The ritual Maibock

I had my first Capital Maibock of the season over the weekend and it was tasty. As best as I can recall, this was the first microbrew I ever tasted ergo it will always have a special place in my liver and I endeavor to have some every spring.

Somebody tell me what's Carnival for: Mardi Gras Bock by Abita Brewing Company

In anticipation of making my first trip to The Big Easy, I recently started buying a weekly bag of Zapp's potato chips despite the chips not actually being made in Louisiana and Zapp's now being a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Utz potato chip empire of Hanover, Pennsylvania. And so it's only appropriate to eat them while listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Born On the Bayou", a fantastic slice of swamp rock by a band from California that I don't think had ever stepped foot on the bayou when they recorded that song. Thinking that I ought to consume something other than potato chips for this endeavor and something actually from New Orleans, I mistakenly bought some beer from Abita.

Although not brewed in New Orleans, Abita is at least brewed in Louisiana. Looks like 40ish miles north of there. That's close enough, I suppose, for them to legitimately use New Orleans iconography. Besides, they use more generic bayou stuff in their beer names too. It's like New Glarus. They use a lot of Wisconsin imagery on their labels but I don't think anyone would object if they brewed a smoked rye lager and put a flamingo standing on a hill on the label. I for one would welcome such a thing.

For my sampling, I recreated a small bit of my past. One time back in the days when I prepared food for a living, one of my fellow cooks brought in a Mardi Gras mixtape to celebrate the season. It was through this tape that I learned that New Orleans R&B extended way beyond Fats Domino. Irma Thomas, Earl King, Clarence "Frogman" Henry - ooh! - "Sea Cruise" by Frankie Ford. But there was this 3 song stretch that I listened to while sipping my Abita:

"Jolie Louise" by Daniel Lanois (who knew he did more than produce U2 and Bob Dylan?)

"My Toot Toot" by Rockin' Sidney

"Go to the Mardi Gras" by Professor Longhair

Fess!!! "Big Chief"! "Tipitina"! "Bald Head"!

Oh mama! I can remember many other songs from that tape but it's only those 3 that I can recall the order of.

While Mardi Gras is done and Christians the world over are enjoying Lententide by ignoring all of their chosen denomination's injunctions against fun, the season for pale bocks, a.k.a. - Maibocks, is not. As it happens, Abita is a fairly large brewery and their brews are found even here in Wisconsin. Furthermore, their Mardi Gras/Lenten seasonal is a Maibock called Mardi Gras Bock. A perfect choice as I get the New Orleans factor and the drinking seasonal element all in one fell swoop.

Looking at this lovely beer, I felt like I should have thrown some beads at it. It was a gorgeous gold and clear as day. The big, off-white head had staying power and the clarity allowed me to see a few bubbles inside. The aroma was a nice mix of the malty - caramel with a bit of bread - and the hoppy - grass with a hint of white pepper. If only there was a hop that smelled of cayenne.

A medium body and a medium dose of fizz greeted my tongue. There was a definite malty smoothness but it was cut by a bit of astringency. While there was a little taste of bread, the malts generally gave honey and caramel flavors. Despite this, the beer wasn't overly sweet with those flavors being balanced by some spicy/peppery hops.

The malty sweetness faded on the finish rather quickly with hops on the peppery side coming in to give a firm dose of bitterness and a solid dryness.

Would it have been cool to have a little plastic baby inside one of the bottles of my 6-pack? Yes. Would I have preferred some hot decoction action to strengthen that bready taste? Of course I would. But nonetheless, this stuff has a nice malty flavor and I really appreciate that the sweetness was moderated. Its 6.5% A.B.V. strength provided a little warmth on a chilly evening. Mardi Gras Bock is a fine brew as the pale lagery goodness just hit most of the Maibock notes for me.

Junk food pairing: I've been pairing Mardi Gras Bock with generous portions of Zapp's Evil Eye potato chips. Their Worcestershire sauce/tomato paste combo complements the beer's hoppy zing perfectly.

The first Maibocks of spring

  

I bought some Maibock from the Fatherland. Mighty tasty stuff! Bready, not too sweet. Good maltiness for a 50 degree spring day.

A New Bock Fest on the Block

The East Side Club will be having a Bock Fest on Saturday, 4 March. I have it on good authority that a helles bock has been brewed especially for this event and drinkers who want to live deliciously.

Then Came the Last Bocks of May: Maibock by Dovetail Brewery

The Maibock is one of those liminal beer styles. It's doesn't live in the realm of bold, heady brews that are able to fend off the -20° (-40° windchill) cold and snow of January. And it's not an easy going, sylph-like brew that is perfect for a 90° day in the sun. As its name implies, the Maibock is a beer for that time of year when the days are much milder than those of the Upper Midwestern fimbulwinter from which you have just emerged but still chilly at night to remind you that you're not out of the woods yet. It's a spring treat, perfect for sitting around the fire as your maple sap boils.

