Weltenburger Kloster Asam Bock

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

Very thick, foamy, cascading head; dark thick viscous body. Nose is almost pure molasses, with a hint of brandy for good measure; flavor continues the sugary dark molasses theme, but adds smokiness and a hint of sourdough; super-malty and slightly pungeant. Mouthfeel could be a hint thicker, but its awfully creamy and delicious; finishes rather dry for a doppel. Not quite up to Celebrator, but close; truly excellent and hard to drink slowly.

found this pretty heavy going. could not quite figure out what asam had to do with it. pretty chunkous and powerful but a little too much mud.

Bottle. Creamy lightbrown fully lasting head. Wonderfull red-amber colour. Heavy malty and light hoppy aroma. Touch of chocolate. Powerfull nice chocolate flavor. Average bitter finish. Oily palate. Wonderfull beer.

Sweet caramel/toffee malt nose. Dark brown and clear with a generous and fairly long-lasting head. Wonderful complex flavour full of sweet malts with toffee and caramel some dark sweet fruit and almost smoky wood undertone and a slight puckering in the finish. Medium body and smooth mouthfeel. Alcohol is not apparent at all - this one could sneak up on you if you don't realize it's 6.9%. Certainly one of the best beers I have had in a very long time and a good way to ring in the New Year. Bottle.

Thanks a lot for breaking this one out, csbosox. I believe he got this via Yogi_Beera. The body was dark brown and amber with a khaki head. The aroma was honey with green grapes, pears and caramel. The taste was smooth and leathery with some dry oatmeal and some almonds. I imagine this is even better when fresh.

Sweet dark caramel aroma. Very dark amber color with a beige/tan ring. Medium body with very light and creamy carbonation. Flavor is more burnt than roasted caramel with accompanying dark fruits. There seems to be hop at the finish, so it is not so sticky sweet as it seemed to start. Flavors are fairly complex, and it is a decent tasty brew.

Bottle and served in snifter, next to Kaufbeuren Buronator Doppelbock, Allgäuer Cambonator Doppelbock, and Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock (the baseline bier):

App: All three had a mahogany hue with the Buroator and Asam bocks displaying a bit more reddish highlights as well as a darker more tannish creamy head and better lacing. Cambonator gets the lowest score of 3, the others 4 each.

Aroma: Buronator, heavy caramel malt, bready and alcohol, some prune and fig along with a touch of peaty like smoke, brilliant. The Cambonator displays a walnut tone long with caramel, brown sugar and grape juice, interesting. The Asam bock has the weakest nose of the three with notes of caramel, wood, tobacco, grains, and a hint of raisin.

Taste: Rich and sweet caramel malt is front and center as expected in all three biers as is a hint of molasses. The differences are found with the undertones: Buronator has a figgy and roasty tone along with a dash of mineral water. It seems despite the heavy malt to be the most balanced of the three. The Cambonator has a very slight acidity (again grape juice) and some ashy notes. The Asam has more of a bakers chocolate tone and is more earthy and tobacco like, the most complex of the three.

Mouthfeel: Buronator, creamy and lively, Cambonator, lively and oily, a bit thinner, Asam lush and heavy, dry mineral finish.

Overall: While all three are well done and similar in the basics, the difference of enjoyment and complexity gives Buronator a slight advantage over Asam Bock with the Allgauer Cambonator my least favorite. This is interesting since the Buronator has the lowest ratebeer score of the three. Now when compared to the standard bearer of the style, and Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock ( 4.2), I found both the Buronator and Asam close companions but still a second cousin, The Cambonator was not even in the same zip code. Ahhh, the wonders of the horizontal tasting.

deep red brown ,malt dark berry fruits little toffee,sweet rich caramel malts, little alcohol sweet caramalized suger linger