Brews and Blues Beer and Smokin’ Blues

Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock

I have had my eye on this bottle for a couple weeks, but I finally broke down and brought one home with me from Gail's Hops & Grapes earlier this week. The Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock is a member of the "Extreme Beers" collection from Samuel Adams lineup.  As you can see in the photo, the bottle is gorgeous.  There was a tag hanging on the bottle with the following message from Jim Koch:

For centuries, the world's finest brewers have created rich, complex dark beers known as bocks.  The best bocks display many layers of luxurious flavors.  I wanted to brew a bock beer that would represent the traditional style yet surprise the palate wtih a unique character and complexity.  We started with a complex selection of carefully roasted malts combined with hand-selected Noble hops from Barvaria, the world's oldest growing area.  After using a centuries old brewing process, called Krausening, we slowly aged the beer on a bed of rare dark cocoa nibs from Felchlin, a renowned Swiss chocolatier.  Known for their quality these wild cocoa nibs, harvested from the rainforest of Northern Bolivia, impart complex aromas and flavors of chocolate, honey, and vanilla in the beer.  The resulting beer, Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock, has a big, malty character that is combined with the subtle sweetness of chocolate, giving this brew a complex full-body taste with a velvety finish. 

I hope you enjoy sharing the unique drinking experience of this Limited Edition brew.

Cheers,

Jim Koch
Brewer & Founder

When sampling a beer like this one, it is really difficult to compare it with other brews... even other beers in the genre.  When you pair a beer with a flavoring like chocolate, it really sets it apart from everything else.  Fruit beers are the same way... the specifics of the flavor set them apart from others like them.  This chocolate bock is absolutely phenomenal.  I can't really say much more about the quality and flavor of this brew.  Jim Koch appropriately used the term velvety in his description.  The only comparison I can make between this beer and other bocks and stouts is that it makes an outstanding after-dinner drink.  It's like a dessert in a glass.  At 5.5% ABV, it's not going to knock you into a loop, and you can enjoy it without having to worry about after effects.  I don't think I would pair this beer with much of anything on a dessert menu unless it was something like a really fluffy slice of cheesecake :)