It's Never Too Dark for Doppelbock

The weather is cold, and the world is dark. 

Snow is falling outside. It is late February, and now is the time of Lenten sacrifice, of deprivation. The year is 1634, and for the monks of Paulaner, this is a solemn time of the year. Their days are filled with prayer and their nights are filled with hunger, suffering through fasting as did Christ during the 40 days and 40 nights in the desert…

...contending with the devil himself. 

How did these men do this, giving up solid food for over a month? How was it even possible? The answer...Beer. A very special beer, brewed to be strong and nourishing. Rich with calories and unfermented sugar, a beer designed for long and cold winter nights, desperately holding on to faith until spring. 

Less pious men might have broken under the strain. But with their special beer, Doppelbock, the monks of Paulaner were able to endure until Easter Sunday. A beer so rich and nutritious, the monks called it liquid bread. With four daily servings and a fifth on Sunday, you’d probably be feeling extra holy too. With their precious beer the monks were able to make it through the season, rejoicing as they drew nearer to God

A Holy Mission

So what does “doppelbock” mean anyway? And how can a beer be so nutritious that it gets called ‘liquid bread’? The answers all go back to one religious order, the Benedictine monks of Saint Francis of Paola, who moved to Bavaria from Italy in 1627. Their goal was to hold the line for the Catholic faith, and they quickly set about all the traditional tasks that monks would do in these times: Building a church, spreading the good word, and brewing beer. 

The beer these Paulaner monks would have brewed most of the year would have been no different than what anyone else in Bavaria was brewing during this time: Bock, a malty rich brown ale that was everyone’s daily beer of consumption. Lager yeast hadn’t evolved yet, and pale colored beer didn’t exist. Bock is a german term that can roughly be translated to buck deer or a male goat, but in context with beer, what it meant was STRONG. Bock beers had a kick to them, along with a nutritive value that most modern beers don’t have, providing needed calories and nutrition during an era where safe food was hard to come by. Beer was the beverage of choice for everyone during this time, down to the last man, woman and child (albeit, watered down for the little ones).

A Revelation for the Faithful

To honor the suffering and fast of Christ, the monks traditionally suffered and fasted, not eating solid food for 40 days and nights. When the monks of Paulaner were staring down the barrel of their annual fast, they decided to brew a special beer for the occasion to get them through it. They used twice (doppel = double) as much malt as they typically included in their standard brew, to provide twice as much nourishment and calories. The result was a revelation: Doppelbock

Compared to standard Bock, Doppelbock was immense. Malty, rich, and ponderous, deep brown and undeniably sweet, with a (standard for the times) light smoke character; and chock full of vitamins and minerals from all the unfermented barley sugar that comprised the body. Doppelbock made Lent a breeze, and word about the brew spread. Soon the monks were selling it outside the walls of their monastery, and local competing breweries began to complain. Soon enough though, those breweries were making their own Doppelbocks, and the style spread throughout Southern Germany. 

And they will call for a Savior

Salvator was what the monks called their beer, for Sankt Vaterbier (Holy Father Beer), and the name spread. In time it simply because the generic name for the style. But, much like how the wineries of the region of Champagne put a stop on it being a generic name for sparkling wine, so too did the modern owners of the Paulaner brewery with the name Salvator. 

A trademark was issued, and every brewery making ‘Salvator’ had to figure out what to call their product, and quickly. In the end most of them chose names ending in the suffix ‘-ator’ (like Celebrator, Consecrator, etc) to minimize consumer confusion, and the name ‘Doppelbock’ won out as the overall preferred term for the style. Think about that the next time you have a California ‘Sparkling Wine’ instead of a ‘California Champagne’. 

Doppeling Down

As time went on Doppelbock changed as new brewing technology came to Germany. Lager yeast and bottom fermentation changed Doppelbock to a smoother brew. Coke kilned malts removed the smoke component, focusing the beer on the flavors of Decoction mashing, and the elegant Munich malt that made up its base. 

Modern fermentation practices increased the efficiency of the lager yeast being used, causing the base ABV to undergo a dramatic upward rise. A 17th century version of Doppelbock would have had a rich sweetness comparable to a dessert wine, and with a modest alcohol level no higher than 6.5% ABV. By contrast, most modern Doppelbocks begin at 7% ABV and can climb all the way up to 10%!! Doppelbock is commensurately much drier than it was once, but still focused on an elegant malty character that tends to be sweeter on the palate. There is low to no hop flavor in this beer and the smooth lager yeast stays out of the way, for a flavor dominated by elegant, bready, toasty malt notes. 

Beyond Brats

A beer this mighty needs mighty food to accompany. Pretzels don’t cut it for Doppelbock, stick to Schnitzel and mashed potatoes. Veal Cutlets might be more tender, but Pork cutlets come without the accompanying moral quandaries and provide a flavor that can be just as rich. The pan fry of the Schnitzel creates Maillard reaction products in the breading of the cutlet that perfectly complement the similar flavors from the use of Munich malt. 

A more adventurous pairing though, would be chicken breasts in Mexican-style Mole sauce. The chocolate of the mole sauce would boost the chocolate notes inherent in the Doppelbock, while the chile heat of the sauce would add a bright and delightful contrast to the maltiness of the beer. The chile heat would also add a cutting note to the weight of the beer, even as the moderate carbonation of the beer would help cut through the weight of the sauce. A delightful ‘Win Win Win’ pairing all around.