Capital Blonde Doppelbock

Brewed by Capital Brewery
Style: Doppelbock
Middleton, Wisconsin USA

Serve in Dimpled mug, Stein, Stem glass

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Appearance: orange under a nice head which fades fast to a lingering thin film. Swirls with puff and a touch of lace. Clear.
Nose: sweet, spiced, and apricoty. Apricot meets honeycomb meets peaches meets mango; adds rich spiced booze, steep, and enjoy. Spice lingers in the back along with wood and a cleansing dryness. Fruit skins dabble about in bitter-sweet tannic delights.
Palate: sticky, full, and mouthcoating before ending in dry spice, wood, and gentle warmth which soothes the throat and adds a pleasant glow to the chest. Honeycomb in the middle for sticky sweetness. The dry spices are subtle, slowly and gently permeating without overwhelming. Mango, peaches, and apricot ohmy! Licking lips sticky and fruity, her warmth lasts. Skins add flavor to her wispy bitterness; otherwise sweet succulent boozy and spicy.
Final Thoughts: up until now I have heard lots of good things about the Capital Brewery, but all were hearsay having never tasted any. Now I have, and I can say that all the good buzz was indeed validified. Damn good.

A solid pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces an almost three-finger thick, pale tan colored head. The beer is an amber to red copper hue and shows an almost brilliantly clear paler version when held up to the light. An interesting raw dough character is the first thing I get from the aroma, but there is also a very soft, fermented honey note and some light cracker like malt. The aroma is surprisingly faint and I am having a hard time smelling much of anything.

Sweet tasting and rich feeling as it hits my palate, the beer has a nice light herbal hop character and nipping bitterness from the beginning, the finish seems to banish the bitterness though with a lingering, chewy pale malt sweetness that manages to be rich without being cloying. Something here reminds me of green raisins for some reason, though I can’t say exactly why. This is actually nicely balanced up front between malt and hop, but the malt is definitely the dominant note in the finish. A nice dough like and pale-toasted malt character adds some complexity to the malt sweetness found here. The perception of the sweetness definitely grows as the beer warms up and it tends to reduce the hop character as well.

This is perhaps a touch too sweet for my tastes, but it is a nice Helles Doppelbock that I am definitely enjoying. While certainly not the point, I can’t help but feel that some more hop character would make this a touch more balanced and enjoyable; especially as this beer warms up it starts to get a bit too sweet.

My friend D. Kurtz waited 8 yrs. to find this beer, and was nice (or drunk) enough to share. Rich copper colored beer with a thick white head. Sweet honey, caramel malt, some Biscuity sweetness. Flavour is very sweet and malty, but not cloying. Honey flavour and slightly vineous. A touch of biscuity flavour before the smooth clean noble hop finish, creamy texture. Nice complexity.

UPDATED: SEP 26, 2010 (bottle) Pours a clear dark gold with a medium white head that quickly settles and leaves behind adequate lacing. Aroma is somewhat peppery, and the alcohol accentuates this, with a bit of vanilla, peaches, and apricots as well. Honey butter spread over toast. Oddly enough, this smells somewhat similar to Summit’s Unchained Golden Ale. Bit of caramel and some musty lager yeast too. Mouthfeel is very smooth, and the alcohol that is present in the nose does not even appear within the flavor. The flavor is more difficult to describe, there’s a slight spiciness to it on the finish, and I’d imagine that the sweetness includes some peaches and caramel. It’s pretty simple, but it’s inoffensive and tastes quite nice. A bit of tea-like astringency accompanies the spiciness on the finish, which provides a good contrast between the maltier flavors in the fore and mid-palate. Overall, a pretty good beer, but the aroma was far superior to the flavor.

Savannah, Ga - Habersham Beverages, 12 oz bottle. Dark orange pour, off white head, sticky lacing. Aroma of molasses and cotton candy. Flavor is on the sweet side with some molasses, cotton candy, caramel and toffee. Decently thick mouthfeel. Very nice.

Pours an orangeish golden with a big white head. Aroma is bready, sweet caramel, and a hint of honey. Flavor is sweet malt, toast, honey, with a hint of hops toward the finish.

Bottle. Pours an orangey amber with a smallish white head. Aroma is sweet, caramel, cherry, vanilla, honey, alcohol. Flavor follows aroma, but I get more of the bittersweet malt doppelbock profile. Medium body, slightly syrupy.

Bottle. Poured clear dark golden color with an average light brown head that mostly lasting with good lacing. Moderate caramel toasted tart fruit aroma. Medium body with a smooth texture and soft carbonation. Good balanced tart fruit malty flavor with a medium smooth sweet finish of moderate duration. Good doppelbock.

Bottle... Poured golden/orange with a billowy, white head. Aroma of malts and caramel. Very sweet beer. Honey flavors, malts, simple syrup, tangy yeast tones. Hops were absent in the flavor. Palate was thin, with a lower carbonation too.

Pours a clear pale amber with an off white head. Sweet malty bready aroma. Sweet toasted malt, caramel and licorice taste.