S'muttonator - Smuttynose Brewing Co., Portsmouth

Ah, the noble Doppelbock. Such a great style of beer, only rivaled in delicious maltiness by the Scotch Ale. I recently had a couple lighter style Smuttynose beers and found them lacking in a number of areas so I decided to try and find a heftier Smuttynose beer and ended up bringing this bottle of S'muttonator home a couple weeks ago. The label of this beer is great, it's a painting of a majestic big horned ram rather than a goat like most Doppelbocks would put on the label. Given the S'muttonator name, it's fitting... and kinda funny.

This bottle of S'muttonator pours a warm bronze color with a thick dark brown center and reddish orange highlights. The head on this beer is quite ample though it fades rather quickly. There's no lacing and practically no head left when this beer settles down, you're left with just the basics... glass and beer. It's time to get down to business.

The S'muttonator smells like a Doppelbock, it's nice and sweet, super robust with the malt and a little boozy like rum. The flavor of this beer follows the nose quite closely. Your first sip of S'muttonator is a honey sweet and slightly spicy rush of caramel malt and almost Scotch Ale-like robustness that I really, really enjoyed. Down to the last drop of this bronze-ish brown beer it remains very full of flavor. I'm finding it hard to criticize anything about this beer, it simply hits all of the notes I'm looking for in a Doppelbock.

If you're looking for a fantastic Doppelbock the S'muttonator won't disappoint. it's a strong beer at 8.5% but it goes down easy and never leaves you feeling like you're missing out.