Shipping to 30+ countries

Shipping

Hoptimaal offers a wide variety of beers both in-store and online. If you can place an order, we usually have the product in stock (though mistakes can happen, unfortunately). Products that are in stock will be shipped the same day if ordered before 3:00 PM.

If we make an error with stock levels, you will be notified within 24 hours. In that email, we will offer you an alternative product, the right to a full refund, and a new delivery time. It's up to you how you'd like us to resolve the issue.

We ship all orders with DPD from the Netherlands. You can choose between:

  • Home delivery or delivery to your work
  • Delivery to a DPD pickup point near you

Shipping costs and the free-shipping threshold for your country are in the table below.

Deposit

On cans and bottles we charge the Dutch deposit (statiegeld): €0.15 per can and €0.10 per bottle (a little more for some bottles). It shows as a separate line in your cart. The deposit belongs to the Dutch deposit system: you can return the packaging in the Netherlands, not in deposit machines in other countries.

Shipping Costs by Country

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CountryShipping costReduced rateFree shipping from
Netherlands€8.50–€75
Belgium€8.95–€100
Germany€13.50–€100
Denmark€15.95–€150
Austria€15.95–€150
Bulgaria€47.50€25 from €150not available
Estonia€17.50–€150
Finlandpickup point €24.95
home €29.95		home: €10 from €200pickup point €200
home €250
France€16.95–€150
Greece€29.50€15 from €150not available
Hungary€21.95€10 from €150€200
Ireland€15.95–€150
Italy€16.95–€150
Croatia€47.50€25 from €150not available
Latvia€17.50–€150
Lithuania€21.95€10 from €150€200
Luxembourg€12.95–€150
Poland€15.95–€150
Portugal€19.95€10 from €150€200
Romania€27.50€10 from €150not available
Spain€18.75–€150
Czech Republic€15.95–€150
Swedenpickup point €24.95
home €29.95		home: €10 from €200pickup point €200
home €250
Norway*Coming soon
United Kingdom*Coming soon
Switzerland*Coming soon

Delivery

DPD generally delivers within 24 hours after receiving the parcel. So if we have received your order before 15:00 on working days, in 99% of cases you will have your order at home the next day. It may sometimes happen that they need one day longer. You can follow this via the Track & Trace details you receive from us, so you can see exactly where your order is. DPD also gives you a time window of 2 to 4 hours in which your order will be delivered. Not at home? No problem! You can indicate yourself whether you want them to come by again tomorrow or whether they should deliver it to the nearest post office.

Do you have a question about the delivery of your beer? Feel free to contact us: customer service.

Returns

You have a cooling-off period of 14 days after you have received the product. Within this period you can register the product for return. The email you received stating that your order is on its way contains a link that you can use to easily and free of charge download and print a return label. Returning is free: we provide the return label and the shipping costs of your return are at our expense. After registering your return, you have another 14 days to send the product back. If you bought multiple items at once, the period starts after receipt of your last item.

How do I return or exchange a product?

  • Fill in the return form within 14 days after receipt. If you are unable to print the return form, please write at least the order number and your name on a piece of paper and include it with your return.
  • Register your return with our customer service. You can do this by sending an email to: info@hoptimaal.nl or by calling 085 -130 1591. Or print your return label yourself via the link in the email titled "Your order is on its way".
  • After registering your return, you have another 14 days to send the product back.
  • Then send your return back in its original condition and with the packaging. Products that are damaged or incomplete are not eligible for exchange or refund.

Please note: after the 14-day cooling-off period it is no longer possible to return your product.

What can you expect after returning your product?

After receiving your return, you will receive a confirmation from us. This can take 3 working days, but in general we process your return on the day we receive it. We will check your return to see whether your product meets our return conditions and will then get to work on the solution you want.

Do you want your money back?

  • We will refund the purchase amount within 3 working days after confirmation of receipt to the account with which you paid. If you want to receive the purchase amount in another way, please contact us about the possibilities.
  • In case of visible signs of use, missing accessories or missing packaging, you are no longer entitled to a refund. If the packaging is not returned entirely in its original condition, we won't make a fuss and you will in any case get 75% of the purchase amount back. This is very rarely the case; usually the full purchase amount is simply refunded.

