Wagner Valley Sled Dog Trippelbock

Brewed by Wagner Valley Brewing Company
Style: Doppelbock
Lodi, New York USA

This was very smooth in taste and very full bodied. Poured a nice brown color with a nice white head. Flavor was very malty without much hop flavor and something I would recommend trying. UPDATE: 1/26/07 This beer aged so well that I have to give it a perfect score. Incredible depth in flavor, very malty, balanced, and impressive. Unbelievable beer if you can find it. My bottle was about 3 or 4 years old.

Update: 750 from Bacchus in New Putz. This was probably 2-years old, and the last bottle they had. Boy oh boy was it good. Massive sherried malt nose and explosive sticky malt flavor. Fantastic! Score is now the base-line.

750 ml bottle. Dark yellow brown with a white head. Arma of alcohol and malt, and a touch of fruityness. Malty and slightly thinner than the Doppel, with a nice alcohol burn. Interesting brew and not bad. 6-4-7-4-14

Crystal clear russet. Creamy tan head subsides to a thick, slightly sticky ring. Soggy plum skins and wax aroma alongside vaguely bready/meaty malts. Remarkably clean alcohol amid soft notes of cinnamon, roasted malt, toffee, and phenols. Soft body. Velvety carbonation. Caramelized sugars firm up the body. Thick, plummy malt overlay tempers the spicy alcohol at the center. Scarce hop presence is muffled by the supple maltiness and caramelized sugars, throughout. Finishes with a soothing blend of creamed malts, spicy alcohol, and candied currants before a plum, olive, rum-soaked fruitcake backslide. Vivacious trail of lightly toasted malts, beet sugar, and tangy cedar. In hindsight, this has gobs of wonderful malt flavors, along with boatloads of sweetness, which never becomes intolerable. Textbook rendition of a suped-up doppelbock. Gracias, jah noth!

Shockingly good. Nose certainly has some ’soy sauce’ to it but that is covered by a woody fruitiness I can’t quite place. Perhaps slightly reminiscent of something like Goudenband but with a lot more malt. Caramel, slight alcohol but nothing that would suggest 11% Flavor is Caramel, fruit, rich malt, some hops. A bit of alcohol in the finish. Nice creamy mouthfeel, low but present carbonation. I really need to buy more of this.

Much thanks to dmeadows for grabbing this for me... Aged at least 1.5 years. Appears a dark mahogany with an ivory head that leaves scattered lacing and fades to a small collar. Smell is of maple and molasses touched, decocted batch with rich succulant malt. Touches of caramel, raisins, and chocolate. Taste is of the same aromas and I’m loving it. In my opinion, this one can play with some of the best Doppelbocks out there. Seems to be a resurgance of Americans coming through with this classic German style. Mouthfeel seems pretty rich and chewy. Lots of maple and molasses sweetness clinging around the palate. Mild touch of a dark and sour fruit. Nice!

Bottle. Thanks to jsquire for sharing this one. Poured a small tan head that was mostly lasting, fine-large sized bubbles, transparent, and a reddish brown hue. Malty, caramel, sweet, and fruity aroma. Flavor was sweet, malty, caramel, some fruityness, and vinuous. Palate was smooth and enjoyable. Medium body. Worth a try!

Head is initially small, fizzy, light brown, fully diminishing. Body is clear dark orange-brown. Aroma is moderately malty (caramel, toasted bread, nuts, molasses), lightly hoppy (flowers, herbs), with notes of toffee, whiskey, candy/brown sugar, light notes of smoke, cask wood, plum, honey, and overripe banana. Flavor is heavily sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is moderately sweet, lightly acidic, moderately bitter. Medium to full body, velvety/syrupy texture, soft carbonation, moderately alcoholic. Embarrassingly underrated, or so it seems to me. Extremely attractive aroma that abounds with malty goodness, with nice background complexities and supportive hops (seemingly all-noble, almost certainly some Hallertauer). Excellent sweet/bitter balance for such a huge beer. This is almost like a cross between a big Scottish ale and a traditional German doppelbock...there are some similarities to each, and the end result is quite a delicious sipping brew. Though I know he'd prefer it was bottle-conditioned, here's one TAR needs to sample ASAP.

Nice dark orange color. Nice lacing on the head. Aroma-wise there is caramel , toffee, raisins and more that I can’t put my finger on. Palate-wise, it’s got that candy stick sweetness I love in my doppel/tripel bocks. It’s got the warming feel of alcohol but I can’t really detect it in the nose or palate. A fine fine beer. Bought a couple bottles. Wonder if I can bear to let the other one age a while? 11.11.07 - this one was cellared since May 06, so 19 months. Not much different with age. But very good still.