Doppelbock – BrewMinds

With Bockfest happening this weekend, a celebration of amber and dark lagers, it’s time for me to finish this post that I’ve stewed on for a few months now. Last June I wrote a plea for fellow craft beer enthusiasts to embrace the Love of Lagers. I realized then that far too many folks think lager = pilsner = Budweiser and nothing else.

Lager just means that the wort ferments into beer with a yeast that prefers cooler temperatures around 35° – 40° Fahrenheit over weeks or months. To contrast that, ale yeast likes to ferment around 64 – 70 degrees for a week or two. On top of that, there seems to be a pervasive idea that lagers have to be a pale yellow color. Today we’re going to dispel the notion that all lager style beers are flavorless yellow fizz by highlighting a few different darker lager styles.

Continue reading “Dark Lagers: For the Love of Lagers! Part 2”

In the ever increasing number of “seasons” in beer, we find bocks and doppelbocks coming out during late winter/early spring. Like most lager’s these beers started in Germany, bocks in Einbeck then later doppelbocks came out of Munich, dating back to the mid-1600s. Traditionally monks would drink this “liquid bread” during the long fasting days of Lent.

A few words about goats. The link between bock beers and goats has been somewhat mystifying. Most bock, or doppelbock, beer labels have goats on them, and Cincinnati’s own Bockfest has a giant wooden goat, but why??

There is no firm, conclusive evidence but the anecdotal stuff is mostly summed up as follows: as I mentioned earlier, the town of Einbeck is the supposed origin place of this style of beer. Back in the day, it was likely just called Einbeck style or something like that. Well, some folks in Munich probably had too many beers of this style and started slurring Einbeck into einbock. In German bock means goat. Anyway, that’s how I like to imagine it went down but, just like how many licks it takes to get to the center of a lollipop; the world may never know.

With Emancipator, Moerlein is presenting us with a doppelbock, or double bock so we’re drinking two goats. Moerlein first released it back in 2008 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the repeal of prohibition. Now it’s released mid-February every year wherever Moerlein beers are available. Now let’s kick this review off with a traditional Bavarian toast when drinking doppelbocks. Salve, pater patriae! Bibes, princeps optimae! (Greetings to you, father of our country! Drink, best of all noblemen!)

Continue reading “Beer Review: Moerlein Emancipator Doppelbock”