Advice on Fruity, NON-Nutty Maibock Recipe

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scruff311

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I'm going to be brewing a maibock soon and I've got a base recipe that I am working with. I'd like it to end up with some tropical fruit notes, similar to BBC Maibock (if anyone has ever had it) rather than nutty. Rogue Dead Guy is also a good example. Here is roughly what I am planning.

O.G. 1.067
Single Infusion Mash @ 153F

Grist:
53% German Pils
29% Carapils
18% German Light Munich

Hops:
Haulertau 1oz (4.3%) 60 min
Perle 0.5oz (7.7%) 15 min
Saaz 0.5oz (4%) 15 min
Saaz 0.5oz (4%) 0 min

Yeast:
WLP833 German Bock Lager Yeast

I know BBC uses all German ingredients so I didn't think adding American hops of any sort was necessary. I don't have the ability to do a true lager, so this will end up fermenting in the 60's and will impart some fruity esters. I am open to just using an ale yeast also. If anyone has suggestions to change any of this, I am all ears.
 
You're correct about using ALE yeast- go for that for fruitiness rather than a lager yeast. The only lager yeasts good at 60F are steam beer yeast (cali common/san francisco lager)- other lager yeasts are just going to get nasty and sulfury. Apart from that, nothing about your recipe is fruity. You have way too much carapils (infinitely too much?)- a maibock should have no caramel malts. Get your sweetness from maltier, higher-kilned base malts like dark munich and vienna and make your boil longer to get some serious kettle caramelization (That or consider a long hard decoction mash).

I think that a Steam Beer yeast like WLP810 San Francisco Lager yeast is going to give you just what you want as far as fruitiness. A clean ale yeast like US-05 will also make a nice maibock-analogue, though. Dead guy is fermented with Pacman- a clean but malt-forward ale yeast. Denny's Favorite 50 might be a cool yeast to try with an ale version of maibock as well, but it's not fruity. Just a generally awesome yeast- I'd love to try it at Two Kids but there's something philosophically wrong about using Denny's yeast in a commercial brewery.
 
Yea I thought the Carapils was over the top, but I was building the recipe off of a Brew Your Own Maibock feature article which calls for 'roughly 30% light caramel malt (~ 1.5 ºL)'. The only malt I could find that classified as caramel with a lovibond that low was carapils.

I'm looking for an SRM no higher than 11, so I am wary of using too much dark munich. Using brewology101.com software with the grist as constituted in my original post, the SRM was 9. Replacing the carapils with something darker doesn't give me a ton of wiggle room. Maybe split the carapils portion with more pilsner and Vienna?
 
Update on Recipe

I'm using BeerSmith now (giving the free trial a whirl because brewology101.com keeps losing my information) and I've redone the recipe. Here is what I've got:

1.068 O.G.
1.018 F.G.
6.6% A.B.V
9 SRM
26 IBU

Mash at 153F for 60 Minutes
66% Mash Efficiency
90 Min Boil

Grist
7 lbs German Pilsner
5 lbs Munich
4 lbs Vienna

Hops
Perle 0.5 oz (8%) 60 min
Perle 0.5 oz (5.5%) 20 min <-- Lower AA% because they are a little old
Spalter 0.5 oz (4.5%) 15 min
Perle 0.5 oz (8%) 7 min
Spalter 0.5 oz (4.5%) 7 min

Yeast
WLP810 - San Francisco Lager

Any advice would be appreciated. Cheers!
 
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