New Glarus Back 40 Bock

Brewed By: New Glarus Brewing Company in New Glarus, Wisconsin

Purchased: 12oz bottle from a 6-pack bought at Woodman's in Kenosha, WI; 2014 

Style/ABV: Dunkler Bock, 5.5% 

Reported IBUs: ?

Mmmm mmm love those trips across the border. About New Glarus:

New Glarus is the rare, gorgeous "Midwest" brewery, founded in 1993 by Deborah Carey, the first woman to found and operate a brewery in the United States. She raised the capital for the start-up as a gift to her husband, Dan Carey, who is New Glarus' brewmaster and co-owner. Dan Carey has a long history working in the brewing industry, including an apprenticeship at a brewery near Munich, Germany and a job as the Production Supervisor for Anheuser-Busch. The brewery began as an abandoned warehouse using old brewpub equipment. In 1997, Dan Carey purchased coper kettles from a brewery in Germany. In May 2006, New Glarus opened their new (current) facility on a hilltop in the village of New Glarus. The facility looks like a Bavarian village, and is gorgeous. The expansion has allowed the brewery to continue to increase their production, and expand their operations. For more information, check out their brewery page or Wikipedia. 

The Back 40 Bock is a seasonal release (winter???), and is described as a Dunkler Bock. Or a "Wisconsin Bock." Whateva. 

This one looks the part of a Dunkler, pouring into a dark brown/amber body, with hints of orange tones. The body is clean and and quiet, not a lot of carbonation up in here. The beer produces three fingers of creamy, white/off-white head. The head reminds me a Cream Stout for some reason, and as the head drops off you get nice lacing coating the glass. It looks good.

New Glarus Back 40 Bock

The aroma is clean, malty, and moderately spicy with that Lager yeast. I'm getting caramel, bread pudding, bread, cake, fudge, and hints of banana bread. Behind the malt sweetness is some nice floral and earthy hops. The hops, little as they are, provide much needed contrast and balance to the malts.

This is really good...it's simple and quaffable, and never overbearing. There's a lot of mild toast, cake sweetness, caramel, dried berries, and light hops balancing things out. There's some mild hops providing hints of spice and bitterness. This is super clean...and it makes the stuff that Sam Adams rolls out look janky like homebrew extract nonsense. That in itself is worthy of some accolade, I think.

There's not a lot to say. This is medium-bodied, well carbonated, and features hops that turn into malt sweetness up front; the mids dial up big malt sweetness, with more hops; and the back end is malty sweet and hoppy. It's clean with good palate depth, and like most Dunklers doesn't have a ton of complexity. It's very refined and I dig that.

Rating: Average (3.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Average on this. This one is not very memorable, but it's also a really good take on the style...it's just kind of par the course, but nevertheless, I'm digging it. I would pair this with lighter dishes, maybe turkey or chicken, pizza, a stew, soups. It's not a bad beer, especially at the price, but I probably wouldn't seek this out regularly...I dunno.

Random Thought: I appreciate New Glarus' huge lineup, but this beer doesn't really differentiate itself and I wonder if it is a victim of "Bock fatigue."

Gnarly Oak Winter Bock

Brewed By: Minhas Craft Brewery in Monroe, Wisconsin  

Purchased: 22oz bomber from an $8 dollar gift set bought at Walgreens in Chicago, IL; 2014 

Style/ABV: Dunkler Bock, 5.5%

Reported IBUs: 25

The past few weeks have been busy. That's the operative word. And then to cap it all off, I came down with a nasty cold. Having a cold sucks...it makes it hard to enjoy food, beer, and life. You can't work out, and sleeping is interrupted with bouts of dry throat and blowing your nose. As if that wasn't crappy enough, the one day of warm weather in Chicago is being followed up with a 4-to-8 inch March snowstorm that is starting right now. 

It's not all doom and gloom, though. For one, I got perspectives on the horizon. I'll talk more about those at some point. Second, the mother fucking NFL draft is coming up, AND the Blackhawks and Bulls are playing on a high level that is fun to watch. Third...I got some plans for this shitty blog. I don't know exactly what or when, but I'd like to bring Shitty Beer Tuesday back, and I'd like to mix up the review format a bit. So yeah, perspectives. 

