Meantime London Smoked Bock - 6%abv

[ballzac]

Meantime London Smoked Bock - 6%ABV

Appearance - pale amber (srm about 8). White head quickly receding. High carbonation.
Nose - Floral, hoppy, vaguely fruity. No smoke. Very little malt character.
Palate - Reasonably bitter (maybe about 40IBU but stands out with no malt backbone to balance it). Floral notes from the hops come through. Malt is very subdued. No smoke.
Finish - Very short. Bitterness lingers, but flavours subside very quickly. There may be a little smoke in there. Wouldn't have notice if I wasn't looking for it due to the name of the beer.

While this is not a bad beer per se, I was very disappointed with it. I don't think there is a point in making a smoked beer if the smoke character doesn't come through. I would blame it on freshness, but the hop character came across as very fresh, so it can't be that. I personally like dark, malty beers, and while I could tell through the glass that it wasn't very dark, I was hoping that it would have enough malt character to qualify as a bock. It fits much more with the style of IPA than bock. I don't believe it is a lager, and it is hop driven rather than malt driven. It is subdued for an IPA, not as much hop character as most IPAs, but fits much more with that style than any type of bock.

Unless stated otherwise, I would assume that something labelled as 'bock' is a traditional bock style, but the colour in this one is too light, perhaps matching a helles bock in colour, but lacking in any serious malt character. I won't give it a score. If they re-release it with an IPA label I will score it

 

[enoch1973]

Smoked Bock sounds interesting... Where did you get it from?
I'd think it would be a challenge to get a nice balanced smokey flavour in any sort of beer.
Having said that I think that a smoked flavour would suit a darker beer like a stout.

 

[ballzac]

I think it was just called "Chapel street Cellars". Not far south of high street in Windsor. I does sound interesting, doesn't it? I thought that too. It may be a challenge to get balance in a smokey beer, but it's not a challenge to get smoke in it. There was little, if any, smoke flavour in the beer. Feel free to go and try it if you like subdued IPAs, but don't buy it based on the name. A much better example of a smokey beer is aecht schlenkerla rauchbier. It is available at QVM.