Early last December, I scored a couple of great beers from the Smuttynose Brewing Company. The first was Cluster’s Last Stand, a very tasty brew indeed and a collaboration with the Stone Brewing Company. The other beer was an entry in Smuttynose Big Beer Series called S’Muttonator Doppelbock. For some reason, I thought it was a beer I had had before, but it turned out that I had not.

Doppelbocks are, of course, my favorite style of beer, and Smuttynose is one of my longtime favorite breweries, so how could I possibly go wrong here? As it turned out, I couldn’t. Smuttynose has never let me down yet with the Big Beer Series, which I’ve been drinking since they first rolled them out in the mid-90s.

Smuttynose says some interesting things about S’Muttonatpr on their website.

The ‘-ator’ suffix that’s found on the names of double bock beers around the world is one of the most respected traditions in a beer world that seems to be focused on ignoring standards and customs. Smuttynose is proud to adhere to that tradition in the naming, brewing methods and taste of S’muttonator Double Bock.

Kudos to you, Smuttynose for honoring tradition. These days, it seems brewers (and drinkers) are more interested in seeing how many different variants of IPA they can crank out than producing a traditional German lager like S’Muttonator. Here’s more.

S’muttonator Double Bock displays the characteristically full malt flavor that can only come from using the best German specialty malts and a traditional decoction mashing technique. The extra effort also adds a lot of extra time to each batch, but that’s the only way to get the nuttiness, toffee notes and a characteristically smooth melanoidin character beer drinkers expect from a double bock. When you drink your S’muttonator, you’ll see that it’s time well spent.

Munich malt and decoction mashing? OK folks, I can’t wait any longer. I’m about to dive into this one. But before I do, let me tell you that S’Muttonator is not quite traditional in one respect: strength. S’Muttonator is stronger than most examples of the style I’ve run a cross (and that’s a long list). Doppelbocks usually run between 7% to 8% alcohol by volume, but the 2014 S’Muttonator is 9.8% by volume. This is even higher than the 2012 release which was 9.2% ABV, but Smuttynose often does that with Big Beer brews.

The beer has 35 IBUs as well, and I paid a very reasonable $5.99 for my bottle. There is no date coding, but my bottle does have “Bottle Conditioned 2014” on it, which is unusual, but not unprecedented, for a lager. This is a beer you can certainly hang onto my friends, as it should age out nicely at least 6 months if not longer.

Ingredients:

Malt Bill: North American 2-Row, Munich 10L, Caramunich, Carahell, Carafa II DH

Hops: Sterling

Yeast: WLP 920 Old Bavarian Lager

Smuttynose S’Muttonator Doppelbock pours to a deep ruby red color with a light filmy head formation and a simply sinful toasty nutty malt nose. Taking a sip, the beer is amazingly thick in the mouthfeel even perhaps more so than usual for the style. It’s explosive with toasty, chewy, nutty melanoidin goodness and big and warm with alcohol in the finish. I get a hint of grassy hops there but the dry alcohol really does more to keep this from being sweet.

What a wonderful beer! It’s a doppelbock lover’s dream come true, really my friends, loaded with melanoidins, smooth and strong and perfect for a cold February night. January and February are the traditional times for doppelbock in Germany, and Smuttynose has rolled this one out just in time. Really though, I love them all year round, and I would suggest snapping up a few extras to get you through until the next release.



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