Doppel Your Pleasure, Doppel Your Fun
Doppelbock is often deemed one of the harder beer styles to brew well. First off, it’s big and bready — the monks brewed it specifically for times of fasting to stave off hunger pangs. But it should not be cloying or overly sweet. This isn’t supposed to be a dessert beer; the finish is meant to be smooth and crisp with toasted cracker malt character, although there are versions that lean more towards dried fruit and some sweetness. Secondly, it’s a lager, which means strict temperature control should be applied to make sure fermentation proceeds slow and steady and brewers need to pitch a lot of yeast.
Doppelbock is a traditional style that dates back hundreds of years in the Bavarian region of Germany. If you trace the roots of doppelbock you’ll find the Paulaner Friars of Munich, a Franciscan order founded by St. Francis of Paula that later became the famous Paulaner brewery. While it was originally brewed in the 1630s to sustain the monks during Lent and Advent, the Paulaner doppelbock Salvator (savior) wasn’t released to the public until 1780. As a tribute, many brewers have stuck to the tradition of naming their doppelbocks with the “–ator” suffix.
By current German law, doppelbocks must have an original gravity of 18–28 °Plato (1.074–1.112 specific gravity) and an end alcohol content of 7.5–13% ABV. Decoction mashing was historically used for this style, but it is up to the brewer to decide if they want to invest the time into this technique. If you do opt for a decoction mash, I recommend reading advice from Dan Carey of New Glarus Brewing Co., found here: https://byo.com/article/brewing-doppelbock-tips-from-the-pros/
As we turn the corner into cooler and shorter days here in the Northern Hemisphere, four American masters of brewing doppelbocks answered ten questions homebrewers may have when approaching this style. I enlisted the help of Jamil Zainasheff from Heretic Brewing Co. in Fairfield, California; Dave Colt from Sun King Brewing Co. in Indianapolis, Indiana; Andrew Blakeslee from Thomas Hooker Brewing Co. in Bloomfield, Connecticut; and John Trogner from Tröegs Independent Brewing in
Hershey, Pennsylvania.
So, pull up a seat at the table!
Recipe Design
1. Malts: What recommendation would you give to homebrewers? Any specialty malts you consider key?
Andrew Blakeslee: I believe in an assortment of different specialty malts to layer flavor, but without going overboard. I’ve seen some recipes with only 1–2 specialty malts, and some with over 10. The lower end doesn’t have enough, and the higher end has too many and a lot of them are lost due to low percentages. We use five different specialties in our doppelbock ranging from Munich to chocolate malt. In a doppelbock I consider melanoidin malt to be essential, and a small amount of high-SRM malt with low roastiness for color (I like to use de-husked Carafa® Special III). A small amount of special B malt to enhance the dark fruit character is also a good idea if you want that flavor to stand out.
David Colt: If you are looking to do an authentic/traditional doppelbock-style for your recipe, then we recommend Weyermann malts. We like to use a 50/50 blend of standard two-row and Weyermann Pilsner. Some other specialty malts we use are Munich, Vienna, and melanoidin.
JamiI Zainasheff: I think you only need three malts for the perfect doppelbock: Munich, Pilsner, and Caramunich® (or a similar continental caramel malt). I think the key is using quality continental malts to develop that traditional flavor.
John Trogner: I’m a huge fan of Weyermann and Durst malts for these styles. Both use a roasting process that can provide a huge range of flavors. I avoid any malt that has a biscuity flavor to them . . . I want bready, straw-flavored malts. 20% Vienna, 20% Munich as a base with a layer of mid and darker caramel and specialty malts. If you want more shelf-stable beer, go lighter on darker caramel malts and melanoidin. I like a very small addition of chocolate and melanoidin malts — less than 1% each. A little goes a long way.
2. Hops: Is there any philosophy that you follow when it comes to hops in the kettle?
JamiI Zainasheff: For doppelbock it’s all about restraint. Often brewers struggle with getting the proper attenuation or have added far too many or too much specialty malt. The sweetness in doppelbock comes more from lower bittering than it does
low attenuation.
John Trogner: I find hops to be a big controller of the beer’s texture in a style like doppelbock. Personally, I like German Northern Brewer hops, which provide a bright and lemony character earlier in the boil, then Hallertau Tradition for our late addition. We want them to be a background, supporting role in this style, but not to get in the way of the malts here. They’re the real stars of this show.