Oh, and I also have me this $2.67 bomber of "Winter Bock." That doesn't hurt either. About Minhas: 

Minhas is the oldest continually operating brewery in the Midwest, and the second oldest brewery in the United States. As you can see from the brewery's history page, the brewery has been owned by many different people, and rebranded numerous times. The brewery began in 1845 as the Monroe Brewery when it was opened by Mr. Bissinger. In 1906, the brewery changed its name to the Blumer Brewing Company. And in 1947, the brewery was purchased by Joseph Huber and the brewery became known as the Joseph Huber Brewing Company. In 2005, the Minhas Family purchased the brewery, and in 2006 the brewery changed its name to the Minhas Craft Brewery. For more info, check out the brewery's website. 

There's no website for tonight's libation, but the bottle reads: "Premium Beer. A classic lager made in the traditional German style. It has a malty sweetness, a dark rich color and is lightly hopped. Made with select caramel and black roasted barley and a combination of Columbus, Zeus and Cascade hops."

Gnarly Oak Winter Bock

This one pours out very much like a typical bock. The beer kicks up three fingers of sandy/bready, off-white head. The head is foamy and slowly drops off into the beer's dark brown/reddish body. The body looks to be both transparent and filtered...clean like a Lager. Shining a bright light through the beer confirms the orange/red body, and reveals some fairly volatile streams of medium-sized carbonation. A pinky of head is hanging around, and there is nice lacing.

The aroma plays things pretty straight too...at least for a Dunkler. Now here is where I get to test my theory. This smells A LOT like the Gnarly Oak Chocolate Stout. Even with my lingering cold, I'm picking up aromas of cocoa, artificial sweetness ala cream soda, S'mores, ash/campfire, dried berries and fruits, and big toast and bread and bread crusts. This one dials up the toast/bread thing, which is kind of what you'd expect or want in a dark Bock. There is a light pine/maple note...maybe toffee...certainly some suggestions of Noble hop character, except this beer doesn't use any Noble hops. #YOLO

Eh...this beer is pillowy and heavy with a lot of residual sweetness. It's not at all what I was expecting for a 5.5% Dunkler Bock...it's like the janky homebrew extract kit version of the Sam Adams Chocolate Bock. I'm getting the chocolate and the cocoa, with a little fruity molasses character, and some bread/toast. There are hints of coffee in here, and some nondescript hop character shows up. There's maybe a hint of roast or the so-called "black roasted barley" in here. But yeah.

It's kind of hard to fault an inexpensive beer like this for [likely] using extracts and sugar. It really does have an extract vibe, with some serious balance issues. At 5.5% the lingering sugars and full-bodied mouthfeel are in contention with the cleaner Lager yeast and high final gravity. I mean...the bottle says the OG is 15, so the FG has to be around 4.9. I don't know, I'm not a fucking beer scientist. You're barking up the wrong blog, neckbeard. Even with the balance issues, this is drinkable. But I chug even the most cloying shit these days. I'd probably reserve this Walgreens bargain for a cold winter night like tonight. This beer is the cheerleader of one-dimensional. Complexity is low, but that expansive mouthfeel would make any football team happy. You get sugary chocolate and cocoa up front with fruity molasses; the mids have more sugary chocolate and cocoa, with hints of toffee and toast, some hops; the back end has more sugary chocolate and cocoa, with some hints of coffee/roast. The finish is sugary, with Tootsie Roll candies and that feeling you had when you were a kid and got lost at Walmart. 

Rating: Below-Average (2.5/5.0 Untappd)

IDGAF if this beer costs $2.67 or if it was free. This is for sure a Light Below-Average, just missing the median that is average for the style. Maybe I'm being overly harsh, but this beer makes me appreciate other Bocks that I have been somewhat critical of. It just lacks balance...and the cloying sweetness doesn't work for this style. I gave the Gnarly Oak Chocolate Stout a pass because the Dry Stout/English Stout can work with some of these fake cocoa flavors, but brewing a good Dunkler Bock is evidently harder than people think. It's probably a good lesson in "Lagers are harder to make than you give credit, you Yankee wanker." Anyway...this beer is best paired with spontaneous Walgreens purchases, ice cream, and cold winter nights like tonight. It's also a good beer to drink while you bridge the gap between being sick and not being sick. 