Personally, I am rather fond of Maibocks. For one, it was the first style of microbrew I can recall drinking back in 1991. For another, their appearance in stores is a bit like seeing a robin for the first time since the previous year: it heralds the arrival of spring.

This was the first year the Maibock from Chicago's Dovetail Brewery would be available here in Madison and I was greatly looking forward to it. The other beers that I have had from them have been uniformly excellent. They reliably decoct to perfection, bestowing upon their beers that toasty-bready flavor that I fell in love with while drinking the lagers my friend smuggled in from Germany back in 1990.  Well, I think they do, anyway. Either that or they use melanoidin malt which apparently obviates the need to decoct. Since Dovetail brag about decocting their beers on Twitter, I am going to discount the custom malt idea.

Although I scoured the internet from end to end, I was unable to find any evidence of who invented the Maibock as we know it today and when they did so. The bock style goes back to the 14^th century or thereabouts and featured lots of malty sweetness, a dark color, a touch of hops, and a good kick**. It's for keeping the cold at bay or sustaining oneself through Lent. The going theory is that sometime during the 1800s a someone or someones had an epiphany which led to a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup moment that would be perfect for James Burke to put into an episode of Connections.

I can just see Burke strolling down the shadowy cloisters of some old monastery in Germany passing by serious looking monks who have taken a vow of silence as he intones, "The bock beer began life here in the northern German city of Einbeck in the 14^th century. But by the 17^th century the style had migrated south." The tonsured men then proceed to cast sideways glances at our inquisitive host. We then cut to Burke walking the streets of Vienna. "Fast forward to the 1830s when a chap called Anton Dreher in the suburbs of Vienna decided to combine the pale malts he encountered during his travels in England with the bottom-fermenting yeast he got from his friend Gabriel Sedlmayr in Munich who ran a little brewery you may have heard of – Spaten. He ended up inventing the pale lager." Cut to a big-breasted blonde with an armful of steinkrugs.

And so on. What it comes down to is that someone thought it would be a good idea to take the bock that everyone knew and liked and cross it with the new pale lager that was setting the brewing world on fire and we got the Maibock, a.k.a. – helles (pale) bock. Pale in color, not quite as much alcohol as a traditional bock, not quite as sweet either, and generally with a bit more hops.

Dovetail's Maibock is a beautiful light gold that's clear as day. My pour produced a big, frothy, white head that went away rather quickly. However, the small head in the photo above is the result of me scrambling to find a good spot to take a picture for too long. It looked a lot better about 15 seconds prior to this photograph. And you can't see all of the bubbles making their way up. It looked mighty fine.

Smelling this beer brought me back to the days before 2018 driving by the Sara Lee bakery over on the 3400 block of East Washington here in Madison. If you went by at the right time, your nose was inundated with the aroma of freshly baked bread and this is what this Maibock smelled like in large measure. Simply wonderful. There was also a honey/fruity sweetness and a herbal/floral smell from the hops.

The first thing I noticed when drinking this beer was the toasted bread/melanoidiny goodness. The day someone figured out how to put that flavor into beer was a great day for humanity and we should all have a day off from work to celebrate. At least I should, anyway. John Stuart Mill would definitely have classified it as a higher pleasure. There was a honeyed sweetness, some herbal tasting hops, and some good fizz to be had as well.

On the finish some mild bitterness came onto the scene and the honey flavor took on floral overtones.

From the first sip it was apparent that Dovetail's Maibock would make its way into my top 2 microbrewed helles bocks. With plenty of that Maillard reacated toasty tastiness, how could it not? While there was the expected honey sweetness, it wasn't too much. I also really appreciated the herbal/floral tastes from the hops. My only gripe is simply that I wish there was more hoppiness, just a little more sumpin' sumpin' to go up against the sweetness. Maybe there is if drunk fresh. That experiment will have to wait for next year, however.

Despite the folks at Dovetail not brewing their Maibock to my exact specifications, I will grudgingly admit that it's still a great beer.

Junk food pairing: With toastiness the key word here, get family sized box of Extra Toasty Cheez-Its to pair with your Maibock. You can drown in melanoidin gluttony.

**This may not be an accurate description of a bock bier from the Late Middle Ages.

Better Late Than Never: Helles Ginger Bock by MobCraft Beer

I was going to begin by saying something akin to "blah blah blah Madison's MobCraft" when I recalled that the brewery has moved to Milwaukee. But being slightly behind the times is par for the course for this review as MobCraft's Helles Ginger Bock came out earlier this spring. In addition, my quaffing occurred a month or so ago. Tempus fugit.

