Hacker-Pschorr Animator

Brewed by Paulaner Brauerei (Schörghuber)
Style: Doppelbock
Munich, Germany

Flip-top bottle as a gift from a friend. Nice hazy copper-amber body with a consistent foamy off white/tan head. Rich aroma with vanilla, toffe, sweet caramel and fine spicies like cinnamon and clove. Some fruits and nuts in the nose too. Absolutely complex body, smooth mouthfeel with a sweet liqueric caramel malt flavor, fine spicy character(vanilla, candy sugar, cinnamon), fruity tastes of raisins and dried fruits, balanced hop on the tongue. Fine and strong character. One-dimensional???

Dark coppery colored with vanishing yellow head. Sweet nutty toffee aroma, some raisins also here. Very sweet aroma, good one though. Flavor also starts with sweet toffee dominating, aftertaste dries with some lemon and hops, mild warming alcohol here too. Fine aroma, somehow one-dimensional flavor.

Bottle from Coventry Beer Festival, despatched at The Penguin. Needed to restore my faith in German brewing after the last sweetcorn-addled mess... devilish sweet crystallised fruit, warm red berry, toffeed malt, toasted nut, brazen banana esters ,wholemeal and that-bush-at-the-bottom-of-the-garden herbal hop aroma, with some marzipan peeping through. Strawberry and cranberry gatecrashing the nasal party. Only the alcohol marks it down. Magnificent balance. Paler, clearer ruby than the doppelbocks I’ve had to date; nose and looks Shep Neame Winter Hop with added hop and silk. Faint legs speckled with lace. Heavy caramelised red to begin with; oodles of demerara and maltloaf, butter and berry fruits. Hops coming through as a big bittering presence in the finish, counterpoising all that chocolate coated toffee and fruitcake richness very nicely indeed danke. Dense, doughy wholemeal with leafy herbal hops right through it; banana cake and slightly harsh rum alcohol bitterness. About a thousand times as christmassy as Monchschof Weihnachtsbier, even on 31st March. Some of those honeyed marzipan notes are not a million miles from the parkbench, but at 8.1%, it’s forgiveable. Glow, silk, danger and balance. Faith restored.

Bottle. Golden brown with a dense cream foam. Aromas are raisins and pear with bready yeast. Caramel and sugar with some creaminess. Boozy with some roast character. Flavours are sweet caramel with burnt toffee and a surprising bitterness. Spiced oranges with chocolate, also, with a dry, peppery and warming finish. Good.

Bottle 50 cl. Pours a reddish brown with a small off white head and an aroma of sweet malts, caramel, brown sugar, white bread and some slightly burned malts. The flavour is sweet with lots of malts, caramel, toffee, fresh bread, ripe fruits, dark sugar, rasins and some hops. A medium and slightly bitter finish. Nice beer.

.5 liter bottle. Pours a nice deep amber- almsot brown with a modest head- lasts a long time with a good head. A roma is big full toasty munihc malts, nutty, fresh bread and slight burnt toast. Good full flavor- toasty, nutty, hitns of roast, light fruits, dark burnt grains, bready, munich/vienna. Smooth finish and good body. Nice.

A rare one, thanks Biereckonig. Pours a reddish hugh on malty brown, lasting foamy beige head. Aroma is malty. Above average mouthfeel, although carbonation and sourness (felt initially)countered it. Some complexity, a little malty, some barley, a really good drinker.

(bottle) pours a lightly hazy reddish-amber colour with a frothy off-white head. aroma of bread and herbal hops, light notes of caramel and sweet spices, roasted malts. flavour is bread and grainy roasted malts with little else. heavy body with low carbonation and a light roasted-bitter finish.