Profiled by Ken Carman for professorgoodales.net
Image courtesy ratebeer.com
Right from the start, opening the bottle, I get a nice: not too strong, whiff of smoke… like of like a smoker in a bottle. Pilsner malt in the background with some roast. The maltiness could be stronger: smoke seems to overcome. No diacetyl or DMS. No defects noted in aroma, not even the normal phenol sense one often gets with smoke.
Good clarity with nice brown highlights. No head in small glass. In glass with wider top: still small, small head: about a 1/10th of an inch. Off white.
Mouthfeel close to full, light carbonation that lightly tingles the tongue… very light. Sweet, but not cloying, as if sugars from prune sense hung in there long after fermentation. It is well attenuated, however.
Taste: a bit prune-ish with esters… not unexpected. Smoke lighter in the taste than in the aroma. Nice hop bitter that does not overwhelm other, more prune-like, taste. Alcohol firm in taste, but not harsh, or solvent. This is very rich with the prune esters and smoke. It would make a great desert beer. Malt dominates. Some raisin sense too, good carmelization of malt that adds to prune and raisin-like sense. Some Munich malt sense, but not as some Doppels seem: as if they relied too much on Munich malt.
I have to give this a 4. Could be a 4.5. Another Straight to Ale winner.
