Maibock Hurts Like Helles

Bottled. Pale gold, white head. Some malty caramel notes but also a rare bit of citrus/frutiness ont he finish.

Notes from June 2012 Half liter bottle from Charles St. Liquors. April '12 batch. Poured into a short, brand-less mug. Big, soapy, whitewash head. Hazy mellow gold body. Leafy & peppery, crisp scent. Faint fruit, but delivers hope to those wishing for something on the drier side. Snappy & bittersweet upfront. Dry cracker, chewy dough. Pithy & earthy. Yeasty/grainy finish. Though all in all, pretty dry. Thin, slightly gritty mouthfeel. So-so carbonation. Alcohol comes through in a bit of a hurry. Dry for the style, & I love it. :D

Can, from Malt & Mold. Pours faintly cloudy rich yellow-orange with large foamy light beige head, malt aroma, high carbonation, mildly sweet malty taste with faint earthy flavor, thin body, long malty finish. Very clean and tasty.

Can shared by Jack, thanks! Pours a clear deep yellow gold with a white head that dissipates to the edges. Aroma has lots of straw and sweet grains with a bit of a grassy bite underlying. Flavor combines sweet grains and straw with a bit of a growing grass note.

Yellow color. Not sure what kind of beer this is. Sweet malt. This is ok. Hoping ot wad more of a kellerbier.

Heller, mild alkoholisch-süßer Beginn. Geringe, eher trockene Malzigkeit, dezente Kräuternoten. Spritzig, könnte voluminöser sein. Langer, süßlich herber Nachgeschmack mit hintergründigem Hopfen. 9/9/11/8/9/9

Older bottle bought online. American Maibock with medium thick, moussy, egg-white, relatively dense and stable head over a peach blonde beer, hazy from the start. Notably ’Belgian’ and in no way ’German’ aroma of crabapple, unsugared yoghurt, milk gone sour, ripe gooseberry, Durondeau pear, ureum and quite disturbingly so at first but quieting after a while, overripe kiwi, cooked grains, passion fruit, soaked white bread, natural rubber, Chardonnay, sourdough. Fruity onset, not unlike ’Belgian yeast’ and in that sense way too estery for the style, with hints of green banana, strong gooseberry and traces of passion fruit along with a green olive-like umami taste, softish carbo, supple and smooth body with lightly bready malt character with caramelly edge, honey-like sweetish accent, gliding easily down the throat, finishing a tad yeasty but primarily honeyish and lightly caramelly malt sweet with a touch of yeast, some retronasal rubber again and a very faint, purely structural presence of very weak, grassy hops not providing enough background bitterness to keep it in balance with the malt sweetness though a light earthy bitterishness does stick to the tongue; ends a bit chalky as well, a feature I strongly dislike usually. I’ve had more than one ’traditional’ German spring Bock and this is nothing like it: too sweet, too estery (top fermentation!) and lacking in balance. It almost seems these guys are mixing up German traditions with Belgian blondes. Jack’s Abby just doesn’t do it for me, I guess, but this bottle may just as well have been too old - honestly speaking, I expected a touch of American hops adding to the basics of this style, and they clearly aren’t there. Disappointing.