Left Hand Rye Bock

Brewed by Left Hand Brewing Co.
Style: Dunkler Bock
Longmont, Colorado USA

Bottle. A hazy and muddy brown color with a rich foamy tan head. A spiced carmal aroma with a chewy round caramel, banana bread, earthy and spiced flavor. Sweet but more balanced than many because of the rye.

Doubting that a celebratory beer such as this has been brewed twice leads me to believe that this is around a year old. Unsure whether that would make any change positive, negative or negligeable. As it stands I generally liked it, but kept having a sensation akin to two different beers that I might enjoy quite a bit seperately having been mixed to a lesser affect. Nice malt here - interesting and plesant bitterness there, but couldn’t wrap myself around the whole. Probably just me and being ornery. Have much admired what bits and pieces I’ve managed to pick up from these guys over the years. Not sure who’s brewing and nkow there’s been merging or whatever with Left Hand, etc. but did have the pleasure of visiting what WAS the brewery roughly a decade ago. Time flies when you’re drinking good beer.

Reddish brown color with thick and slightly off-white head and some clouds. Very malty and bready aroma with light fruit notes. Very sweet and malty with a hint of rye and raisin. Enjoyable beer but a good bit overpriced.

Bottle. Hazy brown pour with orangy hints. Sweet malty aroma and some raisins, and a small hint of rye. Sweet malty flavors, and maybe a touch sour to me.

Poured a hazy brown with a thin off-white head. Sweet fruity aroma with brown sugar, raisins, light hop and alcohol. Flavor is malty with dark fruit and bitter finish. Warming with some pepper on the end. I thought this was more than 8% from the taste.

Ruby red color with huge fluffy head that is chucky with big bubbles. Aroma is mild. Tough to describe the aroma. Malt, smoke, sweet. A different beer for sure.

Murky, muddy, medium to dark brown with a foamy tan head. Aroma of biscuits, rye and yeast. Flavor reveals some chocolate, caramel and seedy rye bread. Slick on the palate, inconsistent and searing at the edges. Not the best of what’s around.

On tap at the brewery tasting room. 5 oz. sampler. Light caramel brown in color with a tan head that almost completely diminishes, save an island of foam in the middle and a ring around the outside. I couldn’t get much aroma from the taster glass, but what I could smell was grainy with a hint of what I thought was cinnamon and nutmeg. Medium body, smooth, somewhat syrupy. It has characteristic maibock feel and sweetness, much more reminiscent of that style for me than doppelbock. Some acridity and low-level spicy bitterness indicate bittering hops. The rye adds a darker, mustier feel. For the gravity of this one, however, I was expecting more dominant malt flavors. This was not nearly bready enough.