Andrew Blakeslee: I believe in tradition when it comes to this style, and as such I use traditional hops. We use Hallertau Mittelfrüh exclusively in this recipe, minus a small 60-minute addition of Columbus strictly for IBUs. Doppelbocks are meant to be malt-forward, so the hops are there for balance so it isn’t too sweet on the palate. I recommend 20–30 IBUs total, spread out over additions throughout the boil. We do a 30-minute, 20-minute, and 10-minute schedule.
David Colt: For the bitter addition we use a neutral, high-alpha bittering hop such as Warrior® or Pahto™. For the flavor and aroma additions we use Hallertau Mittelfrüh.
3. Yeast: Are there any special considerations when deciding?
JamiI Zainasheff: You can’t make a doppelbock with ale yeast. If you do, it is something else. A strong ale perhaps? You need a German lager strain. My preference is White Labs WLP833 (German Bock Lager) or WLP830 (German Lager). At Heretic, we ended up using WLP830. When Joe Formanek gave me a 50-point score in the American Homebrewer’s Association (AHA) Nationals that was with WLP833.
David Colt: During Sun King’s history we’ve tried several German lager strains, but we’ve come to prefer Augustiner for this particular style. For homebrewers, Imperial Yeast’s L17 (Harvest) or White Labs WLP860 (Munich Helles), Wyeast 2352 (Munich Lager II), or even SafLager 34/70 would all work well here.
John Trogner: I’m a big fan of Weihenstephan’s 34/70 strain of yeast. It’s widely available to homebrewers in both liquid and dried strains and is an absolute workhorse of a lager yeast. When handled properly it produces very little esters and low sulfur.
Andrew Blakeslee: Crisp, clean lager yeast is traditional. There are many strains out there that will do this job well; we use White Labs WLP830 (German Lager) yeast. Another yeast I haven’t personally used but think could do well for someone looking for large amounts of dark fruit flavors is Belgian dark ale yeast. This yeast tends to create lots of dark fruit esters, such as fig, plum, etc. that can enhance the malt flavors. This yeast will attenuate much higher than a lager strain however, so some recipe modification would be necessary to maintain an acceptable body/ flavor profile.
4. Water: What brewing salts work with this style and how do you approach residual alkalinity (RA)?
David Colt: Indianapolis has very hard water. Sun King uses a blend of reverse osmosis and municipal water to closely mimic conditions brewers in Bavaria have.
John Trogner: Here at Tröegs we like a very soft water profile to brew Troegenator. We use 90% reverse osmosis water with the remaining 10% being filtered tap water. Once we have that nice clean profile, we add in calcium chloride to achieve roughly 50 ppm calcium and 100 ppm chlorides (give or take some points depending on our tap water profile). We don’t add gypsum for this beer.
Andrew Blakeslee: For a rich, malty brew such as a doppelbock, I would recommend a softer water profile. Ideally, low alkalinity, with calcium at 30–50 ppm, chloride at 30–60 ppm, and sulfate at 20–50 ppm. Add lactic or phosphoric acid as needed for pH of 5.4–5.5 in the mash as well.
JamiI Zainasheff: Don’t overdo it: Everything in moderation. I would definitely keep RA moderate. This isn’t a dark beer, most of the color comes from the caramel malt, which doesn’t have the acidification of roast malt, which is one reason you might go with a higher RA.
Brew Day
5. How do you approach a big beer like this when it comes to your mash schedule?
Andrew Blakeslee: We have used a single infusion mash with a low-end mash temperature (150 °F/66 °C). We have a steam jacketed mash tun, so after a 30-minute mash rest at 150 °F (66 °C), we begin to ramp up to mashout at 170 °F (77 °C). A single- or double-decoction mash is something I have wanted to do with this beer and hope to this fall. This will bring more color, flavor, and melanoidins into the beer. A decoction mash will also typically increase mash efficiency, and be slightly more fermentable
(higher attenuation).
David Colt: Most malts are highly modified these days, so we only do a single step infusion mash at 154 °F (68 °C).
JamiI Zainasheff: We use 152 °F (67 °C) when we want good attenuation. We’ve found that the traditional lower mash temperatures really didn’t result in much lower attenuation and can negatively impact overall extract. The way you get great attenuation is paying attention to your yeast. If you do, you can have great attenuation. The residual longer chain sugars really aren’t very sweet, so as long as you get great attenuation, you will avoid that cloying sweetness problem, regardless of mash temperature. For doppelbock, I think a mash temperature aiming for 154–156 °F (68–69 °C) is ideal. You want some fullness to the beer and a higher mash temperature will help without making it sweet.
