Doppel Bock
August Schell Brewing Company

 

Pours a clear, rich mahogany colour. Smells like sweet roasted malts, caramel, sticky fruits, and raisins. Tastes like raisins, sticky fruits, light-bodied, a whiff of alcohol, and sweet malts.

Possibly my favorite Top 10 styles (depending on my mood and time of year), so I have Had enough doppelbocks to know this is well above average among American brewers.
While Schell's rendition looks average, the smell tells me they understand what their ancestors brewed in Bavaria.
Its taste is even better, not syrupy sweet... as American brewers often default to when copying.
In the mouth, the hops balance the sweet while holding that balance with moderate to low carbonation.
If you can find Shell's doppelbock, but it and enjoy it in the spring and summer when fresh.

 

 

This beer pours a very clear ruddy amber with a small but sustaining head. The aroma conjures up chocolate, dates, figs, walnuts, graham crackers, marshmallows - I gonna be honest, it smells like a super high class smore. The flavor leads with milk chocolate and a hint of banana, rounding out to date and fig mid palate, and returning to a drier chocolate flavor at the end. The mouthfeel is full and creamy. Overall this is a very nice beer, not complex, but joyous and comforting.

12 ounce bottle into a nonic pint.

I love the way this beer looks. Deep copper color mixes with medium brown. The head is as creamy and persistent as a milkshake. Looks like a meal.

I make a great deal of effort to get at the aroma here and find that it isn't popping at me. It's pretty light and hints at dark bread, sweet malt and floral yeast. The malt has a quality that reminds me of a helles or pilsner.

Been a while since I've had a doppelbock but this does feel lighter in body and flavor than what I would expect. But what's there is a good presentation of sweet dark bread and sweet malt. A grassy and mildly spicy hop again recalls a pilsner for me. Interesting.

Overall, this is smooth and drinkable, if perhaps lacking the creamy, richness I wanted.

Looks like they brought it back.

Pours a light almond colored body, almost caramel colored. A grey-beige head of 5 fingers starts it off in the Weizen glass, but eventually recedes to 1/2 finger.

Aromas of dark malts, fried corn tortilla, caramel popcorn, figs rolled in coffee grounds. Some musty grains as well.

Flavors of damp hay (or at least the taste you get when you inhale it around cold rainy weather), soggy prunes, earth, fig and nut, amber-baked malts, and a touch of hop leaf towards the end. Breaths are earthy prunes.

Feel is buzzing and has a dryness throughout, some grainy roughness scraping the tongue.

Overall this is a Doppelbock alright, but not a great one. It's too musty, has a messy middle, and a rough feel. Better Doppelbocks for the taking.

Pours from the bottle a clear ruby brown with a creamy light tan head.
The aroma is caramel, whole grain, raisin and brown sugar.
Nicely complex taste with dark malts up front - a little chocolate and caramel backed up my raisin and plum. A bit of roasted grain. Some hop spice.
Mouthfeel is medium and smooth.
On the lower end of the Dopplebock spectrum perhaps, but I still think it fits the style thanks to its complexity.

12 oz bottle, poured into a nonic pint at ~40 degrees F.

Appearance: Pours a russet molten-caramel amber, and forms a finger and a half or so of just off-white head. Said head dissipates to a cap and ring in short order, and even that vanishes before too many sips are taken. No real lacing to speak of.

Smell: Caramel and toffee malts intertwine around something reminiscent of a graham cracker, with some faint hints of pecan hull and spices..

Taste: Take a graham cracker, and place a small chocolate-covered cherry cordial on it, like perhaps half a Queen Anne sized one. Drizzle some caramel syrup over it, and sprinkle on some toffee. Then, hit it with a thorough dusting of powdered clove and rub a good, thick layer of soil on the bottom of the graham cracker, and pop the whole thing in your mouth. Hey presto, this beer manifests! As it warms, I also get something of a floral edge to the earth and spice, which lingers long after any other flavor in the aftertaste.

Mouthfeel: Rather light-bodied, verging on watery at times, with sharp carbonation.

Overall: I tend to agree with those who rated before me and expressed the sentiment that this is closer to what we call a bock than what we call a doppelbock, much like my local Moerlein Emancipator. As a bock, I enjoy it. As a doppelbock, I find it a bit light all around, as well as a tad hoppy - and since it is listed as a doppelbock, thus shall I rate it. Ah, how style and name shape our expectations.

medium amber brown, clear as always for a Schell lager, with a big head of light tan. smells sweet and also spicy, like some alcoholic candy spiked with cloves. this is for me the last of the 4 beers featured in the “herd of bocks” box (sort of wish it were labeled “box of bocks” instead, as that is what I keep calling it around the house), and despite being a double bock it seems to be the second most full-bodied after the blue labeled regular bock, with the other two decidedly lighter in heft. but all 4 have been good to great, and this has to go down in my memory as one of the best mixed 12-packs, maybe the best, I have ever had the privilege of drinking.

the big nose is shown not to have cried wolf once the beer finds its weigh into the liquids hatch.
a sipper, but not a foreboding or unfriendly one. indeed, all 4 of these beers have been so friendly you might say they err toward an excess in gregariousness. the dark caramel in the doppelbock is sinfully delicious and is joined by a chocolate-y bitterness that recollects a good quality box of chocolate covered caramels, plus a slightly bitter ending. so packed with flavor, I will leave some of the unpacking for later and just meditate on what a glorious vacation it was. maybe a little coarse or rough around the edges, but nevertheless a pleasure.

the pink and blue label goes down in my book as the least attractive in the lineup, yet the beer goes down as arguably the best. really, all but the pre-prohibition could be declared the champ on any given day, and even the latter has its merits and is well worth a go.

4.25, 4.25, 4, 4-4.25, 4-4.25

 

 

 

 

Appearance: Clear amber, big head.

Smell: Sweet, fruity, caramel.

Taste: Sweet, toffe and caramel, touch of grape, semi-earthy finish mixed with sweetness.

Overall: Beer #2 from the herd of bocks. I had Schell Doppel Bock back in the mid 2000's but didn't review at that time, so it's nice to get to try it again. It hits the mark for a solid doppelbock, sweet but not cloying, not too heavy. Good winter beer.

 

Freshness date of 05 14 16 stamped on neck of the 12 oz. bottle:

Pours copper-hued amber with a head that leaves lacing.

The smell is of grain, honey, nuts.

The taste is of sweet caramelized grain with floral/earthy touch in the semi-sweet finish.

It's on the lighter side of the style. Alcohol well-covered. Pretty smooth.

More of a bock than a dopplebock overall, in my opinion - but close enough to fit the style to work. Easy enough to drink. Not a bad brew.