Brewery & Beer Reviews

Three bocks reviewed today:

• Philips Instigator Dopplebock

• Creemore Springs urBock

• Vancouver Island Brewery Hermannator Ice Bock

With the wet winter now in full swing on Vancouver Island, the rains also usher in the time of the Bocks. Bocks are delicious German-style  lagers that are nearly the opposite of their Pilsner or Pale Lager cousins.  In fact, what I like best about Bock beers is that they have such a lovely malty flavour but still retain some of that distinctive lager hop taste. Bocks are brewed with a darker and heavier malt and the malt content is a little heavier than usual causing the beers to often have a high alcohol content, sometimes going over 10%. This gives them a little bit of a peppery almost spicy flavour that really works with the sweet caramel smell.  Spicy is wrong… but I cannot really describe the sweet but not Bock taste otherwise.  They are also called “liquid bread” because fasting monks would drink these beers during fasting periods, causing the beers to be called “Lenten beer” in some places.  Poor little monks, having to live on bread and beer alone, how did they manage.

Speaking of dopplebocks, let’s get to it.

I’m not going to lie, I really enjoy the Instigator Dopplebock by Philips (shown above right).  Great balance, not overly sweet, light spicy aftertaste from the alcohol, and very a light and natural tasting carbonation, along with a hefty 8.5% alcohol level.  When I found out this tasty seasonal was coming out I hit the beer store the same day to stock up.  I even brought some home to Ontario at Christmas in my quest to move Dad from to the craft brew side of the Force.

My only qualms with this is the beer was a tad watery and wasn’t as rich as dopplebocks can be.  The head should have been thicker and with more staying power, but this is more of a texture thing, the overall taste was really quite good.

The beer had a deep flavour that while sweet, wasn’t cloying or sugary like some dopplebocks can be.  I hate when a beer tastes like cane sugar cola.  I love it when a cane sugar cola tastes like a cane sugar cola.  The beer actually tasted better when closer to room temperature as it softened up the maltyness and let a little bit of the hop through along with a bit of a cherry smell. This was a thoroughly good beer experience.

The Hermannator is the bad boy of the bocks. The very dark brown lager was high in alcohol content (9.5%) and seemed to have double the malty sweetness of the Philips.  The smell was like dark brown sugar melting into a stick of butter.  Not bad, but a bit too rich.  It really coloured how I tasted the beer, my first sips were overpowered by the sweetness and the beer seemed a little one dimensional.  But after it warmed up a bit and lost some carbonation (it was quite fizzy as compared to other bocks) the complexity began to show up.  The flavour was anything but subtle, yet there was a pleasant bitterness in the aftertaste that helped soften the sweetness.  Vancouver Islanders seem to love it when this Ice Bock comes out (Germans would call it Eisbock, the process of freezing a dopplebock, taking out the ice and increasing the alcohol) and it sells like crazy out here. I like it, but it is almost a desert beer, I only wanted one… or two.

The Creemore Springs urBock was nothing like the top two.  It tasted and looked and smelled like a more typical lager.  Heavy on the roasted hop flavour, light in the malt

department with a dark yellow/light amber colour, I was surprised when I poured it into a glass.  If you look on their site, the beer is dark like any bock, but mine was much lighter.  It was very carbonated, crisp, and had medium dry taste.  It was nothing like the other bocks, and the bottle claimed it was  brewed “In the tradition of the middle ages, when the best of the year’s hop and barley crops were used to brew ‘Bock’ for the noble class…”  Again, to my knowedge the very opposite is true, bocks were traditionally beers brewed by humble monks, and not for nobles.

I was very disappointed because I do like some of Creemore Springs beers, their Pilzner is very good and a favorite summer beer I enjoy when visiting family in Ontraio.  Regardless, this beer was not the malty dark beer it should have been, I can’t say I enjoyed it.  Much too hoppy for a bock, way too light in flavour, and far too carbonated.  As a standard lager maybe, but a bock it is not.

Local Brew Review Recommendation:  Philips Instigator Dopplebock!

Yeah, like I made that one a hard call.  Very delicious, nutritious, and a joy to drink.  I’ll miss you when you are gone.

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