“The newest Special Listing on the block is the Salted Pretzel Chocolate Bock, brewed for all your favourite October activities. We have taken a Bock, which is a German style malt heavy lager and added salted pretzels and chocolate. Whatever you are celebrating this month, this Special Listing will get you across the line. You will find this brew to be rich and malt forward, with a big body rounding out to choccy goodness.”

Glassware: Half Stein.

Appearance: Light chestnut pour blending to deep amber edges. It forms a loosely packed three finger crown which reduces to a collar. Wet streaky legs trickle down the glass as we go.

Aroma: Quite a pronounced milk chocolate note meets the olfactory’s initially. Definitely getting the salty, brioche-like character of the pretzels too. The Bock base isn’t too bad…driven by caramelised sweetness, toffee and chewy dark fruits. We’re almost sure we keep detecting this subtle strawberries and cream accent but we keep questioning it. Cola lollies, chocolate mousse and Oreo’s as well.

Flavour: Wow, we weren’t expecting it to come together the way it has. Heady flavours but they’re balanced impeccably well. We get the sweet caramels and dark fruits on entry which morph into the sweet milky chocolate with remarkable simplicity. Kinda tangy, kinda salty middle leading into the doughy and fruity finish which draws out nicely.

Mouthfeel: Rather chewy, sticky texture. Low-ish Co2 and a medium-full body. The 6.6% ABV is well hidden.

Overall: Our first crack at this brewery from the GC. For a brewery that we, up until now, believed only brewed sours, this is an extremely impressive discovery. We’ll be keeping a close eye on this mob going forward.