Weltenburger Kloster Asam Bock

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

This is a wonderful doppelbock, that really shows off the fact that these do not have to be sickenly sweet in style. This has a nice rich, and medium bodied, flavor that is somewhat dry on the palate. Granted it is bittersweet, but not sweet to the point of irritation. Caramel maltiness, with an even amount of roastiness, somewhat earthy, but very clean, with a lingering finish of black tea and cooked grains.

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.

Another great dopplebock. Dark rich in colour almost sexy with a dark brown head that was long lasting. The nose is sweet almost very sweet. The taste is at first bitter but then moves to a sweetness that is very powerful. Pretty good, take a look at this one if you can.

Bottle. Dark red-brown with creamy beige head. Malt, caramel, sirup, chocolate, ice-coffee, with all the candy flavors in there it still manages balance. Full bodied and deliscious. My kind of doppelbock.

Took on parallel with Celebrator. Aroma of the weltenburger is pretty much owned by celebrator’s. Lighter than expected, but still doppelbock-ish, corpulent malt with notes of ashes and smoke. On the appearance side, it’s brown with ruby reflects and pretty much comparable to Ayinger’s. In mouth, we’re dealing with vinous chocolate and vanilla. It’s the malt fest, beware! Very sweet, but restrained by underexpressed smoke. Medium-full body. Very good, but my malt-head was expecting more and this was definitely not up to celebrator in my book, it could only dream of approaching ayinger’s labyrinth of scents.
Almost a year later. This bottle furnished far smaller head, not keeping up despite a straight pour. The aroma was expressively malty once again. Lots of nutty and pear nuances. Bold earthiness manages to contain the lips-sticking moderately thick palate by a hair. Peaty finish, woody, quite rich, but I don’t seem to enjoy that as much as I used to.. From 4.0 to 3.8

Pour is a dark black with a tan head. Aroma is nice with a ton of sweet malt and molasses. Flavor is also on the plus side with lots of toffee and nuts. Then finishes with a very nice mellow raisin flavor. If there was such a thing as raisin juice i would compare it to this. A very tasty dopple and one to seak out.

Very dark brown color with red shining through, foamy tan head. Aroma is reminiscent of Salvator with the sweet malt and the wet hay. Only the sweet malt is more caramelly than it is sweet. Touches of smoke as well. Body is of licorice and a thick, bittersweet malt. Finishes with a nice complimenting hop bitterness. A fairly nice, complex doppelbock, only a touch too sweet.

Bottle 500 ml
Appearance: Dark brown with ruby light trough, medium large brownish (quiet creamy) head.4-
Nose : Sweet brown malts showing up first , cocoa milk chocolate is next , nutty caramel molasses finishing.7+
Flavor/Palate : Solid nutty , woody bark like feel laid on malty blanket. Nutty , roasty character is quiet apparent. Texture it self if medium-full with chewy tendencies. Baltic porter like but with out extensive roastiness with dark side of imperial stout. Alcohol shown only as bottom filler. Solid brew form Kalheim.