Sunday Night Suds - Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock.

The Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock is a sophomore offering from the Boston Beer company. The Chocolate Bock was first introduced by Samuel Adams last winter and it has been included again in this year's Winter Classics box. Similar to last year's version, this season's Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock is kosher DAIRY (chalav stam).

Some beer styles have names that make one think that there might be dairy in the brew process. By way of example, there are cream ales, which BA explains were "spawned from the American light lager style, are brewed as an ale though are sometimes finished with a lager yeast or lager beer mixed in. Adjuncts such as corn or rice are used to lighten the body. It is no uncommon for smaller craft brewers to brew all malt Cream Ales. Pale straw to pale gold color. Low hop bittering and some hop aroma though some micros have given the style more of a hop character. Well carbonated and well attenuated."

Then there are milk or sweet stouts which BA defines as "stouts that have a larger amount of residual dextrins and unfermented sugars that give the brew more body and a sweetness that counters the roasted character. Milk Stouts are very similar to Sweet Stouts, but brewers add unfermentable sugars, usually lactose, to the brew kettle to add body and some sweetness."

The Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock is not one of the above beer styles which can typically contain dairy. I am unaware of what specifically was added to the brew which makes the beer dairy, but the Star-K has confirmed to me by e-mail that the Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock is dairy and that the Star-K will not be including the Chocolate Bock on their LOC.

So once I became aware that the Chocolate Bock was dairy, I needed to wait until I had a proper dairy meal to share the brew with. You can't pair a bock with pasta or eggs or cereal, so I saved the brew for a night that Mrs KB was making tilapia. While I can't say that the Chocolate Bock melded with the fish, it was quite tasty. The beer was silky smooth and the chocolate flavor was very pronounced. To quote Mrs KB, this is one of those beers that can be served over ice cream. I wished that I could serve this after dinner on Friday night to friends, but alas it cannot follow a meat dinner.

The Star-K has indicated that the Chocolate Bock is kosher dairy, but there is no Star-K on the label and it does not appear on the LOC.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about the Chocolate Bock, please follow this link - http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35/14309.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!