Bayou Beer

All about beer brewing and drinking in South Louisiana.

Doppelbock 2018

October 10th, 2018

Decided to brew a Doppelbock using the Marzen yeast from the Oktoberfest. It’s a style I’ve brewed many times over the years and won several awards with. One of my personal favorites to drink. In fact I had Celebrator the day my oldest daughter was born. In this edition I’m changing the malt bill because in previous years the only complaint I ever got was malt aroma and complexity. So in this one there’s more caramunich and more dark munich malt.

The brew day went great and we hit the target OG of 1.087. It smells great and tastes great. Chilled down to fermentation temperature and pitched 2 liters of yeast per carboy. For unknown reason the larger of the two lagged by about 12 hours but they both got going pretty good after that. Here’s hoping for a great winter warmer and super malty clean bock for the holidays!

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
11 gal 60 min 23.6 IBUs 17.6 SRM 1.087 1.028 8.0 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
doppelbock 9 A 1.072 - 1.112 1.016 - 1.024 16 - 26 6 - 25 2.4 - 3 7 - 10 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
BEST Munich (BESTMALZ) 24 lbs 61.54
BEST Pilsen Malt (BESTMALZ) 8 lbs 20.51
BEST Munich Dark (BESTMALZ) 4 lbs 10.26
BEST Caramel Munich I (BESTMALZ) 2 lbs 5.13
Caramunich III (Weyermann) 1 lbs 2.56

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Hallertau Magnum 1.25 oz 120 min Boil Pellet 12.7
Hallertauer Mittelfrueh 1 oz 1 min Boil Pellet 3.4

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Lactic Acid 10.00 ml 60 min Mash Water Agent
Calcium Chloride 9.00 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) 7.00 g 60 min Mash Water Agent

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
Octoberfest Lager Blend (2633) Wyeast Labs 75% 48°F - 58°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Mash In 152°F 60 min

Notes

A huge beer. Bigger than I anticipated brewing today no doubt. Pitching on top of a Marzen blend yeast strain. Really interested to see how this turns out!

Doppelbock 2016 Edition

February 12th, 2016

Probably the final beer in my annual German series will be a very nice doppelbock. This is a re-brew of a beer that’s come out extremely well in the past. I’m really looking forward to fermenting it with two different yeasts. The 2015 edition of this beer got great marks at a few competitions but didn’t place. My thoughts on it were that it wasn’t quite aromatic enough in it’s malt profile. . So I’ll be adding some melanoidin malt to try and bump that up a little.

Update 2/15/2016

Brew day was a pain in the ass. Lots of wind made it hard to get to a boil. I’m going to have to invest in building a wind guard to fit on these keggles for 10 gallon batches. Gravity readings early made it seem as if I’d be high on gravity but ended up being around 1.074. So somewhat low for some reason but it tasted great and should be a fine beer. Pitching the yeast 24 hours later after it cools down to 50F.

Update 2/18/2016

Fermenting like crazy for the first couple of days. Still going now. Made a mess in the bottle of the chest freezer. Very thick smell of yeast character in there compared to the previous two beers on the yeast.

Update 2/28/2016
Final gravity on the 833 version was around 1.013 for an 8% alcohol beer. Final gravity on the 830 version was 1.016 for a 7.5% alcohol beer. Both taste like young doppelbock with my preference being towards the 833 version. The both need about 6 months to mature. I’ll carbonate these two, bottle them and put them in the closet until the end of 2016.

Update 1/30/2017
This beer was over-carbonated so it’s been hard to enjoy. I tend to believe this beer will behave similar to my previous years doppelbock and need another year to be worth drinking. Although I’ll have to let every beer rest before actually enjoying it. Or employ some strategy to reduce carbonation.

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
5.5 gal 60 min 22.0 IBUs 20.8 SRM 1.081 1.022 7.9 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
doppelbock 5 C 1.072 - 1.112 1.016 - 1.024 16 - 26 6 - 25 2.3 - 2.6 7 - 10 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Munich Malt 12 lbs 61.54
Pilsner (2 Row) Ger 5 lbs 25.64
Caramunich Malt 2 lbs 10.26
Melanoiden Malt 4 oz 1.28
Special B Malt 4 oz 1.28

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Magnum 1 oz 20 min Boil Pellet 14
Hallertauer Mittelfrueh 0.25 oz 0 min Aroma Pellet 4

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Lactic Acid 15.00 ml 60 min Mash Water Agent
Calcium Chloride 8.00 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) 4.00 g 60 min Mash Water Agent

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
Bohemian Lager (2124) Wyeast Labs 71% 48°F - 58°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Mash In 152°F 60 min

Doppelbock March 2015

March 15th, 2015

One of my favorite styles to brew when it’s cold. I’ve been a little behind on my brew schedule as evident that I posted this guy in February, got the flu and am just now going to brew it in March. So actual brew day ended up being March 15. Gravity was coming in a little low so I gave it a pound of DME. The only big change for me in brewing this beer versus my previous bocks was the use of a late charge of magnum instead of an hour long charge of Hallertau. I find with the Hallertau I’m waiting longer for the beer to smooth out. The wort tasted excellent and came in around 1.072. Pitched yeast from the Export I brewed a month ago. It seemed to be very vibrant yeast which woke up quickly in the starter and quickly took to this bock.

