Mike Loves Beer

Name – Smooth Hoperator
Country – United States
Type – Doppelbock

Appearance – Pours a clear red color with a slightly tan head that disappeared quickly but left good lacing on the glass.

Smell – Big citrus and earthy smelling hops.  Smells more like an IPA.

Taste – Sweet malt flavor upfront that is followed by some earthy hops with some grapefruit notes in there.  Good bitterness.

For the second beer in a row the classification on it just doesn’t seem to match the taste of it.  This beer just screams IPA at me.  If you would have put it in front of me without knowing what it was I would have thought IPA no doubt.  But not to take anything away from this one as it is a really good beer.  I got it mainly because of the awesome goat (a universal bock symbol) looking all suave.  If you like big hops I would highly recommend this one.

Overall Grade – A-

Name - Rogue Double Dead Guy
Country - United States
Type - Doppelbock

Appearance - Light brown amber color with a nice sized off white head.  The picture doesn’t show because the battery died right as I was pouring and had to change them.  By the time I changed them the head went down.

Smell - Sweet smell of caramel and malts.

Taste - A sweet taste with a presence of caramel.  There is a slight taste of alcohol in the after taste but not enough to make this a bad taste.

Being a fan of the original Dead Guy Ale I was intrigued by this one.  Also the very cool painted bottle drew me to it as well.  I wasn’t disappointed with this beer at all.  The little bit of alcohol taste is a bit annoying but overall this is still a top beer.

Overall Grade – A-

Name - Spaten Optimator
Country - Germany
Type - Doppelbock

Appearance - Very deep and dark red, almost brown. A very small head that disappeared quickly.

Smell - Sweet malty smell of caramel.

Taste - A nice caramel taste with a slight trace of fruit. Kind of heavy and filling. A little bit of a bitter finish but not bad or overpowering.

I had absolutely no clue what to expect with this one and was pleasantly surprised. I probably couldn’t drink a number of these one after another because of how heavy it is but it was a very good beer for sipping and I think it would go well with a meat meal.

Overall Grade – B