Widmer Brothers Double Alt (84/09)

Brewed by Widmer Brothers Brewing Company
Style: Altbier
Portland, Oregon USA

Taste is vinous, chocolate, and port. Was expecting this to suck, but this little bastard of an altbier is pleasant. It appears I drew an oven mitt next to this rating.

Bottle courtesy of ilovedarkbeer. Pretty red appearance. Heavy ale aroma. Deep fruit and alcohol. Lots of flavor in this. Rich fruit and deep with a fair amount of spice. Lots of black pepper too on the finish. Not bad. Spiced and interesting.

Bottle from Bottlewerks. Dark amber pour...finger wide whitish head. Enjoyed the aroma.....sweet malt, decent hop notes. Toasty flavor....malty.....bitter hop flavor comes on. Not great but not that awful either. I wouldn’t seek this one out again but wouldn’t turn it down either.

Bottle. Pours with a medium, light tan head over a slightly hazed bronze body. Aroma is on the weak side with dark fruit, caramel, alcohol, brown sugar and a slight hint of smoke. Taste is dark fruits, burnt caramel, plastic, and really bitter with a bit of rawhide, and ash. Creamy and a bit thin. Noticeable alcohol. Not at all an altbier, but not bad.

This RB average of 3.27 is bullshit. This beer has much too much flavor for that. Presents much like a scotch ale - very sweet, peaty, smoky/roasty. Otherwise, presents much like a strong porter. Yum.

22oz bottle thanks to Mikey at one of Eric’s many tastings. Pours a dark amber color with a medium white head. The aroma is quite nice; sweet nutty malts lightly toasted. The flavor is dominated by a rich fruity and toasted malt, light hops and pretty smooth. I liked it.

Reviewed 7/10/2009 (bottled 15APR09): Pours a nice nutty brown colored body, with a creamy cream colored head, small and diminishing. Dark fruity aroma, some musty funkiness and fig. A little musty, dusty. Creamy mouthfeel, a little dusty. Some dark fruitiness, but not as much as the nose. Malty taste. Too malty for me. A little better as it warms up, more musty.

April 15 2009 Bottle date; Sampled August 2009
A vigorous pour produces a four-finger thick, richly amber tinged, tan colored head. The beer is a dark, concentrated amber / plum color that shows a brilliantly clear, cranberry red hue when held up to the light. The aroma smells distinctly of concentrated berries and finishes with a light herbal accent. The malt almost takes on a caramelized, cotton-candy like sweetness in the nose and it contributes some brown sugar encrusted toasted grain character to the finish. The nose on this is not bad, it can seem a bit too sweet smelling at times, but this sort of works with the other notes here.

Viscous feeling as this first hits my tongue, it definitely sticks to the palate as it rolls across my mouth. The beer isn’t quite as sweet as the aroma might have suggested, but it is definitely laden with residual sugars. There is a solid herbal hoppiness here as well as a biting hop bitterness that go a long way towards mitigating the thick, chewy malt character here; this actually almost finishes on a dry note because of the ample hop character. In the long finish there is a touch of toasted, almost roasted grain astringency that is noticeable quite a while after the beer has left my mouth. Candied malt and candied hop notes tend to mingle in the middle of this beer; richly caramelized, but still quite sweet malt notes as well as some caramelized, sweetened berry hop notes and sugar crystallized herb notes linger in the middle of each sip. The sweet herbal character at times remind me of a German-type, rustic, sweet herbal liquor (similar to Jägermeister, but with a more herbal note than anise).

Not a bad beer, I was certainly not expecting this to be as flavorful as it is. This beer is definitely a sipping brew though & I would have a hard time finishing a bottle on my own as it can get a bit cloying at times.