Tuesday 7 April 2009

Salvation in a glass

After recent weeks of drinking alot of pale lagerbiers or pilsners, Salvator from Brauerei Paulaner seemed like a reset switch. Fizzing with life during the pour, this is a wonderfully rich amber-brown, but the life appears to disappear relatively quickly, leaving a thin scum of a head and occasional bubbles. The aroma speaks of heavy carmelisation, almost like burnt toffee apples. No doubt, this is a sweet. A burnt sugar sweetness, and actually, I like it. There are some nutty, salty flavours at the back, but dwarfed by that rich caramel. I thought I could detect a faint apple-like sweetness too, as hinted in the aroma. At 7.9% this is actually quite easy to drink, and not as sticky-sweet as some doppelbocks.

Went great with some medium cheddar by the way.

7 comments:

Pivní Filosof said...

I remember drinking this beer for the first time 9 years ago. It blew my mind. A few months ago I tasted it again. What a big dissapointment it was.

Barry M said...

Perhaps you built up the memory too much? I found the same thing with the movie Highlander. Man, what a crap movie! :D

Compared to many Doppelbocks which I find can sometimes be a bit sugary, I thought this had a better balance.

Lost said...

This sounds absolutely delicious. Gonna have to find me some!

Reuben Gray - TaleOfAle said...

Lovely stuff, if you read my blog on it you will see this was the last straw during a tasting session and pushed me over the edge into amnesia. Lovely beer though.

Barry M said...

It's certainly a bit of a benchmark in terms of Doppelbocks.

Pivní Filosof said...

I'm not saying it was that bad. Only that I found it really, really boring. Back then, I couldn't have enough of it, now, I wouldn't bother.
I've always liked the legend behind the name, though.

Barry M said...

Ah yeah. Taste changes all the time I find. I reckon a year ago I might not have found it so interesting, but lack of hop powerhouses have made me more appreciative of any flavour I can get :D