Ithaca Excelsior! Kaffinator Double Espresso Bock

Brewed by Ithaca Beer Company
Style: Doppelbock
Ithaca, New York USA

Although Alesmith Speedway Stout is the original, this would go great in a vertical tasting. Smooth and the 7.2% abv is serviceable, I shared out quite a bit at Cole’s from my bomber. Dark black, chocolate, coffee, tasty and enjoyable.

Re-rate, on tap at Hop Devil Grill, NYC. Not much of a re-rate from bottle to tap, my numbers and notes are pretty much identical! I just wanted to record that I had it in NYC as well on tap. Bottle shared with Mds, Hogtown Harry, Blankboy, and Gregclow, courtesy of ? . Very dark brown, small white head. Aroma of some coffee, lactic sourness, odd but ok. taste features lots of roast, very sweet, some coffee bitterness. Acidic as well. Watery. Alcohol at the end. Not bad.

Tap at Barcade’s 3rd Anniversary Party: Deep brown color with amber at the edges in the light. The aroma is mainly roasted barley, with a fair amount of chocolate and only light suggestions of coffee bean resins. The flavor is where the coffee comes out, tons of roast. Just seems a bit metallic and one dimensional. They should have put more emphasis on the base beer, rather than just dowsing it with espresso in the fermenter. Seems like a mediocre lager drowning in roasted coffee. The finish is borderline soy sauce-y, espresso like and a bit salty. Not altogether a success, just decent.

Bottle. Black body with a small but nice tan head. Mild roasty aroma of coffee, muted underlying malt. Modest roast throughout with coffee notes to it, sweet malty notes in the background are tertiary at most. (6+) Smooth average palate (3+) Meh, I am just not getting into the coffee aspects with are the dominant flavour.

Bottle. pours a dark brown body with a bright, white, small head. Really potent coffee aroma, thinning wateriness, nuts, and bread. Picks up a bit better in the flavour- caramel, some alcohol warmth, plenty of sweet chocolate, nuts, and coffee. I enjoyed this a lot but moreso in the flavour.

Very dark brown, tan head. nose is coffee, rich malt, brown sugar, slight alcohol, dark fruits. The coffee is dominant but interplays well with the rich bock. Flavor is coffee, roasty but not burnt, stron enough bock flavors. Some caramel in the finish. More bitter than a traditional bock due to the coffee. Could use a little more body. Coffee is extremely well done here - other breweries could learn from this one.

June 07. 940 Bottle. Beer is dark golden brown with a small, frothy, light brown, rapidly and totally diminishing head.<P>The aroma is malty with moderate notes of roasted grain/wort, light notes of caramel biscuit an chocolate syrup;Light note of resin/pine; Light note of damp garden soil, moderate note of sour brewed coffee.<P>The flavor is moderately sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter with a long, lightly bitter, lightly acidic, lightly sweet finish.<P>The body is medium, the texture is watery and the carbonation is fizzy.<P>Agree with Ernest, not bad but not very engaging. Bock-and-espresso balance isn’t achieved.

Head is initially small, frothy/fizzy, light brown, mostly diminishing. Body is hazy dark brown, bottle conditioned. Aroma is moderately malty (coffee, roasted/burnt grain/nuts, chocolate, husks), with notes of minerals. Flavor is moderately sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly sweet, lightly acidic, moderately bitter. Medium body, watery texture, lively carbonation, lightly alcoholic. The coffee character is fine, but tends to dominate everything else (only trace bock-like character)...little bit of burnt nuts and chocolate mixed with a bit of raw vegetal/husky notes. It’s an assertive enough nose, but one-dimensional and not very refined. Good balance in the mouth. This is my last sample of the Excelsior series; my overall feeling is that the brewer may have tried a bit too hard to be novel (all four recipes are unusual in some way). They’re certainly interesting from an idea perspective (I was excited to try them), but none of them really worked very well for me in the glass.