Do you want to receive a new product?

After receiving your return, we will send the new product right away. If the product is no longer in stock, we will refund the purchase amount to the account with which you paid.

  • Is the new product cheaper? The remaining amount will be refunded to your account within 3 working days.
  • Is the new product more expensive? You will receive a payment request for the remaining amount. After receipt of payment, we will send the product immediately.
  • Do you want to receive the new product at a different address or on a different day? Please contact us.

Exceptions

Beer that has been opened will not be taken back. We also do not take back beer that you ordered at a discount because the shelf life is almost expired. Of course we state this clearly on the product page, so that you are not surprised by a limited best-before date.

The item may be returned to the address below:

Hoptimaal
Leeghwater 5
3825MR Amersfoort
Netherlands

Order before 3:00 PM on weekdays, shipped today.
Break-proof packaging

Your beers are always carefully packaged. If there is any damage during transit, we offer a guarantee. Not satisfied, money back.
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Beer School › Bock · Smooth & Rounded

Doppelbock

Doppelbock is a strong, very malty German lager, usually dark and rich in flavour. 'Doppel' means double, but it is not twice as strong as a bock.

  • Alcoholusually 7–10% (BJCP); the Brewers Association gives 6.6–7.9%
  • Entry levelFor those who have already tasted a bit

How it usually tastes

Bitter
Sweet
Sour
Roasted
Fruity
Full

Average for this style; every beer has its own accent.

What is it?

According to the BJCP, doppelbock is a stronger, richer and fuller version of German bock. It is a lager, brewed with pilsner, Vienna and Munich malt, German hops and clean German lager yeast; decoction is the traditional way of mashing.

Most doppelbocks are copper to dark brown. They smell and taste of deeply toasted malt, sometimes with some caramel, a hint of chocolate (never roasted or burnt) and dark fruit such as plum or dark grape. The hops stay in the background. They feel fairly sweet, but according to the BJCP that is due to few hops, not to the beer being poorly fermented. The body is medium-full to full, sometimes with a slight alcohol warmth. Pale doppelbocks exist too: drier, slightly hoppier and less rich.

Watch the names in the Netherlands. 'Bok' or 'bock' may only be used on beer with an extract content of the original wort above 15% (that is not an alcohol percentage). The legal article sets no requirements for colour or fermentation, and it also applies to 'doppelbock'. A Dutch bokbier is therefore not automatically a doppelbock. German law, too, has no separate limit for doppelbock: bock and Starkbier must have an original wort content (Stammwürze) of at least 16%.

Myth or fact?

Myth

‘Doppelbock is twice as strong as regular bock.’

'Doppel' means double, but the difference is small: the BJCP gives doppelbock 7–10% and a dark bock 6.3–7.2%. German law sets the same lower limit for both.

Myth

‘Doppelbock is twice as strong as regular bock.’

The BJCP translates doppelbock literally as 'double bock' and calls it a stronger, richer and fuller version of the dunkles bock or the helles bock. It is not twice as strong. According to the BJCP, a dunkles bock has 6.3–7.2% alcohol, a helles bock 6.3–7.4% and a doppelbock 7–10%. With the Brewers Association they are even closer together: 6.3–7.6% for the traditional bock and 6.6–7.9% for doppelbock. According to the BJCP, however, doppelbock has no upper limit as long as the beer stays in balance; most traditional doppelbocks sit at the lower end of the range.

The law does not make a double difference either. In Germany, a beer called 'Bockbier' or 'Starkbier', or bearing another name that points to an extra-strong beer, must have at least 16% original wort content (Stammwürze). A separate limit for doppelbock is not in the law: according to the Bavarian food authority LGL, that name rests on what is customary in the trade. In the Netherlands the same rule applies to every name with 'bok' or 'bock' in it: an extract content of the original wort above 15%.

'Doppel' therefore says the beer is heavier than a bock, not that it is twice as strong.

Sources

Partly true

‘Monks devised doppelbock as liquid bread to get through Lent.’

The story is popular and even appears in the BJCP, but is not proven. Beer writers do call Salvator a beer for a monastery feast, though, and early doppelbocks were heavy and sweet, but not very strong.

