Doppelbock
Northbound Brewpub

Appearance: Clear deep red, big head.

Smell: Rich, sweet, cherry, toffee.

Taste: Nice sweetness with a solid malty base. Toffee, dark caramel. Balanced, mild earthy hops to level it out. Medium bodied.

Overall: Took home a crowler of this award-winning doppelbock, it definitely deserves its accolades! Just a supremely drinkable and tasty doppelbock—rich but balanced and smooth as silk.

world beer cup gold, and rightly so, this is one they should be proud of, a truly textbook example of a tricky style with really nice grain depth, lagering, and nuance. gorgeous mahogany color to this, some shine, nice clarity, not as viscous or even syrupy as many of these look, not quite as dark either, and with a short but densely packed tan head. the aroma is full spectrum german grain, toasty and nutty, this must have been decoction mashed, they really pulled a lot from it, long boiled it seems too, concentrated with toffee and maple notes, earthy and woody too though and not runaway sweet, fallen leaves, acorns, black walnuts, that sort of thing, nice minerality and properly deployed german lager yeast seemingly long conditioned, this is super refined and appealing to me, without some of the heavier molasses and dark breadiness that a lot of these have, but not hurting for depth or complexity, rightly light on the hops. flavor follows the nose, hints of maple, chestnut, tree bark, craft cola, and baked pretzels, really clean and cleansing lager yeast, this is almost gone on the swallow, not common in the style at all, dried cherry and raisin as it warms up, but never too sugary. the grain profile is excellent, the lagering very complete, and the balance and drinkability tremendous for its strength. elite level quality, and deserving of its recent hardware, so thankful i got to drink this!

This is a fantastic doppelbock...one of the best if not the best I've had from a Minnesota brewery.

Hits all the marks...strong maltiness with melanoidins...touch of toasted malts...breads....dark fruits....plums...red grapes....prunes....touch of blackberries as well...

Medium/Full bodied...not cloying despite the rich maltiness. Light carbonation. Extremely well made doppelbock. I'd take it over Lupulin, Bad Weather and Uteplils any day.

January 2020 release, Brewery notes: Back by popular demand, we present our malty, rich Doppelbock! We’ve completely redesigned this year’s batch to be a more authentic representation of the traditional Doppelbock, and are excited to enter it into the World Beer Cup come April! A traditional German Doppelbock using Munich malt and Bohemian Dark floor malted malt. Caramel and toffee flavor with slight fruity esters present. This beautiful dark copper hued beer has no hop profile to allow the wonderful malts to shine.

My notes:
tastes good, Caramel, toffee, roasted malt, dark fruit (fig) and maybe dark cherry. fairly smooth and slightly sweet. Plenty of flavor. Hint of burnt toffee when it gets up to room temp.

I like it better than 2018 and 2019 releases. in the past this beer had too much of a burnt malt or burnt toffee favor.

 

 

(Re-reviewed 12/28/16, original score 4.5)

Northbound Doppelbock arrives a dark brown color. The head is small, but leaves some lacing. The aroma on the lighter side for a doppelbock, but with all the required characters. Toffee and caramel. The taste is a bit more pronounced than the aroma with a lot more toffee. The mouthfeel is medium-full bodied, with a velvety texture, and appropriate carbonation. I prefer to see a fuller, more chewy body in a doppelbock. Overall, this is a nice beer. It isn't overtly noreworthy, but it is enjoyable nonetheless.