The Aventinus is brewed by G. Schneider & Sohn in Germany. The 500 ml bottle is a terrific size for this 8.2% ABV bock bock. We served ours up in a weizen glass and got an insanely huge 4″ frothy light brown head that dissipated slowly and didn’t leave any head lacing to speak of. There was a medium amount of carbonation and the color was light brown to medium brown with a murky haze to it.

The smells in this thing pop – chocolate, lightly toasted malts, wheat, banana, brown sugar, bubble gum, clove and dark fruits, with plum standing out most in the pack. The aroma has a really nice sweetness to it.

The taste though is where this thing really stands out with just as much variety as the aroma – chocolate, vanilla, wheat, alcohol, light banana, brown sugar, bubble gum, cola and plum. The sweetness from the aromas continue on in the taste and it’s just a great touch. The chocolate and vanilla notes really harmonize with each other to create a great beer experience. The initial flavor notes come through as a moderate sweet. The finish duration is long and the finish notes evolve a little to stay moderately sweet with very light bitter and light tart. There’s not much body lacing as you gulp it down but the mouthfeel is delicious and creamy – really one of the best mouthfeels of any beer – rich, smooth and strong with a good flavor profile. On our malt to hop scale it comes in about 2 1/2 clicks to the left of balanced on the malty side – that is fairly heavy malts.

For the bottom line test – we got a yes for everything – drinkable, repeatable, balance, harmony, memorable, wow factor and buy again – yes to all. You get some nice warming action with the beer as you drink it thanks to the 8.2% ABV and the extra couple of ounces (16.9 oz). It tastes a lot like a Belgian ale with candy sugar and less like a doppelbock (which is technically a lager). The Aventinus website says it’s “streaked with fine top-fermenting yeast” which means it’s got ale yeast in it. So again we have a bit of a hybrid beer that’s hard to classify as a lager or an ale. Our advice? Stop worrying and love the beer – it’s one of the best beers you’ll ever try. I bought two and after this test cellared the second one so I could try it again in a year or so after reading several bloggers note that it cellared quite well (Update: cellar experiment status: Failed. I drank it in less than a month).

It’s as good as a strong Belgian ale like a Chimay Blue or a Trappistes Rochefort 8 – but it has a deceptive lightness to it. We struggled with how to phrase it but we settled on “a nice overstated subtleness.” We think that sums it up nicely. This is an absolute must try beer. Buy it in large batches and enjoy this as one of the top beers in the land.

We served ours up in a goblet and our 11.2 ounces of goodness came in at 53.1 F. The pour gave us an average 1″ fizzy light brown head that dissipated quickly and left very little head lacing. It has little carbonation and the body is a murky ruby/copper brown.

The initial aromas – and there are a lot of them – are hay, toasted, toffee, yeast, alcohol, black currant, brown sugar, bubble gum, cola, plum, port, prune, raisin, spices and a host of other unidentified dark fruits. This is a top smelling beer.

Though the smells are great, the taste is what makes this beer such a treat. Not quite as numerous as the aromas, you pull some nice notes – alcohol, cola and loads of the dark fruits. There’s also a possible hint of bittersweet chocolate. The initial flavor hits you with a heavy sweet and a light bitter and evolves in the finish to a moderate sweet with a moderate bitter. The finish clings to your mouth and lasts a long time and the mouthfeel is quite creamy. There is virtually no body lacing as you drink, proving that it doesn’t have to lace well to be a top beer. On the malt to hop scale it comes in about a 4 out of 9 – just to the left of balanced on the malty side.

Though it’s not repeatable (we couldn’t drink another one due to the alcohol level, though we’d be willing to try, you know, for science), it is quite drinkable, quite memorable, sports a great wow factor due to it’s complexity, has balance, has harmony and we would of course buy it again.

This is ultimately a very drinkable beer – so very complex with so much balance to it. The dark fruits jump at you and you get the alcohol notes pretty well. It’s so complex that it’s hard to isolate all that’s going on and pull it all out. Eventually you’ll get tired of trying and just sit back and enjoy it. As with other good beers, 11.2 oz just isn’t quite enough – those other 0.8 oz would be nice. It’s refermented in the bottle and we think the well water the abbey uses for the beer is probably a big difference maker in the solid rating we gave it. It is said that Chimay Blue can be aged for upwards of fifteen years.

Drinking this out of a goblet feels like drinking from a holy grail in the 3rd Indiana Jones film, and knowing you choose wisely.

In case you haven’t guessed, this Bell’s Expedition Stout review is one of our infamous Thursday phone reviews between Father and Son Beer Love.

This 12 oz bottle of Expedition Stout goodness sported a 10.5% ABV and came in right at 50 F when poured into our American pint glass. The pour produced an average 1 1/4″ dark brown creamy head that had excellent lacing as it dissipated slowly into the murky depths below. Completely black and opaque in color, we noted very little in the way of carbonation.

The initial aromas gave us chocolate and coffee, earth and black licorice. The initial flavor gave us a moderate sweet and a heavy bitter, which stayed true through the finish with the exception of a light saltiness we started to pick up. The regular chocolate and coffee aromas though turned into dark chocolate and espresso tastes, with some additional smoke flavor coursing through our taste buds. The finish duration is long, the mouthfeel is oily and the body has a good amount of lacing to it.

