Go Ahead! Walk the Fine Line with Abita Bock!
Written: Mar 08 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Flavorful brew with lots of soft sweet malt
Cons: Lacks the depth and malt complexity of the world's best helles bocks
The Bottom Line: I'd drink another! This Abita Bock is a helles, light golden color with a soft light sweet malt flavor. Refreshing and not as heavy as some bocks.
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| mrkstvns's Full Review: Abita Bock |
The concept of beer styles provides a wonderful tool for understanding the world of beer and for communicating perceptions between knowledgable drinkers, but it can sometimes be a bit of a barrier for some beers that want to push the guidelines and make their mark as distinctive brands in their own right. There's a fine line between using a style label to communicate to the consumer what he or she should expect in a beer, and in pushing the envelope to reflect individuality and brewing creativity.
I think Abita is struggling with that line sometimes, especially with beers like Abita Bock, which is a fine brew and which exemplifies some of the best qualities of what knowledgable beer drinkers understand and expect from the style. Sometimes the line is obvious -- nobody would ever claim that Guinness Stout should be called a light lager -- but other times it's subtle. At what point does a Scottish ale lose its malt edge to become more of an English bitter? That's the stuff of barroom chat between beer geeks, and I think we've got a lot to chat about over a few glasses of Abita Bock...
What I Expect From a Bock (and a Helles Bock)
Malt is the real key to a good bock. I want to taste fresh sweet malt -- no hops, no complex esters or phenols -- just malt, and lots of it! Yep, lots. German brewing tradition (and brewing laws) hold that a beer just isn't bock if it isn't brewed to a strength of at least 16 Plato (1064). That's a good thing! It ensures a level of maltiness and body that drinkers have come to expect and savor in the style.
The malt flavor comes not just from the gravity though, but from the true talents of master brewers who use Munich malts and the time-honored decoction mash process. It takes longer, it requires more equipment and technical processes, but the result is a deep malt profile where you can taste soft caramel flavors and maybe something like what you taste in lightly toasted sweet breads. Mmmm. My mouth waters just thinking about malt...
Bocks come in different flavors. Most popular is your traditional basic "bock". If the label just says "bock", this is what you expect. There are also pale, light-colored bocks called "helles" or "maibock". And then, of course, there are the big "dopplebocks" with gravities that make them sort of the lager counterpoint to a big barleywine, but I'll save that discussion for another time since we really only need to know about bocks and helles bocks to figure out what's going in in a glass of Abita.
In a standard traditional bock, I would expect a gorgeous deep copper color or maybe even a darker brown -- and I look for a strong malt aroma and flavor. I expect complexity in the malt profile with maybe just a bit of a toasty or nutty edge, but mostly, I want smooth sweet fresh malt.
I look for pretty much the same kind of malt character and depth in a helles bock, but without the nutty component. I also look for a lighter color and a fresh malt aroma free of hops or yeast byproducts.
Let's see what I get in a glass of Abita Bock...
A Glass of Malt and Gladness...
I sometimes like pouring bocks into pilsner glasses, but I think that today I'll use a heavy crystal mug. It always makes for a beautiful presentation!
So let's pop the cap, pour, and .....
Appearance:
Whoa, Nelly! The label just says "bock", and I was expecting Abita's standard bock with its tawny, almost copper color, but this beer is a light golden color -- it's evidently the bock that Abita has sold in past years as Mardi Gras Bock. Okay. I'll go with the flow. Change is good...right?
Okay. So we've got a helles bock here, with a deep golden yellow color. The head is initially rocky and dense, and it disipates fairly quickly, as bocks often do. The clarity is excellent as you'd expect from a brewery that filters all their beers.
Aroma:
Soft sweet malt is the main thing here, as I'd expect, but what catches me a little off guard is the unmistakable light spiciness of some hops. It's not so big as to put me off, but it's more than a masterpiece of the style would have.
Flavor:
Nice firm chewy malt character. There's a lot of clean sweetness, and there's just a touch of caramel. It's very nice. It's very malty. But it lacks the depth and complexity that I find in the German classics or the best examples from U.S. craft breweries. I suspect that Abita is not using any Munich or Vienna malts in this and I suspect they aren't using a traditional decoction mashing process. It's possible that they are doing one or the other, but if they are, the extra effort isn't showing up in the final product.
The body is firm but it seems lighter than I expect in a bock style. I doubt very seriously that this beer was brewed to 16 Plato or higher. It could be, after all, Belgian brewers often put out stealth beers that are smooth and light-bodied, but that pack a huge punch. This beer could be doing something similar, but if I were a betting man, I'd say it's more likely that the beer was brewed to a gravity just slightly above normal (12P) levels and that it's on the light and weak side for the style -- but that's my tongue talking, not the word of the brewer.
Hmm. That last paragraph sound more harsh than it should, even though it's pretty accurate. The problem I see is that basically, this is a very nice lager beer. It's very smooth, nicely malty, and its refreshing as all get out. Good stuff...really it is! I'm just enamored of it when I compare it to great helles bocks put out by the Munich masters, or from America's best lager breweries -- like Victory or Old Dominion.
Verdict:
I'm glad I bought a six-pack of this beer because I'll definitely want another. This is one nicely drinkable beer. It's tasty and it's not a bad effort at making a pale bock. I'm a picky drinker sometimes and I hold bocks especially up to a high standard, and frankly, this one is just not quite malty enough for me to consider it in the leagues with the big boys. A nice beer. Eminently drinkable, and not a bad bock -- just not a great bock. Three and half stars, but since Epinions isn't charging me for being a nice guy today, I'll go ahead and round up to 4.
A lot of people will appreciate an accessible light bock like Abita's....
About Abita Brewing
Abita is one of those craft breweries that you don't always hear a whole lot about, but that quietly go about making good beer and catering to their local market and growing their business. Abita is one of the old-timers of the craft brewing industry, having gotten their start back in 1986. Over the years, they've expanded to the point where, today, they are poised to become one of the largest independent breweries in the U.S. (they recently purchased a 100-barrel brewhouse from Canadian equipment fabricator DME -- the largest brewhouse DME ever built.)
Abita's original brewery (a 15-barrel brewhouse) is now their brewpub, although its on the opposite side of town from the new brewery. That's a shame, because I really like visiting breweries like Old Dominion in Virginia or Victory in Pennsylvania where they have a tap room adjacent to the brewery. I've spent more than a few lazy afternoons at Dominion, perched on a bar stool peering through the huge plate glass windows to check out the brewing activity going on a few yards away. Now that is coolness!
Abita likes to stress the purity of their water as the defining element that sets them apart from the pack. They claim that the natural water sources at Abita Springs let them brew without doing any mineral adjustments before brewing. Natural spring water -- that's what Abita says they use.
While Abita's stronghold is the Louisiana market, their beers can be found in almost every state in the U.S. today. I know that it's available in the Texas and Washington D.C. areas, and I see from Abita's web page that they have distributors just about everywhere else too, from Connecticut to California, so this should be a beer that's not too tough for most folks to get their lips on...
If you're in the New Orleans area, drive across Lake Pontchartrain to Abita Springs and check out the brewery. They do tours Saturday and Sunday afternoons. More info is on their web site: www.abita.com
Recommended:
Yes
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