MobCraft and I have – not a love/hate relationship – more like an on-again/off-again relationship. I have a great deal of respect for what they do. Polling the teeming millions and then brewing an everything but the kitchen sink beer cannot be easy. But I have found that often times their brews are better in a theoretical kind of way as described on their website than they are when encountered by my tongue.

Despite this, there are still times when I'm simply a sucker for novelty, something MobCraft brews up in spades. Helles Ginger Bock appears to have been a brewer's choice as I see no evidence that the style/flavor was crowdsourced from the unwashed masses.

In addition to precipitation, procreation, and verdancy ascendant, the spring time is also flush with pale bocks. Spring bocks are lighter in color and a bit more hoppy than the bock biers that help keep the winter at bay. The pungent zestiness of ginger was thought by practitioners of medieval medicine to be hot and wet and so the root is an ideal addition to a spring bock as it can add an aromatic, sanguine complexion to the bier.

MobCraft's vernal brew was a lovely golden hue. Its sparkling clarity revealed a surfeit of bubbles tucked underneath an inch or so of off-white foam.

The smell was dominated by fresh ginger and its wonderful floral-citrus-pepper pungency. There was a little bit of bread to be had in the background as well. This combination held fast into the taste where that zesty ginger took pride of place. A moderate dose of carbonation and a hint of bready sweetness fooled part of my tongue into thinking it was drinking the ginger beer with which I was down my jerk pork whenever I frequent the Jamerica food cart.

Some grassy hops were revealed as the ginger faded on the finish. Bitterness was moderate but the denouement was surprisingly rather dry. Not much Schaumhaftvermoegen to be had aside from a few random foamy spots.

It should be said that Helles Ginger Bock has a great fresh ginger aroma and taste and it truly reminded me of a good ginger soda. To a point. I found this bier to be lacking in the malt department. It was 7.1% A.B.V. but had a fairly light body. There wasn't much bready taste nor malt sweetness. I have no problem with the style's hoppiness being supplanted by the ginger, for the most part, but the paucity of grainy goodness made the bier quite one dimensional.

Junk food pairing: Pair any remaining Helles Ginger Bock with a fine, warm processed cheese food sauce. Dip thick cut/kettle chips in the gooey mess to your heart's content.

For the May Day is the Great Day: Bonfire Maibock by House of Brews

Earlier this year House of Brews proprietor Page Buchanan announced that he'd be brewing four lagers here in 2016. Back in the depths of winter he released the tasty Jailhouse Bock, a doppelbock quite adept at keeping the winter chill at bay. And last month saw the release of Bonfire Maibock to help ease the transition from having Jack Frost nipping at your nose to having mosquitoes suckling at your skin in oppressive heat and humidity.

I have a special place in my liver for maibocks, those malty brews that are lighter in color and in body than their other bock cousins and generally a bit hoppier than them too. With Lententide fasting over, they are not charged with sustaining life alone and so, while hearty, they are not as heavy as the doppelbock. It was through the maibock – a Capital Mindblock, er, Maibock, specifically – that I became introduced to seasonal beers back in 1991.

Full disclosure: I know Brewmaster Page personally but I will be brutally honest for your benefit, dear reader. And, besides, he's not paying me.

Bonfire pours a lovely clear gold. This is one of those biers that makes me wish I had the ability to take nice photographs and/or use Paint.net with something resembling skill because it is really pretty. My pour produced a small white head that dissipated quickly. There was, however, a goodly number of bubbles in the bier going up.

The aroma was sweetly scented and wonderful. Honey came first followed by a light, berry-like fruitiness, which I did not expect. I don't mean to imply it was fruity like one would expect from a Ballast Point Bilge Water Strawberry Maibock, but the malts just had this mild, non-specific berry scent. There was also a trace of grassy hops.

Bonfire had medium-lightish body and a rather rich taste. A nice honeyed sweetness was first on my tongue and, while it took pride of place, it was by no means cloying. Jailhouse Bock was brewed with three sweet malts; by contrast Bonfire only has one caramel malt, Carahell, with Pilsen and Vienna malts filling it out. And while not overflowing with decocted Maillard reactioned melanoidin flavor, the bier did have a really nice toasted malt taste behind the sweetness. Some of those grassy hops were to be tasted in there too.

On the finish the malt sweetness faded as a spicy/herbal Nugget hop flavor ascended. Both the flavor and the not insubstantial bitterness they brought made for a really nice contrast to the malts. Schaumhaftvermoegen was nowhere to be found.