It’s a bold taste and the bitterness we pick up is not in the hops. Though it’s as far to the malt side of the malt-to-hop scale as you can get, in your mouth it’s actually almost perfectly balanced – between the sweet of the chocolate and the bitterness of the coffee it finds a terrific niche. There is no alcohol in the taste initially, but as it warms you start to pick up some alcohol notes in the finish. The beer overall becomes more refined as it warms into the upper 50′s and lower 60′s. It’s a stick-to-your-ribs kind of beer and a taste bud tingler – it’s an almost overwhelming experience in your mouth.

It would be good with cheeses, crackers and fruits and great with a fine steak (Ruth’s Chris, maybe?). It’s repeatable, drinkable, memorable, has a wow factor to it and we would buy it again. One of the few times we’ve agreed on all those factors. This would frighten away a beer newbie, but after a year or two of gradually working into the dark stuff they’d be able to appreciate this beer for what it is. Definitely a top beer.

The Celebrator is one of the highest rated beers I’ve tried – it’s in the 100th percentile at RateBeer.com and has an overall 92 at BeerAdvocate.com. On RateBeer it currently ranks as the 47th best beer in the world.

This beer is aged for a half year before they ship it, giving it a full body. It has a strong pour with a dark tan head that gets big and lasts several minutes before dissipating almost completely. The color is deep brown and burgundy, another one that looks almost black in the glass until you hold it up to the light. It has a rich smell of roasted malts and chocolate with secondary aromas of black licorice and earth. These smells seemed pretty clear to me on this one and weren’t too hard to pull out. There may be some other smells hiding in there but I wasn’t able to discern them.

It has an intense flavor that sits perfectly in your mouth. It has a good sweetness with chocolate, coffee and malt flavors prominent. It reminds me of the intense flavors from the Rochefort 10 with a lot less alcohol (but at 6.7% it’s still more than a normal beer). It has a well balanced mouthfeel – you almost want to chew it. It is a dry beer, but fantastic – like a good dry wine. It has a good aftertaste that wavers very little from the taste itself – a little smoky but very nice with no bitterness. A very true beer.

As with some double bocks, it may be too sweet for some people. It’s just perfect for me. It’s not an every day beer but it’s a tremendous treat when the time is right. The fact that the bottle has a little plastic ram on a string attached to it (a keepsake of your beer journey), coupled with the excellent taste, gives this one of my top ratings at a 9.

Father Beer Love Review (April 6, 2007):

North Coast Brewing Co. Fort Bragg, CA.

Beer temp. 52.6 F ABV 9%. Used a tall glass so I could watch for a fall.

Pours dark ruby brown but still clear. Nice brown head that holds well and laces sides pretty well. Pronounced molasses aroma with maybe a touch of anise. Taste yields complex flavors of dark chocolate and coffee (maybe espresso) and incredible smoothness. This is a sweet stout with a lingering black licorice flavor and a distinct smokiness. It is complex and deeply satisfying especially as it warms. The flavors cling to the roof of the mouth and the middle of the tongue. It isn’t quite as smooth as Young’s Oatmeal Stout but the complexity is all hell bent for leather. Started as an 8 and went to a 9 at the end, if it was in a bigger bottle who knows where it would have ended up.

The fact that this is made in the U.S.A. is great. I’ve had some damn good American pours but this is far and away the best. The folks at North Coast Brewing definitely got something right. A definite tip of the glass to you all. Keep it up. Only wish I could find it locally.

Son Beer Love Review (May 14, 2007):

Surprisingly, this beer is actually brewed in California. I looked up the North Coast Brewing Company and it doesn’t look like I’ve tried any of their other beers. If Old Rasputin is any indication of the quality of their work, I need to try some of their other brews, stat.

It’s a deep, rich pour with a lot of aroma jumping out – it may be the most aromatic beer I’ve tried. It smells of coffee, chocolate and roasted malts, along with a hint of alcohol (no wonder – it’s a 9% ABV). The color is near black, though it is actually a dark dark brownish red, and the thick, creamy tan head just taunts you to dive in, though it dissipates rather quickly. It smells unlike any other beer I’ve tried, though I’ve not tried a lot of stouts and don’t necessarily have the best benchmark there. Scratch that, I think I now have the benchmark.

The taste is complex and strong – huge on chocolate and coffee – a perfect beer tandem. It’s a sweet treat that’s not too sweet. I also pick up some black licorice and some roasted, smoky flavors. The mouthfeel is good and smooth.

The aftertaste hangs around your palate for a long while and tastes like rich coffee and earth. This one hangs around longer than any other beer that comes to mind. It’s a wonderful treat. This was the last of a 4 pack and I loved every one of them as if they were my own children. I had tried this beer in the past as well, as I was beginning my beer journey, and didn’t think quite as highly then, when I had a limited beer tasting experience. I actually thought the first time I drank it that it was too bold. The second one got through to me though and since then it’s been gaining momentum. It’s absolutely worth picking up and putting in the rotation.