Bock
The Schokalade Bock is finally ready. It is wonderful! Quite smooth, and chocolaty malty. The chocolate taste really only hangs around for a month or so, then it sort of fades.. or maybe my palate just gets used to it. Well this year we are keeping the bock around all winter. No dunkelweiss. Sorry guys, but the dunkel just didn’t move and we are putting all our resources into pushing the bock (with our new tap handles etc). And the Bock will be 12oz packaging this year for the first time ever. So you may see it locally.
The oktoberfest is nearly gone. I hate to see it go, it was a good beer. We really came out with it too late this year. Next year I promise it will be out by the first of september. Seems like thats when everyone elses Fest beers come out. Though some come out like in april… its kind of silly. But by this time of year no one wants oktoberfest.. because oktober is over and they think the beer will be old or something. Maybe thats true with other peoples beer, but our beer mellows great with age. It will be tasty until january for sure. Better be wary of the ‘true german’ oktoberfests out there, I hear some of them are actually over a year old sitting on the shelfs… They didnt’ even ship any ‘new’ oktoberfest to Iowa this year…
I’m reading Garrett Oliver’s “the brewmasters table” right now. Its a really well written book. I’m preparing to do a Beer Dinner in Iowa City soon, so I need to study up on pairing beer with food. Most of our beers are easy, buti ‘m not sure what to match the bock with… hmm. Desert or main course? It sure would help if I could read at night for more than 5 min without falling asleep!