Great Taste of Cottage Grove 2014 – Doppelbock Results

Gold Medal – Capital Autumnal Fire

Silver Medal – Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock

Bronze Medal – Troegs Troegenator

Other Participants: Spaten Optimator & Vintage 30 Point Bock

Board of Director Votes (includes @jagatelife, @chadmeindl, @Badger_Alum1, @ahrensjeremy and @rjjturner)

Gold Medal – Troegs Troegenator

Silver Medal – Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock

Bronze Medal – Capital Autumnal Fire

Analysis

It is worth noting that there are different variations of the Doppelbock and we did not consider this when picking contestants.  Our biggest concern was staying in the same general ABV range.  It was very interesting how these 5 beers separated into two categories.  Three of them had very classic German flavors, while two seemed to have cleaner yeast strains with more emphasis on the grains to provide flavors.  Capital was far and away the best of the German style doppelbocks with far more depth of flavor than what the other two were able to accomplish.  The two non-German-tasting-beers were surprisingly enough from Troegs and Ayinger.  Both of these beers had a bit of sweetness that rounded out the back rather than the hanging German yeast flavor.  Both of those two beers achieved much better balance.  And these two beers placed 2^nd and 3^rd amongst popular vote and 1^st and 2^nd with Board of Directors.  I thought the Troegs was the better of the two and 4 out of 5 of the Board of Director’s agreed.  Capital and Ayinger actually tied the popular vote, but Capital won the tiebreaker.

My Ballot

1) Troegenator 2) Celebrator 3) Autumnal Fire 4) 30 Point 5) Optimator

The Takeaway

Definitely a lot of variety in this style of beer so find what you like best.  If you like the traditional German flavors, get yourself some Autumnal Fire and you won’t be disappointed.  Unfortunately the footprint for this beer is pretty small, but you can probably find Optimator in any market and that one is perfectly sufficient.  My personal preference is the Americanized versions and the Ayinger is really impressive and also should be available in most markets.  Troegs has fairly limited distribution, but if you live or have access to the Ohio/Pennsylvania market seek this beer out even if you aren’t a fan of the style.