austun-reddog
Active Member
OK, this is my first post on the forum after many months of reading through various threads. I've been brewing for almost a year now with many AG batches under my belt. Feel quite comfortable in the overall creation and brewing process. Decided to make a stab at a doppelbock! :rockin:
I do have lagering capabilities (two chest freezers) which I use all the time for lagering, aging, crashing, etc.
My AG recipe is:
8.5 lbs Munich Dark
5 lbs Pilsen
0.5 lbs CaraMunich
0.12 lbs Carafa III
1.5 oz Hallertauer 6.2%aa
White Labs 833 Bock Yeast, 4L starter made
Munich water profile
Brewdate: 7/9/2011
Double Decoction mash with mashout
Fly sparge
60 min boil
.75 oz hops at 50 min
.50 oz at 25 min
.25 oz at 5 min
OG = 1.078
FG = 1.020
ABV = 7.6%
SRM = 22
Ferment at 52F for 8 days
Diacetyl rest at 65F for 2 days
Ramp down to 35F over the next week, lager at 35F for 2 months
Tasting at 2 months was awesome! Decided to bottle with some additional yeast to allow some bottle aging to occur. Used 3 grams of Saflager S-23 with corn sugar to prime the bottles (used a bottling bucket). This was one week ago (10/1/2011). Left the bottles at room temp (72F) to carbonate.
Now I usually give 2 weeks to properly carbonate anything, whether force carb in keg or in bottles, before I'm ready to drink, but this time I couldn't wait to try out the doppelbock. It has been 3 months since it was brewed!
To my shock, yes the beer was fully carbed, but all of a sudden there is a sweetness that I didn't taste in the uncarbed beer. It seems totally out of style. Opened up a Spaten Optimator to compare -- the Optimator seems to have a more bready malt forward flavor, while mine is sweeter. Alcohol levels are the same -- in fact, if I were to compare gravities of the two, they are bang on, and so is the color. I'm not tasting diacetyl or any off esters either -- the lagering created a very smooth clean beer. Just overly sweet.
Where did I go wrong with this? Did the extra yeast added for bottle conditioning impart off flavors? Or is it the grain bill?
BTW, here is a picture of both my Doppebock and Spaten Optimator -- can you guess which one is which?
I do have lagering capabilities (two chest freezers) which I use all the time for lagering, aging, crashing, etc.
My AG recipe is:
8.5 lbs Munich Dark
5 lbs Pilsen
0.5 lbs CaraMunich
0.12 lbs Carafa III
1.5 oz Hallertauer 6.2%aa
White Labs 833 Bock Yeast, 4L starter made
Munich water profile
Brewdate: 7/9/2011
Double Decoction mash with mashout
Fly sparge
60 min boil
.75 oz hops at 50 min
.50 oz at 25 min
.25 oz at 5 min
OG = 1.078
FG = 1.020
ABV = 7.6%
SRM = 22
Ferment at 52F for 8 days
Diacetyl rest at 65F for 2 days
Ramp down to 35F over the next week, lager at 35F for 2 months
Tasting at 2 months was awesome! Decided to bottle with some additional yeast to allow some bottle aging to occur. Used 3 grams of Saflager S-23 with corn sugar to prime the bottles (used a bottling bucket). This was one week ago (10/1/2011). Left the bottles at room temp (72F) to carbonate.
Now I usually give 2 weeks to properly carbonate anything, whether force carb in keg or in bottles, before I'm ready to drink, but this time I couldn't wait to try out the doppelbock. It has been 3 months since it was brewed!
To my shock, yes the beer was fully carbed, but all of a sudden there is a sweetness that I didn't taste in the uncarbed beer. It seems totally out of style. Opened up a Spaten Optimator to compare -- the Optimator seems to have a more bready malt forward flavor, while mine is sweeter. Alcohol levels are the same -- in fact, if I were to compare gravities of the two, they are bang on, and so is the color. I'm not tasting diacetyl or any off esters either -- the lagering created a very smooth clean beer. Just overly sweet.
Where did I go wrong with this? Did the extra yeast added for bottle conditioning impart off flavors? Or is it the grain bill?
BTW, here is a picture of both my Doppebock and Spaten Optimator -- can you guess which one is which?