Doppelbock in primary
I started my second lager, a partial mash Doppelbock recipe. I am making a bock beer to be enjoyed at Bockfest, which occurs in Cincinnati in early March. I liked this particular recipe because it had some wheat, which I though might be a nice addition. Otherwise, the recipe follows a typical German style. It will be 7-7.5% alcohol. I used German Hops, Northern Brewer and Hallertau, which I had bought last year before the hop crisis cleaned out the market. At this point it would be difficult to find either hop variety. I set aside some of the Hallertau for my Oktoberfest, which will be brewed in June. The Doppelbock recipe recommended an extended lagering stage. My lagering won't be extended, but it should be sufficient. I plan to do a two week primary in the 45-55 range. I will then bring the beer up to to 60's for day or so to make sure the yeast is done. I will have the beer in the secondary for two weeks in the 30-40 degree range, and in the bottle for 3-4 weeks in the 45-55 degree range.
I had trouble getting my Oktoberfest lager to start to ferment, so this time I did a yeast starter for the liquid yeast and left the carboy in the basement at 65-70 degrees until I saw activity, at which point I moved it to the fridge set at 48-50 degrees. That seemed to work. I was forced to move the carboy into the basement after a week in the primary, because the garage fridge temp was dipping into the 30s, with the carboy reading at 43 degrees. Luckily one spot in my basement is holding around 45-50 degrees, so there should not have been a big difference in temperature. The fermentation is still going in this second week in the primary.
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