Online Doppelbock Tasting - February 4th

I've only had a handful of other doppelbocks, so am by no means an expert, but this strikes me as very true to style. Minimal hop character, but what is there is slightly earthy/spicy. Definitely not an "americanized" version of the style.

 

I'll tell you a funny story about that beer that you might have already heard.

Salvator was originally called "Sankt Vaterbier" which meant "Holy Father beer" until the name corrupted to just Salvator(bier).

The beer was popular, so many other brewers starting making Salvator beers... it became the name of a style. Eventually, Zacherl trademarked it despite others' protests that it was a style... and the name went back to signifying one specific beer. The other breweries changed their beers to "____-ator" names, and I guess that's where the naming tradition started (with legal action ).

 

Not a big fan of 1050 but you´ve nailed it with the Dunkel. One of the best "relatively available, at least here" beers on earth when fresh, in my (certainly limited) opinion. Believe it or not that one is probably the one i´ve drank the most for the past two or three years, and while it doesn´t always turn out perfect (which one does?) it has provided endless joy many times. At seldom 1 euro the half, often younger than one month. I asked for it a few days ago in the store, as it was showing online but the shelf was empty, and the girl who most knows me readily took my phone number while i was like; "Hey, it is not that important, i will do fine with the others...".

 

Just got home from work in time to play!!!! Cheers BA's!!!

 

I could be wrong, but I think that it's perfectly within convention to have pale Doppelbocks as well as darker ones. I don't think most American drinkers expect this though (where we expect them all to be somewhat like Celebrator), and if an American brewer made one they would probably feel inclined to announce the color in its name. Having said that, I don't know if that's what Goose Island was thinking.

 

Last one for the night. Haven't had this in a while but it has always been my favorite dopplebock import



As good as I remembered. I love the layers of malt flavors this one has. Caramel, toffee, toasted bread, chocolate...this one has it all along with a crisp, dry finish that most dopplebocks lack. Such a treat.

A-

 

Here is a picture of the Mapleator. I hope.

 

Very nice glass!

 

I've been with family and I'm late to the party, but happy to crack this one open!


Beautiful-looking beer. Copper-ruby with a kick-ass foamy cap. Smells like smoked sausage on top of fresh pumpernickel. The taste follows but leads in to a smooth chocolate roasty flavor. Really enjoying this. Cheers!

 

Oh alright...I guess we can still be best friends.

 

I know Samichlaus isn't a traditional doppelbock to begin with, but there is a Helles version ( and now a Schwarzes version too.) But personally I prefer the "Classic" version

 

I think the brewer considers it a Starkbier, and I've seen that word used interchangeably with Doppelbock (but I don't know anything about the intricacies of this). Supposedly, the brewer tried making a pale and dark version of Samichlaus from the start in the '80s.

 

Didn't get off work until 10ish (but I needed the extra hours with this week's short crappy schedule, so I don't mind too much), so I ended up deciding on just one beer for the tasting. Actually picked up one of these specifically for this, though I really should be having doppelbocks (and German beer in general) a bit more often...


Paulaner Salvator. I've always thought that monk on the right of the label had a kinda sneaky look to him -- which actually makes some sense if you think about how the original brewing monks got the Pope to approve the idea of them living off of doppelbocks during Lent. I mean... shipping their beer overland from Germany to Rome, in a time where there were no motorized vehicles, pasteurization, or refrigeration? The Pope probably got to sample a drink of the funkiest, most infected/spoiled and overheated doppelbock that has ever existed during the approval process and never suspected how much tastier the fresh/stored-in-a-cool-cellar stuff the monks were drinking was! Makes you wonder if they suspected ahead of time that the beer might not be in great shape by the time it got to the Vatican and counted on that fact winning them the approval to drink it, hence the sneakiness...

I've had this one twice before -- first time around I liked it but wasn't overly impressed (a solid "pretty good, but not amazing" sort of impression), second time it had grown on me and I really enjoyed it. I'm suspecting tonight is going to be more along the lines of the second time. Almost as soon as I started pouring I got this huge whiff of almost-sweetish caramelly and dark-bready malty smells. Actually reminds me somewhat of the malt flavors/smells from a 2-year-old Bigfoot, interestingly.

Once in the glass it's a bit sweeter-smelling than the initial blast while pouring, but it's still nice. Very caramel-y, some bread and alcohol hovering behind. It's definitely not a beer you have to sniff at hard to pick up what's there -- heck, I'm occasionally getting little malty fruity smells even from around a foot away so technically you could get away with not sniffing the glass at all and still have a decent idea of what it smells like. I've always liked that about the "bigger" beers.

Taste is great. Definitely reminds me of the last time I had this one. Some sweetness at first, but that quickly fades into the background as a massive wave of dark bready flavors arrives to take its place. A little bit of alcohol warmth once the wave of bread has faded.