John Trogner: While we do perform a decoction mash for our annual Märzen beer, Troegenator is not one we perform a decoction on. Instead we perform a five-step mash that can take upwards of 2.5 hours to finish the mashing process.
But ultimately it depends a lot more on the malt you are utilizing and your brewing system rather than what works for others. It’s not just about getting conversion complete with an iodine test; it’s about getting maximum conversion for a style like this. Homebrewers could slowly ramp up the mash temperature starting around 140 °F (60 °C) up to mashout temperature or 2–3 key mash rests should provide a nice dry beer as a result. Our research has shown 143.5 °F (62 °C), 149 °F (65 °C), and 154.4 °F (68 °C) are our key rests for a dry beer.
6. Are you looking for low-, mid-, or high-attenuation from your yeast?
JamiI Zainasheff: It is better to think of mash temperatures and yeast attenuation as two completely separate things. You always want complete attenuation, as much as the yeast will give you under ideal conditions. You don’t want to leave unfermented, worty-tasting beer. So you can mash at whatever temperature you want, just make sure to ferment completely.
David Colt: Sun King feels like a medium attenuation is perfect for this style of beer.
John Trogner: We’re after a higher attenuation since the malts should produce plenty of depth and character.
Andrew Blakeslee: For a doppelbock we look for medium attenuation, around 75% with the lager yeast we use.
7. Any special considerations once the wort is in the kettle?
David Colt: Nothing special, our brewers use a standard 90-minute boil. We prefer to use a direct fire kettle.
Andrew Blakeslee: An extended boil can increase SRM as well as melanoidins in the beer. A longer boil is also helpful when using Pilsner base malt to reduce dimethyl sulfide (DMS) in the wort. We use a 90-minute boil for this beer, however you can go longer if you’d like and increase to 2–3 hours. If extending the boil, one must account for boil-off reducing volume and increasing starting gravity.
JamiI Zainasheff: I believe in a gentle but obvious 90-minute boil for lagers to reduce DMS precursors.
John Trogner: DMS needs to be taken seriously with this style and skimping on your boil time may not help your cause. We employ an 85-minute boil but we also have the ability to reduce the pressure within the boil kettle to reduce the boil temperature. I would recommend a gentle boil for homebrewers because we don’t want caramelization reactions to occur in the boil kettle.
Fermentation and Aging
8. Do you approach fermentation for a big lager like this differently than you would for a lower gravity lager?
John Trogner: I suggest homebrewers pitch double the amount of yeast than they would in a smaller lager like a Pilsner. The difference between getting a 12 °Plato (1.048 gravity) and a 19 °P (1.079 gravity) wort to ferment dry is big for a lager yeast. We ferment around 52 °F (11 °C) and hold at this temperature for the duration of active fermentation. Previously we fermented a bit colder and then performed a diacetyl rest but found with our 100 BBL fermenter size that our new fermentation schedule works just as well to eliminate diacetyl.
Andrew Blakeslee: We typically will brew one batch day one, and then another batch on day two and put them into a double-batch fermenter. The first batch we pitch slightly warm and with a higher oxygen level. This allows the yeast to propagate for the first 24 hours, and right as they go anaerobic we feed them with more wort, and a small amount of oxygen, and drop to primary fermentation temperature. We also use yeast nutrients to supply the yeast with free amino nitrogen (FAN), zinc, and other important nutrients.
JamiI Zainasheff: We use the same strain (WLP830) as our regular lagers because it is better to pitch enough healthy yeast than it is to get exactly the right strain. For example, if you have some other German lager yeast fermenting already, I would use a pitch from that. If you have some ale yeast or some lager strain that is inappropriate, I would not use that. I would start up a new pitch. So, if you want to use WLP833, then brew a lighter lager with it first to grow it up and then repitch the yeast into the doppelbock. I would never brew a beer like a doppelbock from a new pitch.
David Colt: The only similarity in fermentation between our doppelbock and Pachanga (our Mexican-style lager) is the temperature. Because doppelbocks have such a high gravity, fermentation takes longer and you need to be sure you’re pitching enough yeast and that their vitality is strong.
