Long Haul Doppelbock

Review Date 4/28/2024 By John Staradumsky

  Style: Doppelbock   Brewery: Creature Comforts   Country: USA   State: Georgia   $ Per OZ: $.28 (B), $.39 (D)   ABV: 7.1%

Get ready now, folks. We’re in this for the long haul. At least I am anyway, and in more ways than one. I was at Taco Mac (imagine that!) on a Thursday evening for the NFL draft. Draft beer on draft night! What’s better than that? One of those drafts was Long Haul Doppelbock from the Creature Comforts brewing company of Athens, Georgia.  

Doppelbock is my very favorite style of beer, so as I perused the draft list this immediately popped as a beer I was going to order. I’m a big Creature Comforts fan, too, so that made this one a double no brainer. It wasn’t the first beer of the night I drank, as that honor went to Maui Pineapple Mana. I just love that beer, and it was a better pairing with our wings than a double bock would be.

The brewery website has the following to say about this beer:

Originally sustenance for monks, now for our beautiful drinking pleasure. Our daily bread in liquid form. Malty deliciousness in this strong lager that has lagered for over 6 weeks.

On Untappd, there is more about the beer (they usually quote from the brewery website or label):

Long Haul is a 7.1% ABV Doppelbock featuring Hallertau, Mittlefrau, and Tettnang hops. This German-style beer is lagered for five months in oak puncheons and presents plum, cherry, caramel, and vanilla notes.

I just love the word puncheon, don’t you? In this context, it means a piece of wood. It rhymes with luncheon, which you probably already know, and nuncheon, which you probably don’t. At least, I wasn’t aware nuncheon was a word until recently when I read about it in a novel, and I’ve been dying to use it in a beer review ever since. Mostly because it’s really cool, but also because it does have to do with beer.

Websters defines nuncheon as follows:

a light midmorning or midafternoon snack consisting typically of bread, cheese, and beer

See? I told you it had to do with beer. That said, at 7.1% alcohol by volume, Long Haul Doppelbock is not a beer I would recommend for nuncheon. You ain’t gonna make it through the long haul if you start drinking this at 10 o’clock in the morning. I paid $8.94 for my 23-punce mug of Long Haul at Taco Mac, and Total Wine sells it here for $17.99 the 4-pack of pint cans. Which seems kind of high. The draft price seemed reasonale enough, though, so I guess it balances out.

Creature Comforts Long Haul Doppelbock pours to a dark chestnut color with a nose of soft nutty malt. Taking a sip the beer is cookie malty, toasty nutty too. It does not pop with the deep seated melanoidins the German versions have but it does have a hint of caramel and a pleasant grassy bitterness.

The Germans have nothing to worry about here, I found this to be a tasty double bock if not an exceptional one. I would drink it again though, and as much as I love the style, at some point I probably will.

 Glad I tried it?  T

Would I rebuy it??