Coney Island Human Blockhead

Shmaltz Brewing Company
Brewed at Olde Saratoga Brewing (Mendocino Brewing Co.)
Style: Doppelbock
San Francisco, California USA

Bomber from Binny’s Beverage Depot in Plainfield, Illinois: It pours a clear reddish copper body with a solid beige head. It has an aroma of sweet caramel, alcohol, and toasted white bread. There’s plenty of alcohol in the flavor, almost smothering the malty sweetness and light earthy bitterness. Not too bad.

22oz bottle from BevMo! Mission Valley. Pours a clear ruby color with a one finger thick beige head, light lacing. Nose is of caramel and toasted malts. Flavor is very boozy with caramel, raisins, plums and figs. I thought this was gonna be better, Way too boozy, cool label though.

(bottle - 22 oz) Copper color with a fluffy tan head. Aroma is sweet and malty with some caramel, toffee, and a light hop note. Flavor is very sweet at the beginning with a slightly astringent quality. The middle is dry and lightly bitter with some stale hops. The finish is lingering and bitter with a light earthen hint. Alcohol is very apparent.

Date: January 30, 2009
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting
Appearance: clear dark copper, wispy beige head
Aroma: sweet and fruity aroma, balancing earthyness
Flavor: rich caramel malt flavor, nice fruity character, candy caramel, well balanced with the earthyness, no sign of alcohol, long bitter finish
Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 15/20
Rating: 3.6/5.0
Drinkability: 8/10
Score: **4

Bottle. Ruby-copper color with a light tan head. Malty, slightly sweet, slight noble hop aroma. Caramel and toffee flavor with some backing sweetness and a bit of fruitiness. Medium bodied. Toffee lingers with a bit of dark malt, light sweetness, and some frutiiness.

Pours an amber color with a off white head. Aroma is dark malts, toffee, corn, sugars. Flavor is corn, dark malts, caramel, brown sugar, toffee. Interesting attempt but this really isn’t that good...........although it is quite strong. I was expecting a imperial lager, not a dopplebock. This fails at both.

Bottle. Holy crap. Unbelievably sweet, unbelievably hot, unbelievably astringent. It smelled like just a too-sweet doppelbock with some nice brown sugar, toffee, licorice, plums, but once it got in the mouth, my goodness, a split second and alcohol just takes over everything except for some of the general too-sweetness. It took me a lot of convincing to go back for a second sip, and I managed a third, but then it was a drain pour before lots of crackers and water to try to move to another beer. (In case there’s any confusion, I didn’t forget to enter my flavor, palate, and overall score.)

Bottle. Pours a clear amber-brown with a small off-white head. Aroma of super sweet malt and soda notes. Flavor is a combination of licorice, soda, raisins, sugar, and alcohol. Much too heavy and hot. How did the Coney Island brewers make this and decide it was fit for consumption? Drain pour... 5/4/4/2/10 (2.5/5)