McNeills Maibock

Brewed by McNeills Brewery
Style: Dunkler Bock
Brattleboro, Vermont USA

Serve in Dimpled mug, Snifter

Bottle from Smith’s. Pours clear deep copper with 1-finger loud fizzy head. Nose is caramel malt, hops, fruit, tartness. Tastes tart, dry, fruity, with caramel malt, and subdued hops. Medium palate heft and complexity, with major carbonation. We really need a regular bock style and a maibock style, as this one is not a dunkler bock. Stays tart and fruity at the finish, and ends up very lactic.

22oz bottle-pours a light tan head and amber color. Aroma is medium malt-slight molasses, pine/herbal. Taste is sweet light malt, tart lemon.

Bottle thanks to jcwattsrugger. Pours reddish brown with tan head. Nose/taste of sweet malt, caramel and toffee. Nose also has molasses. Taste is mostly sweet malt with slightly sour malt finish. Medium body.

22 oz. Nose of wet, earthy-peaty leaf, and root beer-flavored hard candy. Smells more like a scotch ale, with maybe some peppery rye thrown in! Nice looking, deep copper with a creamy quarter inch disc above. Taste is at first sweet hard candy, with some strong fruity tartness developing. The initial finish is better, with some chocolate and toasted grain. Later sips seem more like peppery grain trying to overcome the tart apple and grape, with no toast evident. Medium body is acidic and seems well-balanced, but see-saws wildly back and forth between sweet and sour, so its really hard to call one way or the other. Not a bad brew, but not real enticing either.

22 ounce bottle shared from markwise, poured a orange/amber color, with aromas of tart malt. Flavor is malt and a tart twangyness aftertaste.

Bottle from Summer Secret Santa 2011. Pours hazy yellow-orange with a small white head. Nose is malt, tartness, yeast, and slight vinous fruit. Flavor has some nice malt character up front followed by a bit of bitterness then some tart vinous character. I don’t know if I just held on to the bottle too long or what. I actually thought the tartness diversified some of the traditional flavors of a maibock. Finish of this medium-bodied maibock is tart.

Bottle. Copper, amber color. Slightly sweet malt flavor with just the right amount of hops. Not the best mai bock I have had but really good.

Draft in NYC. Darkest orange-brew, thin head. alt-alc nose, grassy malting. Sourish body. under carbonated and too much residual sugar. Drinkable, but not great.