Walking Man Bourbon Barrel Somnambulator Doppelbock

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

This is amazing stuff! Served in a fluted Belgian-style glass at the pub. Light brown head with tiny bubbles. Sfotly carbonated which was nice, it might have distracted from the beer. Brown/amber/garnet all mixed together in some strange beautiful color. Aroma is hugely bourbon!!! All of the aroma a good bourbon should have: wood, spice, grain, earth, toast, and something else, ameretto maybe? Flavor is ridiculousy smooth. Bourbon, except not. Everything about bourbon except the harsh burn. Slightly sweet, toffee, malt, wood. A little hot, that’s why the palate is down a point. So clean and so flavorful. Thank you Walking Man, thank you.

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 Brouwer’s.....holy christ I loved this one. Just a perfect example of bourbon barrel aged beer at it’s best. Dark red/brown color with aroma of bourbon and vanilla all the way. This is definitely heavy on the bourbon aroma and taste. Bourbon, toffee and vanilla taste is complimented by nuttiness(is that a word?). Amazing...such great bourbon taste, but the alcohol isn’t overwhelming. Sweetness comes out at the finish. A tad thin is my only "complaint".

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!

On tap at Brouwer’s, Seattle. Pours a dark red/brown with a medium brownish white head. Aroma is strong with bourbon. Flavor is smooth and filled with bourbon, but I agree with Old_Mr_Crow that the doppelbock couldn’t really hold up to the bourbon. I didn’t love this one as much as I thought I might.

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.

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.

"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.