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Helles Bock HBT BJCP comp winning Maibock

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Brewed 11 Gallons of this yesterday. Nailed the 1.066 OG. my basement is a steady 50 deg F right now so I will ferement there for 2 weeks, then lager in Corny kegs for 6-8 weeks. Pretty pumped for this one!
 
I really want to give this recipe a try. I am in South Africa and for some reason the variety of lager yeasts is very limited at our HBS's.

My options are Marzen Lager Yeast (liquid) see here

Or Saflager 34/70 - I am not sure whether to go with this yeast or not, I have read such mixed reviews about it. I also had a very uninspiring batch with it myself, but that was my third brew and I think I know what went wrong.

Our HBS stock most of the fermentis, lallemand and saflager yeast, so those options are open to me.

There was a beer on the market in South Africa for a short time that was a maibock brewed with a weiss yeast. I only discovered as I was writing this that the beer is off the market - it was a really good beer so am surprised to see its not on the market anymore. That (weiss yeast) could be an option too?

Another option I can think is to get a Rogue Ale and try harvest some pacman, but given the beers have travelled a long way and I have very little experience in harvesting yeast I am reluctant to try this option.
 
If you can find the wl 833 bock yeast, go with that. Otherwise, I would go with the saflager 34/70. It's a pretty versatile yeast strand. That's just my opinion though.
On a side note, I did a rooibos blonde ale that was awesome. It should go over well in South Africa!


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I'm sure the liquid yeast should be just fine. Just make sure you reuse the yeast many times. In a lager, I have found that yeasts don't have a difference in taste as pronounced as in ales.
 
The beer I brewed with this recipe turned out pretty good. It reminds me of the Bocks I drank last fall in Bamberg. The next time I brew this, the only change I will make will be to drop the mash temperature to 154 instead of 156. I'd like it to ferment out just a bit more.
 
Wow - i have a batch in the fermenter. I used 34/70 and tasted it last week - tastes so good! It is pity pilsner and vienna are so expensive here otherwise I would make a truck load of this stuff!

I am excited to get this in the bottle and lagered.

I have measured the ABV at 7% [although I am not sure I am using my refractometer correctly]. Brix at the moment is 7 so it should come out pretty dry, which is perfect in my mind.
 
Holy holy holy! Trying my first bottle of this! Liquid GOLD. This is my kinda beer!


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Is there anyone out there?:)

I have made two batches of this. The first is spectacular, the second one needs to dry out a lot still - which got me thinking: if you lager this and then keg it, does it dry out properly?

I bottle condition for a month, during which the beer dried out nicely. I don't keg so don't know what happens, but would imagine it does not dry out out if kept at low temperatures.
 
I will be brewing this beer next sunday... I intend on using dry yeast s-34/70 for 12 gallons of this. 2 sachets per 6 gallons as extra insurance.
Also I will be mashing at 154... I'd prefer for this one to finish out a tad bit dryer than the OP's recipe. Would like to see a 1.014 FG on this one.
 
Brewed and came in at 1.070, so I think I'm getting a bit better brewhouse efficiency then the OP. Also I did mash at a lower temperature.

Pitched at 50*F and am fermenting at 47*F. I'll leave it be for 3 weeks and see where we end up at.
 
I think I'm going to try this recipe out today but will use some Wyeast Oktoberfest yeast I have laying around. Am I missing something or is the fermentation simply 14 days at 50F? No ramping up for diacetyl rest? How long should it lager ofr?
 
I think I'm going to try this recipe out today but will use some Wyeast Oktoberfest yeast I have laying around. Am I missing something or is the fermentation simply 14 days at 50F? No ramping up for diacetyl rest? How long should it lager ofr?

@guitarguy6. This was a pretty old post, so I'm wondering if bowtiebrewery is even watching anymore. For my first lager, I went ahead and did a Märzen and sort of followed Brulosopher's lagering profile using my STC1000+, which has a 5 day diacetyl rest at 67*F. It just came out of the rest and is now ramping down to 33* for a 5-10 day lager before kegging.
 
A friend bought the Bock from this place in Germany for me

One batch of this maibock (as in the recipe on this thread) i made last year was undercarbed (I thought) but it tasted almost identical to the bock from the place above.
 
@beardandbutter. It worked great! After it came out of the rest and started going down, I added gelatin @ 45°, then let it lager for a couple of weeks at 36°F, then put it on 10psi to start carbing. To be totally honest, it was sort of a semi-lager because I kept hitting it for samples. I'll be d@mned if the samples didn't keep getting better and better until the keg was gone! :D I've got a Bock going now, and I've adjusted the D-rest to down to 3 days @67°F because I didn't detect any diacetyl, so I think it should be enough time for the yeast to clean up. We'll see. BTW, two very big thumbs up for the STC1000+. I love it and have already built my own profiles.
 
beer got brewed nicely, but missed the gravity by 4 points due to almost 2 quarts more liquid, somehow had less boil-off than usual...no biggie i guess.
 
I brewed this today. Been waiting for a while, but finally got to it. It's only my third all grain and first lager. I have either thrown off my efficiency issues or boiled down too much, or both, as I ended with 5 gallons in the fermenter at a OG of 1.080.

I haven't added yeast yet as I'm waiting to get it down to around 50 in the fermentation chamber. Should I add a half gallon of water with the yeast?
 
Started this one in early February. I don't have a ferm chamber but was able to keep the fermentation temperature at right about 53F by doing it in my garage (Ohio) with a carboy heater. Also lagered it there for two months and bottled about 3 weeks ago. I'm very pleased with the result! A fermentation chamber is going to be my next project so that I can do these year round.
Maibock (Helles Bock).jpg
 
I brewed this on 1/13/2019 and mashed at 156. The OG was 1.066 and I pitched a huge starter of wlp 833 at 45 degrees and oxygenated well. Fermentation kicked off in about 20 hours. Its sitting at 48 degrees F now. I will try to remember to report back in late April/early May when I tap it. The recipe looks great and the wort smelled fantastic!
 
I just tapped this today. Brewed on 1/13 as stated above. Its a wonderful beer! I'm actually going to brew it again mid May. Nice malt aroma with rich flavor. I used all Durst malt in this. The bitterness also seems very much in balance. Excellent.
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Looking to brew this, what do folks think about choosing between Omega Bayern and Omega Bock yeasts? I'll have a big cake of Bayern already (when a Helles Exportbier is racked), but I think the Bock is probably a better choice and can make up a big cake of that, in 3 gallon starter, also. Opinions?
 
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