Doppelbock - A Thing of Beauty

Style in Focus – Doppelbock

After focusing on a brewery in my last post I thought it would be a good idea to focus on a specific beer style for my next.

But which one? IPA?, Stout?, what about Weiss bier? When you survey the list of styles and sub styles you can be forgiven for being utterly confused, overwhelmed and simply bewildered! I thought long and hard and decided to go with one of my favourites, one that is, in my opinion, under rated and misunderstood. The Dopplebock.

The first thing to get your head around is that a Doppelbock is a Lager. Not a pale, fizzy American light lager like Bud or a beautifully crisp Traditional Czech Pilsner like Pilsner Urquell but a lager all the same. If you want to understand more about lagers then check out my previous blog post or pick up a copy of ‘A Brief History of Lager’ by Mark Dredge, great reading.

The Dopplebock is a stronger, fuller bodied version of the German dunkel, it will be typically around 18 degrees Plato and be in the region of 7 or 8% Alcohol by volume (ABV). The BJCP 2015 describes a ‘strong, rich and very malty German lager that can have pale and dark variants’.

But what does that really mean? Well that called for some market research. During my preparation for my Certified Beer Server exam last year I tried a beer called ‘Celebrator’ by Ayinger. Frankly, it rocked my world. Malty, fruity, sweet but also toasty. This was my introduction to the Doppelbock, and I haven’t looked back. Over the next few months I sort out some great examples of the style, including ‘Naughty and Nice’ from Lervig, ‘Bocktoberfest’ by Vocation and finally the brillant collaboration between North and Thornbridge, which so far is one of my favourite beers of 2020.

The history of the Doppelbock is an interesting one. The simple translation of Doppelbock in English is ‘Double Goat’, however, you’ll be pleased to hear that its origin has nothing to do with goats! So how did it get it’s name? It’s essentially a Doppel or ‘Double’ version of a Bock beer. The Bock beer itself finds it’s routes in Einbeck, Lower Saxony, Germany in the 14^th Century. The popularity of this strong Einbeck beer grew and it eventually found its way to Munich in Bavaria. Anchor Brewing explain in their article ‘It’s All About Bock’ that the accent of Bavaria quickly converted ‘Einbeck’ to ‘Einbock’ and this in turn was shortended to ‘Bock’….there you go. Nothing to do with goats!

The Doppelbock as were know it today originates from Munich around the 17^th Century when it was originally brewed by monks of the order of Francis of Paola as a stronger version of the ever popular Bock. The Doppelbock quickly became popular in monastic circles. ‘Salvator’, which is probably the most well known Doppelbock, was often drunk by monks during lent and became known as ‘liquid bread’ as it helped them through a long days fasting.

As a result of Salvators’ success other Barvian brewers started to brew Doppelbocks, in an attempt to harness the popularity of Paulaner’s Slavator they also used to ending -ator when naming their brews. As a result Celebrator (Ayinger), Animator (Hacker Pschorr), Maximator (Augustiner) and Triumphator (Lowenbrau) were born, and I could go on!

A Doppelbock is traditionally a malt forward beer often using Munich and Vienna malt plus a little dark malt to add colour. To add further colour many Doppelbocks will be docoction mashed, a traditional method which involves removing a small amount of the mash, boiling it and adding back into the main mash. This results in sweet malty, toffee, caramel and toasted flavours. A classic Doppelbock may also feature, raisin, date and figgy dried fruit flavours along with some subtle milk chocolate notes. Generally Doppelbocks will have almost no hop flavour or aroma and should be medium to full bodied, smooth and velvety.

After my first experience of Celebrator I managed to try a couple of German versions and one from Lervig. It wasn't until early 2020 when my love for the style was confirmed, not by a German classic, but by a collaboration between two British breweries. Better known for their IPAs and Stouts, North Brewing Co and Thornbridge brewed a 7% ABV Doppelbock which knocked my socks off. It was everything I wanted from a Doppelbock, sweet toasted caramel, milk chocolate, raisins and sticky dates all coming together in with a thick velvety mouthfeel. Not too sweet, yet clean, fruity and easy to drink.

After my experience with the North x Thornbridge collabation I decided to round this piece off by comparing the North x Thornbridge effort against 2 other Doppelbocks brewed outside of Germany. ‘Naughty and Nice’, the Lervig I had at Christmas and ‘Bocktoberfest’ a seasonal special from Vocation, both coming it at 8% ABV.

All three poured well with good carbonation and a dark brown with the Lervig being the lightest of the three with more of a ruby tinge. The aroma of all three was as I expected, malty, toasted caramel, milk chocolate and the classic dried fruit flavours of raisins, figs and dates. In addition to this the ‘Bocktoberfest’ also had strong ethanol/alcohol aroma which wasn’t the most pleasant and certainly not to style. Similar was true of the taste and mouthfeel. The North x Thornbridge was my favourite, thick, full of complex malty and fruity notes. Raisin, dates and smooth chocolate. This was closely followed by the Lervig, which had a similar complex flavour but sadly not the body to match. Once again the Vocation suffered from a little ethanol/alcohol on the aftertaste. The sweet raisin and date flavours did a little to mask this but it was not quite enough; it did have the velvety thick body similar to the North x Thornbridge collab.

3 very enjoyable beers. It shows that this classic style has an important place and relevance in today’s world of hazy juice bombs and pastry stouts. Long live lager.