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Styles · Doppelbock

Beer style · BJCP 2021 9A

Doppelbock

Strong European Beer

Published ranges These are the ranges the BJCP 2021 guidelines publish for this style.

Original gravity
1.072–1.112
Final gravity
1.016–1.024
Bitterness
16–26 IBU
Color
6–25 SRM (12–49 EBC)
Alcohol
7.0–10.0 % ABV

What it is

The strong Bavarian malt beer: deep melanoidin richness, bread crust and dark fruit, warmed by alcohol and barely bittered at all. Pale and dark versions both exist and both are unmistakably malt-driven. The best examples hide their strength behind sheer smoothness.

Flavor

What a Doppelbock should taste like, on the three wheels the studio scores every recipe against. The shaded ring is the style’s range on each axis, from 0 at the center to 5 at the edge.

Hops

Hops stay in the background: none of their character belongs.

Malt

Bready/biscuit, toasty and sweet/honey, with room for grainy, caramel, dark fruit or chocolate.

Fermentation

Clean, with room for sulfur.

Hops that suit it

The traditional choice

What Doppelbock has classically been brewed with.

Nothing else on character: the hops here are there for bitterness and balance, and any variety whose aroma you would notice is out of place.

Yeasts that suit it

Strains the lab made for beers like this one, whose fermentation character sits inside the style’s wheel. A strain sold by several labs is listed once; its page names the others.

And 32 more yeasts whose character fits. These are the 24 that fit best.

Style numbers, names and vital statistics are from the BJCP 2021 Beer Style Guidelines, where you will find the official descriptions. The descriptions and flavor wheels here are Beerwright’s own. Beerwright is not affiliated with or endorsed by the BJCP.