9. Do you have a recommended conditioning time for a big beer like this? Do you perform a diacetyl rest?
JamiI Zainasheff: I would start with pitching cold and working upward on temperature. At Heretic, for a normal strength lager we pitch below 50 °F (10 °C). We let the temperature climb unrestrained to 50 °F (10 °C) and then each day we let it rise one or two degrees (0.5–1 °C). After seven days (about eight days total), we are in the mid 60s °F (upper teens °C), and attenuation is complete. We hold it at this warmer temperature and check for diacetyl and acetaldehyde. It always has been clean at this point, but we will usually hold it another week before packaging. We feel like some lagering time improves the beer. For a beer like our doppelbock, most everything is the same, but it takes an extra couple of days to reach terminal gravity.
David Colt: We do not do a target diacetyl rest for any of our beers. We test for it in our lab. I highly recommend taking a small sample to assure that diacetyl is not present before you plan to drastically drop temperatures if a diacetyl rest was not performed.
John Trogner: For homebrewers, I definitely recommend a diacetyl rest because there is nothing worse than a butter-bomb lurking beneath your doppelbock. Our aging period depends largely upon what we are tasting from the beer, but a 6–8 week lagering period around 40 °F (4 °C) is a good benchmark. Also, making sure to dump the yeast/racking off the yeast once active fermentation is complete and some settling has occurred greatly benefits a beer like this. Beef broth components do not help this style at all.
Another, more advanced technique I think can be hugely beneficial is kräusening. I have found this to add a lot of character to German-style beers when done properly. Finally, we do spund Troegenator. Just like kräusening, I find that if the yeast is healthy and happy at this stage in fermentation, this technique adds lots of complexity and character to the beer compared to non-spunded versions.
Andrew Blakeslee: Once the yeast has attenuated about 60% we let the beer free-rise up to 65 °F (18 °C) for a diacetyl rest. Upon completion of fermentation we taste daily to pass diacetyl sensory, and once it passes we start dropping the temperature 5 degrees (2.5 °C) every 12 hours until we hit 32 °F (0 °C). We usually see diacetyl completely clear after three days. Another option to help with diacetyl is an enzyme called ALDC that prevents the formation of diacetyl by removing its precursor, alpha acetolactate.
As for the lager period, I would recommend six weeks. That time is obviously dependent on personal taste preference, but four weeks should be the minimum to develop a smooth flavor profile.
10. Any other things you think are important with this style?
John Trogner: You need to start by picturing the perfect doppelbock beer in your head. Do you envision a drier, crisper version or one that is a more chewy, caramel, raisin rendition? Decide which side of the fence you want to land on. I personally like the dry and crisp version that almost tastes sessionable. That is the flavor profile that Troegenator is based on. As a German brewer once told me, when drinking a great doppelbock, you don’t know you’re drunk until you stand up.
JamiI Zainasheff: It is important to ensure that the beer is clean, not too alcoholic, and attenuates enough to avoid a cloying finish. It is very common to find homebrew versions with fermentation problems. Often the beers did not attenuate completely or they fermented too warm. You don’t want an estery or hot alcohol character. Pitch plenty of clean, healthy yeast and ferment under controlled temperature conditions.
A common flaw is making the beer overly big and alcoholic. Avoid the temptation to go too big on the alcohol. This, like all German beers, should still be easy drinking. Another flaw is making the beer too rich in melanoidin. Too much can make the beer taste meaty or brothy. The cause is often excessive boiling, excessive decoction, or the overuse of specialty grains.
Andrew Blakeslee: Layers of flavor with none of them overpowering nor underwhelming. Caramel flavors should be present but not over the top. Dark fruit can add a nice complexity to the beer. Color should be a copperish red to brown. A healthy fermentation and extended lagering are also extremely important.
On a separate note, this style of beer also does well with barrel aging in a wide array of vessels. Bourbon-barrel aging, neutral-oak aging, and Port-barrel aging can all increase the depth of character in this style of beer. Bourbon aging will add coffee, toffee, char, and some caramel. Port barrels can increase the dark fruit aspect of the beer and add richness. Neutral oak can add some toasted marshmallow and caramel notes. In general, oak aging will typically create a drier tasting body, despite the final gravity not changing.
David Colt: Relax. Give it time. Enjoy responsibly with some schnitzel!
