My personal trainer from a couple years back once told me that to put on body mass I was going to have to dispense with binge drinking, although having “5 or 6 beers every now and again can’t hurt and can even help keep your carb intake up.” I took that caveat as a license to drink beer immediately after I work out, a practice which, while slowing my progress towards the pecs I always dreamed of (big, but not too big), has made me an alcoholic. Touché, personal trainer.

My post-gym beer of choice today was the Ur-bock Dunkel from the brewery that continues Einbeck’s six hundred years of proud bock brewing tradition, Einbecker. For the record, Einbeck was once a fairy-tale land where every citizen was his own brewer, people threw ducks at balloons, and nothing was as it seems.

The Appearance and Smell:
A light, sparse tan head quickly dissipated, revealing a moderately carbonated murky copper beer. The smell was light, sweet, and surprisingly hoppy for a bock.

The Taste:
A pleasant caramel malt flavor with a nice restrained hoppy underbelly that carries through the finish.

Overall:
Following the ass-kicking handed to me by the Aventinus Eisbock, the Ur-bock’s lightness was a bit of a relief, if somewhat less dramatic. It’s a quiet, well-balanced beer that might not blow any minds, but certainly deserves respect. Also, at 6.5% ABV, you can drink a lot more of it, or, as we say in the beer biz*, it could be a nice session beer.

Solid buy.

* Beer biz is a registered trademark of the Molson Coors Brewing Company, Golden, CO. Please drink responsibly.