After a long day - Spaten Optimator

Not much in the way of a back story with this beer, the Spaten Optimator. I picked it up at my local World Market store. It is a German Doppelbock, which is the same style as last month's beer of the month, the Ayinger Celebrator, see my review here Celebrator. Since this one has a higher ABV, it was part of a one beer evening after work.

Appearance: Beer pours a hazy dark brown color with some carbonation. As you can tell from the picture, there is little to no head. As would be expected, no lacing was present also. Visually this beer did not do much for me.

Smell: If I was blindfolded and asked to identify this beer by smell only, I would have guessed a Heineken. The beer had the typical smell of a German or Belgian beer like the aforementioned one. Again, not winning me over so far.

Taste/Mouthfeel: Luckily for me, the taste was not what I was expecting based on the nose. No Heineken flavor or skunkiness for this one. I did get some molasses sweetness and dark fruit, like cherry flavor with a sweet finish. Beer also had a heavier syrup like mouthfeel. No bitterness was present.

Overall: As much as the Appearance and Smell were disappointments, the taste did some to make it up to me. I liked the mellow sweetness and fruit flavors. At a 7.5% ABV, this made for a nice single beer evening after a long day at the office. This beer however was not as good as the Ayinger Celebrator mentioned above. For more info on this beer, please see Optimator

Cheers!