I used Brewer’s Friend to create this Bock recipe.  Pretty sweet!  Here’s the output of the recipe generator (with a few tweaks by me):

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: Traditional Bock
Author: Brew Dude John

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: Traditional Bock
Boil Time: 90 min
Batch Size: 5.5 gallons
Boil Size: 7 gallons
Efficiency: 70%

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.071
Final Gravity: 1.019
ABV (standard): 6.76%
IBU (tinseth): 22.22
SRM (morey): 17.81

FERMENTABLES:
3.5 lb – Pilsner (23.3%)
10 lb – Munich  (66.7%)
0.25 lb – Melanoidin (1.7%)
0.5 lb – CaraAroma (3.3%)
0.25 lb – Caramel / Crystal 150L (1.7%)
0.5 lb – Munich – 60L (3.3%)

HOPS:
0.5 oz – Magnum (AA 13.5) for 60 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil

MASH STEPS:
1) Infusion, Temp: 154°F, Time: 60 mins

YEAST:
White Labs – German Bock Lager Yeast WLP833
Starter: Yes
Form: Liquid
Attenuation (avg): 73%
Flocculation: Medium
Ferment for at least two weeks at 50°F

Lager at 34°F for 2 month before bottling/kegging

If you follow along regularly, you may remember John and I are planning an epic lager “marathon” through the late Spring and Summer.  Our Master of Lagers series is rapidly approaching (although we haven’t set the date yet to start).

For my first lager round I’ll be attempting to accomplish a couple goals at once.  I want to focus on Munich Malt so  I can really understand its flavor profile. As a result, I am going to do a SMaSH beer (second long term goal I have had).  SMaSH stands for Single Malt and Single Hop.  I’ll talk more about SMaSHing soon.  For now this is my first lager recipe for my end of the 6 part lager brewing series.

Munich Lager SMaSH

Batch 6.5 gal final
Eff: 70%
OG 1.055
IBUs ~30

15lbs Munich Malt
1.5oz Hallertauer 60min
1.0oz Hallertauer 30min

Yeast WLP830 German Lager Yeast (or WLP838)

Pretty short and clean.

This recipe may be the second one I brew for the Master of Lagers series. I pulled this recipe together from looking at different sources to see what other homebrewers used to get the Vienna malt flavor in their beers. Here is my take on a Vienna Lager recipe.

Recipe Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 5 Gallons
Boil Size: 6.5 Gallons
Boil Time: 90 Minutes
Mash Efficiency: 72%

Ingredients

7.5 lbs Vienna Malt
1 lbs Munich Malt
1 lbs Pilsner Malt
2 oz Weyermann Carafa II Malt
1.0 oz Hallertau Pellets 4.5% AA boiled 60 mins.
0.5 oz Hallertau Pellets 4.5% AA boiled 10 mins.
Yeast: White Labs WLP838 Southern German Lager or White Labs WLP830 German Lager

Predictions

Original Gravity: 1.048
Terminal Gravity: 1.011
Color: 13.5 °SRM
Bitterness: 24 IBUs
Alcohol (%volume) 4.8%

Notes
Again, making a big yeast starter will be important to get this beer to be dry like the style guide calls for. I would plan to ferment this beer at 50° F for at least two weeks. If I make my final gravity, I will turn down the temperature probe that’s hooked up to the fridge to just above freezing and then let it lager for a month.

The Brew Dudes have brewed a number of American Pale Ales (APAs) over the years and we have listed the recipes on this post. Take a look at the different ways we approached this style. APAs in general should use American base malt, some specialty grains to give the beer some body and extra flavor, and American hops – particularly the big citrus-y ones that we have come to know and love. You could other US hop varieties but they won’t do well in competition. Not that Brew Dude John knows anything about that.

April 3 2012 Update:

Here is the latest Pale Ale from me.  The focus here is smooth bittering, solid classic centennial flavor and aroma, with a big boost of cascade aroma via dry hopping.

