Malt-O-Meals 

• Mike Riedel

Level Crossing - Timpanator: Doppelbocks aren't just another lager style that appears on some German checklist of malty beers. This style's origins played an important part in monastic culture, especially during Lent, as the various orders would rely on Doppelbocks to nourish them during the 40 days of fasting many clergy would undergo. For that reason, Dopplebocks are often referred to as "liquid bread."

Level Crossing's interpretation on the style pours a clear, dark ruby brown. Aroma is semi-dark and plummy, with a slight toasted toffee essence to its deeply sweetened malt tone, along with a slight smoky chocolate sense to it.

The taste is pretty solid; good malt tones are lightly muting a sense of fruity darkness of fig and plum. Toasty toffee appears in the front, with more of a tender, silky chocolate in the back. Mellowing and creamy malt-laden tastes manufacture a solid sweetness that lasts with a good play mixing of dark fruitiness, slight chocolate and a tiny tug of toastiness rounding it out towards the finish. Body is more Marzen-like than Doppelbock, but it's pretty favorable within a creamy, semi-medium, silky malt body. It glides well across the palate, and isn't cloying much in any areas, gaining just a tiny pull of warmth as you go.

Overall: A pretty solid Doppel here, favorable in much of its character and beery aspects. It drinks down pretty quickly, as the body is glides easily in a non-sticky creaminess and silken malty sweetness. I could have quite a few of these, no prob.

Squatters - Grandma's Cookies: There are plenty of gimmicky beers out there that mimic every manner of treat and confection. This is no different, but what I did like about it was its simplicity. It's shooting for oatmeal cookies, and delivers without being overly crazy.

This beer poured a dark reddish-brown with some burgundy highlights at the bottom—and it honestly smells like an oatmeal raisin cookie. No joke! Maybe not a freshly-baked cookie, but more like a 12-hour-old cookie aroma. Up front you get the strong scent of vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon; behind the spices come the oats and raisins. This one has a very spicy aroma. If you close your eyes, you might think it's a cookie in a glass.

Did it taste like an oatmeal raisin cookie? Yes! A pretty spicy one, perhaps, but it actually tasted a little like an oatmeal raisin cookie. Like the aroma, it tasted more like a store bought cookie than a fresh-out-of-the-oven version. Also like the aroma, it was the spices that kicked it off. It started off with the taste of vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Directly behind that was a drop of molasses, plus oats and sweet raisins—a great, sweet-tasting beer. It's light-to-medium-bodied, with a solid level of carbonation and a vanilla cookie aftertaste. The vanilla, cinnamon and sweet raisins will linger, and nothing else.

Overall: It sounds like a novelty beer—and it very well may be—but it doesn't taste like one. It smells like an oatmeal raisin cookie, tastes like an oatmeal raisin cookie, but it's not an oatmeal raisin cookie. It's hard to put down, and very easy to buy another nitro-conditioned pint.

ABV-wise, these beers are quite opposite. Timpanator dials in at 8.4 percent, while Grandma's Cookies comes in at 5.0 percent. Be sure to check out the nitro taps at Squatters downtown and at the West Side Tavern for Grandma's Cookies. Timpanator is in its prime drinking season in 16-ounce cans at Level Crossing. As always, cheers!