Much of the Maibock

Over the past few weeks I've had chances to try two of the local maibocks. A while ago a growler full of Straub Maibock fell into my hands by chance. Over this past weekend I ordered a glass of Penn Brewery's Penndemonium Maibock while on one of my Blue Dust excursions.

I think that both brews were diverse in nature given the way the style of beer is. Maibocks are traditionally a spring beer, tend to be a bit darker than bocks  and have a hop character that's a bit more noticeable.

The two local ones I tried were at two ends of the spectrum, though. Straub's was really strong. The hop bitterness was intense as was the alcohol presence. It was a bit of a struggle. On the other hand, the Penndemonium was subtle and pleasant. There was a sweet maltiness that was present and mixed well with the above-average hop bitterness. It was just right.

One could make the argument that the Penndemonium might not fit under the Maibock category due to it's lighter hop content. Don't forget who's writing this, though. You know how I am when it comes to that. While I'm talking about Penn Brewery.

You might remember an older post about the new Summer Berry Weiss they brought out. I also found myself a bit of that. The wheat presence was very strong and provided that backbone that reminds me of a well-baked pie crust. Oh yea, and there was some tasty berries.

Red, Red Raspberry

Yea, I really enjoy fruity beers. Deal with it. With all of the fruit beer's I've attempted to seek out over the years, there's one local one that I haven't got my hands on yet. How could I have been so forgetful? Penn Brewery on the North Side plans to bottle this year's batch of Summer Berry Weiss some time this week, according to the brewery's Facebook page.

This almost makes me want to compile a small list of my favorite fruity brews that are brewed here in the Pittsburgh area. Lucky for you, before I do that I want to have tried this Berry Weiss first.

In my experience, I find beers with fruit used as a slight adjunct to be just about equal in taste to ales using fruit as one of the main ingredient. Sometimes fruit goes wonderfully with a well-crafted witbier or hefeweizen. Some have an awesome citrus zing. Others have something sweeter like a strawberry or apricot wheat. In some cases you have something that's pretty straight-forward like a blueberry ale (sometimes my favorite).

This Summery Berry Weiss seems to take on the persona of the witbier spectrum. Yeah, I know some out there are snickering since it says "Weiss" on the bottle.  I've had Leinenkugel's Berry Weiss (yea I know it's owned by the evil empire) and it tasted more like a wine cooler. These beers can sometimes go either way. Well, here's to getting my hands on a few pints or bottles of this stuff! I'm hoping to delve into quite a few fruit beers as spring begins to make its way here.