What is a double?

[DtownRiot]

I've seen a few beers that had double in the name, ie. double chocolate stout, or double ipa. What does the double mean? twice as much alcohol or twice as much flavor? Just curious.

 

[Beezer94]

generally means "imperial" as in higher alcohol and stronger flavors and larger quantities of malts to keep the alcohol flavor in check. Most are 7.5-10% alcohol so doesn't take much to get intoxicated.

 

[david_42]

Just more. Typically, enough to place it a percent or two about the style guide for the base beer. There are some brewers that do "same grain, half the water" beers. MacPelican's Wee Heavy is an example, it's 8% vs the 4.7% for the Scottish Ale.

 

[EcuPirate07]

how do you get that higher alcohol content?

 

[ifishsum]

More malt = more fermentable sugars in the wort for the yeast to eat, therefore producing more alcohol. Sometimes simple sugars are also used to boost the alcohol percentage.

 

[SumnerH]

I've seen a few beers that had double in the name, ie. double chocolate stout, or double ipa. What does the double mean? twice as much alcohol or twice as much flavor? Just curious.

It varies based on what the double modifies, and you have 2 good examples. A double ipa is basically an imperial IPA--bigger (higher OG, and higher ABV, and usually hoppier). A double chocolate stout usually gets some chocolatey flavor from the grain and adds some chocolate along the way as well, and it's generally not any bigger than a regular chocolate stout (just more emphasis on chocolate).