Aktienbrauerei Kaufbeuren Buronator Doppelbock

The local liquor store had a whole line of Aktienbrauerei brews ready for sampling. This parade of German beer also made it easy to do a comparison between styles made by the same maker. The first to meet the glass was the Aktienbrauerei Kaufbeuren Buronator Doppelbock. It’s easier if you just drink it instead of trying to pronounce or type the name. The body has a dark red wine character with an uncannily difficult-to-coax head, itself relegated to a scummy whisp of foam. The aroma feels follow, with faint echoes of plum and raisin, though the aroma never descends so low or rich to match the aroma of the raw fruits. Merely a see through surrogate. Somewhere else in the light fog of aroma there’s a nice sassafrass smell, but otherwise I have great difficult diserning any other aromatic details. The flavor mimics a soda feel, buzzing with a mineral and carbonation flavor until mid-taste, where a sultry wood and cheese stage begins. Top that with an uncouth dose of alcohol and a little bit of charred steak and you get a resoundingly hollow collection of dark flavors with a too harsh palate.

Bottle. Pours mahogany with slight white head. Taste is thick bodied, slightly sweet. Aftertaste is nice and sweet. Fine beer.

This bottled brew from Indianapolis, IN poured a small sized head of foam with a frothy tan colored top that left behind a transparent typically carbonated brown colored like cocoa cola body and a fair lacing. The aroma contained sweet malt brown malt and floral hop notes. The mouth feel was mildly hopped. The flavor contained notes of sweet brown malts and mild hops.

.5L bottle from Hollingshead Deli; Nose of caramel, brown sugar, grain, and figs; clear copper-brown with a medium, big bubbled beige head; flavor of fig newtons, brown sugar, and a molasses note; finish slightly sweet with a very minor alcohol warmth.

An underapreciated gem of a doppelbock. Sweet caramel coffee notes on the nose, with a hint of perfumy alcohol. The flavor has some nice sugary sweet complexities without being cloying. Brown sugar and cinnamon, with loads of dried dark fruits, raisins and dates, perhaps even a plum note. Easy to drink, well balanced.