Sudwerk Maibock

Brewed by Sudwerk Privatbrauerei Hubsch
Style: Heller Bock
Davis, California USA

Serve in Lager glass, Shaker, Stein

Light yellow pour. Minimal to no head, very light carbination. Basic taste combo of malt & barley, kinda taste like a pale ale, but I guess it’s supposed to be a lager. Very bitter aftertaste, very malty. Not really my thing.

12oz bottle. Pours a clear vivid gold color with a fluffy white head that leaves a thin layer of foam. My first impression of the aroma is lots of spicy noble hops, with a light citrus undertone. Then I get a nice malty honey and doughy yeast aroma as well. The flavor is malty with a little sweetness at first, and then finishes with a powerful hop spice and long bitter finish. Simple, clean malt flavors, with a touch of alcohol hotness. This takes the balance and drinkability of a good pils and takes it up a couple notches. The super clean malt flavors avoid the sticky, cloying sweetness that can happen in the style, but there is still a substantial enough body to let you know you are drinking a stronger beer.

The nose is mostly banana. The flavor is dry with some light sweetness hidden in the fold. It pours clear and very pale.

Thanks for DarkElf for the recommendation! Golden, bright and sparkling. Big malt nose is very clean. Fat malty, bready palate is clean and rich. A little bit of dryness makes this "moreish", to steal a phrase from Jackson. Very good.

UPDATED: SEP 23, 2008 On tap at the 2008 Boonville Beer Festival and in bottles. This is a good, crisp, very tasty maibock with a slightly more pronounced hoppy bite than I usually expect. It is light copper gold with a dense, creamy, off-white head steadily shrinking to a thin head. The smell is raisiny with fruity grain and some hops, honey, bread dough, hay, a bit alcoholic, but smoothly so. The tatse is similar, sweetish, but with a light spicey bitterness and bite, fruity, zesty, a creamy feel and grassy-herbal bitterness with a hint of apple peel. Overall, it is clean and crisp yet very tasty.

350 ml bottle from Bevmo. Light copper brown with a fizzy head. Faint malty aroma and taste with a clean finish.

12 oz. glass bottle- color of dark gold, with a minimal off white head - nose of vegetation, crackers(wheat), and sweet – taste of bright red fruit, sweat, sour cherries, and mild hops - body is light, and with medium to light carbonation – aftertaste of sour cherries, and ruby red grapefruit

Bottle Date of 03.22.07, Sampled September 2007
This beer sits in my glass with a brilliantly clear, pretty, copper color, when held up to the light it shows an orange tinged, gold color. The head starts out almost three-fingers in height and is a pale tan color. The aroma has a nice grain character to it up front and is finished with some lightly herbal hop notes mixed in. Aromatic notes of biscuits, sweet honey-like grain, hints of orange flower nectar, lightly caramelized bread crust, and a green, herbaceous note intermingle in the nose, with none really being dominant.

Lightly sweet, but with an immediately noticeable, slightly astringent, bitterness. The beer finishes with a doughy malt character as well as some caramelized grain sugar notes. Uncharacteristically these notes seem to linger more than the bitterness that was found mostly up front in this beer. Fairly thick and rich, though the lightly zesty carbonation helps to temper this a bit. Some touches of honey character as well as a minty hop note in the finish.

This is quite tasty and I really like the touch with the noticeable hop character; it is perhaps a touch more than traditional German examples, but it is a welcome addition. I have always welcomed the hoppy pale bocks (something I really consider this "new" Double Pilsner thing to be a part of). This beer is quite easy to drink, in some ways I wish it had a bit more character, but it seems to want to be quaffed by the liter, which would be quite dangerous.