Friday, May 6, 2011

Beer Review: Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock

This beer is regarded, in the craft world as one of the best doppelbock's (a stronger version of a bock) produced. I picked up a 4-pack for $10.99 + tax. There's is actually a funny story behind this beer for me. When  I was down to my last beer of the bunch, I reached into the fridge to grab it and to my dismay I found a bottle covered with beer slush. Apparently the fridge was on full blast and the beer was close to the freezer unit so the beer froze, expanded and seeped out onto the bottle. I was able to salvage about 1/2 the bottle from this frozen one but the following review is based on a fresh beer (not frozen at any point). As for the beer itself...

The dark amber color looks like a glass of root beer until you see the modest head. It's enticing and though the head is not large, it is very creamy and sticks well to the side of the glass.

There is a whole lot going on in the smell here: tons of sweet, fruity flavors excite the sense. There is definitely a dominant dark fruit smell; maybe prunes, raisins or cherries. Not much hop smell here, but I wouldn't really expect any in the first place.

The first sip is a delightful melody of the aforementioned flavors; big complex raisin/plum flavor followed by sweet malts. There is a definite doughy taste to the malt, but the problem is that the doughy flavor does not correspond to a viscous consistency in the body. More on that later. There's a little bite of alcohol on the back end of the sip but that is really overshadowed by the sweetness of the beer. I really did love the first few sips but by the end of the glass I wasn't psyched about the flavor; it was a bit TOO sweet for me, I found, and while the flavors were robust, they were very separate and didn't meld particularly well together.

The body of this beer is, to be frank, is off. There is not a lot of carbonation and it's a very thin beer. I guess I was expecting sort of a viscous consistency and this was quite the opposite. I could have dealt with the little carbonation if there was any substance to the body, but alas, there was none. Even though the thin body makes it very easy to drink and the 6.7% alcohol is nowhere to be found, I wasn't wowed by any means. Definitely some disappointment here.

For the money I paid, and the hype surrounding it, I was expecting more from this beer. Maybe doppelbocks just aren't for me, but his beer left something to be desired.

Score: C+  3.25/5


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