spicy, especially in the finish, so it is easy to forget this is supposed to be a Maibock - quite a peppery bite to the hops, which I am digging - to some degree this tastes like an amped up version of Shift - however, that rye comes in near the finish - it is spicy and mildly husky, just like in the nose - it really does lessen the enjoyment - should have left the rye out and produced a cleaner product - still, it’s a decent beer.
Tried
on 06 Mar 2013
at 20:45