Weeping Radish Christmas Double Bock

Brewed by Weeping Radish Farm Brewery
Style: Doppelbock
Jarvisburg, North Carolina USA

12-oz. bottle, BB 04.06. Pours deep maple, mahagony brown with a tiny very active tan fizzy head that completely dissipates. Light chocolate and caramel malt and brown sugar aroma with a yeast nose. Alcohol and caramel malt body, chocolate notes and a very light acidic hoppy finish. Medium bodied and fizzy, warming palate.

Caramel aromas -- not too much in the way of hops on the nose. Dark, but kind of thin-looking in the glass. Taste is suprisingly sweet on the finish after some admittedly nice, dry spiced notes and general maltiness. Kind of uneven.

(Bottle 33 cl) German version brewed by Anker Brauerei in Nagold. Comes as "Weeping Radish Christmas Beer Dark Lager" at 5,7% ABV. Very dark with a limited head. Nutty, malty and roasted with some aromatic bitterness. Hardly a Doppelbock. 040501

(12 oz bottle: Obtained in trade with slob, thanks Bert!) Malty, sweet and earthy, the deep, rich nose is very aromatic and tells me I simply must take a sip NOW. Thusly compelled, I do my duty. While far from the best doppelbock I’ve ever tasted, and a rather Americanized version at that, but putting this issue aside, this isn’t a bad beer. It’s sweet and malty, dark and earthy, richly caramely but also a bit roasty, with a moderate tea and nutmeg spiciness and some bitterness toward the finish. Full bodied, slightly sticky, long-lasting on the palate. Small, bubbly, light-tan head quickly dissipates, leaving naked the deep port mahogany body without a protective cap. If this is truly supposed to be a doppelbock, they have to lose the spices, earthiness and roast. It is pretty far removed from the German doppelbocks I love so much, but overall, it’s still a very flavorful and pretty enjoyable beer.

Lucky me - a batch brewed for early summer! Deep brown/black, huge tan head, fantastcly thick sheets of lace. Aroma is dark sweets. Taste was sweet with some roasty malts and hints of smoke. Finish was mostly dry with spices and more light roasts. On tap at the brewpub, obx_2005.

From a bottle. Nowhere on the bottle does it call this beer a doppelbock and honestly it doesn’t remind me of a doppelbock much at all. Pours a very dark brown/almost black color with a thick off white head. Light toffee aroma with lots of malt. Roasted malt flavor with a caramel finish. Sort of wheaty as well. Decent effort from these guys.

This beer was stuck in a six pack of St Brigid’s Porter I bought. Probably among the worst doppelbocks I’ve had. Waaaaay too low alcohol to fit the style. Spiced, rather than standard flavor. Not a beer I’ll get again.

Acquired via trade. At first I was wondering what makes a Doppelbock a "Christmas beer" aside from the label, but it does seem like this beer was tweaked just a bit. Pours a dark reddish-brown color with a thin dark beige head that dissipates rapidly. Heavy roasted malt aroma along with spice. Rich body with a good roasty and nutty malt character. Lots of spice flavor too which is really what differentiates this from other Doppelbocks. The finish is spicy and lightly hoppy. This beer is just different enough from typical Doppelbocks that I would definitely enjoy it again.