JosephsBrau Winterfest

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

Bottle. Dark brown color, thin tan head on the edge. Smokey aroma with a mild chocolate coffee caramel taste.

12oz. Bottle $5.49 6-Pack Winterfest poured crystal clear garnet into my pint glass. Tiny carbonation bubbles rise from random points along the bottom. A top the body sits a dirty white head thats creamy. The head fades to a 1/4" cap. This is a really nice looking beer with the clarity. Surprised to find it that way.Leaves small patchy lacing. Smell is along the lines of a dunkel with a strong smell of banana bread with maraschino cherries. There is big doughy malts along with the breadiness. This beer is loaded with malt. Smells like a meal. Slight wafts of alcohol as it warms. Very nice. Taste is much the same as the smell. The huge amount of doughy chewiness overtakes everyting else. The banana is less in the taste but still present. Pleasant warming alcohol character on the finish. I like this one. Solid. Mouthfeel is the only drawback. Medium bodied but thin. Coats the mouth but could use a little more body or creaminess. Slides through nicely though. Drinkability is good. The thinner mouthfeel actually helps the drinkability. Nice beer to enjoy on a cool evening with the slight warmth it gives off. Winterfest is a surprisingly good beer. Especially for the price. At $5.49 this is hard to beat on value. I wasn’t expecting a beer of this quality from Trader Joes. I picked up their Vintage Ale brewed by Unibroue along with this so I’m looking forward to that. I wouldn’t hesitate to pick this up again. Good find. 12/28/06

Thanks for JK for sharing this one. From a 12-oz bottle, pours a deep copper amber with a short lived off white head. Aroma contains toasted malt and some grain malt. Taste is crisp with hints of raisin, caramel, chocolate and sweet spice. A light hoppy aftertaste. A little better than I was expecting.

Dark brown color with a thin head. Smoky malt aroma. The taste is very similar, with smoked malts, meats, salt and a sweet finish. Very nice.

Dark dark amber color. Sweet malty nose. Carob in the thick malty body.

Bottle: Dark ruby, light beige head, large and fluffy, spotty lacing.   Rich bready nose, slight hints of dark pitted fruit.   Quite bready on the tongue, almost too bready as it is very rich.   Very malty.   This certainly is a Dark Doppelbock.   Moderate to full body and mouthfeel.   One of the thicker Gordon Biersch beers I have had.   Tiz decent.

Pours a transparent dark amber mahogany with a thin-lacing, frothy off-white head. Aroma of sweet dark toasty Munich malt has some bready notes and a hint of corn (DMS). Starts fairly full-bodied and caramely sweet with a pretty authentic German lager yeast strain and a toasty sweet dark caramel malty finish. A pretty good doppelbock.

Bottle. clear brown with little tan head. The aroma was of light smoke and caramel. The taste was the same with sweet roasted flavor at the end. Not bad.