Here’s one of my beefs about America’s craft beer scene, folks. This isn’t a recent beef, by the way, it’s more of a long-standing one, and at its heart it is rooted in economics I suppose. Here it goes: American brewers just don’t produce enough German style lagers. When you look at the craft beer scene today it is increasingly dominated by IPAs and sours and saisons and imperial this and that. By and large, though, these are ales.

That’s where the economics come in, of course. Lagers take longer to age, and tying up tanks at the brewery for lagering means money. It’s less beer you can crank out in the long run, and that has a tendency to decrease a brewery’s revenue. Still, there are some brewers out there that specialize in quality German lagers, and one of the foremost in my mind is the Sprecher Brewery of Glendale, Wisconsin. So, when I saw a 4-pack of Sprecher Doppel Bock at Total Wine not long ago, I was all over it.

Doppelbocks are my very favorite style of beer, and I had never tried this one before, so that was a doppel treat for me. Sprecher says this about the beer on their website:

This dark lager was originally brewed as liquid bread to sustain Bavarian monks while fasting. Its sweet complex malt character comes from brewing with many varieties of dark roasted caramel malts and long periods of cold storage.

Ingredients:

Malts: 2-Row Pale, Black Patent, Caramel, Carapils, Munich, Vienna

Hops: Chinook, Mt. Hood, Saaz, Tettnanger

So yes friends, a score on this one for me. But it gets better. I was so excited about finding this beer I didn’t bother to check the price. How about $5.74 for the 4-pack? Now that’s a deal for sure. Sprecher Doppel Bock has an alcohol content of 8% by volume on my bottle though the website says 7.85%, and 31 IBUs.

Sprecher Dopple Bock pours to a dark chestnut color with a light creamy head formation and a sweet malty nose of toasted nutty melanoidin goodness. Taking a sip, this one is packed with all the wonderful dark malty goodness the nose promised: toasted nuts, dark chocolate (reminds me of Celebrator in that regard), molasses, dark (but not roasty) fresh malty melanoidin goodness. I could drink this one forever, folks, it’s a dry dopple and has enough grassy Teutonic hop oomph to balance off the malts. That makes it a bit different from the pack but really a wonderful example of the style.

Sprecher does it again.

And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.

*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.

(B)=Bottled

(D)=Draft

(G)=Growler

 



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