Maibock - Les Trois Mousquetaires (Canada - Quebec - Brossard)

Maibock - Les Trois Mousquetaires (Canada - Quebec - Brossard) 6.8%

Gold and clear in a glass with a fairly quick fading white head. There is some fine sediment at the bottom of the bottle and as long as the beer has been resting for a while most of it will stay there. Although, as you pour out the last drops, the beer in your glass will get cloudy but the flavour does not change noticeably.

A distinctly lager-like aroma plus some dry, European hops tones, grain, a hint of apple-like fruit esters and just a little impression of creamed corn (DMS) and something like the yeast smell of leavening bread.

A surprisingly bitter (though not very bitter) taste. It's only surprising because I didn't pick that up at all in the aroma. Floral and herbal tastes, a little peppery on the tongue, as well as grain and the taste is also a little bit yeasty. There is some sign of the high alcohol content as drinking Maibock certainly warms your chest.

This Maibock by Les Trois Mousquetaires is an excellent example of the style (except for the lack of the mostly superficial resilient head of foam). Maibock, for the record, is brewed in the spring and is essentially a Helles Bock that is brewed to a higher alcohol level.

Helles Bock - Big Rock (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 6.66%

Helles Bock - Big Rock (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 6.66%

Full gold in a glass with quite low carbonation. A sweet aroma with a little grain, some faint nectar tones and faint hints of dry hops bitterness.

Quite sweet but the taste is much too, well, tasty and balanced to call Helles Bock syrupy. It is a little thicker on the tongue than other beers but this thickness is definitely a trait to be expected from a Bock style beer. There are also floral and nectar tones that remind me a little of the way apple blossoms smell (note: apple blossoms don't smell like apples). I occasionally picked up hints of honey when the sweetness built up but that was quickly swept away by mild dry hops bitterness. At no point is there any hint of the higher alcohol content making Helles Bock devilishly (see what I did there) drinkable.

As far as food pairings, I think Big Rock's Helles Bock could easily step in for a sweeter white wine due to its sweetness, texture, fairly low carbonation, the floral and nectar tones, and even its colour and slightly higher alcohol content. Over all, this is a really nice craft beer that is worth trying and quite amenable to delicious food pairings.