Paddock Wood Double Double

Brewed by Paddock Wood Microbrewery
Style: English Strong Ale
Saskatoon, Canada

Bottle 650 ml (2009)
Appearance: clear ,light amber look with mild , lighter white fizz. 3-
Nose: good malty character, mellow , slight hint of honey with gentle alcoholic behind. Good.7+
Flavor/Palate : full bodied , some carbonation up front , caramels wetness finishing with smooth alcohol. Mellow yet potent. Missing some bite and hint of hop. Drinkable strong malty brew.

From the bottle it poured a clear glazed copper with a thin white head. The aroma was a bouquet of caramel, apricots, burned sugar and caramel. A little apple cider and toasty as well. Sweet and dry. Lots of caramel and residual sugars. A leafy bite with very ripe fruits, predominantly peaches, apples and brown sugar. Very warming and brash with the alcohol content. The mouthfeel was nice, but kind of film like and the alcohols could really bite the back of the mouth like a strong whiskey. Something that I can see balancing out over a year or so. This was drinkable, but seemed like it needed more aging with the alcohol content. A pleasant sipper. I’ll try again in a year and see how it ages. The idea of the double mash is a good one, though must add to the cost production and I would wonder what the actual yield % is at the end. It’s great to see canadian breweries throw these styles into the mix.

In short: A big rough sugary caramelized beer with no complexity.
How: Bottles 22oz. Consumed when only a few months old. My bottle sent to me by sent to me by Hobbersr. Thanks a lot Riley
The look: Cloudy dark orange body topped by a medium off-white head
In long: Nose of a sweet cereals, like those kids breakfast cereals. A lot of rough grainy malts, sugary caramel, some hops with a earthy tobacco leaves flavour, light berries fruitiness. Belgian style lively mouthfeel. Alcohol well hidden. No problem per say but all in all I thought this was very simple, kind of rough and way too sweet to be enjoyed in more than tasting serving. So they say this is a historical recreation of a beer made to support a Shakespeare festival. Why a Double Double? Two Beer or not Two Beer?

Smells nicely of hops, strong and heavy. Dark and thick and lots of particulates, just a bit of reddish and brown. Lots of strong hops flavours that linger on long into the aftertase. A great double IPA, nothing is out of sync with the other flavours, it all balances out quite nicely, much more than most I have tried recently. There is no crazy overpowering hops hit in the aftertaset like most DIPA’s, and I can’t believe this is actually 10 %, it tastes more like 6.

My Bottom Line:
Strawberry fruitiness, alcohol warmth and marmelade are sent to a long peppery hop bitterness for a polished yet somewhat forgettable English-style Strong Ale.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A creamy sheet of foam tops the cloudy amber.
-The mouthfeel is very clean, but the flavor profile is not necessarily compelling.
-Effervescence is rather fluffy for such a strong ale, which makes this easier to approach for the neophyte.
-Bubblegum notes come from the sugary aspects as well.
-The last half is very hoppy, earthy and peppery, yet does not overplay the rather sweet first half.

Bottle. Thx Mike!

Poured out an absolutely colossal light tan head that was creamy, lots of messy as hell lacing. Brew is burnt orange in colour and crystal clear. No lack of aroma - toffee, melted cane sugar, sweet golden raisins, cherry, light spice, concentrated apricot or nectarine... very aromatic with a light floral hint, red licorice - excellent. The aromas are never in your face - they are soft and keep my nose happy. The taste is missing the massive in-your-face spice - which is nice. Initial hops linger for a while now that I’m on to them - pine, mild grapefruit. Nice tasty mix of mild spices that I cannot distinguish between, toffee, raisin, tons of malts dominate the flavour. Citrus is very yummy, this is odd - although the spices are low and I like the citrus, my brain says these should not mix in this fashion. But it works. Excellent creamy mouth feel, wonderful carbonation, medium bodied, finishes with toffee, light roast, a slight lingering spice and decent bitterness. I gotta say that I really enjoyed this brew and never noticed the 10.5% until I got up to take a piss and almost did a header through my drywall ala NAIT.

22 oz. bottle shared at Logan’s 2009 pre-GABF Party. Dark orange pour. Whiskey and citrus hop aroma. Wood, whiskey, and pine flavors. I wouldn’t go out of my way for this one.