Fish Tale Detonator Doppelbock

Brewed by Fish Brewing Company/Leavenworth Beers
Style: Doppelbock
Olympia, Washington USA

Thanks to some loyal RateBeerian for sending me this bottle about a year!

Rating # 1015
12oz bottle… the one in the RB pic.

The beer pours with a dark chestnut body and virtually no head, some wispy tan foam but it vanished in moments. The aroma holds a balancing act of four major components. Coffee, Coco, Vanilla and Dark Rum. The flavor has a nice sweet chocolaty nuttiness with a touch of coconut, but the finish has all the barrel vanilla and rum spiciness. There is some abv. heat, but only detectable by the aroma and slight nose burn as the beer warms to room temperature. The palate is a bit thin but overall, I believe Detonator may be the best tasting Doppelbock I’ve ever had, although lacking in other areas….

22oz bomber. Poured clear brown with frothy tan head. It has a full aroma of sweet caramel malt, a bit of dark fruit, roasted malt and coffee. It’s a little on the light side but very nice. First sip is first rate with rich maltiness. I get sweet caramel, bits of toffee, molasses, coffee and a lesser amount of chocolate. There is also a light hoppiness around the edge of the tongue that I can’t identify. This is a rich malty mix of flavors that go together seamlessly leaving a sweet caramel, chocolate and slightly coffee aftertaste. I didn’t sense the ABV.

Received in a trade with LarryPitonka. Thanks Andre! Pours a very deep brown almost black with a thin lasting light beige head and some lace. Aroma is lots of toasty nutty and chocolate malts- slightly sweet with an almond like quality. Full flavor of sweet caramel munich malts, toasty, light roast, nutty and chocolate hints and a light hop bitterness in the end- finishes relatively dry. Not as robust or toasty as some other doppelbocks, but still a quality well made traditional doppelbock. Great stuff.

Not really feeling the oak. Roated malt aroma and taste, chocolate. Kind of sweet. Underwhelming. At least my notes say so.

Bottle. 8.5% abv. Ruby-mahogony beer with a tan colored head. Rich malt/brown sugar aroma with some chocolate. Big malty flavor with caramel/toffee, slight roast, and a bit of vanilla with some backing clean hops. Thick mouthfeel that fades to a nice creaminess. LIngering sweet, vanilla malt. Well but together and flavors meld nicely, it’d just be nice if it was slightly bigger.

22 oz Bomber. $8.99 8 freaking 99 at World of Beer in Clearwater. This better be good. <P> Body is a ruby brown with a creamy, two finger thick mocha head that fades slowly and leaves film rather than lacing. <P> Aroma is extremely light...mildly dusty, faint fruit and caramel malt. Aroma is just so faint there isn’t much to be said for it other than that it isn’t offensive and leans toward good. <P> Fore is creamy feeling and full of malt flavor, light fruit notes, heavier vegetal notes and conspiciously absent is any oak flavor whatsoever. Some lingering sweetness in the aftertaste. <P> This feels nice and it looks nice but smells of nothing and tastes of only a little more. I’m really not feeling the love. It’s drinkable because it looks and feels great, but the flavor is massively underwhelming.

Bottle. Poured black color with an average frothy off-white head that was mostly lasting with good lacing. Moderate toasted sweet caramel malt aroma. Medium to full body. Medium spicy sweet flavor with a medium sweet finish of moderate duration. This is a standout beer.

rich malty aroma upon a dark brown color with a light tan head. light carbonation, strong malty flavor throughout with a slight alcohol finish. very impressive effort on a style most American breweries do not attempt