Capital Blonde Doppelbock

Brewed by Capital Brewery
Style: Doppelbock
Middleton, Wisconsin USA

12-oz. Pours bright medium coppery amber. Platinum blonde, nice and creamy and dense, and really sticks around. Loose stringy lace. Aluminum, CO2, and a bit of sour wet grass on the nose. Creamy medium body with tons of sparkling carb. A little over-sweet, kind of a sweet and sour thing happening on the mid-palate. Lots of caramel, dark old leaves, some butterscotch on the mid-palate. Not quite coherent, and a bit too sweet.

Yellow, with a thin ring of foam. Bready, toasty, malty aroma. Nice rich malt profile, with a lot of bready, toasty flavors segueing into a crisp hop finish. Really tasty and satisfying.

What is not to love about this beer?! Oh my word, it was wonderful from beginning to end. Now, I’m a malt-head (and not a hop-head by any stretch) but from the moment I took a sip I was hooked. It certainly looks a bit odd, to pour a "doppelbock" that looks like a pale ale. But the aroma lets you know that it’s more like a Belgian ale with notes of honey, alcohol, fresh baked bread, a little bit of banana, dried cherries, and caramel. The body has some tingle of carbonation, some alcohol, and some thickness (probably not as thick as the best doppelbocks) and the flavor reaches across the spectrum of the aroma, throwing in a note of cedar wood and a gentle touch of bubblegum. It might be closer to a Belgian golden ale, but whatever you call it, it’s very much worth drinking. I don’t mind the alcohol in the flavor (it wasn’t burning hot, just obviously present) and the overall picture is very very compelling. Bottle.

My bottle says "platinum blonde doppelbock," but I assume it’s the same beer - clear, fizzy, honey-colored beer - fairly sweet aroma, with some light herbal character and a european hop bite underneath - honey flavor up front - a little too sweet - medium herbal and hop bitterness in the middle - the sweetness becomes prominent again in the finish, and a grainy flavor comes in - the alcohol is apparent at the end, but just enough to be warming - decent.

Bottle: Courtesy of Styles. Aroma is very light. Faint sweetness with a light grassy hoppiness. Pours a transparent amber with a very small head that is quickly a ring. Very sweet up front with brown sugar, caramel, and light fruit. Light spice with an even lighter grassy hoppiness comes into the mixture in the finish but sweetness still dominates and lingers into the aftertaste. Aroma definitely hurts the final score.

Bottle: Vibrant golden, translucent, small off-white frothy head, soft carbonation, spotty lacing.   Bready/malty aroma, also slightly grainy.   Much the same on the tongue.   Fairly sweet, somewhat viscous, with a touch of alcohol on the finish.   Fairly simple overall, but quite clean and easy to quaffe.

Pours to a hazy copper colored body with a thin oily looking white head. I sampled this in a snifter to get full aroma effect. This beer is decently strong. There are sweet malts, grassy hops, spicy hops. The flavor is where this beer excels. Caramel, pine hops, lots of pepper. The palate is a little light. Overall, this is a good beer but I want more aroma and palate.

Sweet malty aroma. Gold body witha small white head. The sweet malty flavor gave this one balance. Smooth easy drinking beer.