Smuttynose Maibock

Brewed by Smuttynose Brewing Company
Style: Heller Bock
Portsmouth, New Hampshire USA

Smuttynose Maibock pours to a beautiful, bright, deep amber to brown color with a thick and creamy tan head that slowly fades and a moderate amount of carbonation. The nose on this beer is wonderful, with big sweet malty, nutty, slightly toasty aromas and hints of peppery alcohol heat. The palate is rich and full on the tongue with a sea of smooth malt flavors. Flavors of sweet malt, toast and nuts are slighty sticky on the toungue as the glide down. Smuttynose Maibock finishes with more of those sweet malty nutty and toasty flavors, and ends with a slightly cloying, and warming burn. This beer is a wonderful example of Maibock, a beer style that is a bit hard to find in ale dominated New England.

Beautiful color! I wishFeria made a "Maibock" color. Not all that much aroma to it, but a tasty malty taste with a slight hoppy bite in the end. Really good stuff.

Poured cloudy orange with a thick tan head. The head was very creamy. The aroma was rum, caramel and honey. Flavor had a great maltiness with vanilla in the mix. This tasted stronger than other Maibocks I’ve had. Great maltiness on the palate as well. This is one of the best Maibocks I’ve had.

Hazy, bright orange in color with a booming, solid, tan, thick and massive head. Aroma is caramel, anise and something fiery - potentially pepper. Sweet and bold to the nose. Flavor? Yes. Rich, sweet caramel paired with vanilla butter cream. Unfiltered aspect lends itself to a grainy, toasted complex. It’s somewhat of a conundrum to detail individual flavors because everything is in harmony – nice and smooth. Some jumpy hops liven things up and give a touch of bitterness. Carbonation, malts and hops are well-proportioned but equally bold. Chewy malts and big-bodied. No, better yet, this beer is fat. Finish is creamy vanilla custard and some cackled pepper here and there. Dry, caramel chew aftertaste. Smuttynose continues to impress the hell out of me. Big thanks to tpkenned for the bomber.

Bottle-conditioned, hazy with the yeast shot, earthy amber topped by a generous diminishing, but lacing off-white head. Pleasant fresh deep malt nose. It is even more expressive in mouth, probably more intense than a traditional maibock, but the way those flavors are displayed and coming up together is worth driving a few ultra miles (oh no.. actually ClarkVV brought that to me from liquorinos, thanks Clark!). A blend of citrus (pinneaple mostly, but also orange blossom and other fruits like peaches) and creamy, bready honey. Excellent demonstration of the power of toasted malt. It almost comes out with smoky hints, I truly want to see Smuttynose trying a smoked beer.. Yummy that would be. The toasted aspects shine in here, creating a chewy biscuit aspect working together with the bitterness. Globally sweet though drying out adequately toward the end. Quaffable medium body with excellent moderately high carbonation. 7.7%, are you kidding? I could have downed this bomber in less than 5 minutes. Plenty of earthy, floral and herbal scents from the hops. A soldier worthy of every markmanship awards!

real solid beer, pours an tannish orange that is very cloudy, nice malty flavor with maybe just a kiss of alcohol, one of my favorite styles, a definate winner

I’ve had this about 4 times and haven’t bothered to rate it yet. I like this stuff...can’t wait for it and the Ramstein Maibock to come out again so I can compare them fresh! This has a more herbal hop component, starting in the middle and finishing through to the swallow, making it ever-so-slightly astringent instead of sticky. Oh yum. The malt is the shiner, though, of this duo. Warm, butter-caramel-honey-nutmeg-syrup-peachy-fruity in a dark amber/rusty orange thick body topped by a pouffy white head. I like this beer.

Pours copper with big, off-white head. Aroma of malt, fruit, hops. Tastes malty, with some hops and fruit. Medium palate, with a slightly dry, fruity finish. Good complexity and balance.