The bottle is a nearly shoulderless longneck with a white crimpcap. I love the old world charm of Celebrator Doppelbock's bottle. I especially like the little goat buck charm they hang around the bottle, it's like a little beer geek trophy. The label art features late 19th century styled artwork featuring two goat bucks rearing up against a goblet of beer and proclaims that it is the "CELEBRATOR DOPPELBOCK" Dunkles Bayrisches Starkbier" (dark Bavarian strong beer) and "Familientradition in der 6. generation" (I'm going to assume you can figure that one out) and "Ayinger, privatbrauerei seit 1878". The rear of the bottle says (in several languages, and thanks to an added sticker Japanese is one of them) Ingredients: Water, barley malt, hops. It has a date of 03.17, I'm not sure whether this is the production date (which would make this remarkably new) or the "best by" date which would not be surprising to see as this is made on the other side of the planet from where I bought it. It is 330 ml and 6.7% ABV. I will be using one of my many delirium tulip snifters. Time to pop cap and take a whiff.
Nose from the bottle is bready, roasted malts, with a slight fruitiness. The beer forms a beige head which quickly dissipates. Nose from the glass is much more pronounced fruitiness with chocolate and a slightly malty characteristic. Color is a deep opaque black. On first sip, It is immediately chocolaty and malty, with a bready roasted malt finish. It has a medium full body with higher than average acidity. The roasted malt characteristic is coming more to the forefront, as well as a taste of alcohol. The finish has changed to being chocolaty with a cherry fruit characteristic, kind of like a dark chocolate cherry cordial.
I bought a 1975 Sony TA-1630 integrated stereo amplifier from a Japanese thrift shop for 2,000 yen. When I bought it the guy at the counter told me that the left channel didn't work. This actually made me want it more, I love refurbishing vintage electronics. I bought a set of Sony stack amps at the same place for 1,500 yen. I've always wanted stack amps and finally have a set of vintage ones. All of this was inspired by my recent thrift shop acquisition of a Technics SL-Q6 turntable that I found for $25. For those not in the know, those retail for about $160 in questionable condition. It's a direct drive, so that's one less thing to go wrong, but the queuing stylus is belt driven so I was a little worried that would have turned to gum. Thankfully that drive belt seems good as the day it was made, unfortunately I think azimuth bumpers have worn down over the years and now the stylus suffers from over travel and gets stuck. You can bump it back into position and it will start playing just fine, but I'm going to have to open it up and fix that problem. It shouldn't be difficult, although I won't be able to get original parts and will have to jerryrig something to act as the bumper. I tested the amplifier with the speakers. The potentiometers have some dirty spots and unfortunately I don't have any spray on connector cleaner to fix the problem, nor can I order it on Amazon as they come in aerosol cans. I did manage to figure out that my left channel problem was a blown fuse, which I ordered online, along with a tube of connector cleaning grease. Unfortunately that's all I can find, supposedly this DeoxIT stuff is pretty good, if Amazon reviews can be believed. In other news, remembering Chuck Berry, who died today at the age of 90. Been listening to his music for this review. It's a shame I wasn't exposed to more of his music before he died. I always knew "Johnny be good", "Nadine", "You never can tell", "No particular place to go" and "Rock and Roll Music", but he has a fantastic discography that goes beyond that if you love early rock and roll, which I do.
Final thoughts. It is world renowned for a reason, and that reason is it's delicious. This is one of those absolute must try beers for any beer nerd. I give this beer my blurry seal of approval.
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