Monks had it bad in the 17th Century... so they invented Liquid Bread to ease the pain. God bless 'em.
What? Monks, again? Yeah I know, but the history of European beer making is pretty much littered with religious types running around creating amazing beers willy-nilly. It's much easier to embrace your inner monk than try and ignore them. Anyone whose reaction to a shit day was to create a new beer and then give it away to the locals is fine by me.
Liquid bread? This harks back to an old phrase likening the nutritional properties of beer to those of bread, both using grains and yeasts in their production. It was indeed thought that beer was of such nutritional value it could sustain someone through even the most difficult of times. (Like watching your team get thrashed week on week).
So back to those monks in Munich who, as well as living in lean economic times where sickness and disease were rampant, also had to endure long fasting periods during Lent. So the Paulaner Monks in Bavaria created a beer to help sustain the body and soul, keeping much for themselves but also providing enough for the local poor and sick, which annoyed the hell out of the town's local breweries. This brew was Salvator, literally meaning "Saviour". It was the first beer Paulaner produced, some 375 years ago and is still at the heart of the traditional practices used by the brewery today.
A bock is essentially a strong German Lager, though the style varies quite a lot and an extra strong double bock like Salvator is as far away from a traditional lager as you can get, being so rich and malty. It has a thick creamy head and a deep amber colour. There is an intense malty and slightly smokey aroma and quite a sweet, almost toffeeish flavour. Brewed at 7.5% you can certainly see how this would be a blast to the senses of fasting monks tired from hard labour. It is certainly an excellent choice as a night cap on a cold winter's night, with an almost port-like finish.
Paulaner Salvator rarely visits bars and pubs in Malaysia, so if you see one, go for it. It's most likely to be found at Brotzeit German bars in bottles.
 |
Liquid bread? This harks back to an old phrase likening the nutritional properties of beer to those of bread, both using grains and yeasts in their production. It was indeed thought that beer was of such nutritional value it could sustain someone through even the most difficult of times. (Like watching your team get thrashed week on week).
So back to those monks in Munich who, as well as living in lean economic times where sickness and disease were rampant, also had to endure long fasting periods during Lent. So the Paulaner Monks in Bavaria created a beer to help sustain the body and soul, keeping much for themselves but also providing enough for the local poor and sick, which annoyed the hell out of the town's local breweries. This brew was Salvator, literally meaning "Saviour". It was the first beer Paulaner produced, some 375 years ago and is still at the heart of the traditional practices used by the brewery today.
In fact the beer became so successful other breweries soon copied the style, merely adding the afix "-ator" to the end of the name, a practice still seen today with beers called things like Celebrator or Optimator. However, the style begun all those years ago with Salvator is now referred to simply as a doppelbock or Double Bock.
 |
Paulaner Salvator rarely visits bars and pubs in Malaysia, so if you see one, go for it. It's most likely to be found at Brotzeit German bars in bottles.
If you like Paulaner Salvator, you will almost certainly also enjoy Rogue Dead Guy Ale and Fuller's 1845
Comments
Post a Comment