My Bock

[CrealCritter]

A friend of ours makes beer and wanted to make a chocolate beer for his wife. The recipe he got called for 2 different chocolate flavors - I don't remember exactly what but something like grated bakers chocolate or powdered cocoa. BUT, he missed the "or" between the ingredients and added both. It turned out not so good - the two different chocolate flavors didn't play nice together. They did drink it all by mixing it 50-50 with another beer though.

For beer I "think" it's best to get flavors from malts instead of the real thing. There are chocolate malts. IDK I'm just a newbie, self taught when it comes to brewing beer.

 

[CrealCritter]

My traditional Bock beer has finished fermenting @ around 50 degrees. Just like clockwork 2 weeks on the nose. I brought it inside to warm up to room temperature for a few days, maybe a week? As it warms, it will start fermenting again very slowly. At the warmer house temperatures (61 ~ 65) although 62 is ideal. At this temperature the lager yeast does something special, it actually cleans house.

This house cleaning period is called diactyl rest. diacetyl (buttery flavor) is one of more than 500 chemical compounds produced when a true lager yeast eats it's way through wort. During this rest period the yeast converts all the diacetyl into tasteless compounds. Then it stops because it has totally eat itself out of house and home. diacetyl would be a great thing if your at the movies with a tub of popcorn. But butter flavored beer? Nope... yeast are amazing bacteria.

So now you know, if you drink a lager and it has the flavor of butter, someone got impatient or didn't know about lager yeast diactyl rest phase of fermenting with lager yeast.

Once it's completed it's diactyl rest, I'll rack it into a clean and sterile stainless steel corny keg and begin the lagering phase.

 

[flowerbug]

My traditional Bock beer has finished fermenting @ around 50 degrees. Just like clockwork 2 weeks on the nose. I brought it inside to warm up to room temperature for a few days, maybe a week? As it warms, it will start fermenting again very slowly. At the warmer house temperatures (61 ~ 65) although 62 is ideal. At this temperature the lager yeast does something special, it actually cleans house.

This house cleaning period is called diactyl rest. diacetyl (buttery flavor) is one of more than 500 chemical compounds produced when a true lager yeast eats it's way through wort. During this rest period the yeast converts all the diacetyl into tasteless compounds. Then it stops because it has totally eat itself out of house and home. diacetyl would be a great thing if your at the movies with a tub of popcorn. But butter flavored beer? Nope... yeast are amazing bacteria.

So now you know, if you drink a lager and it has the flavor of butter, someone got impatient or didn't know about lager yeast diactyl rest phase of fermenting with lager yeast.

Once it's completed it's diactyl rest, I'll rack it into a stainless steel corny keg and begin the lagering phase.

yeasts are fungi... sorry, pedantic, but...

 

[CrealCritter]

yeasts are fungi... sorry, pedantic, but...

Thanks for the correction

 

[flowerbug]

Thanks for the correction

y.w. hard to resist... if you want a more general term for the squeamish who might object to the idea of fungi being responsible for their yummy libations you could use the more general term microbes.

 

[CrealCritter]

y.w. hard to resist... if you want a more general term for the squeamish who might object to the idea of fungi being responsible for their yummy libations you could use the more general term microbes.

Single celled sugar microbes, to be even more specific... But whatever you call them, lager yeast strains are nothing short of amazing.

 

[CrealCritter]

1st racking.

The starting gravity was 1.070, now it's 1.016 which puts the beer at 7.05% ABV so far. Now it's off to lager at 35 degrees for 6 weeks. But It was good green, cloudy and flat. I like the taste of Munich and Pilsen malts with just a little bit of Hallertau hops. It makes for a malty sweet beer.

the nasty part of brewing beer... the trub was a good inch thick in the bottom of the primary fermenting bucket. You can also see a ring around the top where it krausened. Lager yeast take their job seriously. More yeast for the septic tank. I bet my septic tanks is pretty clean with all the live wine and beer yeast, I've dumped down the drain.

Now I have the true color of the beer. I can finish my label and make the Billy the color of the beer

 

[CrealCritter]

the what was a full quart My Bock finally dropped clear in the refrigerator. I wanted to save the quart for priming and topping off after lagering but I keep sneaking sips. It's a beautiful colored Bock and is really delicious even non carbonated. Looks like the Billy on my label is going to be red. Maybe I should color her dress the color of the beer instead??? A red Billy goat, yeah I don't know about all that!

 

[YourRabbitGirl]

It's well know amongst family and friends, when it comes to beer. German Lagers are my favorites and at the top of my favorites list is perhaps the most simple German Lager ever, called Bock. For some odd reason Bock beer has been associated to a billy goat. How this came about I'm not sure, but none the less Bock Beer is my favorite beer.

Bock beer is perhaps the most simple beer to brew, according to German purity law of 1516. A beer can contain only 3 ingredients (4 if you count yeast added to the law later). Only water, barley, hops can be contained in every Stein. So strictly following "the law" and sticking to tradition of the Billy Goat. I came up with the start of a label and what I hope will be a malty sweet Traditional German Bock beer that I like so much.

Here is the beginnings of "My Bock" label, I made it simple and left lots of real estate for stats and ingredients.
View attachment 12623

Here is my super complex recipe of course it has to be high in alcohol content or it's simply no fun... This beer is no coors lite, you'll actually be able to taste it.
View attachment 12622

Here are my ingredients 9 lbs of barley, 1/2 ounce of hops and a harvested lager yeast starter. Geeze there's so many of them, however will I manage? -lol
View attachment 12624

Sometimes simple is the best, who needs all those fancy ingredients in today's beers? Lemons are for lemonade, rice is for stirr fry, corn is for eating and corn syrup and corn sugar is just plain nasty.

Das Reinheitsgebot of the year 1516, it's the German way and who can argue that Germans don't know beer? No one!

I plan on brewing this up Sunday, now that it's gotten colder and I can primary ferment at around 50 degrees in my root cellar. I'll post more then.
View attachment 12625

Five O’Bock Somewhere probably is the best for me. having your own root cellar sounds like a lot of hard work hahahaha!! I think I just lack patience fermenting my own bock..

 

[CrealCritter]

Five O’Bock Somewhere probably is the best for me. having your own root cellar sounds like a lot of hard work hahahaha!! I think I just lack patience fermenting my own bock..

I'll drink this Bock for you then. It's spicy on the front end, from the Hallertau hops but finishes sweet, with enough alcohol to be warming on a cold winter's night. The best description I can come up with is, a spicy malt candy liqueur. It's very unique for me, I've not ever had beer that tasted quite like this Bock before.

It has just a very slight hop and barely aroma because I didn't add any aroma hops near the end of the boil, so you can detect the scent of barley. As of right now, I don't think I would change a thing about it. It's highly drinkable as is.