“This Doppelbock, or “Double Bock”, is a dark, extra full bodied lager after the best Bavarian tradition. Such beer was created by monks for the tough fasting period of Lent. They called it “liquid bread”. Look for flavor notes of chocolate, candied fruit and roasted malt.”

Glassware: Stein.

Appearance: Pours a deep ruby red with a huge four finger head. It rapidly reduces and settled to a bubbly overlay with minimal lace left behind.

Aroma: Gorgeous display of toasty and nutty malts, sweet dark fruits and tangy orange marmalade. Sweet and sticky caramel/toffee and cognac, aniseed/cola, peanut, molasses, chocolate, yeast esters (banana, clove) and a somewhat dark bready presence like pumpernickel or rye. Jeez there’s a lot to unpack here but it’s so worth it. Absolutely superb aroma.

Flavour: Wow. Like the aroma the taste buds are in a frenzy. The stand out flavours are obviously the delicious dark fruits like raisin and prunes/dates but there is also a heady presence of caramel and lightly burnt toffee, nutty malts, toast, yeast esters and slightly pithy orange marmalade. Toasted pumpernickel or dark rye develop late and move in to a slightly dry finish with tonnes of residual sweetness clinging to the back palate.

Mouthfeel: Smooth and gelatinous. A little syrupy but the booze (8.6% ABV) and mild bitterness cleans that up nicely. Low Co2. Medium-full body.

Overall: Very elegant. Complex too! But the main thing is the balance as it’s super sweet but so well countered by the additions of marmalade, rye breads and bitterness. Excellent interpretation of the style.