10lbs American 2-row (great western)
3lbs German Munich (1oL)
0.5lb Breiss Victory Malt
0.5lb Crystal 40L
1 oz Warrior 14.7%AA 60min
0.5 oz Centennial 11%AA 10min
0.5 oz Centennial 11%AA 0min
2 oz Cascade 5.7%AA Dry Hop 4days (whole leaf)
2pkg US-05 American Ale from Fermentis (dry)

Mash 152F
Ferment started at 62F, 3days in ramp to 65F, 5 days in ramp to 68F and hold.

March 11 2009 Update:

I was thinking my first all grain brew should be a variation of the APA I brewed last year for the LongShot Competition.

I made some adjustments and decided to post the new version of the American Pale Ale recipe.   These adjustments are based on not only to suit an all grain process, but also based on notes I received from the judges:

10 lbs American 2-row malt
2 oz. Special B Malt
5 oz. Honey Malt
5 oz. American Victory Malt
.5 oz Yakima Magnum Pellet Hops boiled 60 min.
.5 oz. Glacier Plugs boiled 60 min.
.5 oz. Glacier Plugs boiled 30 min.
.5 oz. Glacier Plugs boiled 15 min.
.5 oz. Glacier Plugs boiled 1 min.
Yeast: White Labs WLP001 California Ale

Mash at 152 degrees for 60 minutes. Make yeast starter. Ferment for 2 weeks.

Basically trying to improve on what I feel is a good recipe. Attempting to get a bit hoppier with this one. Staying with a clean yeast strain, but going back to the tried and true 001.

I have Mike on tap to document the first all grain. Should be something…

Here is my original partial mash version of this recipe:

4 lbs. 4 oz. American 2-row
2 oz. American Caramel 60°L
4 oz. American Victory
3 oz. Honey Malt
3 oz. Special B Malt
3.5 lbs. Dry Extra Light Extract
.5 oz. Cluster (Pellets, 5.50 %AA) boiled 60 min.
.5 oz. Glacier (Plugs, 7.0 %AA) boiled 60 min.
.5 oz. Glacier (Plugs, 7.0 %AA) boiled 30 min.
.5 oz. Glacier (Plugs, 7.0 %AA) boiled 15 min.
.5 oz. Glacier (Plugs, 7.0 %AA) boiled 1 min.
Yeast: White Labs WLP051 California Ale V Yeast

Original Gravity: 1.054
Terminal Gravity: 1.012
Color: 8.51 °SRM
Bitterness: 37.5 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 5.50%

If you look closely at the ingredients list, you will see that I have profiled many of them in recent posts. I may need to alter some of the ingredients if I can’t get them.

I will be following a partial mash procedure for this recipe. Here is my brew log for this beer:

American Pale Ale Preparations

Checking On The Hops

Checking On The Grains

APA Brew Day

Brewed up this version of Northern English Brown Ale in Feb 16, 2012.  Goal was to get something a little lighter in color with more toasty and caramel notes.  Also wanted to have that solid Nut Brown breadiness in there.  I think it worked out great, here it is:

12.5# Pale Malt (US)
1.0#Crystal 60L
0.5# Pale Chocolate Malt (200L)
0.25# Chocolate Malt (400L)
2.0 oz East Kent Goldings (5%AA)
S-04 Fermentis English Ale Yeast

This was for 7.5 gallons in the kettle post boil.
OG 1052
FG 1018 (little high due to yeast issues, not recipe)
IBUs 24
SRM 19
ABV ~4.5%

This recipe came out spot on in color.  The toffee aroma is amazing.  I might re-tweek this one more time and split the crystal between some 60L and 40L…we’ll see.  Its drinking really nice as it is.  I’ve been getting into keeping my grain bills pretty simple and straightforward and it shows in the results of this beer.

