Heavyweight Cinderbock Lager

Formerly brewed at Heavyweight Brewing Company
Style: Smoked
Ocean Township, New Jersey USA

Shiny orange body with a lightly oily look and a soapy white head. Aroma and flavor have elements of smoke, squash and pineapples with lots of lager yeast characters. Medium sweet and toasty with medium low acidity. Unique.

Brewery-fresh bottle. Pours amber and cloudy with yeast. Small collar of foam. Interesting aroma is equal parts peatsmoke and cherry cola, along with mild marshmallow, toffeeish, and floral scents. Peanutty notes emerge as the beer warms. Startling fruity flavor... apple, cherry, and pez candy... some unpleasant lime sourness, breadcrust, and unexpected nosehair-curling alcohol. Nice bacony smoke arises after the first sip is swallowed, then fades into an overall phenolic/motor oil quality for the duration of the beer. Neither "malty" nor "clean", as the commercial despription boasts. The finish is lemonade tartness and muddy bitterness. Lightish body, barest carbonation. Oddly dual mouthfeel of stinging acidity and greasiness. Burning styrofoam aftertaste. A schizophrenic beer. We are not amused.

(12 oz bottle: Obtained in trade with Eyedrinkale, thanks Mike!) This is a really old bottle, probably seen about 18 months of aging. Loud carbonation rush when opening the beer and a massive, bubbly head when pouring it, so we have a slight carbonation issue. Starting a bit shy, the nose opens up nicely as the beer warms, revealing aromas that are lightly smoky, malty, slightly bready, and a bit earthy and mushroomy. The smoke is much more noticeable in the flavor, however, and it works wonderfully alongside the rich, sweet, earthy malts. Gentle bitterness provides some balance, but this is most certainly a smoky, malty bock. Full bodied, fairly thick and heavy without being syrupy or sticky. Despite what I thought would be a very carbonated palate, it’s actually fairly gentle. Muddy, dark, ruddy amber color shows lots of particles suspended in the beer. Light tan head is lively on the pour, but eventually settles to a quarter inch layer and refuses to drop any further. A very nice smoked bock, quite excellent actually, a beer that ages beautifully and really blossoms at room temperature.

Hazy golden/orange in color. With light head and quickly disapating lace. Light smoky malts on the nose, nothing like a Rauchbier....but as soon as it hits your mouth it is a very big lager with huge smoke character. Slightly sweet upfront, than drys out nicely with a clean, not rough, smokeyness. But I don’t like smoke beers.

Bottle gusher. Light amber, rather fizzy, with some off white head. Nose was peat, cedar playground woodchips, and smoke. Taste was sour and smoky, a very bad combination. Took one sip and poured the rest out, it was that bad. May have been infected, so will need to rerate.

12oz bottle from Cornboy. I would love to try this one again cause I saw some potential, however this bottle seemed to be infected. Big gusher on opening. Poured a light copper color with a big white foamy head. Nose was burnt wood, some smoked malt, and fireplace. Taste was burnt wood, some sour malt, quite bitter and astringent. Hopefully a rerate will help this one out.

Pours copper with a thin tan head. Smells of smoked peat moss and caramel. Tastes of toffee, smoked malt, tarte fruit. Finish is tarte and smokey.

Pours a lightly hazy amber-orange color with a frothy, fairly thin, pale tan head. The aroma has a distinct note of smoked malt plus some sweet caramelized notes. The aroma is quite nice if a bit singular in distinction. The taste is somewhat sweet up front with a body that is a bit full, but still fairly light in the grand scheme of things. The finish initially has a sharp, prominent smoky note, which becomes a bit more tame over time as my palate get used to the smoke. The smoke actually permeates throughout the taste of this beer, though it is not nearly as strong as some. There is a touch of sweet caramel here and some dry toasted malt notes. This beer is eminently drinkable, yet it is not nearly as rich and flavorful as I was hopping, really this is my own problem though. Quite an enjoyable beer, and I would certainly love to try this quite a few more times.