Doppelbock

Ah, the noble Doppelbock. Such a great style of beer, only rivaled in delicious maltiness by the Scotch Ale. I recently had a couple lighter style Smuttynose beers and found them lacking in a number of areas so I decided to try and find a heftier Smuttynose beer and ended up bringing this bottle of S'muttonator home a couple weeks ago. The label of this beer is great, it's a painting of a majestic big horned ram rather than a goat like most Doppelbocks would put on the label. Given the S'muttonator name, it's fitting... and kinda funny.

I've heard of Tröegs in passing a few times before moving to the East Coast, but I was never able to get my hands on any of their beers. The beer I heard the most about was their Nugget Nectar, an IPA that I wasn't really going to go out of my way to try. I just assumed Tröegs was more of an IPA brewery for some reason. After moving to Delaware I started seeing a lot of Troegenator six packs and bombers at the local liquor stores. I tend to get along really well with Doppelbocks so I figured I'd give it a shot. The art on these bottles nearly turned me off though, it's a little too Ed Hardy and tribal tattoo for me... but the guy has a killer beard and demon horns so I'll let it slide.

The best part about moving to Delaware has to be all the new breweries I have access to. Part of the fun has been trying beers from breweries I'd never heard of before. Some of the beers have been good, others have been less than great, but it's still fun nonetheless. The beer I opened up today is from Fordham Brewing Company in Dover. I'd never heard of Fordham before so I really don't have a lot to go off of... I do like Doppelbocks so I figured I'd start there. This beer's label is pretty simple and straight forward, it's black and white with Fordham in gold across the top. At the bottom of the label is says "est. 1703" ...cool.

"The World's Most Extraordinary Beer." That's the line on the label of this Samichlaus bottle, front and center... you can't miss it. I've had the red labeled Samichlaus before, but never the brown label. When I had my first red Samichlaus Helles I thought it was extraordinary and I've really been looking forward to opening this bottle. My first experience with Samichluas was at a local Austrian restaurant where the "Helles" was on the menu. I ordered one thinking it would be a nice Germanic style lager that would pair nicely with the warm weather and my rye bread. What I got was a Bock colored beer that clocked in at 14% alcohol... It was amazing.

Bell's brews some pretty great beer. I can't think of anything from Bell's that I genuinely didn't enjoy. Then again, Bell's brews some expensive beer as well. So there are a lot of beers from Kalamazoo that just don't make it into my fridge. Each time I drink a pint of Bell's I think to myself, "I need to drink more of this, it's really quite good." For some reason though, I never follow through on it. This bottle of Consecrator Doppelbock, for example, has been sitting in the basement for a year. I haven't been waiting for a special occasion or anything, I've just been busy with other beers. Other beers that aren't as good as what I've had from Bell's.

A couple bottles of Bischoff arrived at my doorstep last week, some Ur-Weisse and a few Doppelbocks. It's a little late in the evening for a Weisse so I reached for a chilled bottle of their Doppelbock to close out the night. Bischoff is relative unknown to me. Now, I don't claim to be any kind of authority of German brewers so it's not like I was expecting to identify this beer right away. I'm actually glad I was able to get a few bottles from a smaller German brewer I otherwise probably never would have bothered to seek out. I don't mean that just because they don't have a big name or famous beer in their portfolio, but their packaging is pretty awful...

"Hang Loose, Matey!" That's the tagline next to the cartoony peg-legged pirate on the label of this Clipper City Weizen Doppelbock. The official name of this beer is Hang Ten and it's part of the Heavy Seas line of Clipper City beers. I had the Heavy Seas Pale Ale several months back and really enjoyed it, something I can't say for too many Pale Ales. I was excited to try more beers from this Baltimore based brewery but, sadly, they aren't distributed in my area. I spotted a 4 pack of bottles recently while on vacation and leapt at the chance to bring it home with me.

I've seen bottles of Shiner's Commemorator floating around for what seems like an eternity, though it's probably only been a year. After the novelty of seeing a new beer on the shelves wore off I started to just tune this bottle out and I've overlooked it long enough. I've finally gotten around to the Commemorator and it's about time... Considering the popularity of Shiner Bock, I've got high hopes for this Doppelbock. You get the sense that this beer is a big deal for Shiner, as the name would indicate - it's commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Spoetzl Brewery. There was really no other style the Shiner folks could have put in this bottle, it had to be a Doppelbock.

The Primátor Double Bock is a big beer in a small bottle. This Doppelbock weighs in at ten and a half percent alcohol yet it doesn't smell like a strong beer. The taste doesn't really seem to be in line with the ABV either. In many ways, this beer just doesn't make any sense... it's definitely an odd beer. Getting back to the aroma, this beer doesn't smell like a Doppelbock at all. There isn't much for you to pick up when you smell this beer, the aroma is very subdued. I could pick up on a little caramel and coffee in this beer but mostly I was only able to smell the sweet malt, which wasn't all that strong either... This all seemed very uncharacteristic for such a dark beer.