Altenmünster Jubelbier Dunkel Spezial (Jubel)

Brewed by Allgäuer Brauhaus (Oetker Group)
Style: Dunkel
Kempten, Germany

Poured dark amber/copper color. Aroma was very pleasant and sweet - primarily molasses. Very thin, dissipating head. In general tasted like a thin dubbel. Really had a warnming effect, and would seem to be more than the 5.5% ABV stated. Overall, I was pleasntly surprised, and will buy more.

This is from notes from a few years back. I had the "Felices Pascuas" (Happy Easter) Jubelfest. Medium/dark brown, small head. Sweet caramel and fig scented. Not bad, but not overly appearling. Smooth, slightly nutty, only a hint of sweetness in the taste. Worth buying for the bottle.

Pours clear brown with decent beige head. Soda-like carbonation manages to keep it there. Nice chocolate malty aroma, bit of roast and floral noble hops there too. Slight metallic aroma brings it down a little. Mouthfeel is rather thin and watery, bit of a let down. Simple sweet start, with a slightly bitter mid and finish. Aftertaste has a touch of roast bitterness, but is mostly just sweet malt. Not bad, but nothing special. Gains an extra point overall for a funky bottle.

Classic German good looks and classic German flavor, although the flavor and body is a bit thin. The sweet malt is a bit cloying as well. This beer tastes like what I always imagined Germans drinking out of those 3 litre mugs around Oktoberfest time.

pint bottle, lager glass. Roasted, molasses malt (M); earthy hop notes (L); butterscotch aroma is light. Nice malty aroma. Tall, creamy, off-white head is slowly diminishing and sits on a deep maroon body. Moderately-heavy sweet flavor becomes a moderately sweet finish with a bockish twang. Medium-heavy body, velvety texture, lively carbonation. The bottom line is: a very tasty, malty dark lager.

Good brownish colour, excellent head retention and extra appearance points for the bottle. Aroma is smoky, with some chocolate malt and general maltiness. Flavour is also very malty, even thickly so. Perhaps a touch too much roastiness and caramel to be perfect but really solidly malty. No real hops to speak of but I didn't find it overly sweet.

Clouded reddish brown appearance, decent head formation. Slightly burnt, dark fruit malt aroma. Easy drinking palate, sweet brown sugar flavor, a touch of chocolate, slightly dry and toasty in the middle, balanced dryness in the finish.

2003 Vintage Santa Bottle:
Clear copper colour with a thick dense tan head. Aroma of metal (just like copper!), malt, grapes, brown sugar and a mild amount of cherries. Light-bodied; Sweet caramel flavours line the mouth and reveal some mild malt flavours with the bonus atrocity of metal. Aftertaste is very subtle...a bit of the sweetness and some faint nuttyness is noticed. Overall, fairly bad for the style, but a decent beer none-the-less, and a nice bottle to celebrate Christmas! I bought this painted swing-top bottle at Beers of the World in Rochester, New York and sampled it on 19-December-2003.