Hofbräu Winter Spezial

Review Date 10/24/2025 By John Staradumsky

  Style: Doppelbock   Brewery: Hofbrau   Country: Germany   State: N/A   $ Per OZ: $.19 (B)   ABV: 8.4%

My tale of Hofbräu Winter Spezial begins some ten years ago, and alas for all those years it has been a tale of woe. That’s because I just could not get my hand on the stuff, no matter how hard I tried. The beer, also known as Hofbräu Delicator, is a doppelbock, and doppelbocks are my favorite style of beer. Yet, it continued to elude me.

I did come close to scoring it one year at Helen’s Oktoberfest celebration. I was standing in line at the Festhalle, when I spied the Delicator on the draft menu. Imagine my sheer delight! The guy in front of me arrived before one of the bartenders, and he ordered a Delicator, and as they started pouring it, the tap sputtered and spit air. The keg had kicked! This wasn’t fair! It was like arriving at the pearly gates, only for St. Peter to say there had been an error, and your name was not on the list.

A few years ago, a friend told me that his local Lidl had Hofbräu Winter Spezial in stock, and he bought some there. I kept checking my Lidl for the beer, repeatedly, but came up empty handed. I checked there again last year with the same results. Denied again!

Fast forward to the present, early October of 2025. I was preparing for my annual trip to Helen and checking out the local venues on Untappd, to see what was on tap. There it was: The Chatt Street Tap Room had Delicator on draft! I was tempted to jump in the car and head there immediately. But, work.

I’ll bet you can guess what happened next. Before I could get to Helen, the keg kicked. I dropped in to double check almost as soon as we arrived, and it was true. No more Delicator. Would I ever get to try this beer?

Then, it happened. We stopped by Alpine Bottle Shop (a must visit along with Betty’s in Helen for packaged German beer). As I paused to chgeck the cold case filled with fine German brews (you know the one I’m talking about, right by the front door) I saw it! Singles of Hofbräu Winter Spezial! I asked if they had any six-packs, and the fine frau working that day told me they did not. This was the last of it, some bottles had broken before arrival. I scooped up a few, and brought my precious cargo back to the hotel.

If you check the Hofbräuhaus America website, you will find listings for both the Delicator and the Winter Spezial. They are, other than the names, identical. Of the Winter Spezial Hofbräu says:

A real Winter Warmer! The rich and spiced flavor with a taste of dark chocolate and dried berries is created by the perfect amount of roasted caramel malt and a well-hidden hop bitterness for a smooth finish. Connoisseur Recommendation: Especially enjoyed on a cold winter day with a rich hot pot of meat and vegetables.

Hofbräu Winter Spezial has an alcohol content of 8.4% by volume with 30 IBUs. I paid $2.99 each for my singles, Total Wine sells the beer for $12.49 the six-pack of 11.2-ounce bottles in Rochester, MN. My bottles are stamped 10/11/2024, which I assume is the packaging date, so these are from last year.  This year’s batch should therefore be on its way over the ocean soon, and I hope to find more now that we have established it does come to Georgia.

Hofbräu Winter Spezial pours to a murky brownish black color with a thick fluffy tan head and a nose of deep dark toasted malts and molasses. The nose is replete with wonderful decoction mash nuttiness and I just wanted to sniff its decadent aroma forever. Taking a sip, the beer is rich and full in body, just what I want in the style. It’s toasty nutty and thick again with the molasses the nose promised. There’s chocolate, too, and the beer just bursts with decocted toasty nutty melanoidin Munich goodness. It finishes (barely) balanced with a gentle grassy bitterness.

A truly wonderful brew, and a toasty-nutty, chocolaty, double-decocted, melanoidin-packed, Munich malt infused, decadent dark Teutonic doppelbock block party going on in my mouth! A worthy member of the big Munich brewery doppelbock club, along with Augustiner Maximator, Spaten Optimator, and Paulaner Salvator. Löwenbräu Triumphator and Hacker-Pschorr Animator I have yet to find. Now if you will excuse me, I need to get out there and look for them.

Glad I tried it?  T

Would I rebuy it??