JosephsBrau Winterfest

Brewed by Gordon Biersch Brewing Company
Style: Doppelbock
Palo Alto, California USA

I think this is simply the Trader Joe’s version of Gordon Biersch’s Winterbock, which I only realized once I tasted its cherry sweetness. Funny how spending a couple dollars more per six pack makes folks rank beers higher!

Bottle. Pours amber/ruby with a large foamy brown head. Aroma is caramel, bread, and generally sweet malt. Flavor is somewhat sweet and heavily roasted malt, with toasted bread and bitter-for-the-style finish. Interesting on the whole, especially for the price. Doesn’t have the rich malt complexity of better doppelbocks (little dark fruit character, for example), but the roasty bitterness is an interesting way of offsetting the bock sweetness.

Bottle. Pours dark ruby with off white head. Mild aroma of caramel, some sweetish dark fruit smells, as well. Flavor is solid dark rye bread-like maltiness, some bittersweet caramel flavors. Finish has burnt flavors, is very lightly bitter. Pretty good - No off flavors and cheap.

Aroma of sweet medium roasted caramel. Something of a cherry amber or mahogany color. The beige head was reluctant to develop. More than medium bodied with coarsely creamy carbonation. The flavor is roast malt sweet, but carries a near burnt or bitter note. Something like liquid toasted dark bread. The finish is mildly sweet, and that bitter impression persists. I think 28 IBU pretty well balances the sweetness. Surprisingly good.

Well, it is a cheap doppelbock.... somebody just gave me one at a party and it was better than drinking Pabst... Pretty strong aroma, with the roasts and all. Dark brown color, forgot what the head was all about though. Flavour was definitely there, but it wasn’t complex. It was good, but simple. Some coffee, pretty roasty taste and does warm you up pretty well.

350 ml bottle from TJs. Dark brown with a white head. Bready aroma with a mild spiced bread taste and some sweet notes.

12oz bottle. Dark brown color. White foamy head. Aroma of roasted malt. Not coffee just the smell of grains. (Kinda making me hungry.) Flavor of malt. Finishes with a little coffee and distant bitterness. Not a bad beer, just not an impressive Doppelbock style.
Earlier Rating: 1/7/2007 Total Score: 3.2
Batch 10.16.2006 Dark brown color. White foamy head. Aroma of roasted malt. Not coffee just the smell of grains. (Kinda making me hungry.) Flavor of malt. Finishes with a little coffee and distant bitterness. Not a bad beer, just not an impressive Doppelbock style.

12oz bottle. Pours a deep, clear, dark brown with ruby red highlights and a medium-sized, light tan head that fades to nearly nothing quite quickly. The aroma is very bready and malty. There are also caramel, a light amount fruit (figs?), and some alcohol. The flavor starts malty and sweet. It is balanced on the tip of the tongue by some herbal hop flavor. It is full of caramel, somewhat soft in flavor, and a bit grainy, too. The middle of the tongue picks up on a light, spicy bitterness and some roasted grains and dark toast flavors. The finish is full and sweet with a good bit of grainy malts, some yeast, and a very minimal hop bitterness accompanied by a very subtle bitter fruit flavor. The mouthfeel is quite thick and full in body. It is also rather vigorously carbonated - despite pouring with only a medium-sized head. The bubbles are a bit distracting on the mid-tongue - swishing the beer around a bit releases some of the carbon dioxide and alleviates this somewhat. Overall, it is a decent tasting beer but a rather mediocre doppelbock.