Random Thought: Not that I care and nor should you, but the spineless fartbox that no one cares about known as the Brewer's Association just updated their craft beer guidelines. Millions of beer nerds everywhere suddenly started to care. People LITERALLY left their Goose Island Black Friday lines, forgoing an opportunity to acquire Proprietors Bourbon County, now empowered with the knowledge that Goose Island are a bunch of InBev shills. Angels began to sing and jizz everywhere, and the president of the Brewer's Association, ....????..., made a speech that everyone listened to. Anyway, congratulations to Minhas "Craft Brewery." You guys are officially a craft brewery now. You can officially charge more than $8 for your gift set of mediocre beer. But seriously, the glass is pretty nice. 

New Glarus Uff-da Bock

Brewed By: New Glarus Brewing Company in New Glarus, Wisconsin

Purchased: 12oz bottle bought at Woodman's in Kenosha, WI; 2013

Style/ABV: Dunkler Bock, 7.3% 

Reported IBUs: ?

More Bocks? More New Glarus? Heck yeah. About New Glarus:

New Glarus is the rare, gorgeous "Midwest" brewery, founded in 1993 by Deborah Carey, the first woman to found and operate a brewery in the United States. She raised the capital for the start-up as a gift to her husband, Dan Carey, who is New Glarus' brewmaster and co-owner. Dan Carey has a long history working in the brewing industry, including an apprenticeship at a brewery near Munich, Germany and a job as the Production Supervisor for Anheuser-Busch. The brewery began as an abandoned warehouse using old brewpub equipment. In 1997, Dan Carey purchased coper kettles from a brewery in Germany. In May 2006, New Glarus opened their new (current) facility on a hilltop in the village of New Glarus. The facility looks like a Bavarian village, and is gorgeous. The expansion has allowed the brewery to continue to increase their production, and expand their operations. For more information, check out their brewery page or Wikipedia. 

The Uff-da Bock is a Winter Bock brewed in the tradition of the Reinheitsgebot. New Glarus describes this as complex but smooth, with deep chocolate and coffee undertones.

New Glarus Uff-da Bock

In lower light, the Uff-da pours a dark amber, almost brown/red/mahogany color. The body is transparent, and kicks up two or three fingers of amber-tinted head. Head retention is nice, and there's some nice lacing. Bright light confirms the amber/copper body, and there's quite a bit of carbonation rising upwards in this. The body looks like pennies. Dat currency color.

I'm getting a surprising amount of aged Barleywine-esque pine and pine sap on the aroma. Beneath that is some serious Brown Ale-esque cocoa and dusty chocolate. I'm getting big cocoa/chocolate aromas, hinting at toffee and molasses. If there is coffee in the aroma, it's a nutty, hazelnut variety.

This one is pretty sweet up front, with bready and sugary cocoa dustings. I'm picking up some hints of earthy/bitter hops in the mix, and along with that is some hint of coffee. There's big malts, with bread/toffee/cocoa/sugars, but the finish is clean with some Noble-hop bitterness and a hint of Lager spice. There's some pine sap and tons of nuttiness and pine nuts in the taste. It has some balance, but this is definitely a hearty, Winter-esque Bock.

This one has a medium-full to full-bodied mouthfeel, and feels substantial like a Bock should. I wouldn't butt chug this beer, and you can definitely sip on this. Palate depth is great, and this has nice complexity. You get a wash of bready malts and cocoa dustings up front; that rolls into toffee, more sweet malts, and some hop bitterness; the back end is nutty, and you get some pine nuts. It's a nicely balanced and refined beer. The finish is malty-hoppy-dry. 

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

This is a Strong Above-Average beer, and something you can sip on on a cold Winter day. The balance here is very nice, with intense malt sweetness, cocoa, nuttiness, and some mild piney hops. You could pair this beer with meats and cheeses, chocolate, or hearty winter dishes. You can also sip on this, preferably by the fireplace or on a cold Winter night. Good stuff, would by again.

Random Thought: This is a great outdoor hot tub beer. 

Leinenkugels Creamy Dark

Brewed By: Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin 

Purchased: 12oz bottle from a 12-pack bought at Jewel in IL; 2012

Style/ABV: American Dark Lager, 4.90%

Tonight's beer, the Creamy Dark, is an excellent bargain and tastes pretty damn good. It's truly a sleeper beer, and one of the better offerings from Leinenkugels.

The Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company is an interesting company. First...the company is owened by MillerCoors LLC, which is owned by SABMiller. That makes this company a micro-macro brewery, kind of like Goose Island. As I understand it, Leinenkugel still brews ther own shit (or at least some of it). But every time you buy a Leinenkugel beer, proceeds go to Miller. In fact, recently, MillerCoors LLC announced their new craft beer company, "Tenth and Black Beer Co," which was named after the 10th Street Brewery in Milwaukee that brews Leinenkugel and Blue Moon beers.

