Doppelbock / DoppelSticke Brew
The sticke bock nuts has been brewed and looks promising. I collected 9.5 gallons of 1092 wort and pitched the 2206 this morning. Deep ruby in color. Sample exhibits strong maltiness with very mild bittereness. The final recipe:
28.00 lb Munich Malt, Dark (12.0 SRM) Grain
2.00 lb Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain
1.00 lb Carstan (37.0 SRM)3 oz Willamette FWH
2 oz Hallertauer 60 minutes
I am going to ferment in the garage using the temp controller, a water bath, and an aquarium heater. The target temp is 50 degrees.
The grain bill may be a bit non-traditional, as wheat is not typical in the style. Ive added it in this case to try an aid in some head retention. Id love to see this beer finish in the around 1020, however that will probably take some real coaxing. I will be adding Fermaid K towards the end of the week (pitch + 5days). This beer is more of a Doppel Sticke rather than a dopelbock, however given that I am fermenting as a lager it will probably exibit more lager characteristics.
Man that is alot of high grav wort! I also can’t believe you need to use a heater to ferment a lager…We’re just hitting the sweet spot where I don’t have to work to keep the ales cool enough…
Doppel Sticke = Double Secret (like double secret probation?)
I haven’t computed the efficiency yet but am pretty sure I was in the low 80s, which for a beer of that size is very solid. I used a hybrid sparging approach where I continually pumped water onto the bed, while keeping the water level above the grain bed. It seemed to work pretty well. The only tough bits were figuring out how much more I needed to add.
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Its been cold here. Cold enough to keep the water bath @ like 48 during the day. Of course now they are forecasting 70s tomorrow. What can you do?
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I am hoping that the heater is not needed, more of a proof of concept than anything else. If this works I will definitely use the fermentation chamber…I mean garage, more this winter.
Cool! Now you just need to come up with a design for the bock. Here’s some inspiration:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/norelevance/sets/72157622266250471/show/
Ahh yes I like it.
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Going to keg 5 of this and the remainder will be something special for the spring and beyond.
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Now that I have you locked in for St. Pats I can tell you that I have a couple surprises up my sleeve.