Bonfire is a mighty fine maibock. While I thought it was just a touch on the thin side, I loved the malt sweetness. It had a really nice taste which was almost floral and was neither overpowering nor syrupy yet it was dominant. Some toasted flavors were complementary while a nice dose of carbonation and hops added contrast which helped keep the sweetness in check. Bonfire is smooth and goes down easily. Too easily, perhaps.

Junk food pairing: Have a box of Baby Swiss Cheez-Its on hand when you've got a Bonfire in hand.

Taurus to the Left of Me, Cancer to the Right: The Twins by Lake Louie Brewing

Last year Lake Louie Brewing overhauled its line-up. Beers were shuffled around into various series and new brews were introduced as well. The transformation continued into 2015 and included the introduction of a maibock back in the spring called The Twins. The name is a reference to Gemini, a sign in the zodiac, but both the beer and Lake Louie gained a measure of infamy back in April when a Madison Craft Beer Week event featuring the brew was held at the Silk Exotic strip club and promoted with the catchphrase, "Grab hold of a pair."

Puerile humor aside, the maibock is a potent pale lager. Brewed and lagered over the winter, it's tapped in the spring and serves as a liquid transition between the dead of winter and the rebirth of life in the spring. Although associated with Munich these days, the bock was invented in the north-central German city of Einbeck. The brewers of Einbeck were renowned for their quality beers and legend has it that Duke Maximillian of Bavaria recruited an Einbeckian brewer by the name of Elias Pilcher in and brought him to Munich in 1614 to demonstrate his mad skills for the poor, backwards southerners who took the northern style like a junkie to the needle. They are the ones who bestowed the name "bock" onto the beer as a corruption of Einbeck.

The modern maibock came about in the mid-19th century when Hofbräuhaus took advantage of then-new malting techniques which allowed for paler malts. The result was the pale (helles) bock we enjoy today each spring. I've never traipsed around Munich in the springtime so I am unsure of what an authentic maibock tastes like. These lighter bocks are generally hoppier than other iterations of the style but there is disagreement as to the malt character. Should it be sweet or more bready? At the end of the day I suppose it's irrelevant and that there is likely a fair amount of variation.

Although released back in the spring, it is once again Starkbierzeit (strong beer time) and it seemed appropriate to pull a bottle of The Twins out from my cellar last week.

The Twins pours a lovely golden hue. I got a small off-white head that went away all-too quickly. Being clear, I could see that there were many a bubble going up inside the beer. The aroma was distinctively sweet with honey and apricot scents standing out. As befitting a style that is hoppier than your average bock, there was also some grassy hop aroma to be had which became more pronounced as the beer warmed.

Whatever may or may not be the "authentic" taste of a maibock, sweetness prevails here. It's a clean sweetness, though, with it coming from malt. I tasted a stonefruity flavor primarily, although there was also a bit of toffee in there. Those grassy hops made a welcome return from the nose into the taste. While not a particularly hoppy beer, the hops were definitely more pronounced that in other types of bocks. All those bubbles I saw translated into some bite. Not enough to really challenge the malt sweetness but, in tandem with the hops, the carbonation made for a nice little distraction.

The one thing which did throw down the gauntlet before the sweetness was the alcohol burn. The Twins is around 8% A.B.V. but it tasted even headier. While Galen would have lauded the sanguine properties of The Twins, Matt Kenseth would recognize this beer's ability to fuel his car. I suspect that one's interest in feeling the burn on the tongue is going to go a long way in determining whether you enjoy this beer or not.

At the finish the malt sweetness gives way to some hop spiciness and its attendant dryness. And there's the omnipresent vital heat from the alcohol as well. Schaumhaftvermoegen was sparse with only a few dots around my glass.

As I noted above, this is a boozy-tasting beer and I was surprised by the heat. Once my tongue became acclimated, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I am not a hophead. My preference for malt-forward beers was certainly satisfied here but I appreciated the extra hops too. Bocks are usually quite lean on them but I thoroughly enjoyed the additional bitterness and the grassy/spicy flavors in The Twins.

One of, if not the, first microbrews I ever had was Capital's Maibock. Not only did it serve as an introduction to quality beer but also to the concept of seasonal suds. And so I have to admit that the style has a special place in my heart. It's nice to have another local maibock to indulge in come spring.

Junk food pairing: The Twins is a big beer with very intense flavors. With such brews I prefer not to try and counter the beer but to complement it with other intense flavors. Bleu cheese and chilies are favorites. Dip some Buffalo Blue Cheese Pretzel Combos in a blue cheese dips. Or find a nice spicy potato chip like the Spicy Thai ones from Kettle Brand. This mélange of flavors is guaranteed to keep away the chill.