CaptainZingo
Member
Hi,
I'm trying to make a doppelbock, my goal being a smooth, malty brew with all the "dark fruit" complexity of Celebrator. I started out by getting the
AustinHomeBrew Celebrator clone all-grain ingredients, but when they arrived I thought they were a little light on the Munich malts, so I ran out and got 2 lbs of Dark Munich to add to the mash. I had a tough time with the mash because of all the grains in my 5-gal Gott, but I managed to get through with a double decoction.
So, where I am today, 2 weeks of primary and now in the fridge at 34 for secondary, and I'm not sure if the beer is going to be anything like what I was shooting for. First, it's dark, but not quite as dark as Celebrator. Second, it has a light maltiness to it, but not a lot. Third, the alcohol flavor is monster, headache inducing after just a couple sips. My calculations show 8.5% at this point, probably because I added the extra two pounds of fermentables, and despite my attempts to bring up the main mash temp, I was still closer to 149 than 155.
Questions for those with doppelbock experience: Is this going to improve? Will the alcohol mellow and the maltiness increase if I lager it for a few months? If not, can I tweak it as I go? I was thinking about boiling up some Munich and maybe a bit of Crystal in a couple gallons to create a super non-fermentable and malty wort that I would replace a couple gallons of the beer with, and just bottle up the original and see how it ages.
Suggestions? Here's my brew log:
Base ingredients from Celebrator Doppelbock at Austin Homebrew, I added two pounds of dark Munich and decided to do a decoction mash.
Grain Bill
13.5 lbs German Pilsner
.75 lbs Munich
5 oz Chocolate
.5 lb Crystal 60L
2 lbs Dark Munich (Beer Solutions in Wilkes-Barre)
.5 lb Malto Dextrin
Hops
.75 oz Northern Brewer 11.2% 60 min
1.5 oz Hersbrucker 2.8% 60 min
.5 oz Hersbrucker 2.8% 15 min
Yeast
White Labs German Lager WLP830 (1 qt starter)
11:50 Mash in 125
12:05 Remove first decoction
12:15 good boil
12:35 Add decoction back to mash
12:45 temp still too low, removed some thin mash to boil
12:55 returned thin mash, stable at 148
01:05 removed a quarter of the mash and boiled it, tried to add boiling water to the remaining mash to bring it up to 155, still hovered around 150, eventually I had most of the mash back in the tun and started sparge. Slowest sparge ever. I tried removing all of the mash and only adding half back, still slow. Added most all mash back, had to recirc for quite a while.
4:00 still sparging, only have 16 qts. started heating wort for the boil while I sparge the rest into another pot
4:30 boilover. Up to 24 qts wort collected. added maltodextrin. still collecting a bit more wort.
4:55 back up to boil, collected 29 qts
5:10 added bittering hops
5:55 added flavor hops
6:10 stopped boil, started chilling
6:40 temp at 55, dumped to carboy, pitched yeast halfway through, foamed so much it overflowed the funnel
6:45 moved to cellar, temp 55
9:40 not much airlock activity
OG 1.086
12-23-06 - 1.022 racked to secondary, put in fridge @ 36 - alcohol aroma, light malty taste, light hop bitterness, alcohol burn
I'm trying to make a doppelbock, my goal being a smooth, malty brew with all the "dark fruit" complexity of Celebrator. I started out by getting the
AustinHomeBrew Celebrator clone all-grain ingredients, but when they arrived I thought they were a little light on the Munich malts, so I ran out and got 2 lbs of Dark Munich to add to the mash. I had a tough time with the mash because of all the grains in my 5-gal Gott, but I managed to get through with a double decoction.
So, where I am today, 2 weeks of primary and now in the fridge at 34 for secondary, and I'm not sure if the beer is going to be anything like what I was shooting for. First, it's dark, but not quite as dark as Celebrator. Second, it has a light maltiness to it, but not a lot. Third, the alcohol flavor is monster, headache inducing after just a couple sips. My calculations show 8.5% at this point, probably because I added the extra two pounds of fermentables, and despite my attempts to bring up the main mash temp, I was still closer to 149 than 155.
Questions for those with doppelbock experience: Is this going to improve? Will the alcohol mellow and the maltiness increase if I lager it for a few months? If not, can I tweak it as I go? I was thinking about boiling up some Munich and maybe a bit of Crystal in a couple gallons to create a super non-fermentable and malty wort that I would replace a couple gallons of the beer with, and just bottle up the original and see how it ages.
Suggestions? Here's my brew log:
Base ingredients from Celebrator Doppelbock at Austin Homebrew, I added two pounds of dark Munich and decided to do a decoction mash.
Grain Bill
13.5 lbs German Pilsner
.75 lbs Munich
5 oz Chocolate
.5 lb Crystal 60L
2 lbs Dark Munich (Beer Solutions in Wilkes-Barre)
.5 lb Malto Dextrin
Hops
.75 oz Northern Brewer 11.2% 60 min
1.5 oz Hersbrucker 2.8% 60 min
.5 oz Hersbrucker 2.8% 15 min
Yeast
White Labs German Lager WLP830 (1 qt starter)
11:50 Mash in 125
12:05 Remove first decoction
12:15 good boil
12:35 Add decoction back to mash
12:45 temp still too low, removed some thin mash to boil
12:55 returned thin mash, stable at 148
01:05 removed a quarter of the mash and boiled it, tried to add boiling water to the remaining mash to bring it up to 155, still hovered around 150, eventually I had most of the mash back in the tun and started sparge. Slowest sparge ever. I tried removing all of the mash and only adding half back, still slow. Added most all mash back, had to recirc for quite a while.
4:00 still sparging, only have 16 qts. started heating wort for the boil while I sparge the rest into another pot
4:30 boilover. Up to 24 qts wort collected. added maltodextrin. still collecting a bit more wort.
4:55 back up to boil, collected 29 qts
5:10 added bittering hops
5:55 added flavor hops
6:10 stopped boil, started chilling
6:40 temp at 55, dumped to carboy, pitched yeast halfway through, foamed so much it overflowed the funnel
6:45 moved to cellar, temp 55
9:40 not much airlock activity
OG 1.086
12-23-06 - 1.022 racked to secondary, put in fridge @ 36 - alcohol aroma, light malty taste, light hop bitterness, alcohol burn