Eggenberg's Urbock 23 is, true to name, a doppelbock that avoids most of the heavy, densely bread-meets-thick-caramel flavors traditional doppelbocks may employ and instead focuses on rich, but light-tasting sweetness akin to dried light fruits and butterscotch. While not super complex, and the ethanol content is a bit of a deterrent, I generally enjoyed this beer. If I had someone to split a bottle of this with in the winter months of each year, having one of these a month might be an enjoyable tradition to uphold.



Pours a 1cm, off-white head that collapses, quickly, to a thin ring around the sides of the glass. Body is a dark golden-orange color away from light, pale orange when held to my lamp. Some sluggish carbonation is visible in the transparent body.



Aroma is of malt sweetness, a bit of butterscotch, honey, and modest ethanol.



Taste opens with strong, rich, sweet caramel malt flavor. Continued caramel flavor into the mid-palate, with butterscotch arriving, as do dried fruit esters, perhaps dried and sweetened guava and papaya. Closes out with a flash of ethanol, which gradually lessens to a strong presence. This lingers to the finish, where it is joined by some subtle sweetness and dried fruit esters.



Body is medium-heavy to heavy with a modest carbonation that makes sipping this big beer appropriate and easy to do - there's no rush to gulp. The dry finish furthers this, each sip proves satisfying and cleanly dry on the palate.