My good friend bought some land near me and is building. I have to make a beer for the project and I already have a Bock I made for him. It originally was called Rob’s Bock then I’ll Be Bock then after the pando it was Bock to Normal. never really changed the recipe much other than decoction mash or single infusion with melonoiden malt sometimes not. Anyway He wants it to be very malty. This is where I’m going.
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/1339569/79-hogs-bock
79 Hogs Back is the address and makes a catchy name. The Amber malt is new and I bumped up the melonoiden, you think its enough amber malt? I havn’t used amber malt in many beers, just starting a discusion
8oz with that grain bill isn’t going to do much, if anything, IMO. You’re adding melanoidin malt and doing a concoction. Your light Munich malt should have enough DP to convert. I would drop some, if not all, of the Pilsner malt and switch to a dark Munich malt.
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you think its worth upping the amber malt. He was trying to explain the flavor he had in his head was a carmely sweetness but I’m not sure that’s what he means.
There’s a BIG difference between malty sweetness and caramel sweetness. Caramel sweetness comes off cloying to me. I’m betting he’s thinking malty sweetness, but 
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I agree carmely sweetness sounds like to much crystal malt definetly not going there. He likes the original but said maybe a little maltier. Thats why I was thinking a little amber. The original also was 50% pilsner for a Maibock
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Then you might have enough ‘maltiness’ with your current grain bill AND decoction. Assume you’re doing a single decoction? You could get a little more maltiness with a second… 
Looks good as it is, but…. for purposes of discussion, one suggestion might be subbing out the pilsener malt for Vienna malt. That might push it toward a maltier finish. I like the melanoidin malt, I’ve used that in my last few bock beers. I haven’t used Amber malt in quite a while, I’d have to look at my notes to see how it worked out. Brown malt, there’s another one I haven’t used in a while, and that one was a little strange.
Why use gypsum ?
Sneezles61
Matching a water profile. Need to up the calcium without upping the Chloride. I’m no water scientist but it works. My water is super soft so it needs the minerals.
What would you do
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Gypsum helps the bitterness of the hops… so with that in mind, will it affect the sweetness of the malt? Lactose comes to mind.
Now take that with a grain of salt, I haven’t brewed a stout, in like forever…
Sneezles61
Edit: oh my, your water is soft. Lucky you! Have you taken time to add some of the brewing salts to a finished schooner of your brew? Just to see if you should push the level of one mineral or another? I wonder if the the water profile just kinda stays neutral . Not trying to enhance the flavor…
Well this is a bock not a stout so It’s a different profile. I’m fine with the way it comes out with a neutral profile so I’ll just play with the grist. I used to mess more with my water and ruined some beers. I’m of the less is enough school.
Oh geez, how did I convert your bock into a stout? Never mind…
sneezles61
Water profile for a bock would be pretty similar to that of a stout. I too often shoot for a neutral profile and build my recipe on that. Of course if I’m doing an IPA I’ll shoot for an increase in sulfate or if I’m doing something with low bitterness shoot for a little higher Chloride level.
But, often the water profiles for ALL my beers are pretty similar. It seems the exception for that is a stout/Porter as the darker grains provide more acidity in the mash. Of course you could always save your darker grains and add them during recirculation or, even steep them in the wort after sparging.
Yeah I realized that I rambled on quite a bit
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Once I get back to brewing, I’ll do more cold steeping of dark grains over night, add to the end of the boil. At least in my Red Ale I could notice the difference…
I feel in the darker brews, water is less a concern… Just me?
Sneezles61
Even with darker beers my source water sodium is 69. I could never add table salt as you (@brew_cat )did, or sodium bicarbonate. I have to use pickling lime Ca(OH)2 in that rare scenario where I would need to raise the pH. I have it, and I’ve used it a grand total of once.
Ha! Same here. Only time I use it is when brewing stouts or porters to raise the pH due to those dark grains. I do need to play around a bit with adding them during recirc or cold steeping.
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Well even after adding a gram of salt to 5 gallons of my water it only gets me 20ppm of Na. I read somewhere it enhances the flavor. I lowered the Gypsum 3:2 Cl:So instead of 1:1. That’s what my stout is but with less added. Obvious reason I dont add salt to my oyster stout. I dont like that the BF recipe shares the water additions because everyone has different water
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Ok I updated the additions so everyone will be happy also changed the target to light and hoppy although it’s not necessary light. Take another look at the above recipe it should show the update
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How did you get rid of RA? (; I hope you’d brew it as you like… shucks, we won’t get to sample and leave reviews… (: With your attention to details, I’m certain it’ll be very good. Be looking forward to tasting notes and pictures! Thank you for allow us to chime in… so many brewers, so many differing ideas.
Sneezles61
