My billy goat is gruff.

[GilaMinumBeer]

Alright, so I transfered my DoppleBock/Strong Dark to the keg today.

The Bock smelled odd but tasted great. I think it's still a bit sulfuric (just a tinge), the strong dark smelled awesome but had an odd taste to it.

The bock came in at 67% apparent ( WLP833 - 3 quart starter) but still packs a whopping 8.3%ABV and the strong dark chewed itself to 87% apparent (US-05 - 1 pack rehydrated) with a skullsplitting 10.5ABV. Whew!

Both went to plastic on February 9th. The Bock spent 4 weeks at 54*F and 1 week at room temp (~72*F). The strong dark rested peacefully at 70*F for 3 days and then crept gracefully to room temp.

Both were from the same grist (Maris Otter & Munich @ 50/50, CaraMunich, Melanoidin). Mashed at 154*F/60 minutes recirculated. The strong dark received 4oz Demarara (Sugar in the raw).

At first, I am thinking the Cara and the melanoidin combined with hot mash made a lot of unfermentables but then I hydro'd the strong dark and realized that could not have been the case. So now I am stumped.

The odd taste may be that I am unfamiliar with Demarara AND (more likely) that this big beer is still green.

I am still very happy with the result but, I do very much like Bock and plan to do many more and I am perplexed at why the yeast stopped at 3% below it's bottom end and a full 11% below it's top end.

Any suggestions?

 

[slnies]

Alright, so I transfered my DoppleBock/Strong Dark to the keg today.

The Bock smelled odd but tasted great. I think it's still a bit sulfuric (just a tinge), the strong dark smelled awesome but had an odd taste to it.

The bock came in at 67% apparent ( WLP833 - 3 quart starter) but still packs a whopping 8.3%ABV and the strong dark chewed itself to 87% apparent (US-05 - 1 pack rehydrated) with a skullsplitting 10.5ABV. Whew!

Both went to plastic on February 9th. The Bock spent 4 weeks at 54*F and 1 week at room temp (~72*F). The strong dark rested peacefully at 70*F for 3 days and then crept gracefully to room temp.

Both were from the same grist (Maris Otter & Munich @ 50/50, CaraMunich, Melanoidin). Mashed at 154*F/60 minutes recirculated. The strong dark received 4oz Demarara (Sugar in the raw).

At first, I am thinking the Cara and the melanoidin combined with hot mash made a lot of unfermentables but then I hydro'd the strong dark and realized that could not have been the case. So now I am stumped.

The odd taste may be that I am unfamiliar with Demarara AND (more likely) that this big beer is still green.

I am still very happy with the result but, I do very much like Bock and plan to do many more and I am perplexed at why the yeast stopped at 3% below it's bottom end and a full 11% below it's top end.

Any suggestions?

Let it warn up a little. Not much, but a little. If it starts fermenting again your golden. The other thing is that lagger yeasts take a long time for that last little bit. Fermentation may not be at a stop yet. It may be so slow though that it looks like it. My Wyeast Munich lagger strain took 3 weeks to drop the last 3% this last time around. I ferment at 52F, then when it looks done, I crash it to 35 for another six weeks. Sometime I get more attenuation yet and sometimes I don't, but I always get a cleaner tasting beer this way. The yeast clean up all the nasties in this time. The sulfur taste softens out and the off flavors go byby. I hope this holds some insight. S.