Bock

This is your standard German Bock, but with 2 row as the base malt instead of something more stylistically appropriate. The reason for this is simple: I bought a 50 pound sack of base malt so I was going to use it. I typically make lagers in the winter, because my upstairs bedrooms are not heated and stay in the 50s, which makes them perfect for lager fermentation. I then lager the beers in a keg in my beer fridge. This was a fine, malty beer. It definitely benefits from a lot of aging. If I make it in January, I will typically be drinking it in June.

Goals

• 5 gallons
• Starting specific gravity: 1.070
• Finishing specific gravity: 1.025
• ABV: 6.5%
• Bitterness: 30 IBU
• Color: 25 SRM

All grain recipe

Ingredients

• 8 lb. 2 row
• 4 lb. Munich light
• 6 oz. Carafa I
• 2 oz. Hallertauer (60 minutes)
• Wyeast #2308 (Munich lager)

Procedure

• Heat 16 quarts of mash water to 175° F.
• Add hot water to crushed grains in mash tun.
• Hold for 60 minutes at 158° F.
• With 10 minutes remaining, do a stove top decoction. Remove two collander’s worth of grain plus enough liquid to cover it, add to a pot, and boil until time was up on the mash. Stir constantly to avoid burning. Add back to the mash tun for five more minutes.
• Lauter with 175° F water, collecting 6.5 gallons.
• Bring to a boil.
• Add 2 oz. Hallertauer hops. Boil 60 minutes.
• Cool with wort chiller to ~ 75° F and transfer to carboy. Add extra water to bring to 5 gallons.
• Pitch yeast. Move the carboy into a cool location and ferment at ~ 50° F. I use an unheated bedroom closet during the winter for this.
• When fermentation slows (after one or two months), transfer into a secondary container and lager at ~ 40° F for another one or two months. I just use a keg for lagering and put it in my beer fridge at whatever serving temperature it’s set to.