Eisbock

The Eisbock is a Bock that’s had its water content reduced by freezing some of that water off, therefore producing a much more concentrated beer. It is more intensely malty and more intensely alcoholic, and can also be more intensely screwed up if you make any mistakes. I based this recipe off my Bock recipe, but used a more style appropriate base malt and cranked up additional malts by about five pounds.

I haven’t yet gotten around to doing the concentration procedure, but I should do that pretty soon. When I do, I will update this page. Note that the ABV I’m expecting is what should happen after concentrating the beer. Before that step, I would expect to see this beer somewhere in the 8% to 9% range.

Goals

• 5 gallons
• Starting specific gravity: 1.070 - 1.075
• Finishing specific gravity: 1.015
• ABV: > 11%
• Bitterness: 30 IBU
• Color: 25 SRM

All grain recipe

Ingredients

• 8 lb. Vienna
• 8 lb. Munich light
• 0.75 lb. Carafa II
• 1 oz. Perle (60 minutes)
• 1 oz. Hallertauer (10 minutes)
• Wyeast #2308 (Munich lager)

Procedure

• Heat 18 quarts of mash water to 178° 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 170° F water, collecting 6 gallons.
• Bring to a boil.
• Add 1 oz. Perle hops. Boil 60 minutes.
• With 10 minutes remaining, add 1 oz. Hallertauer hops.
• 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.
• TODO: Add additional procedure here, after I do it.