Ettaler Curator Doppelbock

Brewed by Klosterbrauerei Ettal
Style: Doppelbock
Ettal, Germany

500 ml bottle. Dark pour with little head. Aromas are all dark fruit and caramel. Raisin, anise, malty. Flavor is very similar with just a touch of alcohol in the finish. Very very good.

Poured from bottle into Sam Adam’s tasting glass. Essentially zero head. The aroma is very malty with hints of caramel, and perhaps bananas or bubble gum. The flavor is huge, rich, and sweet. The tasty is very malty and chocolatey. The flavor is big on sweetness with very little bittering. The mouthfeel is great. The finish is fast, with very little aftertaste. For some reason the beer strikes me as too sweet for a session beer, but then again I could easily imagine myself drinking many of these in a short amount of time.

Draught at Chef Paul’s in Lisle. Pours dark brown, mahogany with a very thing head that laces the glass delicately. A deep aroma reminiscent of tawny port and chocolate. Very good beer, rich sweetness, molasses, roast nutty flavor and not overly sweet or cloying. Rich creamy palate. I’m impressed!

Pours deep mahogany with a crimson hue and a small tan head. The aroma has chewy biscuit, toffee, creamy chocolate, smooth toasty malt and ice cream malt. Medium smooth creamy body with semi-soft carbonation. The flavor starts with bready caramel, sweet toffee and a dry-ish brown sugar. The finish has some oxidation showing and lots of spice. A good doppelbock.

Draught at Chef Paul’s in Lisle, IL. Faint and German aroma. Clear dark red body with a good-sized tan head. Excellent lace. Great color. Smooth, sweet, German Dunkelish character. Excellent and very enjoyable.

Bottle. Brown-red pour with a tan head. Aroma of sweet malt and some earthy elements as well. Flavors of sweet caramel, malt, cream soda and a bit of booze. Medium bottle, sweet with a sweet malty finish. Not bad, but not all that great either...the cream soda element was off-putting.

Bottle received via trade with porterhouse. Pours deep brown with an average, frothy, light brown head, somewhat lasting with fair lacing. Aroma is heavy malt (caramel, toffee, nutty), light hops (grass), average yeast (broth, dough) with notes of figs, cherries, port, and molasses. Full bodied, sticky texture, average carbonation, and a slight bitter, metallic finish. Average duration, moderate sweetness, acidity, and bitterness.

Recieved September 2006, Sampled December 2007
Pours with an initially, almost three-finger thick, lightly darkened, tan colored head that has a bit of staying power to it. The beer sits in my glass a concentrated, blackened, amber tinged color but does show a brilliantly clear, concentrated ruby red color when held up to the light. Rich, sweet malt aromatics define the nose of this beer. Almost no hop aromatics, in fact I can’t really smell any. Aromas of figs, richly caramelized malt, broiled raisins, musty concentrated dark fruits. The aroma has almost smells like it has cork taint, that musty, slightly off cork smell of TCA seems to be here, but I have no idea how that could be. This may just be a bit of oxidation setting in, but it is a bit unusual for it to take this form. Irregardless, the aroma is rich and malty enough that it is able to overcome this and still remain quite enjoyable.

Sweet and richly concentrated malt notes as well as brandy like warming alcohol flavors are noticeable in the first sip. This is really rich and chewy, without being overly sweet though; the malt sugars here are complex enough that the sweetness is not cloying. This is definitely a meal in a glass; the heft of this brew is impressive, it has both a viscous weight to it and a palate coating quality that sticks to the mouth even after a sip has been swallowed. A touch more hoppy than the aroma suggested, there are hints of herbal (at times even menthol like), hop derived flavors here as well as a soft, fleeting, though lingering, hop bitterness in the finish. Clearly though this beer is about the malt. Concentrated & powerful, flavors of dark chocolate, toasted grain, lightly bitter burnt malt and dark whole grain toast provides a slight counterpoint to the sweeter malt flavors. As the beer warms & loses the medium carbonation it becomes much more creamy feeling, though it also begins to pick up a touch of that TCA like mustiness from the aroma.

What a tasty, totally rich & satiating, thoroughly enjoyable beer, while the lack of that TCA like component would have made this perfection in a glass, it still does not hurt it enough to make this less that incredible. This is exactly what I have been looking for in a Doppelbock lately. If you are a malt lover, you have got to try this beer, it will totally satisfy any malt cravings you may have.