Advanced Cicerone Explains: Dark European Beer

Three dark beers, three countries, three very different personalities. In this short video Matthew pours a Belgian Dubbel (Chimay Première, the red label), a Scottish Wee Heavy (Orkney Skull Splitter) and a German Doppelbock (Paulaner Salvator) and talks through how he tells them apart. All three are brown, malty and moderately strong, so on paper they look like cousins. In the glass they are not even close. The giveaway in every case is the yeast.

Belgian Dubbel

The Dubbel is all about aromas from the yeast. Belgian yeast is super expressive. It throws fruity esters like ripe banana, pear and apricot, plus spicy phenols like allspice, clove and even black pepper. The malt is complex too. Toasted bread crust, pie crust, turbinado sugar and molasses. That is surprising because the grain bill is usually simple, mostly Pilsner malt. The extra depth comes from Belgian candi sugar, a beet-derived sugar. Counterintuitively, that sugar makes the finished beer drier and less sweet because the yeast ferments it out completely. Bitterness is medium to medium-low, just enough to balance the beer. Matthew's verdict is super drinkable and not very sweet.

Scottish Wee Heavy

Up front the Wee Heavy leads with caramel and toffee, like a toffee candy, then rum-soaked raisins and fruitcake. The yeast here produces fruity esters but no spicy phenols. That is where the dried fruit and fruitcake impression comes from. Matthew also picks up butter, which is diacetyl, a compound that shows up in some beers from the UK. Like the Dubbel it is not a bitter beer. The difference is what happens after you swallow. There is real residual sweetness left on the palate, a little like the sticky feeling after something sugary spills on a table, only a lot more pleasant. Exhale after a sip and you get alcohol warmth that the Dubbel did not have. So the Wee Heavy brings more sweetness, a touch of warmth, some fruit and no spice. Still drinkable, but not as crushable as the Dubbel.

German Doppelbock

The Doppelbock is a total malt show. It is made with lager yeast, which produces very few esters and no phenols at all. That clean fermentation lets the malt shine. Matthew gets bran cereal, pumpernickel bread and Grape-Nuts, with lots of Maillard browning character. A beautiful brown bread in a glass. It finishes quite dry with no lingering sweetness and has just enough bitterness to keep it balanced while staying malt forward.

The cheat sheet

Put them side by side and the pattern is clear. Clean yeast and brown bread means Doppelbock. Fruity esters, buttery diacetyl, lingering sweetness and some alcohol warmth means Wee Heavy. Matthew compares it to port wine and cherries. Fruity esters plus spicy phenols means Dubbel. After smelling the other two, the Dubbel's spice really jumps out, almost minty, with hyssop and fenugreek in the mix. It is pretty amazing that all of that complexity comes from the yeast.

Watch the video above to see each pour and hear the full tasting notes. If you are prepping for the Certified Cicerone exam or the Advanced Cicerone exam, this trio is a great home exercise because the three styles share a color and a strength range but split cleanly on fermentation character. The Certified Cicerone course covers all three styles in depth. We also taste through comparisons like this every week in the Beer Scholar community on Skool.

Cheers! –Chris