Fox DeLuxe Discombobulator Doppelbock

Brewed by Sand Creek Brewing Co. (Pioneer/Wisconsin Brewing Co.)
Style: Doppelbock
Black River Falls, Wisconsin USA

Picked up at the Binny-apostrophe-s Beverage Depot in Orland Park, IL. This beer was contract brewed by Sand Creek Brewing for Fox DeLuxe in Oswego, IL. Sand Creek can do better than this. Looks nice, a clear brownish amber body with a tall and creamy ecru head. The aroma is basically just caramel, albeit a very candy-ish caramel. The flavor sees the edition of light toasty grains and an earthy bitterness. Once was enough.

Bright copper color with a moderate taupe head. Toasted malt, caramel and toffee scents. Slightly earthy and a hint of dried floral to herbal hops, but the focus is on the malt where it should be. A sweet grainy start. Moderate body with some light carbonation. Toasted grains and light citric bite. Not a hops component, rather a bit of acetic-ness that creeps in. I’m drinking this at a cool room temperature, so it may be more partial to show a fault. Hints of alcohol show up eventually in the nose and a bit in the finish. Some really good qualities are masked or taken over by some nuances that show no favor to me. I am going to cool one of these off and try again. We’ll see how it changes. This will be the last entry if I feel no update is needed.

Pours deep reddish bronze with a nice dense tan head. The aroma has lots of deep toasted dark malt, thick bread, dark caramel, dates and slight warmth. Medium / thick body with some abv warmth hitting first on the taste and there is minor carbonation. The flavor also has toasted malt, some oxidized traits, somewhat watery, caramel and phenolic spice. The finish packs even more of an alcohol warmth. Okay doppel.

Attractive dark brown pour, fairly easily seen through, topped by an equally attractive and substantial off-white head that lingers. The nose was pretty sweet, almost sickly so. The flavor was sweet carmel malt, dark fruits, raisins, and an unusually prominant earthy hop bite (unusual for the style, anyways). Not bad, but the sweetness does tend toward the cloying end of the scale a bit too much for my liking.

12 oz. bottle. Cellar-cold. Pours a nice brown color with copper/yellow highlights, and a brownish head. Smell is a bit dusty and light in malts that a beer this color should be showing. Taste has quite a bit of grain Malt sweetness over sugar, and only a suggestion of alcohol warmth. Some dried pear and apple, plus a little German hop spice. Starts slow, but gets interesting toward the end. Perhaps this will get interesting as it ages, but this is doing all right now.

Pour is a dark brown with a small tan head. Aroma is a nice roasted malt with an equally nice dark fruit. Flavor is again an excellent dark fruityness with some sugar and spice. Leaves a little molasses on the tounge after the swallow. This is a soild dopplebock.

12oz bottle 2/6/09 (Binny’s Naperville)- Pours a light brown body with a small tan covering that dissipated rather quickly. Aroma of roasted malt, caramel, toffee, and fruits. Taste of the same with some citrus and slight alcohol on the back end. This full bodied brew is very well balanced and quite tasty especially since I am not a big fan of this style.

A very dark reddish brown pour with a small tan head that ends blotchy. Nose is very fruity with roasted notes and brown sugar. Flavor is roasted notes with a nice hop background. Fruit, malt, biscuit, brown sugar, spice, and late appearing alcohol. A very well done beer that should be a winner for Sand Creek.