Thomas Hooker Liberator Doppelbock

Brewed by Thomas Hooker Brewing Company
Style: Doppelbock
Bloomfield, Connecticut USA

Thanks Chuck. The beer pours to a black body with a tan head and nice lacing in my shaker glass. The aroma is powdered sugar and is pretty bocky. The flavor has some black licorice, roasty chocolate stout malts, chestnuts. The palate is sugary, sticky with a nice full mouth feel. A good beer, but I’m still not a fan of this style.

500ml bottled 2006 courtesy of eaglefan538. Sweet somewhat roasted aroma. Black body just a small bacteria dirty white head. Flavor has sweet malts up front like most dopplebocks. As beer warms a creamy roasty chocolate emerges that takes the overpowering sweetness away. Good roasty coco on the finish with roasted nut and some sweetness lingering on the palate. Good sipping brew to calm me after talking to a liberal before I left work. Thanks Brian

1 litre swingtop bottle via trade with IMtheOptimator - Thanks Andrew!! Pours dark brown with a creamy tan head that lingers and laces very well. Aromas of caramel, chocolate, molassess and a little bit of roasted nuts. The flavor is quite decadant.. chocolate, roasted malts, caramel, some raisins, and a bit of nuts.. A touch of nice german hops come through at the end but are soon left with a nice chocolatey aftertaste that is divine. Palate is so smooth and creamy. Carbonated just enough to make this fill your mouth with smooth creamy delicious beer. This is good stuff. I think I like it better than celebrator actually.. And you have to love the 1 liter bottle that lasted the whole baseball game!!

GIBF 2004: Clear brown with a small white head. Rich sweet light fruits in the aroma, starts and ends sweet, full bodied and syrupy with a long aftertaste.

2004 Bottle Date, Sampled December 2004.
Well Santa delivered this 1 liter bottle of liquid bread, that I have been wanting to try for quite some time. This beer pours an opaque dark amber-brown color. The head is thick and creamy, whipped to an almost mousse like consistency. As I pour the richest, most enticing, malty aromas emanate from my glass. It smells malty sweet, with notes of fresh honey baked biscuits, a hint of molasses, almost a subtle spicy quality reminiscent of a dark cake flavored with molasses, concentrated caramel, and hardly a hint of alcohol is found in the nose.

My first sip, notes a satisfying rich, but not too thick body, that is richly sweet, and has notes of chocolate, and a hint of espresso-like roastiness in the finish. It is well carbonated, and the chocolate & subtle roast notes really combine quite well, don’t get me wrong though this is not roasty like a stout or porter, but it has a nice level of bonus roastiness that is not usually found in a Doppelbock. It really adds another dimension on top of the full malty flavors that this beer, and all good Doppelbocks, are redolent of.

I must admit that upon first sip of this beer that I was expecting it to have a fuller, more dense body to it, I have now come to the conclusion that this beer is perfectly situated with the proper heft. The palate is full and creamy, and not so heavy that I will not be able to slowly consume this bottle over the course of my evening. This beer certainly lives up to the monks, oft cited, yet increasingly ignored plan, to create a beer, nah, I mean a liquid bread that will fortify a fasting brother through lent. Yet I cant help but wonder that if I were a monk if I would not feel like this was too easy, it is almost too easy, and satiating, to have a beer such as this to sup on during a period of supposed fasting.

This beer is really smooth and flavorful, it packs a immense amount of malt complexity in each sip, I get notes of caramel, just browned whole wheat toast, a hint of molasses, and sorghum. As it warms up a bit a subtle fruitiness starts to manifest itself, it is funny to me that rich lagers show hints of fruit, which is supposed to be the dominion of the top-dwelling ales, but the concentrated malts in this beer lend it to subtle, yet concentrated fruity notes reminiscent of cherries, figs, quince paste, perhaps a hint of apple butter, and perhaps a bit of dried date as well. I would have to say that, while subtle, the cherry notes are the most dominant fruity notes. And, as the aroma suggested, there are rich notes of dark spice cake here as well.

Even the aroma starts to pick up fruity notes over time, though in this case the dominant notes are a mix of dried fig and dates. What a kick ass beer, I have only finished one glass of the three that I am going to get out of this beer and it has inspired me to pontificate profusely, and certainly quite a bit more than my standard brew review. That in itself should let the reader know that this is a beer worth contemplating, especially on this unusually cold (for a Tucson) night. I am definitely exited and perhaps even giddy (or is that the fact that I have not slept in 36 hours) that I am about to continue my contemplative journey with the middle glass of the three that I am going to enjoy this evening.

My one meager complaint in this absolutely wonderfully malty, malt-lover’s cradled chalice of honeydew is that the far finish has a subtle hint astringent graininess, this really is quite subtle though and only recognizable because I enjoy chewing on malted barley of all shades & flavors. This is one outstanding beer, which certainly has not disappointed me, in typical American fashion, a bit of brash arrogance and rebellion has been added to the traditional Doppelbock malt-bill, but luckily the brewer had the sensibility to not over-hop a beer of this style. Let the malt shine on its on complexities and merit, maltophiles rejoice, and make sure you get a bottle of this as soon as possible.

1 Liter bottle- Plaza wines & liquor - Naugatuck, CT. Looks wonderful on the pour, thick rocky light brown head with good retention, appears slightly cloudy, deep ruby/tawney color, reminds me of varnished mahogany. Nice aroma of cereal grains with some hops. The mouthfeel on this one is wonderful, very full bodied and creamy with a great finish. Very well balanced between the malt and the bitter. As I go thru the bottle I find I like it much better as it warms up closer to cellar temp, don’t ice this guy down. I think I’d be ok with fasting for lent with this badboy beside me. Sometimes these big bottles can be a chore for me to finish by myself but not this time. I’m actually happy to not be sharing this one. Highly recommended.

500mL bottle. Pours a very dark, cherry-brown color; fluffy, light-tan head with great retention and lacing. Plenty of yeast and biscuit notes in the aroma, but not much else; maybe a hint of misplaced tart citrus. Medium-to-full mouthfeel: light carbonation; pleasantly viscous and chewy; dark malts, nougat, roasted malts, caramel, and dough; very filling, layered complexity; hints of citrus and yeast near the end. Long, chewy nougat and bready finish.

Merry Christmas to mee! Very dark brown, slight reddish hue. Nice foamy milk chocolaty brown head. Flavor of roasted malt and some light hops. Enough were used to create a perfect balance in this one! Very thick textured. Very special beer. I love it. I was to keep this one on hand all the time!