Smuttynose Smuttonator

Brewed by Smuttynose Brewing Company
Style: Doppelbock
Portsmouth, New Hampshire USA

Again, not everything deserves to end in "ator" and not everything deserves to have a goat on the bottle. This was a disappointment. Pours dark reddish gold with a little head. Taste of sweet malts and toffee, liglhtly hopped, but with nasty overtones of too much alcohol insufficiently masked and the bubble gum overtones of an unbalanced barleywine.

I was all in the mood to be smuttonated, but as I sat waiting the sensation that I had expected to be overwhelming simply crept up, tapped me on the lips and slowly slanked away. This may be an unfair assessment as it was actually far above fair, but dang blast it I blame Smuttynose themselves for making other beers I like a lot. I do hope they play with the recipe a bit as it’s not all too far away from being a beer I would like a lot and they could do it in two divergent possibilities - either make mmore malty or head own the hop highway.

22 oz bottle: Looks good. A reddish-brown color with some nice lacing, good looking carbonation and a cappucino fulffy head. Smell is nice too, roasted malts, some grassy hops, nutty. Flavor doesn’t live up to the appearence and aroma, if you ask me. A little fruitier than I was expecting. Some figs, raisins, an almost bourbon like flavor. Also a grassier wheatish flavor than I was expecting.

Pour is dark ruddy amber with a thin off white head...smell is slightly roasty and nutty and very sweet...taste is slightly smokey and sweetly malty and rich...alcohol not noticable...

Bottle. Aroma roasted caramel malts. Poured a nice amber with a creamy tan head. Flavor was good caramel,sweet malts and light hop to it. Palate was good nice lasting tail to it just a tinge of alcohol. Overall this was good’n.

Bottle sampled with Beerded_one. Pours dark with a tan head. Aroma of fruit, citrus, hops, and sweet malts. Flavor is smooth for 9.6%, sweet, citrus, caramel, with a hoppy finish. Good body, good brew.

Too strong for a maibock, not enough color and body for a doppelbock. A miss on any bock style. Pour was copper colored, weak head and little to no lacing. Aroma was there for a doppel bock, lots of dark fruits (figs and raisins), but also some pilsner grassy hops. The flavor was light and grassy to go along with some fruity flavors and caramel malts, but the dark fruits weren’t there. An extra touch of hops in the finish to keep this thing honest, but too hoppy (maybe it was pepper as others have noted) relative to the rich hoppiness of other doppelbocks. Can’t accuse this of being too malty and sweet, but it was perhaps too hoppy and bitter. No bread or dough. Maybe I shall dub this an imperial maibock anyway - not a good style. Mouthfeel was somewhat syrup-like and about right for the style.

2004 bottle date, Sampled June 2006
Pours with a rich, dark amber brown color which shows a brilliantly clear ruby hue when held up to the light. The beer has a frothy full tan colored head that slowly dissipates back into the beer. Ah the aroma is rich and malty; a mix of concentrated notes of prunes and raisins, but not sweet, chewy with a note similar to fresh malt extract and a sort of meaty quality. After a bit of time it begins to pick up some sweetness, which accentuates the fruit character a bit. The aroma is really nice, purely malt driven with perhaps a hint of oxidation, which only adds to the richness.

The taste is sweet up front, and in fact sweet throughout. There is a light spiciness here in the middle; it is a bit like clove or allspice, but not really. The beer is rich and a bit palate coating bit still not overly so. This beer is quit drinkable, it just seems to disappear from my glass. There are some notes of rum here, combined with the malt, which makes this a sweet, yet rich tipple. Notes of chewy, freshly toasted malt. Hints of cherry and perhaps a round note of raisins.

This beer is very drinkable, even enjoyable but it seems to be lacking a richness and complexity that I would expect in a great doppelbock.