Altenmünster Maibock

Very tight white head. Lots of carbonation. Golden color. Honey-like aroma. Malt flavor. Not very heavy. In fact, a light body. Nothing I’d go out of my way to buy again. To be honest, the label with the huge horned goat is what caught my eye.

Swing-top 500 ml. bottle, coded lot/freshness date in the bottom center of the back label, sampled in a pilsener glass. L: Clear pale yellowish golden with a frothy lemon chiffon colored head, good head retention, plentiful supply of clingy lace blankets the brim of the glass. The light color of Maibock takes a little time to get use to, but the head and the lacing it leaves behind is just aces. S: Lemon honey and cereal grains are the first aromas I detect, followed by sugary pale malts and woody herbal hops, plus an accompanying soft peppery spiciness at the edges. Maibock is fresh and sweet smelling with the hops given a nice prominence. F: Firmly crisp from the buoyant carbonation and light bodied, this is easily lightest feeling maibock I’ve had in awhile. A little more malty chewiness would be nice, the mouthfeel on Maibock would benefit from some added creamy heftiness. T: Hops are the master in the taste, dominating the malts. Floral, lemony herbs at first, woody in the middle, finishing with a dry cleansing peppery spiciness. More I consume this, the more I am amazed at the dominant role the hops play in the taste. The malts are meekly submissive, honey covered saltine crackers and cereal grains. The malt flavors play an unassuming, backing role, which means the overall taste lacks cohesion and balance. I will say the ABV is well concealed, I wouldn’t have ever guessed the alcohol’s true strength. Only a low grade, peppery warmth in the back of the palate gives it away. D: I recently had the pleasure of consuming two of Wisconsin’s better maibocks, the ones from Capital Brewing and Sprecher Brewing. Altenmünster Maibock suffers in comparison, the weak malt tastes and presence just diminishes this to an average at best maibock, not worth the import price.

pours clear and a rich perfect golden color topped with a big ’ol white head which fades slowly and leaves light lacing. smells grainy, malty sweet with a touch of lemon and mown grass sitting in a plastic bag waiting to be taken out back. fairly grainy sweet on the palate... flavors of grain, grass and a small amount of yeast with an earthy bite on the finish. medium body with a slick and rich mouth feel.

A careful pour produces a three-finger thick, light tan colored head in my 25cl tulip glass. The beer is a brilliantly clear, copper color that shows a rich gold hue when held up to the light. The aroma is malt and grain focused with notes of cereal grain, sweet-concentrated malt, some cracker-like grain notes, substantial chewy grain aromatics and perhaps something a touch like sweet, green raisins. Underneath this is a light, herbal hoppiness that becomes a bit more noticeable after the initial malt focus. This really has a substantial grain-character to it, much more so than even sweet, toasty malt notes.

A touch fizzy up front from the ample carbonation, this is fairly light bodied for a bock, though it still definitely has a chewy heft to it. The carbonation definitely lightens the effect of this beer a bit. Only lightly sweet, but does have a chewy maltiness to it that while not sweet is rich with complex grain sugars. Flavors of unleavened wheat crackers that are lightly toasty and some touches of toffee round out the malt component. Some light, but just noticeable hop flavors contribute an herbal, slightly menthol hop flavor up front as well as a touch of clean bitterness. Speaking of clean, this beer is nice and clean, with little fermentation character, just like a good lager should be.

Not quite as complexly malty as I might prefer & the boost of hop flavor sometimes found in this particular variation of the Bock style is not here past a subtle hop character. Not bad, but one of those two things would push this to being at least pretty good.

.5 liter bottle- looked new and fresh from the Whole foods on Bowery/Houston. Pours a nice crystla clear deep gold with a nice thick white head which fades mostly. Aroma is bready doughy, light vienna malts, some toasty thick swet light munich, and a nice floral german hop kick. Flavor is initially doughy, malty bready, some mild floral hop middle and a decent finish, but somewhere in the back of the palate I get a wierd sharp solventy almost acetone or harsh vodka like alcohol in there- especially as it warms. Best to drink pretty cold. Nice beer.