Our fourth batch of beer is an insanely thick version of German Dopplebock with Hallertau hops. This is our first lager and contains over 20 lbs of ingredients! It took over 13 hours to brew and exhausted both Rob and I, hence the name. Below we have our brewing information, pictures, and a few videos. We brewed on November 1st and bottled on March 15th.
| Date of Brewing: | November 1, 2003 |
|---|---|
| Batch: | 004 |
| Name: | Brewmeister Decimator |
| Style: | German Dopplebock |
| Volume: | 5 gallons |
| Recipe Source: | A slightly modified version of a Dopplebock recipe found at The Brew Hut. |
| Ingredients: |
|
| Time of boil: | 1 hour |
| Hops: | 1.5 oz. boiling hops added after malt extract hotbreak. 0.75 oz. flavor hops added 30 minutes before sparging. 0.75 oz. aroma hops added 7 minutes before sparging. |
| Temperature of wort when yeast pitched: | 75° Fahrenheit. |
| Beginning specific gravity: | 1.141 at 70° Fahrenheit, 1.142 corrected = 19.5% ABV mark, 34° Plato. |
| Date of transfer to brightening tank: | November 19, 2003 |
| Date of bottling: | March 15, 2004 |
| Bottling agent: | None. |
| Specific gravity at bottling time: | 1.046 at 65° Fahrenheit = 6.3% ABV mark, 12° Plato. Approximately 13% ABV |
| Date of first taste: | March 15, 2004 |
| Taste Evaluation: | Dark, rich, chocolate. Similar to a heavy, sweet porter. Damn fine! |
| Yield: | 26 12 ounce bottles, 7 22 ounce bottles. |
| Notes: |
|
4 pounds of this.
2 pounds of that.
A bag of this.
A bag of that.
Hops and left over Pale Ale grains from Batch 003.
12 pounds of dark malt extract - completely insane!
The package of yeast was supposed to swell to an inch thick, this it it at 3 inches and ready to explode. Very active yeast.
All of the ingredients lined up.
Ryan crushes the grains with a rolling pin.
8 pounds of freshly crushed grains in a stew, smells wonderful!.
The wooden spoon stands up by itself.
30 minutes later, it is still standing.
We constructed a wooden scaffold to support the carboy in the refrigerator, it also supports Ryan.
And Sir Boyle.
He fits much better.
Mwa ha ha ha!
Removing the grains from the hot wort.
Very thick and heavy.
We used a colander to get every little bit of sugar out.
After adding a package of dry malt extract, we have syrup and taffy.
Very thick.
Yum! Its actually very tasty.
Sparging into the carboy.
Straining out all the hops and grains takes over an hour.
Slowly but surely we sparge on!
Topping off the water level to about 5 gallons.
The finished wort, yeast added, and ready to ferment.
My dear god! It is 34% sugar! That means 19.5% alcohol potential!
A few weeks later I'm ready to transfer to the brightening tank.
Lots of yeast sediment means it fermented very thoroughly.
Rich and dark..
The transfer.
It was very thick and this took twice as long as normal.
Complete.
Yay, more stuff to clean.
Several months later, the beer is ready. Cheers!
Rob was VERY excited...
Random image of Steve.
Look at the color of that head.
This was very rich and chocolaty.
No light gets through. Beer proper.
Another glass.
Just as heavy.
Rob and I bottle the beer.
Testing density by using...
Science!
12° Plato! 13% ABV! The most powerful beer in the world! Mwa ha ha ha! (not really)
(High resolution versions can be found here.)
Videos in raw AVI format. Should work on mplayer, xanim, QuickTime, and Windows Media Player.