This is Southern Tier's Imperial Weizenboch. A weizenbock is a strong wheat beer originating in Germany.
A bit of background on bock beers is found at Wikipedia.
The style known now as bock was a dark, malty, lightly hopped ale first brewed in the 14th century by German brewers in the Hanseatic town of Einbeck. The style from Einbeck was later adopted by Munich brewers in the 17th century and adapted to the new lager style of brewing. Due to their Bavarian accent, citizens of Munich pronounced "Einbeck" as "ein Bock" ("a billy goat"), and thus the beer became known as "bock". To this day, as a visual pun, a goat often appears on bock labels.
Bock is historically associated with special occasions, often religious festivals such as Christmas, Easter or Lent (the latter as Lentenbock). Bocks have a long history of being brewed and consumed by Bavarian monks as a source of nutrition during times of fasting.
That is why you see a goat associated many time with this beer style, for example the Ayinger doppelbock is often accompanied with a small white goat toy hanging off the bottle.
- Dark amber color
- Good persistent tan colored head
- Good malty sweetness
- 7.5% ABV
- 2 varieties of hops
- 5 types of malts
- Described as color: deep ruby
- Bitterness low to moderate
- Aroma banana sweet malts
- Flavor caramelized bananas
- Bready with mild sweetness
How it ranked:
89 pts at Ratebeer
86 pts at Beer Advocate
Personally, I liked this beer and found it very drinkable. It has the characteristics of a good German wheat beer but really, in my opinion the German offerings are the best in the world at this beer style - they should be, they invented it.
