Session #11 - Doppelbock

I will be absolutely amazed if I'm the only one who chose the beer I chose for the subject of this month's Session. Thinking about it, I typically don't drink that many lagers. It's not that I have any animosity towards them; I just run across many more ales in my quest for new and interesting beers I've never tasted. There are several lagers I do like though, including Shiner Black Lager, Warsteiner Premium Verum, and Spaten Oktoberfest. But when it comes to doppelbocks, there just aren't that many available to me, at least in a handy, go-grab-it-off-the-shelf sense.

From the homebrewer's vantage point, I've never brewed a lager at all. It's not that I wouldn't like to. I've just never rigged up my refrigerator with an external thermometer for fermentation purposes. So I've contented myself with brewing ales and buying commercially available lagers when the urge strikes me for one. So now, with the excuses explanations behind us as to why I chose a doppelbock that other people will almost certainly also write about, my choice is:

Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock

The first word that popped into my mind when I tasted this beer was "chocolate". The tasty, toasty, malty flavor was very impressive. There was not much head to speak of on this one. What head there was quickly dissipated. Hops were evident, but not at all overpowering or even particularly noticeable behind the smooth, malty body. With a big beer like this that's OK though, even though I rarely find a beer to be "over hopped". Over hopped is kind of like "too much garlic" to me. It's just not a generally used part of my vocabulary.

Beer Advocate gives this one very high marks, as does Rate Beer. I read the reviews after tasting, and I wasn't surprised at the high level of approval. It's just a good beer. It's one that would lend itself well to cellaring, which I'll do.

There's really quite a bit of interesting history behind doppelbock as a style. Browsing around the internet, I found this:

Literally, Doppelbock means double Bock(bier). It is one of Germany's "biggest" beers, typically with an alcohol content by volume of around 7%, but some Doppelbocks go up to 13% in strength. Doppelbock emerged in the late eighteenth century as a powerful lager variant of the old monastic strong beer, the monks' "liquid bread," which they traditionally brewed for the Lenten season. Living by the strict rules of their order, the monks were regularly required to castigate themselves by periodic bouts of fasting, when next to no solid food was allowed to pass their lips. The longest and most taxing of these periods of culinary abstinence was, of course, Lent, the 46 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. Because the monks believed that liquids not only cleansed the body but also the soul, they would make plenty of liquid instead of solid bread from their grain, and then drink it in copious quantities...the more, the holier. Because the monks were society's role models in those religious times...as did the monks so did the common folk. The secular verson of the sacred strong bier was called a Bockbier.

There's quite a bit more information available at the link. If you have an interest in the history behind the doppelbock style, that seems like a good resource to me. The problem I have now is that I just don't have easy access to too many other commercially available doppelbocks here in Texas. I guess I just need to add Germany to my list of international destinations that I'll get around to visiting one day.

In conclusion, I'll leave you with this .mp3. It's not me thankfully. It's just audio reinforcement of a bock beer stereotype.

.mp3 link

I hope you didn't find my contribution to this month's session to be too terribly baaaaaaad.

Beer