Some of you must be thinking, "for the love of the Reinheitsgebot, just how many Altbier recipes does this idiot have?" The honest answer? Too many. I still remember the look on the face of the home brew shop employee that took four grain bills from my hand, flipped through them, and saw that each one was for a different Alt recipe; it wasn't long after that I decided to just start buying in bulk to save the awkward questions. But the reason I have them is because these are excellent beer styles, and although the 2015 BJCP Style Guidelines only recognize one breed of Altbier, there are a number out there.
Today, we'll be taking a gander at the strongest of them: the Doppelsticke Altbier. There's Altbier. Then there's Sticke (Secret) Altbier. Doppelsticke, as its name implies, is a "doubled" version of the Sticke, making it something akin to a German Barleywine. With greater ABV comes greater difficulty, though, and there are some important departures in the recipe and production if we're going to make it just as enjoyable as the lighter versions!
STYLE
I always think of this as a relative of American Barleywine, and the most famous version of this beer (Uerige's Doppelsticke) was, in fact, made for the American market. You can find other examples here and again, often as one-offs or commemorative beers, but you'll often have to look under the hood. Since most don't know what a Doppelsticke Altbier is, it may go under another name, but if you see Pilsner, Munich, and lots of Hallertau and Saaz, Spalt, or Tettnang at 8.5 percent ABV, you're likely looking at a Doppelsticke! ABV is higher, but the beer retains its fundamental German "drinkable" quality.