Update January 2016

Nearly one year later and this beer is excellent in my opinion. Lots of malty toastiness, dark fruit and chocolate malt flavor, fair malt aroma. It got excellent marks from the 2015 Dixie Cup with a total score of 39. The judges in question did a not so great job on any comments. I think it needs something to enhance melanoidin aroma. So on the next run in 2016 I’ll do melanoidin malt at around 3/4 of a pound.

Update October 2016

Maybe all this beer needed was time. It ended up getting first place with a 41.5 score at the 2016 Dixie Cup. Really stoked about my first ever first place medal at the Dixie Cup.

Update January 2017

So I finally got around to enjoying in good conditions my last bottle of this bock. I’d say the difference between this January and 2016 January is the malt aroma. Everything else is the same but the aroma is now there. Additionally there is more apparent oxygen in the form of enhanced dark fruitiness and melded flavors. It currently reminds me of a light version of Samichlaus. Like many of my big beers I will rebrew this guy but at 10 gallons.

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
5.5 gal 60 min 22.9 IBUs 19.8 SRM 1.076 SG 1.021 SG 7.4 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
Doppelbock 5 C 1.072 - 1.112 1.016 - 1.024 16 - 26 6 - 25 2.3 - 2.6 7 - 10 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Munich Malt 12 lbs 65.75
Pilsner (2 Row) Ger 4 lbs 21.92
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L 1 lbs 5.48
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L 1 lbs 5.48
Special B Malt 0.25 lbs 1.37

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Magnum 1 oz 20 min Boil Pellet 14
Hallertauer Mittelfrueh 0.25 oz 0 min Aroma Pellet 4

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Lactic Acid 15.00 ml 60 min Mash Water Agent
Calcium Chloride 8.00 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) 4.00 g 60 min Mash Water Agent

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
Bohemian Lager (2124) Wyeast Labs 71% 48°F - 58°F

Trashcan Doppelbock

April 13th, 2014

So I bought too much pilsner malt and got a little derailed by moving and house building plans and all that. Time to use all this damn pilsner, spare munich and why the hell did I buy 2 pounds of caramunich when I didn’t need it? Oh and where’d this 2 lbs of vienna come from? What I still have 4 ounces of Hallertauer hanging around? What can I do with all this…..doppelbock should work.

Eh…I still can’t get behind building a mash in beersmith.   I need to be in the 153-155 range so I’m hitting it with 40 quarts at 170F.  Should lose about 4 gallons to absorption so about 15 gallons needed.

Update 4/23/2014

Well I forgot to update post-brew but at least I wrote it down.  OG was about 1.071.  I tried a different sparge so it came out a little low on gravity at 63% efficiency.   I should’ve stuck with the double batch sparge I’ve been using and it would’ve been right on.   Finished well at 1.013 and tastes great.   7.5% ABV so it’ll age nice.

Additionally I considered all the compliments I’ve received recently about young bocks due to hop character so I made a last minute change.   At 5 minutes left in the boil I hit it with an ounce of Hersbrucker.   The hop character is so fine in this malty beer.  I’m excited to get it carbed.

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
11 gal 90 min 25.2 IBUs 20.5 SRM 1.076 SG 1.017 SG 7.7 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
Doppelbock 5 C 1.072 - 1.112 1.016 - 1.024 16 - 26 6 - 25 2.3 - 2.6 7 - 10 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Pilsner (2 Row) Ger 21 lbs 61.76
Munich Malt - 20L 5 lbs 14.71
Caramunich Malt 3 lbs 8.82
Vienna Malt 2 lbs 5.88
Aromatic Malt 1 lbs 2.94
Cara-Pils/Dextrine 1 lbs 2.94
Special B Malt 1 lbs 2.94
Light Dry Extract 0 lbs 0

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Hallertauer Mittelfrueh 4 oz 60 min Boil Pellet 4.5

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Lactic Acid 15.00 ml 60 min Mash Water Agent
Lactic Acid 15.00 ml 60 min Mash Water Agent
Calcium Chloride 8.00 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4) 4.00 g 60 min Mash Water Agent

 

Bock Plus Vienna

August 28th, 2013

This bock was a little bit of a trainwreck beer. Brewstock messed up my order and combined my two stock-up base grains. No worries as I just calculated how much caramunich was coming out of this mix of caramunich and Vienna I was sent. Everything went pretty well. I may have gone heavy on the Epson salts but we’ll see. I pitched on top of the yeast from last month’s Helles Bock and boy that thing took off with the WLP833. Brew date was 8/26/2013

Update 9/27/2013

This beer turned out fantastic in my opinion. It’s just a wonderfully smooth and rich beer at 1 month. Given another month it should clear more and be a beer that can win some awards.

