7.6

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Found this stray bottle at the Ganges LDB. It's a spring seasonal but I went for it anyway because I'm an egregious ticker. Looks great - a nice reddish-brown colour, bright, with a thin head. The nose is almost toffee it's so rich - a really deep caramel, sweet as heck. It's the same on the palate - very sweet, rich caramel, toffee, some burnt notes. Big body, alcohol in the finish, and some rye chewiness. It's well-balanced, with hop, alcohol and rye all lending different elements to the palate. Then I noticed the abv - at 7.4% it's a doppelbock, stronger than Celebrator or Andechs, the two best of style for me. I'm digging this - it gets no distro obviously but would love to get my hands on some next spring.