In preparation for Tina’s NYE Party, I needed to buy some beverages for the evening. Though I could have gone with one of my stand-bys such as Newcastle or Killian’s, I decided to do some research on great beers.
I went no farther than RateBeer.com, a fabulously extensive site of beer ratings. Specifically, I checked their Top Accessbile Beers list. In contrast to a literal Top Beers list, the beers listed among their Top Accessible Beers need to have a certain minimum of reviews — in other words, they may not be micro-micro brews, but beers you’d actually have a chance of finding.
I copy-n-pasted the list into my Palm Vx and made my way to Central Market. I’ll be honest — accessible or otherwise — I hadn’t even heard of any of the beers in the top 10. Nonetheless, one of my goals was to find a top-10 beer for the evening.
Central Market actually had an even better selection than I remembered. They had Fullers (both Fullers London Porter and Fullers ESB), Samuel Smiths Oatmeal Stout, and Duvel. However, my eyes widened when I discovered that they had Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock.
Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock is no ordinary beer — it’s rated #1 on the list. According to RateBeer, it’s in the 99.6th percentile of beers and was priced as such ($14 per 6-pack). Some excerpts from the reviews:
Excellent brew. Very complex flavoring, with layers revealing themselves long after you've taken a swig. Medium body, not too dark, and very tasty (a little sweet, malty with some molasses and fruitiness) without overwhelming the palate. Very easy drinking, this is an absolute classic and is a must-have for my friends and family now at ANY celebration. […]
The aroma permeates the nose with raisins, vanilla, roastiness, coffee, chocolate and numerous other small things come to mind. The Celebrator pours a beautiful dark dark brown with slight hints of dark ruby seen in the light...and it head was minimal at most, though mildly creamy for the first sip or two. The carbonation is the true key here and Ayinger has captured the magic of little bubbles tickling the tongue in just the right manner. The taste is of major roastiness...coffee and mocha are apparent, but definitely something fruity and lambic like...extremely complex and thats why im digging it so much as i drink and write this. It has a nice acidic, dry ending with those subtle hops doing their part leaving a sweet malty aftertone and an extremely happy palate. […]
Dark,dark,mahogany with a creamy, pillowy head. Strong, rich, aromas of raisins, german malts, fruit. Silky,somewhat spritzy mouthfeel. Perfect carbonation. Fruity,sweet,toastiness in the mouth. Such a subtle hop/smokey finish. Vinous, smoke also appear in the aroma, after breathing. Dark fruit flavors and strong malt take over the mouth and some strong malt presence in the finish develops as well. For the strength and richness this go down easy as can be. The best doppelbock I have had. […]
At the party, I made sure to pour the Celebrator into a mug so that I could fully appreciate its color — which turned out to closely resemble coffee. There was a nice fluffy head to to it, but the beverage itself was amazing. It had a somewhat malty flavor and strong presence, while not one to overpower the palette. It remained very drinkable, and I could have sipped it all evening (which I did, in this case).
Considering its price, I probably won’t be buying Celebrator Doppelbock in the near future. However, I would consider it among my Top 5 favorite beers and I won’t hesitate in buying some for another special occasion.
PS Sorry Tina, I just had to write about this one ;). (at the party, she had been kidding me about writing a blog entry on the Celebrator Doppelbock)