Ramstein Maibock

Brewed by High Point Brewing Company
Style: Heller Bock
Butler, New Jersey USA

04.29.06 TAPNY, but this is not my first sample of this excellent maibock. Like the Eisbock, this beer from High Point is highly anticipated and consistently outstanding. Unfortunately, it’s just about impossible to get your hands on outside of North Jersey or a couple of select pubs (none of which are EVER at the Jersey Shore). The aroma is one that returns memories of great experiences, those being previous opportunities to sample this very beer. Full of sweet-tart apple aromas and flavor enhanced with vanilla, tropical fruits, and a milky sweetness that lasts throughout. This may be the first time I’ve used ’milky sweetness’ but it truly is that -- sweet like whole milk, almost creamy, and yet never becoming cloying -- it’s not a sugary sweetness. The finish is all malt with the pilsner coming through in a glorious bite of grasses and herbs, touch acid-tart. Lovely beer.

Clear yellow in color with a lasting head. Amazing beer. Malty flavor and crisp. Great.

Light bronze. Retentive layer of white foam. Clean and airy aroma of toasted hay, fennel, and wafery malts. Lightly lemony with a fresh hint of floral hops. Soft and fluffy carbonation. Initially grainy in texture, yet with a vividly defined arrangement of sweet, feathery malts. Hop character is multidimensional with a poised bitterness coupled with a vibrantly vivacious array of hop flavors which enhance the flowery softness. Candy apples grace the tongue with a sweet glaze fullness which helps pillar the body. Snippet of spicy alcohol warmth ensues. Deeply rooted Munich reveals toasted biscuits and caramelized honey, but the overall flavors remain unchanged as the malt sweetness never becomes forced. Exceptionally full and fluffy Pilsner malt foundation also complements and tempers the richer malt elements. Delectably juicy, with a quenching twinge of acidity, to boot, and impeccably attenuated, with a subtle depth-lending dusting of mineral dryness. Finishes well-rounded and soft, with a seamlessly interwoven fusion of anise-tinged hops and snappy toast. A captivating example of delicateness combined with complexity. So pure and pristine. Just an incredible experience. Thanks for the ride, Dickinsonbeer.

sampled at the brewery, and had to take a growler of this home with me. Clear amber in color with a medium white head. Aroma is malty, with some earthy and floral hops. Taste is malty, caramel and toffee, very smooth with a light to moderate hop bittering finish. This one was awesome, alcohol well hidden and brewed flawlessly.

Thanks to hophead for the handbottle. Pours a copper brown with a thin offwhite head. The nose is malty, sweet, earthy, bready, light hop aroma. The flavor is really malty, crisp, light waxy bite, bready sweet malt, earthy. The mouthfeel is crisp and still carbonated a light waxy feel from the hops and it finishes with a little grain.

Look in the dictionary under Maibock, and this is what you will see. Only an incredibly great lager house can make them like this. Handbottled sample from dickinsonbeer, filled completely to the rim. Pours with a nice bubbled head, golden, gets still quickly. Toasted almond aroma, with faint tree bark. Caramel sweetness held in check by a flowery, pencil-shavings noble hops taste, all perfectly melded together so you can’t tell where the malt begins and the hops take over, or is that the other way around? A dash of salt in the flavor, too, which I find n some bocks. Warm and toasty in case your Spring is delayed, this is a true comfort beer. Slightly sticky and oily palate, as prescribed. Delicious.

Handbottle from dickinsonbeer. Hazy amber body with a tiny off-white head. The aroma is cotton candy, honey, dough, raisins and very light herbal hops. The flavor is lightly sweet, cotton candy, slightly fruits (golden) and light caramel. Medium/light body is soft, round and lightly carbonated. Very nice stuff. Thanks Paul.

Cask @ Brazen Head cask festival. Poured into half pint glass, can see through the beer. Aroma is not strong faint smell of rye bread. Taste is distinct, hard to describe and not tasty for me. Stays on the palate for a while. A bit of bitterness.