The Weekly Pint: Spaten's Optimator, a doppelbock
Posted by Roger the Beerist at 1/4/2008 6:15 PM and is filed under Doppelbock,The Session,Beer review,Weekly Pint 
This week's Weekly Pint is part of The Session. On the first Friday of each month, a beer blogger will host the Session and beer bloggers from all over will be post entries on whatever theme the host selects. This month's host is Brewvana. The selected theme is: Doppelbock, the Illuminator. Visit Appellation Beer to learn the origin of The Session. Here's my contribution to The Session.I would say that craft and homebrewers are the illuminati of the beer world. We are enlightened. We spread the word about good beer. We understand the messianic nature of craft beer. Homebrewing has "saved" us from the darkness of the Big Three.
Centuries ago, monks were similarly "saved" by beer. During the Lenten season, a period of fasting (which is somewhat silly in my opinion - it's based on Christ's forty days in the wilderness; however, as I understand it he fasted after his baptism which took place in the autumn - well, anyway, that's another post!), the monks brewed doppelbock's to get them through this period. This beer is truly liquid bread. It is, as Charlie Papazian wrote, a "beer to be respected." Check out some of the other posts for this Session and you'll get a nice history of the style and the monks who brewed it.
A doppelbock is a strong lager, seven percent alchohol and up. It should be a smooth and malty beer with a hint of sweetness. It is said to be a very good dessert beer. Traditionally, the doppelbock's name contain the suffix -ator, so named after the beer that the monks brewed. It came to be called Salvator (meaning "savior;" the monks understood the messianic nature of beer, too). Other brewers began to mimic this style and also called their beers Salvator. This was in the days prior to trademark protection. By 1894, the Paulaner brewery was able to protect the name so other brewer's simply kept the suffix.
I drank Spaten's Optimator for this Session, as it was the only doppelbock available to me. It was a sweet beer, like candy. In fact, it was like mixing caramel, hard candy and whiskey together. It was a syrupy libation, sugary sweet to my palate, not malty sweet. It was warm. The alcohol was present. The hops were not, as appropriate. It was an oily, chewy, full bodied lager. It finished clean with a hint of grapes.
No hops were present in the nose. It did smell kind of like a brandy. It reminded me of Sam Adams Utopia, which I was able to try for the first time at the 2007 Great American Beer Festival. It was dark brown with a tint of copper 'round the edges. Very thin, tan head. It didn't dissipate but did not stay thick throughout.
I had read that this beer went well with chocolate or pudding or anything creamy like that. Well, I tried it with Gianduiotti Hazelnut Chocolate praline. It's a creamy bit of chocolate. It's true, doppelbock's compliment creamy chocolate very well. It doesn't scour the mouth clean but it adds it candy sweetness to the overpowering chocolate, actually balancing it very nicely.
Doppelbock's have been attacked, forgotten and even feared. Yet, the style has endured. Truly, it is a beer style worthy of respect.
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