BeerBorg

Just got my order for black bishop doppelbock. The one HME can says I need to add fermentables. So how much sugar do I need to add to start this recipe? Thanks

Welcome.

If you bought just the can, I think you'll be disappointed with the results if you add plain sugar (or brown sugar, or anything you have around the house) to get the ABV to 4.6%. That would take about 2 1/3 cups of sugar and would amount to half of the fermentable sugar.

It would thin the beer out a lot and make it very cidery.

According to this page, you should use 1 can of black horse creamy brown UME with that can of HME.

If you don't want to wait for shipping and you have a LHBS, you could buy 1.2-1.25 lbs of a brown LME (most places don't use HME/UME as terms). Or, you could buy about 1 lb of a brown DME.

Another (and some would say better) alternative would be to buy the same amount of LME/DME above, but buy light, extra light, or pilsen, and use steeping grains (I'm guessing about 4 oz of c80). Get the grains crushed, steep them in water at about 150f for 20 minutes, then proceed as usual. My LHBS only carries the lightest LME they can get and has people use steeping grains to get the color and flavor they want.

Some articles on steeping grains below. Note that these are probably aimed at people brewing 5 gallon batches (I only skimmed). Also note that the last link is a link to a chapter of an older (but still excellent) edition of a full book. The online version is the first edition, and the current edition is 4.

http://beersmith.com/blog/2009/03/22/st ... r-brewing/
https://www.northernbrewer.com/blogs/br ... ing-grains
https://www.morebeer.com/articles/using_steeping_grains
http://howtobrew.com/book/section-2/ste ... f-steeping

Black horse creamy brown and black bishop doppelbock came in the box. Also included was a pack of sanitizer.

I have a bunch of LME’s and boosters from MrBeer.

Sjrobbins wrote:Black horse creamy brown and black bishop doppelbock came in the box. Also included was a pack of sanitizer.

I have a bunch of LME’s and boosters from MrBeer.

If you brew it with the can of HME + the Black Bishop, it will be a "bock" as far as alcohol / body goes.

If you were to add to that another can of amber/dark LME then it will be more like a doppelbock. If instead you were to add to it with sugar/booster instead of more LME then it will be more like a strong dark Belgian ale except with the wrong kind of yeast, so less flavorful then a strong dark Belgian ale. IE you will simply be kicking up the ABV but not the flavors going that route.

One thing to note is that it will still be a bit different then a true doppelbock since your using an ale yeast. Also if you are going to crank up the fermentables beyond the HME + can of Black Bishop then you really need to be pitching more yeast then that little pack they gave you for best results. Getting an 11g pack of a more appropriate yeast will give you much better results. If you can't ferment at lager temperatures, then a dry Kolsch yeast or dry German Ale yeast (or white labs liquid Kolsch yeast) will give you much closer to style results.

The black horse creamy is the extra fermentable the HME said you need.