On second sip, I'm noticing that it feels almost a little too sweet at the start of a sip. Not quite there, but edging a little closer than would be ideal. If that initial sweetness could be toned down just a tad this would be even better. On a more positive note I'm also noticing some nice sweet dark dried-fruit sorts of flavors mixing in on that second sip. I think a previous post in this very thread described it as being like dates, and that sounds about right to me now that I think about it. There's also a more non-specific "malty" flavor going on in there along with the "bready" sort of thing I picked up earlier. Kinda gives it a multi-grain sort of feel, which is interesting -- doppelbocks are typically just barley, right? I wonder if maybe there's a couple different types of malt used.



Figured I'd get the back of the bottle in with another picture now that I'm getting near the end of the glass.

Overall -- very nice beer, maybe just a little too heavy on the initial sweetness (at times it almost seems a little too sweet) but definitely still very good. Glad I picked one of these up -- will have to do so more often in the future. Glancing over the bottle I notice a "best before" date of April 2017, so I'm guessing this is maybe around 9-10 months old assuming the dates are a year out? If "L09865" is a Julian bottling date and I'm reading it correctly, then that'd mean it was bottled in early April of 2016, so I'm guessing there is a year-long best-by period on these. I'd be curious to see if the sweetness is a little tamer in younger bottles if I ever stumble across some -- that's really my only complaint about this beer, and it'd be pretty great if month-or-three-old Salvator doesn't have that issue.

 

A 2010 nonetheless

 

This doppelbock from Night Shift pours lighter in color than the Celebrator, with a cloudy opaque hazy maroon red-amber color and a quickly dissipating khaki colored foam head. It smells bready and a bit tangy with cherry, grapes, plum, fig, nutty caramel, toasted bready malts, mild spice, with floral earthy herbal grassy pine. The taste is also tangy with a tart cherry flavor along with some grapes, plum, fresh fig, roasted nutty caramel, toasted bready malts, some clove-like spice, with floral earthy herbal grassy pine. The mouthfeel is more full, medium bodied, creamy with moderate smooth carbonation. Overall this is way different than the Celebrator and I'm sure the other popular German doppelbocks. Night Shift is good at making Belgian and German style beers, and recently some good lagers. I'm not sure if this has a little brett in it but it is def a bit tangy, almost tart, and much lighter in shade and malt character than Celebrator, which I have no problem with. Ultimately I like the combination of aroma and flavors that this emits. Probably not the best example of the style but it is still tasty. I'm looking forward to the Weihenstephaner and Andechs doppelbocks in the near future. After seeing some reviews I have an idea of what to expect, and it all sounds good. Cheers all, and happy doppelbock tasting! Until next time.

 

Hello again- I'm back with my last, and it's one that's been covered quite a few times tonight already-

Weihenstephaner Korbinian
This is a real quality beer. I just may have cookies on the brain tonight, because one of the first descriptors that comes to me for this one is 'fig newtons'. It's got that sweet yet concentrated fig filling flavor as well as the cookie dough shell. The main difference between this one and the others I had tonight, though, is the prominent cocoa quality. Aside from that, all of the flavors (including the caramel richness and slight nuttiness) are extremely well woven together, and it really does present as a unified whole.

I like this as much as the Maximator, but for different reasons. This one definitely doesn't have the dryness or complexity (no real spiciness, for sure), but the slightly more chocolatety roastiness is enough to take center stage and hold your attention. Again, a solid A (4.4).

 

And for the night cap...Celebrator!


A
Akin to, but deeper, darker and a bit more mysterious than it's American-made brethren (Troegenator & Consecrator). Grander more durable head. 4.5

S
No real edge here. In fact I'm actually getting less from this one. Maybe my nose is shot for the night. 3.25

T
Even without aromatic backup this has still got layers of flavor. Not as sweet as either American take, with more black bread crust and herbal qualities, preceded by rounded toffee and fig. 4.35

M
Smooth, bordering on creamy, with perfectly calibrated carbonation. 4.5

O
Maybe I've succumbed to the reputation/hype, but I feel this beer is fully deserving of it. 4.15

 

This thread is seriously making me want to finally try Celebrator -- it's one of those beers that I've always considered getting every time I stop in to the beer store, but for some reason I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I actually was planning on getting some the last time I was in there, but they were sold out (though I think they were going to order some for me, so there will probably be some there the next time I come in.)

I've never seen most of the others in this thread around here before (I think Troegenator is the only exception, that's in every grocery store around here lately!) but some of the descriptions I'm seeing make me wish I could find some of these other beers! I mean... cocoa and caramel and figs and cookie dough... wow. I'll definitely have to try Korbinian if I ever see it around.