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
6.5 gal 90 min 18 1.08 1.018 8

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
0 - 0 0 - 0 0 - 0 0 - 0 0 - 0 0 - 0 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Munich Malt 14 lbs 59.57
Pilsner (2 Row) Ger 4 lbs 17.02
Caramunich Malt 2 lbs 8.51
Extra Light Dry Extract 2 lbs 8.51
Vienna Malt 1 lbs 4.26
Aromatic Malt 0.5 lbs 2.13

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Hallertauer 2 oz 60 min Aroma Pellet 4.8
Hallertauer 0.5 oz 10 min Aroma Pellet 4.8

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Calcium Chloride 60 min Mash Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4) 60 min Mash Water Agent
Whirlfloc Tablet 15 min Boil Fining

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
German Bock Lager (WLP833) White Labs 73% 48°F - 55°F

Notes

Caramunich 3 came in a mix of 2lbs caramunich 1 pound vienna and 1 pound munich

Bock Bock Doppelbock for Club Brew Day

May 22nd, 2013

May 26, 2013 I’ll be brewing my adaptation of Jamil’s Doppelbock for the Brasseurs a la Maison club brew day.   With any luck this beer will come out well and serve for a great Fall drinker and perhaps place in a few little competitions like 2013 Dixie Cup and 2014 Bluebonnet Brew Off.   If that works out I’ll save enough for 2014 AHA competition.

I’ve been too lazy/forgetful to buy gram a scale so I’m yet again noting my guestimates on water additions.    .6 teaspoon of Calcium Chloride.   .5 teaspoon of Epsom salt and .25 teaspoon of calcium chloride.  8-9 ml of lactic acid should do for this batch.

How it Went(5/27/2013):

All in all the brew went pretty well.   I’m still having trouble with the new brew rig and I think it was amplified by having a bunch of folks around.    I did add an additional .6 teaspoon of calcium chloride to get more calcium due to Nathan explaining why adding chalk was a waste of time.    Other than that there were no deviations and the gravity ended up at 1.077 which is almost right on.    I did forget the whirfloc tablet but oh well it still looks very clear.   Also I ended up with a slight Caramunich substitution.  I only had 1.5 pound of Caramunich III so there is .5 pound of Caramunich I in there.   Waited overnight for the wort to cool way down to about 40F and pitched my 1 gallon starter.   Lots of carbon dioxide coming off it within a few hours so it is chugging away.

Update 6/18/2013

After two weeks of fermentation it completely tanked and finished cloying.   I’m pretty confused about the whole thing since it appeared to be going so well I didn’t even bother with checking the gravity until what I thought was the end.     Will rebrew in a month after the barleywines I have planned and probably research the yeast vs the WLP837 I normally use for these beers.   Really a bummer because even the cloying beer tastes great for a few sips.

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
6 gal 90 min 15 1.08 1.018 7.5

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
Doppelbock 5 5C 1.072 - 1.112 1.016 - 1.024 16 - 26 6 - 25 0 - 0 7 - 10 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Munich Malt 14 lbs 68.29
Pilsner (2 Row) Bel 4 lbs 19.51
Caramunich Malt 2 lbs 9.76
Melanoiden Malt 0.5 lbs 2.44

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Hallertauer 2 oz 60 min Aroma Pellet 4.8
Hallertauer 0.5 oz 10 min Aroma Pellet 4.8

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Lactic Acid 60 min Mash Water Agent
Calcium Chloride 60 min Mash Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4) 60 min Mash Water Agent
Chalk 60 min Mash Water Agent

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
Southern German Lager (WLP838) White Labs 72% 50°F - 55°F

Notes

One gallon starter made from an initial 2 liter starter. The Munich malt used in this recipe was a little on the light side for Munich Malt. It's Best Brand and around 7 Love. 25 quarts of water to mash infuse at 166F. 2.5 gallons lost in absorption. 10 total gallons have to go through the mash with hopes of pulling 7.5 of wort pre-boil of a respectable gravity.

 

Bayou Beer

All about beer brewing and drinking in South Louisiana.

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