Partly true

‘Monks devised doppelbock as liquid bread to get through Lent.’

The BJCP writes that monks called doppelbock 'liquid bread' and drank it during Lent. Beer writer Jeff Alworth also assumes the friars drank the heavy, sweet beer in Lent. We have not found archival evidence for that.

Beer writer Mark Dredge calls the Lenten story nonsense: according to him it was a beer for a feast, not for a fast. The monks of the order of Francis of Paola served their Sankt-Vater-Bier, beer of the holy father, on the feast day of their founder, on 2 April. That day often fell in Lent. Moreover, according to Dredge the friars did eat during Lent: by day they fasted, in the evening there was a small meal. Alworth too links the name Salvator with that feast.

What the sources have in common: early doppelbocks were less attenuated than today, and thus sweeter and less strong. For Salvator from the 1850s, Ron Pattinson found a very high starting gravity at a little over 6% alcohol. So the old beer was indeed heavy and nourishing. Whether it was devised to get through Lent has not been proven.

Sources

Partly true

‘Dutch bokbier is the same as German bock.’

Not necessarily. German bocks are lagers, and in Germany 'Bockbier' must have an original wort content of at least 16% (that is not an alcohol percentage). In the Netherlands above 15% is enough and the fermentation method is free, so there are also top-fermented bokken.

Partly true

‘Dutch bokbier is the same as German bock.’

The German bock styles are, in the style guides of the BJCP and the Brewers Association, all bottom-fermented lagers. The German Bierverordnung also requires for 'Bockbier' an original wort content of 16% or more: the percentage by weight of dissolved substances (mainly sugars) in the wort before fermentation, not the alcohol percentage.

Dutch law is broader: 'bok' or 'bock' only has to be above 15% original wort, with no requirements for colour, fermentation method or season. PINT writes that as a result both bottom- and top-fermented bokbieren occur in the Netherlands. In PINT's 1995 study of 33 Dutch bokbieren, 16 were top-fermented; the bottom-fermented ones came from the big breweries. We did not find a current figure for that ratio.

Classic bottom-fermented Dutch bokken do exist. The BJCP even names Lindeboom Bock as an example of a dunkles bock.

Sources

Where does it come from?

Doppelbock comes from Munich. According to the BJCP, the monks of the order of Francis of Paola first brewed it by the 18th century at the latest. Their beer was called Sankt-Vater-Bier, beer of the holy father, and the name Salvator grew out of that. According to beer writer Mark Dredge it was a festival beer, for the feast day of their founder on 2 April.

Early doppelbocks were less attenuated than today: sweeter and less strong. For Salvator from the 1850s, Ron Pattinson found a very high starting gravity, but a little over 6% alcohol.

In the 19th century Salvator was the name of a beer type: dozens of breweries brewed one. When the Zacherl brewery, the predecessor of Paulaner, registered the name as a brand and enforced it in court, other brewers chose names ending in '-ator'. That habit still exists.

How to pour it

A good starting point: 7–10 °C in a tulip glass (advice from CraftBeer.com).

Taste it yourself

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All Doppelbock in the shop
Did you like this? Then try Baltic porter →

Similar to: Bock, Dubbel

Terms

Bottom fermentation (low fermentation)
Fermentation with lager yeast at lower temperatures, in which the yeast sinks to the bottom, as with pilsner and other lagers.
Lagering
Letting beer, especially bottom-fermented beer, mature cold for a time after fermentation, so that yeast and proteins can settle and the flavour improves; the word comes from the German 'lagern', to store.
Mouthfeel / body
How a beer feels in your mouth: how full or thin it is (the body), how much carbonation it has and whether it is, for example, creamy or rather astringent.
Original wort (stamwort)
The wort before fermentation. The extract content of the original wort (in percent or degrees Plato) says how many dissolved substances, mainly sugars, it contains; it is not an alcohol percentage, but it is the legal measure for, among others, pils and bok in the Netherlands and for, among others, Bockbier in Germany.
Decoction mash (decoction mashing)
A way of mashing (mixing ground malt with hot water) in which the brewer boils part of the mash separately and returns it to the rest to raise the temperature, sometimes several times; for doppelbock it is traditional.
Sources for this page
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