Gordon Biersch Winter Bock

Brewed by Gordon Biersch Brewing Company
Style: Dunkler Bock
Palo Alto, California USA

Grabbed a sixer of this for a Christmas party. Nice dark winter bock thats creamy and smooth going down. Malty, full bodied, and creamy. Aroma has some dark fruit in there. Nice session brew

What can I say. I am a fan of GB. And I LOVE Bocks. I love sweets. I love Malts. So this beer was right up my alley. Served in a great glass mug on a cold winter day. Sweet aroma of carmel and molases. Flavor of sticky sweet vanilla and sugar. Loved it.

12 ounce bottle - $1.49 at Total Wine & More in Kennesaw, Georgia. Bottled on: 10/14/09. Appearance: Pours a dark tawny brown body with a respectably-sized, frothy, light beige head. Thin coating of lace on the way down. Smell: Toasty and nutty with a fruity hint of both well-grilled apple wedges and from-those-lil’-boxes raisins brushed with caramel and flecked with chary roastiness. Some wafting alcohol notes begin to perk up and assault the nose as it warms. Taste: Deeply toasted bread crusts and grains sweetened up with modest touches of gooey dark caramel and brown sugar. Slight nuttiness throughout. Also, some perceived tangy blips of quality pilsner malt in the mix. Mingling of apple and raisins for a kick of fruit flavor. Spicy, earthy hops that, along with a hint of roasted grains, provide a reasonable amount of bitterness. Drying, slightly warming finish with a lasting, if light, apple taste. Mouthfeel: Medium-plus body. Medium carbonation. There’s an admirable smoothness to the mouthfeel. Drinkability: Not a bad lil’ doppelbock, though, it starts to kind of fall apart as it warms (seeming ever more alcoholic), so don’t dilly-dally while drinking this one. I’ve been slowly, respectfully working through the recent influx of Gordon Biersch’s bottled offerings and, while not outstanding, WinterBock is better than some of the others I’ve sampled.

draft pours brown, thin off-white head. Aroma and flavor, roasted malts, dark fruits, strong caramel/toffee presence, some spices. Nice compared to other GB beers but at some point the whole flavor becomes muted by the overpowering presence of the toffee/caramel mouthfeel.

On tap at the Rockville location: Pours a transparent dark amber mahogany with a stringy-lacing cream-colored head. Aroma of rich sweet dark caramel malt with a touch of raisins and plums. Starts with good malty fullness and sweet dark caramel with some molasses complexity and dark fruits before a doughy yeasty semi-sweet finish. A pretty good dunkler bock.

On tap in USA. Sweet malty and and plum aroma, light head with some lacing. Slightly sticky palate, but doesn’t hang in the mouth. A really good beer.

On tap in my basement. Pours with a large, creamy off-white to light brown head and a murky amber brown body. Aroma of raisin, caramel, toffee, leather and chocolate. Taste is chocolate, cocoa powder, raisin and caramel. Highish carbonation with a somewhat creamy mouthfeel. Some alcohol noticeable. Best normal beer from GB.

This is a full-bodied beer that has a nice aroma of chocolate and caramel. The flavor is similar to a caramel-filled candy bar. Very sweet and filling.