31 Beers of Christmas, Day 5

It just occurred to me that this blog is kind of like an advent calendar except behind every door is a bottle of beer -- and we will go past the 25th. Behind door #5 is Samuel Adams Double Bock. Basically a strong dark lager is what it looks like to me. You know I love to read labels. This one says it's brewed with "a half a pound of malt per bottle, almost enough for a loaf of bread." Y'all know I'm a malthead and I'm looking forward to this one, but even I might be ready for a Hop Devil palate cleanser after drinking a whole loaf of wet alcoholic bread. The Sam Adams website has a lot of info on this beer -- like its whopping 323 calories per 12 ounce bottle and its 9.5% alcohol by volume, but no suggestion as to type of glass to use. So you know what that means.
It's time for Oliver Queen to spring back into action.

Here we go.

APPEARANCE: Pours a deep rich brown with ruby highlights. Almost a full inch of head that fades but not completely, thin lace.

AROMA: Smells like chocolate to me. That might be wishful thinking on my part. I have a girl in the house and I gave it to her to whiff. She sighed and said it smells like beer. (I think she's a little worn out from her weekend trip to Tybee Island.)

TASTE: Well, it doesn't taste like bread if that's what you're wondering. There's a lot of tastes going on here. There's definitely some sweetness -- caramelly, I guess -- but the hops make themselves known too. And you can definitely tell there's a lot of alcohol in there too. But surprisingly enough they balance out pretty well. The first couple of sips I wasn't too crazy about -- mostly because I wasn't expecting much from the hops, but it's growing on me as I let the beer just be what it is. There's also something smoky and something chocolatey going on too.

MOUTHFEEL: Full, very full. Appropriate I guess from a beer with as many calories as a filet mignon.

DRINKABILITY: I can't say it goes down easy. That doesn't mean it's not tasty, it just means it's complex.

Tomorrow we put sweet potatoes in our beer.