Hi everyone and welcome to the last edition of Beer Buzz! We have had an awesome time this last year writing about beer, and now our time at UW is up so we are passing the torch. The beer column will be written by new authors and under a new name starting next term. We would like to thank you for reading our column, and for giving us a great opportunity to learn more about beer. We are both going to be working in Toronto and are quite excited to move into a bigger beer scene than Waterloo (although we will sorely miss Kickoff’s). This final Beer Buzz article is going to summarize some of what we have written about over the last year, as well as a review of an awesome Austrian dunkel.
What we’ve learned over the last year:
- What a black and tan is, how to pour it, and it’s history (S11, Issue 1)
- How to choose the right glass for your beer and reviewing Dead Elephant by Railway City Brewing (S11, Issue 2)
- Where to find the best beer in the K-W area and reviewing Rosée d’Hibiscus by Montreal’s Dieu du Ciel (S11, Issue 3)
- Beer styles, and reviewing Mill Street’s Barley Wine (S11, Issue 4)
- The craft beer festival scene in Ontario and a review of the Kitchener Ribfest & Craft Beer Show (S11, Issue 5)
- Weird beer facts and reviewing beers we tasted on our Cross-Canada Beer Tour (F11, Issue 1)
- Learning about Oktoberfest style beer and reviewing two German beers at KW Oktoberfest (F11, Issue 2 – also, be sure to buy your KW Oktoberfest tickets early for 2012 as tickets for Concordia sold out in June last year)
- The Ontario microbrewery scene and reviewing Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery’s SuperCollider Double IPA (F11, Issue 3 – use the pdf archives for this article)
- How to pair food with beer and reviewing Green Flash Brewery’s Imperial India Pale Ale (F11, Issue 4)
- All about adjuncts, which are other ingredients added to beer other than water, malted barley, hops, and yeast (F11, Issue 5 and our personal favourite article we wrote in the last year)
- The American craft beer scene. reviewing Dogfish Head’s 60 Minute IPA and Saranac Caramel Porter (W12, Issue 1)
- All about ciders, reviewing Strongbow Cider and Magners Cider (W12, Issue 2)
- All about barrel aged ales, responsible drinking, and reviewing the Scottish Harviestoun Brewery’s Ola Dubh (W12, Issue 3 – that ale was matured in a whiskey cask for 12 years!)
- The worldwide beer community and reviewing Maple Bock by Trafalgar Ales & Meads (W12, Issue 4)
If you would like to learn about anything we’ve mentioned above you can check out the archives on the Iron Warrior website – in brackets beside each point is the term and issue number that article ran in. Now let’s go on to the beer we are going to try today!
Today we are reviewing Doppelbock Dunkel (8.5% ABV) by Brauerei Schloss Eggenberg in Austria. This brewery has been running since 999 AD and has been brewing commercially since 1681. We found this beer at the LCBO and thought it was interesting enough to review. A vigorous pour yielded a bit of head that quickly dissipated leaving no lacing behind. The colour is deep mahogany with little translucency. The aroma of the beer is weak, with the only discernable flavour being german lager yeast. When tasting the beer, the flavours we noticed were sweet malt, smoke, and a well-balanced alcohol flavour. The mouth-feel can be described as thin bodied, with little carbonation. Overall, we enjoyed this beer and would recommend it to anyone looking for a new beer to try that is not outrageously adventurous. Germany and Austria are known for their tasty lagers, Weissbiers (wheat based ale), and many other beer styles. This is an excellent introduction to the variety of traditional beer styles with roots in Germany and the Bavarian culture.
Again, thanks for reading our column and we hope you’ve learned something about beer. Our main message (as always) is to Fear No Beer and we wish you the best of luck in your future beer adventures and academic endeavours!
Rebecca and Eric
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