Walking Man Bourbon Barrel Somnambulator Doppelbock

Brewed by Walking Man Brewing & Public House
Style: Doppelbock
Stevenson, Washington USA

"Draft". Rich amber beer with a low off-white head. Malt and bourbon aroma with a bit of caramel. Sweet malt flavor with bourbon in background and some vanilla. Lingering sweetness. Medium bodied. A taste of this from another pour hours later gave me only vanilla (that one seemed to be a huge mess), but mine was very good.

On tap at Concordia Ale House. Pours dark brown with a light tan head. Strong bourbon flavor and aroma mixed with a very nice doppelbock. Very smooth and creamy on the palate with a rich chocolate and fruity malt flavor. Hints of vanilla and spice fill the finish in a bit. Medium body with only a touch of excess alcohol showing. The bourbon was very strong and warming and gave it a nice character, but as it warmed the bourbon kinda overwhelmed, guess you just have to drink it before it warms to much :)

Draft at Brouwer’s, by the pint. Thanks to GLKaiser for the news. Pours deep brown with ruddy garnet highlights. Plenty of thick creamy tan head--it left concentric rings all the way down, one for each sip. Arborists could easily chart a graph of each swallow. This is a very bourbony, woody doppelbock. Delicious, thick, rich, creamy, sweet, tangy, and bourbony. Fun to drink, complex and satisfying, but the flavor tilts a bit toward the barrel and less toward the beer, at least for me. Shockingly easy-drinking, given the abv, but that’s only a problem for anxious publicans.

This was amazingly delicious. This is one of the smoothest of this style that I have ever tried, being bourbon barrel aged, the alcohol is extremely masked, but their is a bit of heat in the mouthfeel, but it is so complex, with fruitiness and malt flavor, then your tastebuds are overwhelmed by all this falvor wanting to coate and sooth every single tastebud on your tongue.

On tap at Bistro’s Barrel-Aged beer festival. 3 ounce sample. Bourbon and Whiskey Jack Daniels-like aroma that has some lightly sweet notes. A little caramelly. Not overly aromatic, but pleasant enough. Mostly transparent amber color with a small small head that is off-white from what I can see. Way too light in color for a doppelbock and a disappointing head. Hot, bourbon flavors to start. Becomes sweeter and a little more mellow in the middle. Some woodsy, vanilla flavors are present later on. This just doesn’t jive too much for me. A little too hot and thin-bodied.

Tasted on tap at Walling Man in Stevenson, Washington--Poured a deep dark amber body with a wispy off-white head. Nose of bold bourbon and sweet caramel. Flavor was rich and boozy and finished the same. This beer warmed me up almost instantaneously. Yum!

Tap at brewery. Sneaking in on a day the pub was closed for a keg fill this was listed. The lady working was nice enough to let me have a sample so this is a rather abbreviated review. Reddish tan in color with a great white head. Clear. Good lacing left behind. Bourbon and oaken notes in aroma. Medium to light bodied. Very dry and tannic in taste. Decent enough but the barrel aging really had an impact on this one. Needs to be retried with a bit more of a sample size and time.

On tap at Brouwers. (Thanks to glkaiser for the tipoff.)

Pours reddish nut brown with an ample foamy head and beautiful streams of tiny rising bubbles throughout.

The aroma is heady -- bourbon, of course, very woody, chalky, hints of deep brown sugar -- lovely. <!-- p --> The flavor bursts with bourbon, prunes, chocolate/powered cocoa; again a dry chalky woodiness accented with roasted nuts. It’s good, darn good, even if the doppelbock underneath can’t hold its own and thus the beer does not click for me the way that the comibnation of bourbon and rich stout flavors do in some bourbon barrel aged imperial stouts.

I agree with glkaiser; the mouthfeel turns out to be somewhat thinner than expected in texture. The alcohol comes in fairly heavy later on, warming the tongue. (That said, I wonder whether this really approaches 10.5%, based both on mouthfeel and on the relative lack of effect that a rapidly consumed pint had on me.)

So...I like this one a lot, but I’m not blown away as some previous reviewers were, nor am I convinced that doppelbocks are ideal candidates for bourbon barrel aging.