Style Of The Week 14/6/06 - Bock

[Stuster]

This week I thought we could talk about a style that should be perfect for the weather at the moment (at least in the south of the country), Bock. This is style 5B in the BJCP guidelines.

So what are your experiences with Bock beer. What are the best malts to produce that maltiness, which hops complement the malt well? What yeasts have you used? What are the best kits and how do you jazz up that kit? What of all these to avoid? What commercial bocks have you enjoyed? Tell us all you know.

5B. Traditional Bock

Aroma: Strong malt aroma, often with moderate amounts of rich melanoidins and/or toasty overtones. Virtually no hop aroma. Some alcohol may be noticeable. Clean. No diacetyl. Low to no fruity esters.

Appearance: Light copper to brown color, often with attractive garnet highlights. Lagering should provide good clarity despite the dark color. Large, creamy, persistent, off-white head.

Flavor: Complex maltiness is dominated by the rich flavors of Munich and Vienna malts, which contribute melanoidins and toasty flavors. Some caramel notes may be present from decoction mashing and a long boil. Hop bitterness is generally only high enough to support the malt flavors, allowing a bit of sweetness to linger into the finish. Well-attenuated, not cloying. Clean, with no esters or diacetyl. No hop flavor. No roasted or burnt character.

Mouthfeel: Medium to medium-full bodied. Moderate to moderately low carbonation. Some alcohol warmth may be found, but should never be hot. Smooth, without harshness or astringency.

Overall Impression: A dark, strong, malty lager beer.

History: Originated in the Northern German city of Einbeck, which was a brewing center and popular exporter in the days of the Hanseatic League (14th to 17th century). Recreated in Munich starting in the 17th century. The name "bock" is based on a corruption of the name "Einbeck" in the Bavarian dialect, and was thus only used after the beer came to Munich. "Bock" also means "billy-goat" in German, and is often used in logos and advertisements.

Comments: Decoction mashing and long boiling plays an important part of flavor development, as it enhances the caramel and melanoidin flavor aspects of the malt. Any fruitiness is due to Munich and other specialty malts, not yeast-derived esters developed during fermentation.

Ingredients: Munich and Vienna malts, rarely a tiny bit of dark roasted malts for color adjustment, never any non-malt adjuncts. Continental European hop varieties are used. Clean lager yeast. Water hardness can vary, although moderately carbonate water is typical of Munich.
Vital Statistics:
OG FG IBUs SRM ABV
1.064 - 1.072 1.013 - 1.019 20 - 27 14 - 22 6.3 - 7.2%

Commercial Examples: Einbecker Ur-Bock Dunkel, Aass Bock, Great Lakes Rockefeller Bock

 

[T.D.]

Excellent choice Stuster!

I just bottled a bock on Monday. Actually it turned out to be a doppelbock as I totally overshot the gravity! You'd think after over 30 AG brews I would be starting to get some consistency, but no. :angry:

Anyway, I can't remember it off the top of my head but tonight I'll post the recipe. It was designed as a "winter warmer" that I can give to some of my friends and relatives. I have champagne bottles for them, and stubbies for me (it is 7.9% afterall! :lol: ).

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

I will add what I think is the most important aspect of Bock brewing.

Use the imported Munich Malts from Germany as your base malt for this beer. Up to 90 to 95% of the grist then use medium to dark crystal and a little chocolate malt. You can't go wrong with Weyermanns! I would imagine Hoepfners would be good as well but not sure if they are still available in Australia.

That is what works best for me anyhow.

Any German noble hop to 25IBU and a yeast that helps add to the malty characteristics such as Wyeast 2206 or Whitelabs 833.

Just my opinion anyway.

C&B
TDA

 

[SteveSA]

TDA,

I couldn't agree more with your choice of German malts. (In fact I apply this rule of thumb to most styles - APAs excepted ) Also a 90min boil and the use of Melanoidin for those of us too lazy to perform a decoction mash.

