Doppo Imperial Ale by Miyashita Shuzo is a 7.5% American strong ale from Miyashita Shuzo, based in Okayama, Japan. It contains about 1.5 times the amount of malt used in their standard pilsner and Doppo Imperial Ale is brewed with American yeast. Part of me wishes the doppo part of the name meant double so all those Latin lessons in school would finally pay off; however, I have a sneaking suspicion it doesn’t.
Doppo Imperial Ale Aroma and Taste
Imperial ales and American strong ales are catch alls for those beers that don’t fit into any category, or beers that are just jacked full of alcohol content to get you drunk. Doppo Imperial Ale may fit into that category, yet smelling it doesn’t give you any hint of the alcohol content. At 7.5%, it’s not the strongest we’ve had on BeerTengoku, but I was surprised that there wasn’t much hint of alcohol. Doppo Imperial Ale had a good lacing of malt to the nose, with a gentle sweetness of caramel blended in. There are also hops in there somewhere but I couldn’t really detect them among the sugary notes. The body was a solid deep bronze colour with a large amount of head to top it off, though it didn’t last long, maybe a couple of minutes, if that.
Those malt notes and sweetness carry on through to the body of Doppo Imperial Ale and are backed up by a creaminess to the taste. It reminded me of Wether’s Original (do we have to pay a fee for using that name?), those boiled toffee sweets that your grandfather would always give you when you sat on his. I digress. It can be overwhelming with all those flavours swirling around your delicate taste buds and that is the main disagreement with this beer. While I am partial to a few sweets, or candies for our North American readers, a whole beer can be a bit much. The lingering aftertaste of sweetness and malt too is a tad too much for my liking.
Doppo Imperial Ale One Line Review
Doppo Imperial Ale is a mongrel of a beer; doesn’t fit in to any style but is bound to be loved by someone. You perhaps?
Where to Buy Doppo Imperial Ale
Doppo Imperial Ale can be bought from the following places