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Made by monks, endorsed by God.
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Praise Be to the Salvator, Originator of All Good Things...
by Belly Buddy Mark Stevens
At A Glance Beer: Paulaner Brauerei Salvator Doppelbock Pros: Rich, sweet, malty and DEEEE-licious! Cons: Other beers aren't as good as Salvator The Bottom Line: If any beer defines the dopplebock style, it is Paulaner's Salvator, a hugely robust, enormously sweet, complex dopplebock that dances across your palate....enjoy! Recommended: Yes
In case you haven't guessed by now, I'm not really a very religious kind of guy. But when I sample the world's truly great brews, I can't help but think at times that maybe, just maybe, I ought to convert. After all, some of the best beers in Belgium are those from the Trappist monasteries, and some of the best beers in Germany are those from Paulaner -- a brewery started by Pauline monks.
When I taste a beer like Paulaner's Salvator I get this strange urge to head to church and confess my (many) sins... Why is Salvator so special? Let's pour a glass and see if we can't figure it out, shall we?
Appearance
Brilliant clarity with a deep amber color. When I hold the glass up to the light I see reddish-orange hues. Like many bigger brews, Salvator has a fairly slight head and low carbonation. Nevertheless, I see tiny bubbles streaming to the top. A beautiful beer to behold! But beers are for drinking, not admiring, so let's got on with the tasting, shall we??
Aroma
Nuts and toffee are what springs to mind when I first pass a glass of Salvator under my nose. In some ways it reminds me of the smell of a freshly poured bowl of granola cereal. As I swirl the glass a bit and take a second sniff I start to pick out some of the other components of this complex and very appetizing brew: there's some light earthy hops in the background (the beer is made using Hallertau hops) and a little bit of alcoholic spirit -- but just a little.
Flavor
Like all dopplebocks, Salvator is a full-bodied brew with a lot of luscious sweet malt flavors. I get some soft toffee-like flavors with a biscuit-like edge that kind of remind me of the flavor of an ever-so-slightly burrnt pie crust, or the dark edge of a homemade sweet bread.
I'm constantly amazed at the skill of German brewmasters, especially when it comes to balance. Dopplebock seems like a tough beer to balance well since it's so big on malt, yet balanced this is. Salvator is definitely malty and sweet, not unduly so. I know that this beer is big, brewed to a gravity of about 18 Plato (1072), but for a brew with so much sugar, the beer is amazingly drinkable due to the fairly high use of hops and Paulaner's well-known local water, which is harder than most other Munich-area brewers, giving their beers a little bit drier character than they would have if they were brewed with softer water.
What I Want in a Dopplebock
Bold, sweet, and malty -- that's what I want to find in a good glass of dopplebock!
This is definitely not a style of beer for wimpy drinkers. It's big. It's strongly flavored. And it's a little bit of heaven on earth for a discerning palate.
The beers are usually made using a blend of pale 6-row malt and Munich or Vienna malts. The reddish brown colors come from slightly toasted Munich malt, not from high-kilned darker malts nor from very sweet stewed malts like crystal or caramel. This tends to impart a nutty character to the malt profile, and you certainly find that in Salvator, which by the way, is the original dopplebock beer and the one that defines the style more so than any other brand.
Dopplebocks are always malty and at least somewhat sweet -- they never taste like hops.
A good dopplebock is a luxurious beer that you take your time drinking. While it's often served cold, I prefer it to warm up just a little to about 48-50 degrees Fahrenheit. At that temperature I can best revel in the decadently rich malt flavor profile. Besides, a warmer beer lets me more easily spot flavor flaws, if there were any -- but there aren't. Salvator undergoes at least 12 weeks of careful lagering, and the result is an extremely smooth, clean tasting beer that just tastes of nature's own freshness. Mmmmm....
About the Brewery Paulaner is one of Munich's most respected breweries, and for good reason. The brewery produces many of the region's best beers, and has been doing so for almost four centuries.
The brewery was started by Pauline monks in 1634, and the monks actually operated the facility themselves up until the early 19th century when day-to-day operations were turned over to a non-religious brewmaster. (There seems to be some confusion about this with some people thinking that the brewery was run by Franciscans, however, Michael Jackson (the world's undisputed top authority on all things malty) says that this is not the case -- the monks who ran the brewery were Pauline monks, and they named the facility in honor of the patron saint of their own order -- Saint Francis of Paula.)
Salvator dates back to the early days of the brewery and gets its name from the German word for savior. While the brewery has no official religious connection today, they still adhere to some of their old customs, like tapping the first barrel of Salvator just before Easter.
Bottom of the Glass...
The bottom line on Salvator is that if you like tasty, rich, luxurious big beers, you can probably do no better than Paulaner Salvator. I believe it is the single best example you can buy of a beer that shows all that is wonderful in the dopplebock style. It's complex, it's malty, it's sweet, it's delicious! Buy it and see for yourself!
Price per six-pack ($US): 7
Beer Rating: A must - sensational
Aroma
About the Brewery
