BeerBorg

I brought this back up again because this will be the first brew of the New Year for me. I didn't do it last year and did a lighter Helles instead that was very good but 5 gals wasn't enough. I like to start the new year with a style I never brewed before, but I have done quite a few Maibocks but were extract with specialty grains. This will be the first AG Maibock.

I'd brew one after I run out of the stuff I have here (since I don't know what said stuff is being "wondergrains", it would be hard to brew a specific planned ahead style with it).

A couple things I am still working on with the base recipie, have't quite got the hops figured and I keep thinking some Saaz at the end because I like most anything with saaz. Also think as much would like to but can afford the amount of 34/70 that should be used, will go with WL833 2 Lt. and will have to ferment colder. Just playing with ideas right now. Still open for ideas.

MoreBeer has 20% off recipe kits today as part of their 12 beers of Christmas sale thing, which puts them as cheap as buying the ingredients on their own right now as ingredients are a bit jacked up due to the pandemic, so I bought their Maibock and Bock kits even though I don't normally buy kits.

Their Maibock kit is 10# Pils, 5# Vienna, 1# Carapils, and 1# 15L with magnum for bittering, 1/2oz Saaz for flavor, and 1oz Saaz as aroma hops.

I might reduce the magnum to 1oz instead of 1.5oz and save the rest they send me for something else. 1.5oz seems a bit too much, especially since I slow chill and will keep extracting stuff from their 30 minute addition that would be unintended. I will depend on the actual AAUs of the hops I get.

Other then that it sounds good to me so I will have that on hand to brew in a bit. I will for sure sparge it up to 7 gallons and probably sparge some more into another container and top it up with the extra wort during the boil so as to get a full 6 gallons batch with that much malt in it. I will barely be able to fit that in my M&B. That's pretty maxed out.

mashani wrote:MoreBeer has 20% off recipe kits today as part of their 12 beers of Christmas sale thing, which puts them as cheap as buying the ingredients on their own right now as ingredients are a bit jacked up due to the pandemic, so I bought their Maibock and Bock kits even though I don't normally buy kits.

That's not a bad deal for a kit with that many ingredients and I would of maybe went that way too if I didn't already have about 1/2 the stuff already for what I have in mind.

mashani wrote: I will for sure sparge it up to 7 gallons and probably sparge some more into another container and top it up with the extra wort during the boil so as to get a full 6 gallons batch with that much malt in it. I will barely be able to fit that in my M&B. That's pretty maxed out.

That is going to be heavy to pick up to the sparge bolts. You could do a split mash/reiterated like I did last year on a heavy smoked scotch, more work and longer brew day but would most likely get better efficacy. Are you going to do 3 gal as a Lager and 3 as a ale? what yeast you got in mind?

I've hauled 16# of grain out of it before. Not the most fun but I did it. A reiterated mash might be a good idea still though for efficiency.

I have a bunch of Mangrove Jack’s Craft Series Yeast M76 yeast here so I was going to use that. (it is the same thing as 34/70 but costs less). I do have some K-97 German Ale / Kolsch yeast here too I could use if I wanted to do one half as an ale. Maybe an interesting experiment?

I had a little over 19 lbs on the scotch and was going to try it but changed my mind. Did a overnight full volume on 1/2, next morning put that in my old megapot and did the other half with a sparge no cleaning in between. combinded for the boil, worked out good. Had me busy for awhile but in a way was easier and I think came out way better. I don't think I would do 17 on the M&B although it will hold it.

Where I am at but still fine tuning.

Why I decided to add .5 extract on this is as I said I like trying new things for the new year. Never tried adding extract to the M&B, but think I have a way on not tripping a ER4. Going to boil the DME with 32 0z water on a hot plate and slowly add on the last 2 mins. if it does kick a ER4 I would be at the end anyways. M&B folks will know what am talking about. It will be useful to know if wanted to do a really big beer with some extract in the future.

The few times I've done it I've turned off the heat, mixed it in good, scraped my mash paddle on the heating element, then turned it back on and had no issues.

mashani wrote:The few times I've done it I've turned off the heat, mixed it in good, scraped my mash paddle on the heating element, then turned it back on and had no issues.

That's what I've done, too. Works great as long as you make sure you get all of the extract fully dissolved.

Just trying to think of a way not to kill or shut the boil down.

berryman wrote:Just trying to think of a way not to kill or shut the boil down.

If you can dissolve the extract in a gallon or more of water so it's very much a liquid and less a syrup, and you make it so you want that extra volume added to the boil to reach your intended post boil volume (by adjusting water/sparge amounts and/or boil times so the boil off makes it so) then you could just dump said liquid in while stirring and it will likely not cause any problems.

I hope that made sense.

I ended up not using DME, I didn't know what efficacy I would get at 14 lbs because that is close to where mine starts dropping some. I did a pre-boil reading and was happy. I changed the hop schedule a little to 2 oz Hallertau @45 and 1 oz Saaz @ 10 and 1 oz @ 1 min. I pitched the most yeast in this ever have, at 49-50 degs and working hard.

I was going to brew the MoreBeer Maibock today, but I accidently brewed the MoreBeer Bock instead. Maibock will be next I guess.