European Bock

4/9/2010

Brewer's Best European Bock

Start date: 3/17/2010                     Keg date: 5/1/2010                          Drink date: 5/15/2010

BG: 1.08               FG: 1.048                             ABV: 4.2%

Hop bittering units: 22

Ingredients

6.6 lbs Munich light malt extract

2 lbs Golden dry malt extract

8 oz maltodextrin

8 oz crystal 120L grains

4 oz chocolate

4 oz Carapils Dextrine

.75 oz bittering hops

.5 oz aroma hops

1 pack of yeast

Process

·         boil water

·         steep grains for 20 minutes

·         boil malt and maltodextrin

·         add bittering hops to boil

·         add aroma hops to boil

·         Transfer to fermenting glass carboy

·         ferment for 2 weeks at lager temps (48-58 degrees)

·         transfer to secondary fermenter and ferment for 3-4 more weeks at 35-42 degrees

·         keg it

Comments

We brewed this on the same day as the double IPA.   Everything went smoothly when we were cooking up the crack.  When we transferred the brew to the fermenter and put it in the fridge is when we ran into some issues.  The air lock was not bubbling, which indicates that the fermentation is working.  We didn't have a secondary glass carboy to use after 2 weeks, so we are going to transfer it to a new carboy we just got.  It has been 3 weeks.  We will keep it in the fridge for another 3 weeks.  We will need to take a hydrometer reading when it is done fermenting.  At that point we can keg it and let it sit for a month.  This batch may have been screwed up, but we will find out.  This is definitely the longest process for a brew yet, so we will have to be patient and hope it's alright.  I don't know much about bocks, but craig read that lagering at colder temps slows down the fermenting process, so maybe it'll be okay.  We could have fermented at ale temps, but since we had the fridge to use we figured we'd give it a try.

We transferred the bock to a clean secondary fermenter on 4/11/2010.  We put it back in the fridge and will let it sit for 3 more weeks.  We then kegged it in early May.  It's been sitting in the fridge until now, mid July 2010.  We just hooked it up to the keg and pumped some CO2 into it.  It should be ready in about 2 weeks.  This has been in the works since freaking February.  I really hope it's tasty.  It's only 4.2% ABV which is kind of weak for this type of beer, but considering we thought it was completely ruined I guess we can't complain too much.  I expect it to be dark, kind of sweet, and hopefully delicious.

The European Bock was a pretty big failure.  Definitely our worst yet.  It wasn't even really drinkable.  We stopped drinking it and eventually dumped  it out.  It was a sad day.  It looked amazing pouring into the glass.  It was dark with a nice head.  It smelled good with a sweet aroma, which is what it should be.  However, it was just too sweet tasting.  It had some carbonation, but probably not enough.    We originally thought we screwed this one up and I guess we did.  Of course, I have no idea what went wrong.  Back to the drawing board.