Northern Method
Potosi Brewing Company

The scent of this beer is tantalizing, and the rich malty flavors present are awesome. Notes of cherry, caramel, molasses, vanilla, and even chocolate can all be detected. I really enjoy the scent and taste of this beer, but the mouthfeel is somewhat odd.

Pint can served in pint glass. Beer is translucent brown, not turbid, but forms a nice frothy head. Malty sweet aroma. Pronounced flavor of crystal and Munich malts with a lot of unfermentables. It doesn't taste nearly as boozy as it is, but the Munich sweet molasses flavor hinders drinkability. Not my favorite doppelbock.

 

 

Spotted this across the border and it kept calling. I've never been a big fan of the Potosi beers, but I thought I'd take a chance on a favorite style. Brewed to the "Northern Method." Hmm. All profits to charity... but no info on which charity.

16 ounce can with illegible code ink-jetted to the bottom. Poured into my short Becher glass.

L -- Deep chestnut color that shows clear with a flashlight. Firm and sudsy, light tan head that settles to a thin cap.

S -- Mild dark bread crusts with some astringency. Some light fruit notes along with light spicy hops.

T -- Good breadiness up front in a true pumpernickle character, some mild dark fruit flavors and slightly sour astringency. There's a touch of husky graininess in the finish. Peppery alcohol flavors in the finish that dry out the beer. Aftertaste is more of the graininess -- almost to roasty malt notes, but not overpowering. There's a touch of sweet molasses in the finish as well, but nothing far from style.

F -- Mouthfeel is soft to syrupy with a lightly dry finish. The body is full -- in that "chewy" character Germans love so well.

O -- While this rendition may not have a smooth sweetness I like in a lot of Doppelbocks, it's not at all off-track from style. The light graininess sometimes seems distracting, but it doesn't linger. That light caramel note suggests a decoction mash, but I can't find any proof from Potosi's web site. All in all, this is a better experience than others from the brand that I've tried.

 

Note: This was apparently "un-retired", in that it was also brewed in 2018.

Pours a deep, chestnut red-brown in color, topped with a darker tan head. Good lacing.

Fairly good bit of malt character (depth) on the nose. Sweetish, and neutral ("clean") character -- no off-notes.

Very rich, sweet, and warming on the first sip, and with a good body. As with the nose, no off-profile characteristics, here. Gently warming especially for a 9% ABV (Note: according to the brewery's post on their Facebook wall, the 2018 iteration was turned out being 8.5%) beer.

As the nose gave a good impression of depth, there's a bit of roasted malt and lightly smokey character going on, and wonderful mid-palate malt character as well. In other words this is a "malt bomb", if you please. Notes of dark-skinned and dried fruits (raisins, plums) treacle -- even molasses along with a lighter espresso note.

VERY drinkable for the strength, and also very filling; I'm imagining a 16z can has upwards of 250 calories -- for those who are counting calories. I'm not. ; )

Overall a well above average for a stronger example in the Doppelbock range, and easily a beer that I would include in a blind taste test which included any number of of the richer, stronger (and better) European imports in this strength and stylistic range.

Highly recommended.

Smell is roast, caramel, bread yeast, alcohol. Very clean fermentation profile as expected in dopplebock with well-attenuated but complex malt flavor. Amount of roasted malts and maybe the yeast lend coffee and spice that are overpowering at times. Has the classic bock tang to pull through, but I am curious to know how much specialty roast they used and how it would taste with less. Very good beer, albeit bordering on chocolate/coffee bock.

8.5 % ABV, 20 IBU, winter of 2017/2018 batch
Flavor is Heavy roasted malts, With a molasses/buckwheat honey type flavor. Some dark fruit kinda like raisin. with a touch of maybe coffee, chocolate and caramel. A very robust beer. rather smooth for a robust malt beer. Semi sweet overall. They did a great job on this one.

 

Poured a 16oz can into Guinness Gravity Glass. Deep dark brown with a 2.5 finger effervescent light brown head. Slowly fades into a cap and deposits fine lacing on my glass. Copious amounts of fresh baked molasses bread, caramel and dark fruit fill the air. Flavor is heavy malts with bread, molasses, chocolate, caramel, and dark fruit galore. Feel is so smooth and creamy, liquid velvet carbonation. A delicious Dopplebock by Potosi.