Left Hand Smoked Goosinator Doppelbock

Brewed by Left Hand Brewing Co.
Style: Smoked
Longmont, Colorado USA

25 oz bottle, via several RBers. The appearance is a nice tawny red, clear on first pour, with a one inch fizzy beige head that faded to a partial covering. The nose is wonderfully smoky, more aggressive than I was expecting from it. There’s still some slight malty Dopplebock sweetness below, but clearly this is a Smoked rather than a Dopple. The flavor is a little less smoky than the nose let on, but still pretty noticable and enjoyable. It does have a certain liquid smoke taste to it rather than a true smoked malt flavor. No mention in the description about how they got the smoke in there. All the same, enjoyable. A good amount of malty sweetness below the smoke, but it’s not cloying or sticky sweet. The mouthfeel is watery in texture with a little too much fizzy carbonation. Overall, a pretty decent beer, but not a stand out as far as favorite Smoked beers go.

Bottle at HogTownHarry Fest ’08. Cloudy brown but it is bottle conditioned. Not much head. Over carbonated. Smoky aroma, some deep thick bacon rashers that make this beer really rather good. Nice smoke.

Lefthand knows how to tickle my love for smoke! Pours a darkish brown red with a very nice light tan head. Smoky bacony appley with some small caramel and chocolate even? Slightly wheaty estery and sweet. Creamy even bubbles, a bit thicker than water, about right in terms of consistency. A big smoke in the vein of Aecht Schlenkerla Marzen. A bit of a fruity appley acidity. A bit sweet, lingering bacon and toast. Somewhere between a smoked porter, AS Marzen and AS weizen. I really enjoyed this quite a bit.

Huge 2 inch plus head of fine and very dense bubbles. Light carbonation. Tan head settles very slowly. Nice smokey aroma with some beef jerky, sweet malts, crusty bread and a bit of salt. Color is a very nice crimson brown. Very malty flavor with a just a hint of smoke as an accent. Smoke level is perfect. Accents not dominates. Some caramel and honey sweetness in the malts also. Finishes malty with a little lingering smokey aftertaste. A very good and mellow smoked beer.

A Mes rate: Bottle at HogTownHarry Fest ’08
Extremely murky and cloudy with a good off white head. Light smoke. Good malt. Seems a little young to me. Fairly one dimensional and not enough smoke for me. No where near the Smoke Jumper.

Pour this one cautiously, or you’ll end up with a runaway head like I did. The body is a hazy caramel in color, the explosive head, a foamy beige. The aroma has soft caramel wrapped in slices of thick bacon. There is plenty of malty sweetness to be enjoyed, but the best part is the Bamberg-like sausage, bacon, and ham smokiness that stays in the mouth for some time. If you’re sampling many beers when you try this (me, I hogged the whole bottle), make this is your last beer of the tasting.

750ml shared by argo0. Hazy amber caramel cola colored body with a tan head, settling out to a thin film. First impression is the huge, smoked gouda nose on this beer, along with some maple and almond scented malts and some dried leafiness. It’s a little overcarbonated, but also frothy, with some big, meaty malt flavors throughout, and a little bit of lactic character over the middle. The body is light, lively and crisp at times, but it’s a strange beer and I’m not really taken in by anything it offers. Finishes with tobacco and caramel that’s sweeter than it needs to be, and some light piney spices show up as well, probably the hops making their presence felt.

(750ml bottle) Medium beige head atop murky copper body. Aroma is medium sweet, smoked meat, caramel, raisin. Taste is moderately sweet, caramel, chocolate, some smoked meat. Smooth medium body.