Saturday, April 01, 2006

REVIEW: ANCHOR BREWING's ANCHOR BOCK

As this came recommended by one of HEDONIST BEER JIVE's charter readers, I had to accept the throw-down and hunt this beer to the ends of the earth. All it took was a quick run to "BevMo" and I had this dead in my sites. ANCHOR BOCK is a springtime seasonal from old friends the ANCHOR BREWING CO., and it's good enough if you favor this bold, malty style. It was, like the Celebrator DoppleBock we reviewed a couple weeks ago, as black as George Brett's pine tar and likely just as potent. It just tastes chocolaty thick, and has a faintly sour, alcohol-laden taste at times - mostly the aftertaste - that perhaps keeps me from coming out and giving it a raving rave. I like the smoothness, and certainly wasn't complaining much as I was drinking it, but I'm trying to think about these drinks critically, you see, and in retrospect (I finished it 1/2 hour ago), I think I'd drink it again on tap but doubt I'll be plunking down for another pint-sized bottle anytime soon. I don't know, it might be that the Bock style is just not my thing. Is it yours? It sure seems to have impressed the conoisseurs over at Rate Beer. I'm going with a 6/10.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Glad you tried it. I think I'm partial to bocks cause I grew up drinking Shiner Bock in Texas. It was the only good beer there (except for the Abita beers but they're from NOLA). I'll have to see if the Anchor Bock is as good as I remember when I come back to SF in a couple weeks. Over the weekend, I enjoyed a couple Alaskan ESBs while watching the Black Lips do their thing. Okay beer, great band.