On a recent trip to Virginia, I had the pleasure of sampling many regional offerings. Virginia may not be a hot destination on the craft brew map, but they are certainly home to an array of interesting breweries. One of these is Star Hill based in Crozet, Virginia. My only experience with Star Hill to date has been with their Festie Oktoberfest brew, which left me very underwhelmed. So as an avid bock fan with one disappointment under my belt, the odds were stacked against Star Hill going into The Gift, their WinterBock Lager.

In the glass, The Gift has a deep reddish amber coloration. It comes with a frothy white head that dissipates quickly. The aroma consists of a pungent sweet candied malt that actually comes across as cherry cough syrup. At this point I had to revisit the label because there wasn't much bock about this beer. To my eyes and nose, The Gift comes across as more of an overly sweet amber with no hop profile. Not exactly the best of introductions.

Surprisingly, the taste closely matches the aroma. The primary flavor is that of an overly sweet malt with a bubblegum vibe that reminded me of cough syrup. Oddly enough, it's not that bad. I wouldn't considered it a pleasant taste by any means, but it was actually okay. Unfortunately the hop profile is very imbalanced and appears only as occasional bitter pops. The finish ended up being decently clean, but forgettable.

Overall, Star Hill's The Gift WinterBock Lager is a very strange beer. I can say with great clarity that it's not a good bock, not even close. To me, it's nothing more than an overly sweet amber. But in that category, it's okay. I can't really recommend it to any camp because it's just too much of an oddball. I would imagine that The Gift would be appealing to some fans of malty sweet beers, but even there it's a crap shoot. Drink it in a pinch, but that's about it. This is a gift I wish I could return.