The River Horse Brewing Company - River Horse Roebling Bock

River Horse Roebling is a Bock style lager brewed with a significant quantity of barley malt which results in a fuller bodied beer with a higher content of alcohol. Roebling Bock is brewed with a combination of three barley malts including Two-Row Pale, Munich, and Carapils, as well as three hops: Cluster, Hallertauer, and Saaz. Immediately note a big malty rich nose with traces of floral hopiness evident. Look for a sweet, rich malty body and a slight hop bitterness in the body, true to style. We found the finish sweet and rich. Overall, a full, rich, tasty interpretation of one of our favorite styles.

The River Horse Brewing Co., located in Lambertville, New Jersey, is housed in an old brick building that once was an oyster-cracker factory. Located alongside the bank of the Delaware River, the brewery is one of New Jersey's oldest and fastest growing. Incidentally, "River horse" is a nickname for the hippopotamus. "So what", you say? The ancient Egyptians believed in the beer god, Seth, who appeared in the image of a hippopotamus. Pretty neato, huh?

The brewery began production in 1996 with its first significant account being Waterfront Park, home of the Trenton Thunder, the city's minor league baseball team. The team, an AA affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, draws some 7,000 fans a game. The brewery now has a capacity of 5,000 barrels a year and as we speak, the brewery is going public which will make it the only publicly owned brewery in New Jersey. In addition to the Bock featured this month, the brewery makes four other beers: a Special Ale, which is brewed with caramel malt and three hop varieties; a Cream Ale, brewed with a touch of wheat malt and a low hopped bitterness; a Lager, which is fermented and conditioned with German brewing techniques, and a Dark Harvest Ale, a robust dark ale.

For more information about the brewery and scheduled tours, call (609) 397-7776 or check out their web site at www.riverhorse.com.