Lakefront Big Easy Imperial Maibock Review

Name: Lakefront Big Easy Imperial Maibock
Style: Maibock
ABV: 7.6%

After being in absentia for a few days, I feel it's time to get back to doing reviews. It's been a long time since I have reviewed anything from Lakefront Brewery. In fact, now that I mention it, the last time I reviewed anything from Lakefront was from back in July of 2013; Where does the time go?

Anyways, tonight I have Lakefront's Big Easy Imperial Maibock. While looking it up, I found out that it is sometimes referred to as "Big Easy Lager" and the ABV is listed from 6% all the way up to 7.1% (per RateBeer and BeerAdvocate respectively). However, Lakefront's website lists it at 7.6%, which is what I will be going with.

Big Easy pours a hazy orange color with a thin white head. The visible carbonation is very mild in appearance and I'm not getting any lacing along the sides of the glass. Doesn't look too lager-y from my point of view.

The nose starts out with a solid malty base with notes of caramel, sweet honey and light floral hops.

The flavor also isn't too different from the aroma, consisting mainly of caramel, sweet honey and light floral hops. All of which are backed up by a solid malty backbone.

The overall palate is moderately weighted and lightly carbonated, making this a pretty easy-to-drink and refreshing beer.

All and all, this is a solid Maibock-style beer. It doesn't do anything terribly different as far as Maibocks are concerned but I've certainly much worse than this. I'd say this one is worth checking out at the very least if you get the chance to do so.

Lakefront Big Easy Imperial Maibock - 8/10

Summit Maibock Review

Name: Summit Maibock
Style: Maibock/Helles Bock
ABV: 6.7%

Even though we had about a foot of snowfall yesterday (which has miraculously melted away by now), Spring is very much here....for the most part. So in honor of spring technically here, I've got myself a Summit Brewing Spring Sampler pack for us to look at.

Since I've already reviewed Summit Extra Pale Ale, I've decided I'm going to first take a look at their Maibock beer. Now I'm just going to give you a heads up, I consider this to be my favorite seasonal offering from Summit. It goes without saying that this is my first time actually giving this beer a proper review.

Summit Maibock pours a bright hazy yellow color with a nice, white, soapy head. The lacing left behind on the sides of the glass is pretty good and the visible carbonation teeters between mild and moderate.

The aroma starts things off with some strong pale malts, yeasts, light honey, mild floral hop notes and just a hint of toffee. To me, it smells like spring in the form of a beer.

The flavor,  much like the nose, starts out with some strong sweet malt notes, followed up by some yeasts, light honey, floral hops and a very slight earthiness. The aftertaste is a light but pleasant honey and floral hoppiness.

The palate is quite light in terms of body weight body with mild carbonation. Combined with the flavor, this makes it a very easy-to-drink and refreshing beer.

Every spring, I look forward to having this beer time and time again and for good reason. It's got a great flavor, it smells awesome, and it's extremely refreshing and easy to drink. I wish Summit would make this a year round offering but as the old Rolling Stones song goes: You can't always get what you want. Seriously though, if you haven't had this yet, you owe it to yourself to try it out.

Summit Maibock - 9/10

Schell's Maifest Review

We have a couple of prolific breweries here in Minnesota, namely Surly, Schell's & Summit. I feel that these three will have more company in terms of brewery size and production in the next few years. The August Schell Brewing Company AKA Schell's, has been around since 1860 and is almost as old as the State of Minnesota itself. They are more widely known around the country as the brewery that makes Grain Belt.  To us Minnesotans, they are known to release many craft beer regulars and seasonal releases.

Since spring is finally here in Minnesota, I feel it is appropriate to review a spring release from Schell's, namely their Maifest, which is a Helles Bock/Maibock style beer or "Light" Bock if you want to be really technical. Summit also has a Maibock style Spring Seasonal beer so I will try to review that in the near future.

Maifest pours a fairly hazy orange color and moderately carbonated. The head is somewhat soapy but leaves  behind a thin film on the surface and the lacing is somewhat sparse along the sides.

The aroma has some caramel, yeast, barley and mild floral hop notes that give it a slightly earthy scent. The flavor is surprisingly hoppy on the front of the palate, but it finishes with a mild yeasty and caramel taste with a Earthy-Barley aftertaste.

It's a pretty light beer with only some moderate carbonation, so it feels crisp on the palate and makes it somewhat refreshing.

The flavor was a bit too hoppy for my liking and the earthy finish didn't exactly help out either. It's still a decent beer and goes down easy but if I wanted a Maibock badly, Summit would be my first choice hands down

Schell Maifest - 7/10