Coney Island Human Blockhead

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

Poured out a nice red / orange thing into my glass with a decent light tan head considering that it’s 10%. The smell is similar to a bitch slapped barleywine. Sweet fruits and citrus (plum, orange, figs). thick malts and brown sugar, some underlying roasted malts, raisins. The taste is pretty much a variation on an american BW - a fuckload of hops, tons of malts. The malts might be overtaking the hops here - molasses, very good spices, slight cocoa, a bit of alcohol if I breathe properly - I really have not noticed the 10% in the taste whatsoever as I blindly assume the spice is all hops. Raisins, hearty bread, brown sugar, licorice finally came through and just boosted the marks... that is a nice touch in the background for sure! Some caramel as well.... really, now that this has warmed it’s mostly malts with a killer bitterness that slices the taste clean in half, some candy citrus.. still pretty much a barley wine. Not really smooth, decent carbonation, very long strong bitter finish with some malty lingerings. Ok, this is a decent beer, whatever the hell it is supposed to be. a Doppelbock? Hardly. I’m pretty buzzed!

Bomber. Poured clear, fiery reddish-orange with a short cap of beige head.. loved the color. The aroma picked up toasty caramel and dried fruits with accents of earth and more-than-ample alcohol warmth.. digging deeper brings out brown sugar and toffee.. just a little hot. The flavor really kicked too.. spicy, peppery alcohol laced throughout, but it certainly had some interesting maltage beneath.. sweeter caramel, bready notes, and toffee at the core with spicy earth and redder fruit skins around.. boozy finish stuck around for quite a while. Heavier-bodied with moderate carbonation on the palate.. rough, but there was potential here.

22 oz bottle. Pours a thick off white head of good duration, with attractive lacing, over a clear amber (SRM 18) body....nose of dried fruuits (cherry, fig, raisin), toffee, cereal....taste initially is sweet malts, with dried cherry, raisin, finishing with a lingering woody sharpness, in addition to hop bitterness...mouth feel is heavy, carbonation medium, alcohol poorly hidden. This is a somewhat harsh and also hoppy Doppelbock. The malt back bone does not demonstrate the depth and complexity of the best and the alcohol woody sharpness detracts from the overall experience.

By far my new favorite bottle cap, this face on it looks twisted. Brown body turning ruby red when held to the light, a massively tall cap is floating on top and is taking too long to dissipate HURRY UP A GO AWAY I WANT TO DRINK YOU!!!! This beer is stinky, like 15km hike without socks hiking boot stinky. Lots of different aromas, caramel, wood, shoes, salty smoke and all with no trace of 10% alcohol in here but it all adds up to this not so great aroma. Thank gawd this taste better then it smells! Massively malty flavour with a bitter finish, the hopes are awesome, citrus and spice man this beer is nice (sigh……) Mouth fell is so thick it almost feels like syrup. Where’s the 10%?!?!? I can’t taste it but my brain can sure feel it, stupid giant bottles. This becomes spicy when warm. Good brew.

22oz bottle. Pours mostly clear with just a slight haze, bright and rounded red body with a finger-width, beige, creamy head that dissipates quickly and leaves a good amount of lacing. Aroma is very fruity and caramel sweet. Cherries, plums, peaches, and pears. Some toasty toffees along with the caramel sweetness, light chocolates, a touch of earthy bitterness, and a hint of sweet booze. Flavor has a more noticable brown sugar sweetness and more towards the deeper caramels than the aroma. Lightly toasted toffee and more of an earthy bitterness than the aroma as well providing a very nice balance. Chocolates, nuts, estery plums and other fruits, and a pretty distinct booze stands out. Finishes dry and sweet, but fairly earthy and bitter. Plenty of deeper toffee sweetness and earth in the aftertaste that lingers for a long duration. A little too much booze comes out in the backend as well. Palate is pretty full and smooth. Overall, a pretty rich doppelbock with a nice bitterness. A little too boozy IMO, but still tasty. Not bad.

From a 22 oz bottle this poured a crystal clear amber with a robust tan head and good lacing rings. Nose of caramel malts and ripe fruit, brown sugar, and alcohol. Rich and creamy mouthfeel. Flavor of ripe fruit and again alcohol. Some bitterness appears and the flavor and even more so in the finish. A remarkably easy drinking beer for such high alcohol content.

(22oz bomber) Purchased at Brewery Creek on July 16, 2009. Thanks to Niko for being the beer-mule via the ferry. I must admit that this beer doesn’t strike me as your regular style categorization of a doppelbock - and seeing the high ABV, I’d have thought it to be a barleywine. Over the top maltedness, strong pronounced figs, alcoholic medicinal finish. Very caramel, brown sugar and iodine. Very good.

A vigorous pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces a four-finger thick, nicely tan colored head. The head leaves some nice layered lacing on the sides of my glass as it slowly subsides. The beer is a deep red / amber color that shows a brilliantly clear, ruby – gold color when held up to the light. The aroma smells of rich, concentrated malt; a mix of caramel, some toffee, brown sugar notes and a nicely toasted malt and biscuit like notes in the finish. The nose is sweet, but with a complex sweetness that easily keeps it from being cloying. I find myself enjoying this malty, brown-bread like nose on this beer.

The beer is sweet up front, but again there is a complexity to the flavor that makes it interesting. The finish has a touch of warming alcohol, and some toasted malt notes that struggle to come through the up front, caramelized malt notes. A light bitterness and even a touch of herbal (perhaps even menthol too) hop character helps to balance out the finish just a touch. As my palate gets used to the caramelized sweetness a more bread-like character starts to come forward. Notes of brown sugar encrusted, caramelized whole-grain bread crust flavors come out, as does some toffee flavors. The malt character does have a touch of a savory quality to it; I get this note in strong, malty beers and here it contributes very subtle flavors reminiscent of smoke and perhaps a touch of sea-water. The herbal hop character in the finish becomes quite a bit more noticeable as the beer warms up; this really has a fresh hoppiness to it that works quite well with the thick malt character. This has a fair amount of body to it, though it is not over-the-top heavy for a beer of 10% alcohol; it is somewhat quaffable, if only just so & in small sips, but does have a touch too much carbonation initially.

This actually has quite a bit of hop flavor to it; it might be just a bit more malt leaning than hop forward, but actually it might just be the other way around as well. I am actually enjoying this beer quite a bit more than I was expecting to.

Purchased: Plaza Liquors, Tucson AZ