Summit Maibock

Brewed by Summit Brewing Company
Style: Heller Bock
St. Paul, Minnesota USA

Golden color, with a medium head. Slightly fruity aroma. Taste is smooth, slighly creamy, yet a tad spicy and hoppy. Fairly complex flavor. A pretty good beer from a brewery that I usually am not terribly fond of. Make me want to try more of their beers. Good stuff!

Pours a deep gold color with lots of carbonation. Aroma holds raunchy elements of a cheap pale lager while at the same time showing evidence of high-quality malt. Flavor is vinegary and sugary, leading to an uncanny resemblance to the smell used in natural gas; yet some high-quality malts try to show through in the flavor as well. Unpleasantly malt-bitter (where are the hops?) cloying finish. Hate to diss my home town brewery but this just ain’t where it’s at in the Bock category. Not a drainpour though.

Poured Orange with a fluffy white head that goes away quickly. Aroma is malt caramel with a hint of fruit. Caramel flavor with some spice. Maybe cinamon. Decent hop finish. Good body on the palate for a bock. I actually liked this one more than I thought I would. Good solid choice for the style. First try for this brewery as well. Good session beer!

Bottle from Duane, my man. Poured a golden orange with a foamy white head. The slight scent of skunk hits me at the pour?? The head settled to leave nice lacing. The first scent of skunk faded and I smell hops. The finish is flat and the after taste is not, um, yummy.

The head was gone in a flash. Overly hopped. It lacks balance. I suspect my six-pack is old. It may be much better on draft. The finish is too bitter for my taste.

A good example of the style. Good and strong with excellent malt flavors. Hops character falls a little flat. I tried this at the brewery when it first came out. It’s a fun, well-made beer.

Traditional blonde bock coloring with a humongous frothy head that stretches about 3 inches tall to the top of my .5 L boot glass. Aroma is of caramel malts and Saaz hops. A little honey and anise in the smell as well. Tastes very sweet. Now I know which maibock camp this one belongs too, and too bad for my interests, this isn’t the rendition that I prefer. Chewy malts - caramel and toasted malts form the backbone with some pils or Munich malts thrown in just for the hell of it. Pine-like and grainy composure. Hopping not balanced with malt makeup. Body is slick and sweet. Bitter tinge with an alcohol twang in the finish. My wife likes it, so she had the honor of finishing this one off for me.

Gitchee Gumee Brewfest 2005. I had high expectations for this somewhat mass produced bock and was let WAY down. I thought it tasted like a run of the mill cold-filtered lager. The flavors were dominated by a boring hop sugar and was way too sweet in the end. Blah.