United Nations of Beer

Samuel Adams Triple Bock

by Lucia Novara
(Beer Delegate, CO, USA)

Samuel Adams Triple Bock (18.5% ABV)
Samuel Adams, MA, USA
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You'd think that after five courses and eight beers we'd be wrapping things up. Well they saved the big guns for last: the Extreme Beers were brought out of hiding to finish off the night.

First up was the Triple Bock, which has been much maligned by the beer snob community. I was interested to try it to see if the haters were hating just to be hateful and the answer is- kind of.

It's a nice brew that is definitely more special than your ave-erage bear, but not the best Bock in the world. It was first brewed in 1994 and the batch we tried was 15 years old.

It's aged in bourbon barrels and weighs in at 18.5% ABV. It has a heavy up front chocolate taste with toffee and dried figs on the back end. Someone at the table pointed out that, despite the sweet flavors, the scent was more scallions and soy sauce.