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BY JEFF ALWORTH |
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Feeling optimistic about the weather and think you'll try to usher in the sun with a spring seasonal? You'd better make it a bock. While not every brewery has adopted the style, it's clearly the beer of the season. In the past weeks, five different versions have appeared on shelves with one still to come: Thomas Kemper Bad Goat Bock, Full Sail Mercator Doppelbock (part of the "Special Reserve" line), Nor'Wester Smith Rock Bock, Widmer Golden Bock, Saxer Dark Bock and Alameda Spring Rose Doppelbock (available March 20). The prospect of reviewing each one separately was daunting (how many adjectives are there for "malty"?), so to add a bit of mystery to the process, I did a blind tasting. The advantage to this kind of comparative approach is that it highlights differences. Especially with the bock style, where the emphasis is on the malt, even subtle variations in complexity and mouthfeel stood out. The first beer of the tasting was the Thomas Kemper, and it created a baseline for those that followed. It's a fine example of the style--a deep amber color, malty and very smooth. Of all those I tried, this one has the creamiest mouthfeel. The Nor'Wester Smith Rock Bock--the third in the tasting--is a close cousin. It's slightly brighter in the glass and finishes cleaner, without the fruity, vanilla note I found on revisiting the Thomas Kemper. They're two beers that would pass muster in Munich--solid, malty bocks. Two others fall a bit below midline for my money. The second I tasted, a mahogany-colored bock, rated fairly good--perhaps a bit thinner than I would have liked, but not bad. I was less charitable when I discovered it was Full Sail's Doppelbock; doppels should be noticeably bigger and headier than this. Similarly, Widmer's Golden Bock doesn't compare to the other bocks. It's significantly lighter in color than any of the other beers, an almost pilsner-like golden, and it's also the only one with a vigorous bead. It has less body than the others and little mouthfeel. While a richness of malt marks most of the others, the Golden Bock is less robust. On learning that it was the Widmer, I wondered, where's their Bourbon Bock? The last two beers are standouts. The first is Alameda's Spring Rose Doppelbock, made with two pounds of organic rose petals. Though adding roses is clearly a departure from the strict standards of German brewing, it's actually the fairly strong note of chocolate that sets Spring Rose apart from the others. The roses play a very minor role, contributing only the smallest floral hint that is in such harmony with the malt that it could easily be mistaken for a product of fermentation. Saxer's Dark Bock was the last in the tasting. Simply put, it's stunning--an attractive, deep, clear red in the glass, with a dense head. Few of the other beers are very aromatic (bocks having little in the way of hopping), but the Dark Bock, even when poured out cold, has a rich, portlike smell. I have tasted few beers--all of them much higher in alcohol content--with the richness and complexity of this one. The malt has a depth that makes it seemed well-aged, and an almondy flavor that brewer Tony Gomes attributes to its caramelization during the brewing process. I don't know how judges would rate it against other bocks--it may be that the personality of the malt isn't in keeping with the staid style--but it's the clear standout among the beers I tasted. Other Spring Seasonals Portland Brewing has made the most interesting choice of all with its Thunderhead Cream Stout. Heavy, dark ales are uncommon spring seasonals, but given that the weather around here isn't reliably warm and dry until June, there are plenty of appropriate occasions for a stout. This one's an impressive beer, bigger and more robust than most in Portland. It looks dense coming from the bottle and forms a large, fluffy head. The beer is dry-hopped, giving it a lot of flavor without much bitterness, and the aroma is of fresh hops. Made with black barley and no chocolate malts, it's a very dry beer with little sweetness. The designation "cream stout" probably isn't appropriate here--this is an authentic, dry Irish Stout--but that's the only thing wrong with this beer. "We're trying to lose our Bob Dole image with this one," said head brewer Brett Porter. Good start.
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