Our Newest Gold Medal Winner
Great news for fans of great beer—our newest Gold Medal Winner, BJ's A&M Honey Bock, is officially on tap! This beer was a particular labor of love for me. In 2018, I visited Northern Bavaria. Luckily my trip coincided with the arrival of a unique seasonal Bock called Fastenzeit, which the Germans brew for Lent. This strong Pale Lager is super rich in malt to help keep a lid on your hunger while fasting. The Germans says there's a sandwich in every glass. After I returned, I brewed my own version—Fasten Bock—which won a Double Gold Medal in the Denver International Beer Competition in 2019. Then it struck me that it might make the perfect base for my yearly collaboration with Marc Anievas at Redstone Meadery. To give the Fasten Bock recipe more depth and a full flavor, we added lots of orange blossom honey. The end result was a flavor profile like honey on toast with delightful hints of citrus. A&M (Aaron & Marc) Honey Bock was born.
But what about the GOAT—not to mention the “goat”? While the Gold Medal that A&M Honey Bock earned in the Great American Beer Festival was an honor (and it's got a lot of company–BJ's has been awarded more gold medals at the Great American Beer Festival than any other restaurant brewery over the past five years), Bock beers and goats go much farther back. As far back as the 1400s, Bock was being brewed in the Northern German city of Einbeck. A couple hundred years later, Southern Germans were brewing it too, but the way they pronounced “Einbeck” sounded more like “Einbock,” the German word for “billy goat.” Not only that, like its namesake, this beer had a strong kick, so the name was doubly appropriate. Enough about farm animals! Try A&M Honey Bock yourself at a BJ's near you on March 12, 2020.
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