For this year, we set a goal to become master of lagers. To start moving towards this goal, we need plan to brew lagers. The first lager we are going to brew is this one – so here is the Bohemian Pilsner recipe:

Recipe Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 5 Gallons
Boil Size: 6.5 Gallons
Boil Time: 90 Minutes
Mash Efficiency: 72%

Ingredients:

10 lbs Pilsner Malt
.75 lbs Dextrine Malt
1.5 oz Saaz Hops (3.5 %AA) boiled 60 mins.
1 oz Saaz Hops (3.5 %AA) boiled 30 mins.
1 oz Saaz Hops (3.5 %AA) boiled 10 mins.
1 oz Saaz Hops (3.5 %AA) boiled 0 mins.
Yeast: White Labs WLP800 Pilsner Lager

Predictions:

Original Gravity: 1.054
Terminal Gravity: 1.016
Color: 4.22 °SRM
Bitterness: 39.6 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 5.0 %

Notes:

To get better at making lagers, we’ve pinpointed two areas for improvement. The first area is yeast management. I plan to make a large starter for this beer. Basically, I am going to make a 3 gallon beer using malt extract and a little hops and let the yeast do its thing in the fermenter. I might even brew a second starter beer just to get the yeast to a point where they will do the best job possible for the Bohemian Pilsner. The plan is to siphon the starter beer off the yeast cake and then pour the pilsner wort right on top of it.

The second area is water. I plan to use a good proportion of distilled water for this recipe – at least 50 percent will be distilled and the rest will be filtered water from my tap.

Here is my Cherry Wheat Recipe with some more details:  You can read more about the brew day here.

Batch Size 5 gallons (usually 6 but scaled down to account for cherry puree addition later)
OG 1.052
IBUs 32 (tinseth method)
Efficiency (~70%)
Mash Temp 152F
Mash Length 60 mins (mash out to 168F held for 10 minutes, wort transferred to kettle then left overnight, ~9hours)
Boil Length 75 mins

5 lbs German Pilsner Malt
5 lbs American Wheat Malt
2 lbs German Munich (10L)
0.5 lbs Rice Hulls (Lautering Insurance)
2.0 oz Tettnanger Pellets 3.5AA 60 mins (13IBU)
1.0 oz EKG Pellets 4.5AA 60 mins (21IBU)
1 Whirfloc tablet
WLP001 California Ale Yeast, (2L starter volume, grown for 4 days at 72F with occasional shaking, chilled for 2 days, decant pitched ~300ml slurry)
2 cans Cherry Puree

Methodology Notes:

1. This was the second brew session using my new equipment set up.  My new set up employs the use of a March pump to recirc wort through the mash during the entire mash, over a direct fired mash tun.  Maintaining temps has been excellent and ramping to mash out temps after 40mins of mashing at target temps has been a breeze.  I also use the wort to assist with cooling post boil.
2. I am still trying to learn and dial in the liquid losses to the new system however.  Losing some wort to the tubing and the false bottom still needs to be better calculated.  Hence the slightly less than 5 gallons in fermentor.
3. The entire brew was performed in one fermentor.  I used a 7 gallon glass carboy.  I collected just under 5 gallons of wort into the carboy in anticipation of the volume that 2 cans of puree would take up, while also accounting for any blow off that may occur…or at least to attempt to not have a blow off.  Which was a failure as seen here.
4. I also resurrected my oxygenation system for this brew.  I think that even despite using a good starter my last beer did nto attenuate as fully as desired do to this aspect of yeast/fermentation management.
5. Lastly, I maintained the temp of the ferment at 65-70F using a FermWrap heater.  Very please with the results as far as monitoring temperature goes.  A future post will be required to really discuss the ups and downs of the FermWrap.
6. Ok really Lastly, I also split the brew day into two parts.  I mashed in at 7PM at night, performed a mash out (168F), sparged and collected my wort in the kettle.  I shut down the brewery at that point and went to bed, with the kettle covered with a lid. (Although I used a keg as a kettle and the handle holes don’t really let you seal it fully).  The next morning the wort tasted fine, with now sourness or something weird.  Again tasting notes will need to be recorded to see if I am correct there.  I proceeded to boil and add the hops as normal the next day.