I don't want to totally shaft Leinenkugel just because they are owned by SABMiller. There is a whole history of the brewery on their Heritage Page, and it's actually nicely done so I recommend checking it out. The brewery was founded in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, back in May 1867 by Jacob Leinenkugel and his business partner, John Miller (who, according to Wikipedia, sold his company shares in 1884). During prohibition, Leinenkugel brewed non-alcoholic "non-beer" called Leino. Unsurprisingly, the stuff wasn't popular, so the brewery started making and selling soda water instead. When prohibition ended, Leinenkugel was the largest bottler of soda water in the area. The brewery continued to expand, post-prohibition, and Leinenkugel expanded into Minnesota, Michigan, and Chicago. The brewery was purchased by the Miller Brewing Company in 1988. In 1995, the 10th Street Brewery was opened to help accommodate the growth and brew Leinenkugel beers.

Leinenkugel has two breweries: the original one in Chippewa Falls, and the 10th Street Brewery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. According to Wikipedia, 95% of the Leinenkugel's sales by volume are brewed in Chippewa Falls. The 10th Street Brewery brews the Leinenkugel's Auburn Ale, Berry Weiss, Creamy Dark, Hefeweizen, Honey Weiss and the Original pale lager.

According to the Creamy Dark page, this beer is brewed with Munich, Chocolate, Wheat, and three Pale malts. This beer is also brewed with Cascade (pleasant, flowery, spicy), Cluster (medium, spicy), and Mt. Hood (mild, pleasant) hops. The beer is described as dark and smooth, and makes note of the fact that the beer is brewed with seven malts. It's described as "nutty" and "crisp." Let's get it into a glass and see how it holds up!

Leinenkugels Creamy Dark

In low light, the beer pours with a dark brown body with hints of red/black. The head is a nice light tan/khaki color in low light, and the pour results in 3-fingers of thick, foamy head. When held to bright light, this beer is super red/ruby red/brown, with a transparent/filtered body, and visible, high carbonation. The head is still a nice light tan color in bright light, and at this point the head has mellowed out into about half a finger's worth, leaving some nice lacing as it dissolved. Overall, this beer looks good...it pours like a Dark Lager.

I haven't talked much about the style. Ratebeer and BeerAdvocate are both calling this a Dark American Lager. But this beer is brewed with seven malts (seven of them!) and three hops. Mt. Hood is like a distant cousin Noble hop, and this beer is stacked with Munich malts. How is this not an interpretation or nod to the Munich Dunkel? 

Anyway, the aroma on this one isn't too mind-blowing. It is a rather subtle molasses, coffee, caramel, slight nutty sweetness (like the fake peanut butter stuff that most people accept as "Peanut Butter"), and some mild/pleasant/earthy hoppiness. There may be just a hint of toasted malt goodness.

The taste is smooth, crisp, and light. This is a creamy, light, Lager after all. Don't let the dark body betray you. Up front is a lot of malt sweetness, and some hints of Lagery fruitiness. You get carbonation, caramel, faded coffee; the middle rolls into slightly acidic and earthy hops; the back end is leaving some toast, and then roast. I'm getting a hint of smoke in here, and just a touch of meaty flavors. The finish is crisp and light, with some lingering earthy hops.

This has a light to medium body, with a lot of carbonation. There's good density to this beer, especially for a Lager...but it's still crisp and drinkable. It's....*drumroll*...creamy. Anyway, palate depth is good for the style, and complexity is ammaaaaazing. I'd say winner-winner, tiger blood. Like I said, up front is Lager-y, fruit, sweet malts; the middle is earthy hops; the back is roast and toast, with some smoke. And hops clean up the finish. There's a hint of nuttiness and molasses in here as well, but to each palate their own, right?

Rating: Above-Average

I'm feeling a Strong Above-Average rating on this beer. This beer may well be the sleeper beer of the century. I'm almost tempted to elevate this to a divine brew...but I'm not sure. I feel like I need to go drink a lot of German beer. Anyway. At...what is it? Like 11 bucks for a 12-pack? This beer is a steal. It's also really good. This is a lighter beer with dark flavors. So if you're looking for a light beer with those "darker" flavor profiles (roasty, malty goodness), look no further. Would I recommend this? I would. Good job, Leinenkugels.