Dukes Big Ass Bock

Brewed by Jack Russell Brewing Company
Style: Weizen Bock
Camino, California USA

~Pours a cloudy unfiltered orange with big foamy white head. ~Fruity apricot scent with wheat and spicy hops. Tangy. ~Apricot flavor with yeast. ~Light feel, bitter tangy finish. ~Good brew. Think it is a bit underrated. I enjoyed this one.

33-ounce bottle as Duke’s Big Ass Bock. Pours a typical weizen yellow-orange with a ridiculously expanding head. Flavor is bland, but decent all the way around, and quite round: Sweet apricot and a little alcohol burn surprisingly. Not my cup of tea, but decent. Fair overall.

1 liter swing top poured a hazy golden color. Smells of sour papayas and lemon. Flavor is eh, (i.e. bland). Palate is light bodied but does leave a rancid alcohol aftertaste.

Pours clear golden amber with a thin head. Aroma is a little yeasty, spicy, with apricot kind of. Some metal, and maybe some garbage. Flavor is pretty sweet with predominant apricot followed by garbagey wheat, spice, caramel. At 6.8% I can taste alcohol way more than I should. It is just off. A sweet garbage lingers - I think this is the wheat. There is something weird going on here that I can’t place my finger on. It is not like it is bad, but it definitely is not good. But I have a hard time saying anything is really truly bad. I am glad I got to try it.

This beer poured an almost clear, light amber color with a tan foam head from flip-top bottle. Strong sour citrusy smell arises from the beer along with malted alcohol. The flavor is not weizen at all. It has a slight wheaty flavor, but a stronger sour apricot with slight malt sweetness turning into a rather bitter finish, as if the beer sat on the hops too long while fermenting. It has a very syrupy feel to it on the palate. Kind of sticking to the tongue as it slides down the throat leaving a rather strong alcohol twing at the end. There is a nice acidity to the beer but overall not a very approachable beer on many occasions.

12 oz. bottle from Corti Bros. Strange spicey fruit aroma. Sort of cooked light stone fruit. Slightly hazy amber tinged gold color. The head was probably white, but it left in a second. Thin in body with moderate, slightly creamy carbonation. It’s sweet. Arguably a bit of nutty malt. Some wheat. Not getting banana. The finish leaves the mouth with a slight feeling of chemical burn. The fruit sweetness sticks to the back of the mouth, but there’s not all that much else. The aroma improves as it warms, but the flavor doesn’t. Someone must really like it; they keep making it. The 1997 copyright must mean it’s been around for about 10 years?

I liter swing top bottle purchased at the Nugget in South Davis. Last bottle that I saw. New label is blue in color that has the same diamond logos, but says "Duke’s Weizen Bock" under "Big Ass Bock". Pineapple-estery aroma with sweet notes present as well. A little pepperiness and some banana as well. I also detect some ethanol in the nose, too. An ok aroma. Mostly transparent dark golden color with a small, quickly dissipating off-white head. I would like this to be a bit darker in color. Sweet, sugary start, with some estery banana notes later on. A little roastiness is present as well. Nuts are also there. This is pretty sweet, but there are some wheat notes present. A little unbalanced, and not horrifically true to style, but I have had worse. I do not get any infection notes at all, and I am scratching my head about all of the horrifically low ratings.

1 liter swingtop bottle poured a hazy orange amber with a lastingamber head. Aromas of soured honey, lemon, butterscotch and wheat. Palate was light bodied. Flavors of wheat, lemon, stale nuts, and toffee with a lingering sour/sweet finish. As much as this beer sounds infected from my description, it definitly was’nt. This is just plain old bad beer! Maybe Duke should keep his Big Ass out of the brewery.