Firkin version at Barley’s 6th Annual Mini RAF (04/26/08): This brew pours a dark brown color with garnet around the edges and a medium thin beige head that dissipates quickly. Spotty lacing. Aroma of roasted malt, sweet caramel and a bit of dark fruit. Medium, smooth body with flavors of bready malt, dark chocolate and raisins. The finish is a little thin with a short malt and toffee finish. Above average overall.

Draught pint at the brewery on 4/8/06 with SuIIy
Mahogany-butterscotch brown with some deep garnet notes, darker than the picture to the left. Not as much head either, with just a flimsy, off-white head that provides spotty lacing but is poorly retained. Plenty of bubbles in the mostly clear liquid.
Smells like a bock. Authentic lager yeast crispness, with plenty of munich grainy-sourness. Perhaps a brief interlude of plums/raisins and a hint of overly dry black chocolate, but mostly just toffee-caramel, sourdough and yeast biproducts. Strength was rather low as well. Does not invigorate or satisfy so much as it just say, yes, I was made correctly, albeit underwhelmingly so. Or maybe I just want too much from a bock. Anyways, the alcohol is completely unapparent in the aroma.
Flavor was rather simple. Bocky yeastiness, light vinous tones, and a strong, waxing nuttiness of German hops that pepper the sides of the palate lightly with spiciness as the moderate carbonation moves the liquid along qutie efficiently. But it’s too much of an in and out effect, with not much left to ponder, maltwise. Certainly the malt there is very well-extracted, with plenty of dry toffee and sourdough from the munich malt, and even some oily raspberries from the interplay of yeast and toasted malts. Not as burly a texture as I would think it could have for 7.5 percent, though at that abv, I think they should just shoot for a doppelbock. Rather thinned out as it warms and the carbonation loosens. No alcohol apparency in flavor, though.