Weltenburger Kloster Asam Bock

Brewed by Klosterbrauerei Weltenburg
Style: Doppelbock
Kelheim, Niederbayern, Germany

500 ml bottle. Deep brown color, creamy tan head. Very appealing sweet aroma with some raisins. Wickedly smooth taste with a chocolaty finish, full body. Great!

Sampled at a recently attended lager seminar and poured to stemware a dark brown with some amber tones showing through when held up to the light. The head was a bubbly tan foam which left some spotty lacing. The aroma was thick toasty malt, with caramel, molasses, and brown sugar notes. The flavor was the aroma notes plus a nice, creamy mouthfeel and full body. Impressive.

A dark brown beer with a nose of bread and maltiness. An impressive albeit temporary head forms. A fleshy beer with a sweetness that perhaps could be restrained somewhat. Complex and enchanting.

Extremely bitter, headless, unremarkable. bread crust and alcohol flavors. Not pleasant. I like my doppelbock sweet, and this was far from it. $4 half liter bottle at Zeke’s Miami Beach.

Below is old commentary, from 2002 and updated 2006, explaining why I rated this a 4.9 out of 5, making it -- at the time -- the best doppelbock I’ve ever had. In its original manifestation, this was the beer that started me onto beer fandom. I liked it so much that I even went through the trouble of taking and providing the picture of the beer that you see to your left. Any chance I’d get (and that was rare), I’d stock up on this.

Now, I am very disappointed that since that time, this brewer must have changed its recipe, because -- while a nice, solid, creamy German doppelbock -- it simply doesn’t live up to its old name. There’s really nothing any more that sets this apart from a number of others of its style. Before, it was about as dark a Celebrator; now it’s just the same old dark reddish-brown that you’d get with the Salvators and Optimators of 3.7 territory. Gone are the intoxicating aroma, the brown sugar, the banana bread. The only improvement was a solid head.

Selling out for the bottom line is inexplixable coming from monks. So . . . why? ______________________

Original comments:
Well, I can finally get around to offering some substantive praise for this beer. First things, though: this is a first-rate beer. I know, anything in the top 50 beers in the world is first-rate stuff, but this is top-notch stuff even amongst those beers I already considered first-rate. It was my first true introduction to how first-rate beers can be, and I’m pleased at how well it has stood up to repeated tastings.

For the substantive part: We get a Doppelbock aroma worthy of the name: a strong hint of the roasty/toasty chocolate-coffee taste to come. The appearance is a dark ruby, nearly black, though a head that reduces to about 5% of the initial size (but I can excuse this beer for that). In the taste, you have the aforementioned character, with wonderful malty character well-balanced by a hop sharpness, giving way to a full, roasty finish. (How’s this for a surprise twist: Banana-bread never tasted so fun. :-) As different as it may be from the Celebrator, I can’t say that either is clearly better, so I frankly don’t see what merits giving the Celebrator a 2/10 point edge over this. This is as close to pure liquid enjoyment as any good beer afficionado would find, even if not flawless (but no beer is, in my experience). Even given its place in the top-50, it’s underrated relative to the other brews appearing there, so I really do wonder whether those giving this anything lower than a 4/5 really realize how special this beer is, and how enjoyable a beer can be. (Maybe if malty sweetness in a beer just isn’t your thing...)

In short: a first-rate beer and arguably the best of its style; given its $2.50 or so price in a 16-oz. bottle vs. nearly $3 for a 12-oz. bottle of the Celebrator, it’s not a difficult choice for me to prefer this. Where I can find it, it’ll remain plentifully-stocked in my fridge.

Roasted malts and caramel in the nose. Very dark brown color with an off tan head that stays. Rich and creamy roast malt flavor along with some hop bitterness and notes of toffee, coffee and butter. At nearly 7% ABV, it’s surprising that there is no hint of alcohol. This stuff is good!

Deep brown/ruby with not too much head. Musty, chocolate malts come off at first as well as some dark fruits, plums, figs and rasins with touches of vanilla, and smoke. There are also subtle but frequent souring touches across the tounge, with an almost citric effect on the tastebuds. The toasted malts come across mid-palate yeilding to a dusty-smokey dryness with lingering fruit notes towards the finish which is fairly lasting. Not too bad although the dude on the label is kind of creepy.

Dark and opaque ruby brown with a medium foamy beige head that leaves a lot of lacing. Aroma is sweet malt, dark fruits, burnt toffee (tire brûlée) and some herbal notes. Flavor is burnt toffee, roasted malt, yeast, herbal hops and dark fruits. Light carbonation with a medium body.