Otter Creek Cuckoo Bock

Brewed by Otter Creek Brewing
Style: Heller Bock
Middlebury, Vermont USA

Appearance: Pours a clear, pale orange body with a thin, wispy ring of white bubbles. Smell: Faint aroma of sweet, golden honey and steeped grains. Taste: Sweet, grainy taste with some notes of caramel and honey. Light floral hoppiness. Faint bitterness on the otherwise sweet finish. Mouthfeel: Medium-thin body. Medium carbonation. Drinkability: A fine example of the style that drinks very easily despite the 7.5%.

Date: 09/08/2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, Cellar Party

clear gold, wispy white head, bits of lace, sweet candy malt aroma witfh a hint of alcohol, big body, sweet malt flavor, touch of spicy hops, light bitterness adds some balance but lets the malt candy stay in control,

Aroma: 6/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 6/10; Palate: 7/10; Overall: 12/20
Rating: 3.2/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: *4

Appearance: Pours with light copper color, completely lucid with a small head.
Aroma: Mix of macro-corn, dirty earth maltiness, underneath that grassy strong hops.
Taste: toasty, earthy maltiness with more strong and interfering grassiness.
Palate: Light beer with a slightly above average carbonation, dry in a bad way.
Overall: uninteresting, a bad mix of malt and hops. 22oz bottle, Hobgoblin tulip glass.

Poured a transparent bronze, honey color with a creamy looking head that faded quick. Nose is subtle, but very appealing with malt, spice, yeast, honey and biscuit all meshing. Flavor is complimentary with malts, biscuit, honey, sweet orange all in the mouth. Finish is clean and sweet, no hint of the heavier than usual alcohol.

22 oz bottle, Spiritus Fermenti, Providence RI. Pours a clear dark gold body under a fizzy one finger white head. Lots of clingy lacing. The nose is crackery and slightly sweet pale malts with a light honey undertone. Light hops and a little huskiness. The flavor is slightly sweet with a little crackery and husky graininess on the finish. Just enough bitterness to balance somewhat. A little thin perhaps. Mouthfeel is medium bodied with a slightly clingy sticky finish. Moderate fizzy carbonation. Overall, a little lacking in depth and malt complexity and just a little thin.

Pours copper with a white frothy head and good lacing. Smells of oranges, some sugar, pepper, sweet malt. Tastes of pepper, some tea, some metallic hints. Mouthfeel is dry with some tea and bitter hints on the finish. I’ve been impressed by the world tour series so far.

Bottle (22oz). Slight cloudy light amber, looks like weak tea, very large rocky/frothy white head. Nice medium roast caramel malt aroma with hints of orange pekoe tea and a nice lightly pungent blend of herbal/floral hops. The taste follows the nose, bitter tea more prominent, some light chocolate notes to the toasty malt. Light, watery body, nice astringency, quite crisp but not much carbonation - good herbal bitter linger. Hardly any sign of the 7.5% in either the aroma or the flavour - easy to drink.

(22 oz. bottle from <A HREF=http://www.ratebeer.com/Place/vermont/woodsto target=blank>Woodstock Beverage) More emphasis on hops than malt...Pours golden-amber with four fingers of off-white head. Aroma of caramel, honey and light bitter pine. Mouthfeel medium-light, fairly smooth, lightly pebbly. Patchy rings and webs of lacing. Flavor is fairly weak (for style) caramel malt sweetness and very light honey overlain by a fair amount of pine bitterness. Not as hoppy as Smuttynose Maibock which I had recently (and is a better beer) but don’t understand why they sacrificed maltiness here - this is supposed to be a German bock. This is a decent beer but it needs more malt and less hops.