A Year of Craft Beer, Vol. 95, Paulaner Salvator Double Bock

Salvator Doppel Bock is a bock, which is typically a strong German lager, but only doubly so.  They are malty in character and can be from amber in colour to black with roasted notes to them and generally high in alcohol content.  

This one however is on the lighter colour scale without roasted notes.  It poured at 55 degrees F into a pint glass an amber/brown colour with a nice one to two finger head that fades to a ring and a Friar Tuck center cap and leaves a little bit of lacing, but it's not very sticky.

The aroma is of caramel malts, quite sweet smelling with strong hints of fruits like pear and raisins.  It also has a nice bready smell to it as well.  Some molasses and alcohol are noticeable also.

The flavour starts off caramel sweet and pretty much stays for the duration until the end where hops are definitely noticeable.  Along the ride are some spicy apple notes with a bit of tart, some bready notes and finally apparent alcohol nearing the end followed by some peppery hops and a bit of dryness.  It's mostly sweet but not overly so.  At the end of the pint glass as this beer warms up, I get an unpleasant corn taste in my mouth.

The mouthfeel is creamy sweet on the border of syrupy and the body which is full, but not enough to make annoying.  There is a slick feeling on the tongue and the carbonation is light to moderate.

Overall, this is a good beer.  It's affordable and a good example of a doppel bock, but I am not down with the corn taste.  I will, however, score this beer fairly high because it seems to meet most of the requirements of a doppel bock and is, for the most part, pleasant.  I'm going to say an average of 4 may be in order.

This isn't the best beer, but its good and you may really like it!  The only way that I can convince you to stop wasting your life drinking ruddy filth from the big beers is to hammer it in your head that there is better and you deserve it so try something different!

-Wiss