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.

 

[flowerbug]

all that good stuff from the bottom of the bucket is prime worm food! bury it in a garden!

 

[CrealCritter]

You decided to keg ti instead of bottling it? after all the work you put into the label ...

It'll be a tap handle insert first, but could also be a bottle label later.

Here's the latest, I colored the goat the same colors as the malts in approximately the same percentages used to brew the beer. Any thoughts for changes?

 

[CrealCritter]

A truly great brew fully carbonated now... It's slightly spicy on the frontend, finishes smooth, sweet and warming going down. It has a near perfect body and mouth feel now fully carbonated. Heck it's even pretty to look at being dark red with a tan head. The best part is I can brew this anytime I want.

I'm not changing a thing about this recipe, except to convert it to all grain. I just hope my all grain recipe turns out this good.

If your after a fantastic Traditional German Bock recipe to Homebrew. look at the previous posts in this thread, your more than free to copy and brew my recipe. The one only thing I won't share is my "Yeast Blend" but the recipe will still make a great Bock with just Fermentis Saflager 34/70. You just won't get the spicy frontend.

I'm gonna tell everyone that comes over - You don't want none, it ain't no good

Lesson learned... With German Style of beer. No need to rack a second time for clarity. Yeast does contribute to the overall flavor profile for this style. So go ahead and lager and naturally carbonate in the same vessel. In my case that's a stainless steal corny keg.

 

[CrealCritter]

After 117 days since brewday it yummy yummy yummy for my tummy tummy tummy. It's a beautiful beer with a blond head, it's almost to good looking to drink I can most definitely taste the alcohol, but it's not front and center. It's a rather complex beer, hard to explain in words... all I can say is it's a Bock. if you like Bock beers you would appreciate it's creamy smooth full bodied malty sweet flavor, that's authentic to the Bock style

 

[wyoDreamer]

It's beautiful!