About The Beer: All The Way May

By Greg Carlson

It means the sun is chirping and the birds are shining, because winter is dead!

Maibock is a fascinating historical style, due in no small part to how inconclusive said history is. The generally accepted story starts predictably with the strong Bock beers of Einbeck, Germany, during the Middle Ages, with something possibly most closely resembling today’s Weizenbocks being the earliest iterations. Over time, these caught the eyes and taste buds of the Bavarians in southern Germany - including the royal household, who ended up poaching an Einbeck brewer in the early 17th century to brew the style at their own brewery, Hofbrauhaus. 

(Fun fact: in the Bavarian dialect, Einbeck would be pronounced more like “ein bock,” which roughly means “billy goat.” This is why goats are so prominent in Bock labeling!) 

What that brewer created was called Maibock, but more closely resembled what we would consider a Traditional Bock, due to the dark color that would have been standard at the time since pale colored malts wouldn’t become popular for 200 more years. And this is where the history gets fuzzy - when those pale colored malts did become popular in the 1800s, golden lagers exploded in popularity (this is Pilsner, mind you) and influenced brewing the whole world over. It is assumed that around this time Maibocks started taking on their modern, paler Helles form, which makes sense because brewing a brown lager for the spring is just a silly idea!

However it ended up there, Maibocks today are understood to be strong lagers (Bock strength generally means an ABV between 6.3-7.5%) of broadly golden hue, with a malt-forward - but not overly sweet or toasty and certainly not roasty - aroma and flavor, backed by a tight hop bitterness. 

And we made one! Here’s how we did it:

We predictably start with the same Pilsner and Pale malt blend from our friends at Stone Path Malt that we build Three Decker from (the BJCP states that Maibocks can either be thought of as Traditional Bocks brewed to be paler, or Helles lagers brewed to Bock strength. Both seem fair to us, but we favored the latter approach since we already brew a Helles lager). We tailor our mash process and water profile to create a beer that can be boringly described as being not too thin but not too sweet. Well-attenuated but no-less-than-medium-bodied is our goal. As is the case with many of the pale lager varieties, if a brewer accomplishes this, they will achieve a beer that is not just balanced between flavor and drinkability, but actually exists in a quantum state of being at once both perfectly flavorful and perfectly drinkable. It is THE BEST.

From there, we hop aggressively with our single favorite German hop, Saphir, in part because the style guidelines call for a relatively heavy hopping hand, and in part because if we didn’t we may as well call this beer Six Decker. Saphir has the familiar florality and pleasant approachability of the traditional German noble hops, but with a distinct bright citrus note that’s well-suited for the American palate or at least *my* American palate because I think that hop rules. We find said distinct bright citrus note plays nicely with the subtle sweetness of the malt.

After that we proceed with our typical lager fermentation and conditioning regimen, which leaves the beer clean and clear and free of any undesirable levels of ester or phenols or sulfur and the like. Then, per usual, our friends at State 64 helped us get it into cans, adorned with some of Danielle Brooks’s best work yet (love those scenescapes, Brooksy!), and now we’re selling it to you!

All The Way May is a full-bodied golden lager with familiar and assertive malt flavors of bread dough and honey, and a complex malty fruitiness (kinda like cherries), and hop fruitiness (kinda like tangerines) with just a touch of bitterness rounding the whole production out. It’s been a standout staff favorite so far, and we hope you enjoy it too!