Sunday Night Suds - Samuel Adams Cinder Bock

This week's Sunday Night Suds takes a seasonal turn and looks at Samuel Adams' Cinder Bock.

The Boston Beer company bills this beer as a Rauch Bock, a style of beer which they invented by attempting to pair a Rauchbier with a Bock. 

While bocks are very common, the Rauchbier is a little out of the ordinary, so I have gone to the experts at the BA for the definition of Rauchbier, which they explain is

[A]n old German beer style, its origins go back to the 1500's and to the district of Franconia and the town of Bamberg. It's typically of dark colour and has similarities of the Oktoberfestbier. Green malts are literally dried over an open fire of beech wood, imparting a unique smokiness ("rauch" is German for smoke), the usage of which produces beers of an acquired taste. Imagine a smokiness so robust, so assertive, that it tastes of spiced, smoked meat.

I bought this beer almost a year ago, but due to its high alcohol content (9.4% abv) I had little fear of leaving this beer around to cellar for a year.

I shared this beer this past Friday Night with Mrs KB and two friends. We agreed that the beer had a lot of smoke up front, but there were a lot of complex flavors after you got past the smoke. There was some coffee grounds type flavor and the alcohol taste was also prominent. But there was also some richness, an almost creamy flavor which even tiled towards cocoa.

The Samuel Adams Cinder Bock Rauch Bock is under the Kosher Supervision of the Star-K. Like many other Samuel Adams brews, this bottle does not have the Star-K certification mark on the label. To see the LOC for Samuel Adams which certifies this beer as kosher click here - http://www.star-k.org/loc/LetterOfCertification_PEFQZ4N3.pdf 

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about this brew, please follow this link -http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35/77231. 

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). 

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