Calling Doppelbock fans/brewers

Brewed our doppelbock about 3 weeks ago, OG of 1.081 (mash temp of 154), pitched about 1.25L of 34/70 slurry, ferment held at 50* for 7 days, then ramped to 60 for a week, the 65. Gravity is somewhere between 1.020 and 1.024.

I haven’t brewed this style before, and I’m actually usually not a big proponent of malt-bombs. However like most beer styles, once I brew them, I develop a new appreciation for them.

Do fans of the style think 1.024 is too sweet (70.3% AA)?

I think a final gravity of 1.024 is really high end for the style, but still within style. The real question is, how do you think it tastes, and do you like it that way? I wouldn’t want it too sticky in the mouthfeel personally. But, it’s not really wrong, either. I’m not the one drinking it. What do YOU and YOUR friends think of it? That’s all that really matters! If it tastes good to you, then it IS good!

From a pure numbers standpoint, 1.024 does seem kind of high, and you might typically want to shoot lower than that. W-34/70 yeast is not a great attenuator in my experience, although it does give a good flavored beer. Might want to swap out the yeast for a higher attenuation strain in the future such as 2206, which is probably the single best lager yeast strain in the universe and averages around 75% attenuation. You could/should also reduce your mash temperature to around 149-150 F next time to help with this.

But for this beer… if you and your friends like it, then who cares about numbers!?! :cheers:

See everything I saw said doppelbocks should be mashed high. 152 at the lowest.

I do love 2206 though. I think we’ll use that for our next run of lagers which will likely include both a helles and a maibock.

[quote=“Pietro”]See everything I saw said doppelbocks should be mashed high. 152 at the lowest.
[/quote]

Hmm, I’ve never heard of that. I could be wrong. Maybe 152 F is most appropriate. On the other hand, there is other evidence from some folks that the exact mash temperature is not nearly as significant as yeast strain and other factors. Personally I have been mashing everything pretty much at 148-150 F for many years, and I am now considering playing more in the 151-153 F range in future, to see if it really matters. My guess is it probably doesn’t. When in doubt, aim for 150 F, plus or minus 3 degrees, and you’ll hit the mark almost every single time.

Yeast selection, however, is absolutely critical and makes a very significant difference. Also, keep in mind that the supposed “equivalents” between Wyeast vs. White Labs vs. dry yeast are almost NEVER actually equivalent but behave very differently between manufacturers, even if they originated from the same source.

It got down to 1.020 and we started cold crash. Could have been human error on the part of my brewing partner.

1.020 is a different story than 1.024. If it was truly at 1.020, then I would think it would taste just fine… to MY palate.

Hope you enjoy. :cheers:

A buddy of mine has been asking me to brew a doppelbock for a while. He’s a big fan of Schnee Bock but says when he was in Germany it was referred to as a dunkel.

Let us know how it turns out Pietro, and if you’re willing share the recipe.

will do. Its just Jamil’s recipe (Mr. Maltinator) with 3rd gen 34/70.

I was looking at that one in Brewing Classic Styles. I like that it’s a simple grian bill.

No decoction or step mash? Did you boil 90?

We did a 90-minute boil. Since brewing this, I have put my toe in the obsessive cauldron of beer that is German brewing. Purists basically throw out everything bit of wisdom I have accumulated during my 5 good years as a homebrewer. (decoctions DO matter, step mashes ARE necessary, fermentation actually happens during lagering, commercial brewing practices DO apply to homebrewing practices).

We made a pretty solid German pils with a single infusion mash and minimal water treatment. Still TBD on how much I will delve into this subobsession.

At a minimum, next time (looks like our next lager run will be a helles followed by a maibock), we will adjust the 5.4 mash pH down to a 5.2ish boil pH, likely do a hochkurz mash, and TBD on whether we skim krausen.

Yea I joined that blog too and have been following a few of their threads. I almost did a hockhurz on the pils I just finished but got lazy last minute, I did adjust the kettle pH to 5.2. I plan to do a hockhurz mash with the doppel bock, might even do a decoction on it, we’ll see…

Here is the doppelbock recipe I’m working on.

Any comments?

Looks interesting. Non-traditional grist but I bet it will be good.

Well I’m getting a grain mill for Christmas and plan on buying a sack of 2row and a sack of Munich to get started. I originally had Pilsner in there instead of 2row but I’m going to have to brew with what Ill have available. The chocolate is just for color I don’t want to get any flavor, maybe I’ll take it out.

I use carafa special II for color in my lagers when I don’t want any roasty flavor from it. Only takes a little.

I would also recommend Midnight Wheat or Blackprinz for this purpose. Anything dehusked should give you what you need.

Not sure you need the 5 minute additions of Hallertauer, I am slowly being convinced that you get more hop character out of noble hops by boiling them longer. Late additions seem to be a waste of hops, though I haven’t tested this belief in any way.

Another quote from the “Secret German Brewer’s Society” playbook? haha
Yea I tried this on my most recent Vienna. It got Hallertau Tradition at 60 and nothing else. It’s quite good and I can’t detect much difference from the past versions where I added flavor/aroma hops later.