It’s NHC time! Same as the last few years I’m really focused on doing well at NHC and part of that is picking the beers I’m going to brew and working out a schedule so when they go to NHC they are at their peak. I did pretty well last year and got 2 beers to the finals but no medals. If you fail, try try again! I’ve kept some beers from last year and replaced others. Some of that based on me just not being happy with certain beers and others based on changes on how the categories map out.
So, first beer of the NHC 2017 run is a new beer for this year, Helles Bock. I brewed this once a few months ago as a test run and then incorporated my thoughts on that beer back into this brew. The two changes I ended up making were to add a little bit of flavor hops since the commerical example i compared to my last attempt had a bit of noble hop flavor that I was missing. The other changes are bigger in that I moved from Southern German Lager to German Bock Lager and I also increased the Munich malt from 30% to 40%. The last attempt came across a bit bitter and lacked the malt character I would want so I’m hoping going to a more malt forward yeast and bump up the bready munich notes a bit.
Recipe Info
Recipe: helles bock ebiab 2
Style: Helles Bock 4C BJCP 2015
Date: 11-28-2016
|
Recipe |
Guideline Min |
Guideline Max |
|
|
OG |
1.070 |
1.064 |
1.072 |
|
FG |
1.014 |
1.011 |
1.018 |
|
Color |
7.5 |
6.0 |
11.0 |
|
ABV |
7.4 |
6.3 |
7.4 |
|
IBU |
29.0 |
23.0 |
35.0 |
Brewery Info
Efficiency: 72 %
Attenuation: 80 %
Mash Info
Weight: 17.0 Lbs
Thickness: 1.25 Qt per Lb
Deadspace: 2.0 G
Strikewater: 7.31 G
Volume: 8.67 G
Temp: 154.0 F
Boil Info
Kettle Gravity: 1.059
Predicted Mash Run-off: 5.78 G
Target Starting Boil Volume: 7.75 G
Boil Duration: 60 min
Evaporation Rate: 1.25 G per Hour
Final Boil Volume: 6.5 G
Fermentables
|
Weight |
% by Weight |
Name |
Yield |
SRM |
|
10.000 Lb |
59.0 % |
Pilsner (Weyermann) |
80.0 |
1.8 |
|
7.000 Lb |
41.0 % |
Munich I (Weyermann) |
82.2 |
7.1 |
Hops
|
Weight |
Name |
AAU |
Time |
Use |
IBUs |
|
0.75 Oz |
Magnum |
12.0 |
60 mins |
Boil |
24.0 |
|
0.5 Oz |
Sterling |
7.0 |
15 mins |
Boil |
5.0 |
Yeast
|
Amount |
Name |
|
1.000 unit |
German Bock Lager White Labs WLP833 |
Misc
|
Amount |
Name |
Time |
Use |
|
1.000 tablet |
Whirlfloc Tablet |
15 mins |
Boil |
|
0.500 tsp |
Yeast Nutrient (Wyeast) |
10 mins |
Boil |
Water
Predicted Mash Ph: 5.38
|
Ca |
Mg |
Na |
Cl |
So |
Bicarbonate |
|
|
Water |
7 |
3 |
21 |
11 |
24 |
46 |
|
Mash |
91 |
3 |
21 |
116 |
84 |
46 |
|
Sparge |
7 |
3 |
21 |
11 |
24 |
46 |
|
Final |
105 |
4 |
30 |
133 |
102 |
66 |
|
Target |
75 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Mash Water
Total Water Treated: 7.313 G
Percent RO / Distlled: 0 %
Water Used: 7.313 G
Mash Water Adjustments
Gypsum: 3.0 g
Calcium Chloride: 6.0 g
Lactic Acid: 5.0 ml @ 88.000 %
Sparge Water
Leftover Mash Water Used: Yes
Total Water Treated: 1.965 G
Percent RO / Distlled: 0 %
Water Used: 1.965 G
Sparge Water Adjustments
Notes
Mash 154f 60 min
168f 10 min
Cool to 45f , pitch, raise to 50f over 24 hrs
Hold 3 weeks
12/3/16 made 3L starter w/ 300g DME starter w/ WLP833
12/5/16 fairly normal brew day but some minor hiccups. accidentally dumped some first running wort by opening wrong valve so efficiency was a bit low. then boiled it down but forgot to adjust hops so probably 5 IBUs higher than intended. still to style but higher than i wanted. things went well otherwise. pitched @ 1pm. bubbling @ 8pm.
12/6/16 still slow bubbling but no real kreusen formed yet
8pm kreusen is forming
12/8-13/16 nice 1″ kreusen w/ steady bubbling
12/14/16 starting to slow. still kreusen’d ~2 sec
12/15-18/16 ~5 sec
12/19-21/16 ~7 sec and kreusen dropped. starting to clear.
12/22/16 bubbling has pretty much stopped & yeast has really started to drop
12/25/16 heated up to 60F over 2 days. will hold for 3 days and rack to keg.
1/3/17 racked to lagering keg and dropped to 34F over 2 days. FG 1.019 and pH 3.95
clean. no infection. a hint of booze. nice malt character. hops seem fine. very green but promising.