The first new beer I’ve tried in ages. I got this as part of my Christmas booze, hoping I would have time to drink it during the holidays (Yes, plural. In the Netherlands we have two days of Christmas). I always forget that I’m always the designated driver and my family lives half the country away.

TNT

Anyway, this brew is a weird one. It had been sitting at Drinks & Gifts for ages and I never got around to buying it, and Christmas was just an excuse I guess. It’s a Weizen Doppelbock, brewed with Lapsang Souchong tea.

So the checklist. I like

• Lapsang Souchong tea
• Weizen beer
• Smoked beer
• Almost any beer that starts with doppel, dubble or imperial.

I’m usually not a big fan of Bock beers, but hey, trying can never hurt. It comes in massive 22 oz. bottles so I’ve been working on it for a few hours (in between Baldur’s Gate, diapers, feeding the wee one and such).

Sniff:
On the nose I get mostly the scents of a rather flat weizen beer. There are hints of tea, but more in a ginseng ice tea kind of way than Lapsang Souchong. There’s malty hints, but not barley (which is correct, it’s a wheat beer). There’s chocolaty notes too.

Sip & Swallow:
It’s rather crisp which I didn’t expect. A little dry too with some strange fruity tones. No real big flavours that pop out. The flavours remain forever, which is quite nice, but I still can’t wrap my head around the combination of what’s going on.

It’s a nice experiment, but I have the feeling the tea watered the beer down a bit too much. And they didn’t use the most smokey variety of Lapsang Souchong, which I dislike.

Stats:

• ABV: 7.90%
• IBU: 20
• Malts: Malted Wheat, Premium 2-row, Munich and Chocolate Wheat
• Hops: Warrior and Perle