I've been playing with a Bock recipe lately and originally had about 50g Choc Malt in there for colour adjustment but have since changed to Carafa II. Is there any reason you use Choc instead?

FWIW (all malts Weyermann):
Dark Munich 70%
Vienna 21.5%
Melanoidin 7.5%
Carafa II 1%
WLP838 - Southern German Lager (don't have WLP833)
1.069
23IBU (Hallertau @ 60mins)
40EBC

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

Hi SteveSA, Carafa 2 is definately interchangeable for the Chocolate malt providing you can get your hands on some. It is predominately for colour and at 1% of the grist either of those malts will add around 10EBC to the colour of the beer.

Could be a Bock swap coming up

C&B
TDA

 

[Trough Lolly]

Bocks are a great excuse to go berserk and do some decoction mashing.

What's that? Well it's nothing special - you just pull some of the grains from the mashtun, bring them to the boil for a while and then add them back to the mashtun, which raises the overall temp of the mashtun itself. They're great for stepped mashes - you can do a single decoction to raise the mash from the 50C protein rest to a 67C saccharification rest by pulling around 30 to 40% of the mash out at the end of the protein rest, trying not to get too much mash liquor with it and bringing the decoction to a gentle boil.
The malliard reactions will darken the grains, like you do with bread every morning you make toast, you'll get improved efficiency from the thinner mash as well as more malty melanoidins in the beer and it's a fun way to raise mash temps, as long as you're careful with the decoction and don't burn the grains in the base of the decoction pot. Anyway, for a good primer on decoction mashes, have a look at this article on the Oz Craftbrewing website: here.
Cheers,
TL

 

[warrenlw63]

you can do a single decoction to raise the mash from the 50C protein rest to a 67C saccharification rest by pulling around 30 to 40% of the mash out at the end of the protein rest, trying not to get too much mash liquor with it and bringing the decoction to a gentle boil.

TL.

It would be a safer bet to let the 30 to 40% decoction rest at sacc temps for 20-30 mins before boiling. Not sure if boiling immediately is a good thing? :unsure:

I could possibly be wrong.

Warren -

 

[Trough Lolly]

Warren, you're dead right there - sorry about that, I posted without doing a sanity check!!
Yes, of course, the idea is to quickly bring the pulled grains up to the sacc temp range (68-70C), let them rest for at least 20 mins to achieve conversion and then bring the decoction to a 15 or so minute gentle boil thereafter. Rapid boiling of a starch laden decoction will bring on all sorts of haze and flavour and glue-like problems in the mash and beyond...
Cheers,
TL

 

[peas_and_corn]

I'll admit something shocking... I've never tried a bock before!!

So... what's a good bock I could get (I'll probably go to Dan Murphy's), so I'll buy it for a party this weekend?

And what's a good recipe? The description is making me really think I'll like a good bock!

 

[Trent]

Curse you guys and all these good styles to try each week. I have enough trouble keeping up with my own beer wants, let alone hearing about all these other beers I now wanna brew! Keep up the good work, maybe it just means I need to spend more time in the "brewery"

Trent

 

[stephen]

Curse you guys and all these good styles to try each week. I have enough trouble keeping up with my own beer wants, let alone hearing about all these other beers I now wanna brew! Keep up the good work, maybe it just means I need to spend more time in the "brewery"

Trent

Trent

I feel your hurt! I'm sitting here with all my fermenters full and still planning to make brew this weekend. Thankfully I have at least one of my lagers ready for CC so I'll be able to empty one of my fermenters into a cube. I'll also have another brew to bottle - then I read about this wonderful beer, Bock. Looking at the grain bill, I think that this would be a fantastic beer to make: Maybe I should buy some more fermeneters to help me out...and then another one and then another one an...

Steve

 

[T.D.]

