Note: this review was begun before sundown saturday last week, so TOTALLY kosher and stuff. After all day in the sun watching the daughter play futbol, there's nothing like a kick-butt doppelbock.

Commercial description: The classic German dark beer, bottom fermented Doppel Bock. 7.2 pct ABV. I paid $1.99 (on sale, regularly about $2.49, I think) for this 16.9 oz. bottle.

Doppelbock ("double bock") is one of my favorite lager styles. According to the Source,

[Bock] is a corruption of the medieval German brewing town of Einbeck, but also means goat (buck) in German. The original Bocks were dark beers, brewed from high-coloured malts. Modern Bocks can be dark, amber or pale in colour. Bock was traditionally brewed for special occasions, often religious festivals such as Christmas, Easter or Lent.

Michael (not "Hee-Hee") Jackson wrote of bocks and such: "Extra-strong beers were originally made at this time of year by monastic breweries as "liquid bread" to see the brothers through the weeks when their diet forbade not only meat but also fish."

So I'm totally justified in drinking this for Passover.


Doppelbocks were Bavarian specialties. They tend to be big, malty, alcoholic, sweet beers, full of the flavors of dried fruits (cherries, plums) and low on hop aroma and bite.

Spaten Optimator is an excellent example of the style. It is not over-the-top in terms of alcohol, malt or aroma, but it's no slouch either. I would agree with the boys over at Beer Advocate that the Optimator is near, but not at the top of the rankings. The Ayinger Celebrator is, indeed, a fabulous beer. I'd also put the original, Paulaner Salvator, and the almost whisky-like (when properly aged) Samiclaus on a pedestal, and the locally-brewed Sudwerk Doppelbock doesn't suck.

Bocks are lagers (fermented with "bottom-fermenting" yeast, which works its magic on the wort at a lower temperature -- and, therefore, more slowly and expensively -- than generally true of top-fermenting ale yeasts). Central Europeans pioneered the lager style, often aging their beers in caves. Special for the Nation's Chemist! There are two noteworthy but-not-so-happy chemistry thingies often associated with lager beer. One is a fermentation byproduct: diacetyl.

As the low-temperature fermentation, which can take place at temperatures as cool as 0-5 degrees Celsius, allows diacetyl [or 2,3-butanedione] to remain free in the fermenting beer, the fermentation temperature may briefly be raised -- a "diacetyl rest" -- near the end of the primary fermentation to allow the consumption of this chemical. This reliance on lower temperatures and better temperature control separated Europe into "lager" and "ale" spheres before the introduction of refrigeration, with warmer countries generally producing ales and colder ones producing lagers. Difficulties in temperature control also create a disincentive for microbrewers to produce lagers.

Diacetyl is one of the compounds that gives butter it's buttery taste and mouthfeel. That can be good if you are making an oaked Chardonnay, but mebbe not so good in a beer. And not so good when breathed.

The other is an industrial process: "continuous fermentation." This was the evil spawn of inquisitive New Zealander Morton W. Coutts in 1953. In traditional, batch fermentation, malted barley is steeped in hot water to extract fermentable sugars, boiled to kill little buggies, then cooled so that yeast may be added to begin the fermentation process. The yeast is like a teenage boy being thrown into the midst of a harem. It can get so excited by all the available, ahem, brown sugar, that it can fail to perform. The continuous fermentation process uses a series of cascading vessels (see below) with a continuous feed of wort to the fermentation tanks and a feedback loop from later to earlier tanks to introduce partially fermented beer and more, umm, mature and serviceable yeast to the fresh wort. The use of chilled, stored wort means that most of the proteins settle out, leading to a clean, clear beer without much need for post-fermentation filtering. The partially-fermented beer reduces the pH of the wort, making it harder for rival buggies to get established. All this means a quickly produced (and therefore, cheaper, albeit less flavorful), consistent product with high quality control. And, one might add, little soul. In other words, blame the genius of Morton W. Coutts and his infernal machine for the rise of mega-breweries and bland national brands of lager. Suddenly, economies of scale could rear their ugly heads and allow a few, well-capitalized brewers (I'm looking at you, Anheuser-Busch) to destroy centuries of local brewing tradition almost overnight.

Morton's Killer Ap

All this is an aside, however. Just because some chemists use their skills for evil does not mean that all chemists are so tainted

Spaten Optimator has plenty o' soul. It is a great, yet approachable beer. Because of the malt and sweetness, I wouldn't particularly recommend it with light foods, but I had it last night with a dinner of steak salad (leftover steak, chopped avocado and shaved parmesan over a mesclun spring mix, tossed with a vinaigrette flavored with dijon, garlic, honey and fresh rosemary) and it worked just fine for me.