Saturday, December 20, 2008

Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock

Ok, just look at that bottle. Can you blame me for seeing that badass in the store and picking it up instantly? The price seemed a little steep for a Sam at $14, but I also knew that the triple bock was priced at $200 according to the late Michael Jackson (not the glove wearing pedophile, the beer god). Hopefully the beer tastes as good as the bottle makes you think it does.

Appearance: Pours thick and dark, with no light whatsoever passing through. Very little head present, about half a finger, and it fades pretty quickly. Slightly carbonated, but for the most part it just looks like liquified chocolate in a glass (who knew?)

Smell: Chocolate, toasted malts with the tiniest scent of hops in the background. I expected the smell to be a little bit stronger and really shove a candy bar up your nose, but its pretty relaxed.

Taste: Cocoa beans and chocolate, but not overly malty like I was expecting, definitely had a good bitterness to it, nothing was really overpowering. Chocolate aftertaste, obviously.

Mouthfeel: Light and kind of watery, a little carbonation which is a plus, I was worried from the appearance that it would be flat, good finish.

Drinkability: I am a huge Sam Adams fan but was pretty underwhelmed with this one. There was chocolate as advertised, but that was it. It left you kind of wanting something else to appear from the beer, but it was over before you knew it. It is a very easy beer to drink thanks to a mild mouthfeel that doesn't try to attack you, and at 5.5% abv you could drink it all night. I just wouldn't want to because the taste isn't interesting. It says "Hey, I'm chocolate in a bottle" and that's all you get. I give it a 7/10, and combined with the pricetag I probably won't buy it again. Maybe one day I'll come across the triple bock.

Serving type: Bottle
Glass type: Stein

2 comments:

Jimmy said...

They say to don't judge a book by its cover; I guess you can apply that same line to beer. From your intro and the picture of the beer I was like "Woah! this beer just seems badass." But yea, I guess its not all too good, especially for the price. It is just a bock, so perhaps that is what Sam was trying to portray to his drinkers with this chocolate bock.

We got to get our hands on some Sam Triple Bock, Millenium, or even the Utopia's!

Anonymous said...

The Utopias is the one that goes for 200. I actually paid $300 on ebay and it was worth it, considering it's impossible to find and the beer has lasted us over a year. We basically drink a couple ounces at a time. It's almost like cognac. The triple bock is a poor man utopias but probably a better buy (it goes for about $20 per beer though usually you must buy 4). You can read my brothers description of the Utopias at our very amateur web site www.ratfinkbrewing.com. I really recommend the scaldis prestige it has all the cognac flavors of the utopias with a more real beer feel.