Bock to brewing ...

I made my second attempt at brewing last night. This batch was a European Bock and from another kit. This time, however, I didn't add anything.

I am not yet setup for a traditional bock as it needs to be kept constantly ~ 50*F during fermentation. I intend at some point to pick up a "junk" refrigerator from somewhere and build my own temperature regulator. Besides bocks typically ferment on the order of months and I would need another glass carboy so that I could still brew other beer in the meantime.

This kit, however, used a lager yeast and wouldn't require such a cool environment. I am leary of using dry yeast and the guy behind the counter was cool enough to exchange out a liquid yeast (a California Ale Yeast) for the dry packet so long as I paid the difference.

I set about to cleaning up the area where I was brewing and sterilizing my equipment. Finally, brew time.

Instead of using the two and a half gallon standard for the boil, I used 3 gallons. The paper in the kit mentioned that a higher boil quantity will increase hop IBUs (a measure of the strength of the hops), so I figured I would try it.

I tell ya, that extra half a gallon must've added about 20 extra minutes to the time it took to boil the water to the steeping grain temperature (150*-165* F). It finally hit 160* and I added the grain bag and swirled it around in the water for 20 minutes.

Then it was time to add the malt extracts which requires constant stirring to prevent it from sticking to the pot and burning. Also at this point, it  is time to exercise some caution as it is prone to boiling over -- especially since the pot now is holding a 1/2 gallon more than usual.

I did spill a little while stirring, but not too bad. I also noticed that a little of the extract had stuck to the bottom, but I was able to dislodge it through some stirring.

I added the bittering hops and continued stirring for 40 more minutes, followed by adding the flavoring hops and stirring yet another 15 minutes. This time I did remember to add the Irish Moss (which is supposed to bind all the particulates), which I had forgotten the previous batch.

I immediately set it in an ice bath and vigorously stirred the wort in the pan trying to cool it down. It took about 25 minutes to get it down to 80*. This time I caught it before allowing it to drop past that point (unlike my first effort).

I now racked it into the carboy and even  remembered to take an Original Gravity reading this time  (which I had forgotten to on the first batch). This meant I also got to take a sample. The OG came in at 1.035.

The sample had a sweet taste to it. You could certainly taste the caramel and chocolate malt which were part of the grain pack as well as the sugars which the yeast will feed upon. It had a light brown color and had some clarity to it as it flowed into the carboy.

I then pitched the yeast, gave the carboy a good, vigorous shake and set the bung and airlock in the top, and took it to the closet where it will live for the next couple weeks. I checked it this morning and it hadn't started fermenting yet, so I gave it another couple good shakes and wrapped the blankets back around it.

The temperature in the closet was 80* so I expect it should start soon. Besides, the bottle said it should begin fermenting in 5-15 hours so it should be taking off at some point this evening. It's funny, though, the waiting is a bit agonizing as you are wondering if it's going to take and hopeful to have not wasted beer.