Here is the doppelbock recipe I brewed recently and bottled on monday. Its my first bock so any comments are more than welcome! :beerbang:

Style: Doppelbock
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 18.00 L
Boil Size: 18.27 L
Estimated OG: 1.078 SG
Estimated Color: 46.6 EBC
Estimated IBU: 27.8 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 84.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.00 kg Munich, Light (Joe White) (17.7 EBC) Grain 54.5 %
1.90 kg Powell's Munich Malt (20.0 EBC) Grain 34.5 %
0.25 kg Joe White Dark Crystal Malt (250.0 EBC) Grain 4.5 %
0.25 kg Melanoidin (Hoepfner) (39.4 EBC) Grain 4.5 %
0.10 kg Joe White Chocolate Malt (750.6 EBC) Grain 1.8 %
27.00 gm Northern Brewer [9.90%] (60 min) Hops 26.8 IBU
15.00 gm Hallertauer Hersbrucker [1.90%] (10 min) Hops 1.0 IBU
0.50 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
2 Pkgs SafLager West European Lager (DCL Yeast #SYeast-Lager


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 5.50 kg
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Mash In Add 14.34 L of water at 74.4 C 67.8 C 60 min


An aside: The more I read about grain companies in Australia (and more importantly the ones who are no longer supplying the Australian market), I realise that the Melanoidin is most likely Weyermann rather than Hoepfner (had to take a 50-50 guess, and in true Murphey's Law fashion, chose the wrong one!).

 

[peas_and_corn]

That looks like an interesting recipe there! Looks like there's another recipe waiting to be brewed! I've been a little slack on the brewing front; need to hop to it!

 

[Steve]

Same as you p&c - never tried one.
Anyone tried the ESB 3 kg bavarian bock?
Cheers
Steve

 

[neonmeate]

here's a nice one i brewed 2 years ago but it's more of a helles bock:

4.5kg Hoepfner Pils
1.5kg Hoepfner Munich
250g CaraHell
100g Toasted pils malt (10 mins 200C)
Mashed at 66C 30mins, decocted, added back for another 30mins at 70C, mashout.

35g Mittelfrueh (4.9%) 60'
15g Hersbrucker (2.9%) 15'
10g Mittelfrueh + 10g Cz. Saaz flameout

used WLP833 which was excellent. 2 weeks 10C, D rest for 5 days 12C. secondary 1 month @ 3C. another 6 weeks of lagering in bottles. it was tasty!

OG 1.071, FG 1.015, 10 SRM, 27 IBU, 7.3 %

 

[Stuster]

Interesting recipe, neonmeate. What effects did you notice from the 100g of toasted malt?

 

[Trough Lolly]

In October 98, Mikoli Weaver wrote a good primer on Bocks, in the BYO Magazine. It gives a good overview of the main bock styles (helles, maibock, weizenbock and the big bad dopplebock!) but he doesn't visit the Eisbock, which is a shame since it's an interesting brewing technique...
Nonetheless, he's worth a read: here...

Ray Daniels also wrote a good intro article on bocks - here...

And for those of you with APA jaded palates h34r: you might want to have a read of the following article from Darryl Richman who did an Aass dopplebock clone - feel free to drool!! Click here to read...

Cheers,
TL

 

[crozdog]

Has anyone done the ESB fresh wort bock? i think it is available now.

Beers

Crozdog

 

[Lukes]

I'll admit something shocking... I've never tried a bock before!!

So... what's a good bock I could get (I'll probably go to Dan Murphy's), so I'll buy it for a party this weekend?

And what's a good recipe? The description is making me really think I'll like a good bock!

A micro up in Healesville make one.
www.buckleysbeer.com.au
I tried it @ beertopia :chug: and it was good but it's not really my style so..
Don't know who else makes and aussie micro commercial version.

If you are going to have a go yourself I'll agree with the above posts you can't go past the german malts.

Luke

 

[Bobby]

i made the esb fresh wort bock. still have some left actually. it was a tasty beer, give it a try crozdog.