Zuma Tequila Doppelbock

Formerly brewed at Zuma Brewery
Style: Doppelbock
Atlanta, Georgia USA

Name: Chupracabras
Date: 04/02/2006
Mode: Draft
Source: Brewfest, Athens

opaque amber, frothy off white head, light oaky aroma, sweet tart malt flavor, the tart and the oak play together nice, quite interesting, light bitterness, aged in a tequilla barrel

Aroma: 4/10; Appearance: 5/10; Flavor: 6/10; Palate: 5/10; Overall: 11/20
Rating: 2.7/5.0
Drinkability: 6/10
Score: *4

On cask at 2006 Atlanta Cask Ale Fest Pours a hazy dark gold color. Aroma is fruity like dried fruit, vanilla, sweet malt. Slightly toward a doppelbock...maybe. No tequila that picked up. Flavor for the most part matched the aroma. Not much of anything really going on in there. Points came off for lack of Tequila (which could be a good thing) and lack of doppelbock.

On Cask at the 2006 Atlanta Cask Ale Festival. Pours almost orange with a little white head. Aroma is fruity (agave?). Taste is better than I thought; as tequila often brings back those bad memories. Definitely too thin for a "doppelbock".

A thin ring of foam at the edge of the glass represents the head on this orange colored brew. The flavor has the spicy fruity characteristics of the Tequila without the harsh alcohol bite I was expecting. On the other hand this fell far short of the richly malty, chewiness that I like to find in a good Doppelbock. A different kind of beer, drinkable with some interesting qualities, but experiments should have some goal in mind and I think this was simply an experiment with no particular end result being sought.

This poured a hazy amber. The aroma is extremely fruity and almost floral. Really drinkable. The flavor was a bit honeylike from the malts and fruitiness that came from the tequila. The name of this brings Tequiza to mind, but this is really a surprisingly good beer. The beer mostly picked up the agave flavors from the barrel and not so much of the liquor flavors keeping this doppelbock hiding it’s alcohol well. I wasn’t expecting this to be good, but it is.