Mendocino Spring Seasonal Bock

Brewed by Mendocino Brewing Company
Style: Heller Bock
Hopland, California USA

(12oz bottle) Small off-white head atop crystal clear amber body. Aroma is medium sweet, lime, some honey, caramel, candi sugar. Taste is moderately sweet, caramel, grassy/lime, some bread, light apple, alcohol. Medium body, lightly sticky.

12oz. bottle. Nose of sweet malt, fruity and lightly herbal with hints of brown sugar, pear, golden raisin and a background of flowery perfume. Light-medium golden amber color, gently hazy, with a slight, fading head. Dominant flavor is of sweet, honeyish malt and green grape, doughy bread and some faint licorice and apple in the finish along with a moderate amount of bitterness, a tinge of tartness and a touch of peppery alcohol late. Smoothly active mouthfeel with a medium-full body. Very easily drinkable for sure.

Quite a pleasant surprise I must say. Pours a creme-soda tan-brown with a 3/16-inch foamy head, reducing to a thin film after 20 seconds. Flavour is a lot stronger than expected and more pleasant by far. A little sweet, but it works for this bock. Definitely will have again should circumstances afford. Seems like Mendocino breweries can do no wrong lately...

Bottle. Aroma with toffee, grit, and a smidgen of caramel with a little sour funk in the corner. Harvesty grain aura, perhais a cornfield or barley field (I’m not suggesting the presence of an adjunct). Light citrus to boot. Pale orange body with a lovely, rocky, tiny-bubbled beige head. Taste is bitter though not terribly hoppy, with a bit of grainy dirt, natural grass, lemony citrus, and rocky, minerally funk. Earthy and down and dirty, really nice in how radically this departs from everything I’ve been drinking lately! Sweaty gym socks are a huge plus here, too. Faint crackers and stronger pale malts that approach apple juice but never get there (yes, this tastes very fresh), with notes of floral honey and toffee, lavender and a hint of pineapple. Green, seeded grape. Rye, too? There’s a ton going on here, and this activates parts of the palate that aren’t normally operating, even when exposed to the same hops. Medium body seems chewier than that, and the malts/water here are soft and smooth. Superb experience, had no idea this was coming!

Very dark orange, with a soapy looking had. It receded quickly and I was left with some white on the edges. Candy caramel aroma , maple and malt. Palate is sweet up front briefly, then dries up quickly with hoppishness. This is good.

12oz bottle pours a clear amber orange color with a small head. Nose of oily corn, honey and dried leaves, with a similar flavor - a bit oily, fuller on the palate than it needs to be (typical in American maibock) - but still nice enough and very drinkable. Fresh corn, crackers, honey, malt, etc, with a small presence of hops, just as needed. Not a bad beer, but it’s really difficult to find anything that stands out.

This bock beer pours a medium orange gold color from a 12oz bottle. Small sized white foamy head, that quickly dissipates with some lacing. The aroma is caramel and sweet with hints of fruit, mainly orange and pineapple. A medium bodied Heller Bock. The malts are biscuit and toffee with lots of sweet fruitiness. The hops are earthy and a touch floral. Nice balance. The carbonation is full and kind of soft. Starts off sweet and finishes slightly bitter. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly bitter.

Bottle. Pours amber with an off white head. Malty aroma, but rather light, a caramel note and a light fruity sweetness. Medium body. Flavor is light malt, caramel and grass. Boring. I dunno, I just found this completely unimpressive, although it wasn’t bad by any means.