On tap at West O, winning dry-hopped doppelbock lager collaboration between Maryland’s Heavy Seas and Pennsylvania’s Troegs brings floral-spiced mango, cherry and red grape tang to bittersweet grapefruit-pineapple-orange serenade. Moderate resinous hop bittering contrasts caramelized Vienna malting.
On tap at Ambulance, heady amber-hazed springtime medium body (with well hidden 8% ABV) brings lemony orange peel briskness to floral dry-hopped spicing, honeyed caramel sweetness and cracker-like pilsner malting. Subtle Chardonnay, lemon meringue, banana and apple undertones endear zesty citrus frontage.
On tap at Doherty’s, delicately easygoing bock brings dried fig tartness, light molasses sinew, subtle raisin notions and nutty toffee tinge to clean-watered crisping. Subtle leafy hop astringency affects dried-fruited nature.
Highly recommended limited bottle edition (2015) deserves year-round status. Chewy dark-fruited mocha creaminess intensifies above toasted caramel malting and brown-sugared pecan nuttiness. Gleaming butterscotch-spiced sweetness and cherry brandy wining further bolster candied German-style full body.
Despite destruction-bound Devastator tag, soft clean-watered crisping provides calm base for sweet malt-forward doppelbock. Brown-sugared maple molasses syruping spreads atop dried fig, sweet raisin, sugared vanilla and toffee fudging. Casual butternut, pecan, hazelnut and cola nut illusions dried out by earthen musk. Tertiary chocolate truffle, cream liqueur and pureed cherry notions need deeper resonance.
Venerable Cincy dopplebock shows off Queen City’s affluent German heritage. Expressive Munich-crystal malting allows banana-chipped toffee, molasses and vanilla creaming to prosper just as emphatically as its cinnamon-spiced raisin, prune, plum and dark cherry insistence. Rum-sugared burgundy sweetness and subsidiary nut-roasted coffee bittering fill out the mocha-spiced finish of enthralling medium-full body.
Tidily traditional doppelbock brings expectant dark-fruited sweetness to chocolate-roasted caramel malting. Pureed raisin, stewed prune, black cherry, sugar plum and apricot illusions pickup sappy molasses sinew as well as light vanilla-toffee undertones. At mocha-fruited finish, mild port-burgundy wining and subtle pecan-almond nuttiness deepen busy flavor profile.
Gruff for its style (and circulated as part of 2014 ‘rarities’ series), medium-full-bodied doppelbock blends dewy earthen musk and sharp hop char into expectant Vienna-malted dried fruiting. Burgundy-wined raisin, plum and prune illusions pick up likable black cherry puree snip at black chocolate-spiced midst. Gunky fruitcake finish holds steady.
Washed-out and stylistically anonymous doppelbock needs richer flavor profile and better definition. Instead, compromised smoked chocolate malting and flaccid caramel-tobacco roast play possum as dry-hopped astringency wavers. Black licorice hint seems out of place.
Swell hybridized doppelbock-rauchbier with silken velvet mouthfeel glides across the tongue as lively brown chocolate and toffee sweetness mellows into cherrywood-smoked peppery hop burn. Random cocoa nibs, date, fig and molasses undertones scour peat-smoked bottom. Tertiary bacon fat, glazed ham and campfire illusions waver.
Mellower double bock styling allows chewy raisin sweetness to penetrate brown-sugared caramel malting contrasting mild dry-hopped bittering. Subtle fig, plum and prune illusions receive light maple molasses sweetening. Distant dark rum, toffee, pecan and marzipan undertones get splattered.
Fantastic ‘velvety’ dark bock spreads brown-sugared fruit spicing and creamy caramel-burnt brown chocolate sweetness across tingly bourbon-sherry wining of complex Bavarian full body (originating way back in 1455). Dewy peat moss drips onto ancillary candied apple, buttered pecan, cherry cordial, marzipan and toffee illusions, providing contrasted earthen mustiness to expressive yeast profile. Tertiary cinnamon molasses cookie sugaring drapes distant raisin-fig-grape conflux.