Tranquility Base Bock

When I think of the great lagers I've enjoyed my mind goes to a few locations: Festbier in a tent at Oktoberfest in Munich, unfiltered Pilsner on the anniversary of Pilsner Urquell in a bar in Prague, and Doppelbock in a big field in the Virginia Mountains. The last one might not be as iconic but let me explain...

My version in a glass stein

Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia is a surprising wealth of breweries: Hardywood, Champion, South Street, Random Row, Pro Re Nata, Starr Hill, and Three Notch'd can all be found in Charlottesville or nearby Crozet. During the two years my wife was attending grad school at the University of Virginia I visited almost all of these breweries and had plenty of beers from all of them, more often than not appreciating the diversity and quality of offerings. It was a little surprising to see how strong the beer scene could be in this area when the place I lived at the time, the larger and more densely populated Arlington, Virginia, only had a couple of brewpubs that turned out mediocre fare and often shut down shortly after opening.

Not far away from the Charlottesville area, just south of Shenandoah National Park, and near plenty of hiking and outdoor activity areas, is Route 151. Taking this road south takes you straight to countless drinking destinations: Blue Mountain Brewery, Wild Wolf Brewing Company, Silverback Distillery, Bold Rock Hard Cider, Blue Toad Hard Cider, Veritas Vineyard, Flying Fox Vineyard, and Cardinal Winery just to name a few. While I had made the trip this direction a few times for different reasons, in February of 2017 I made it further south on the road, nearly an hour from Charlottesville, where, for the first time, I visited one of the best known breweries in the area: Devils Backbone's Basecamp Brewpub.

Devils Backbone is a brewery that is both loved and hated in Virginia and further abroad due to their great lagers (Vienna Lager is their flagship beer and a great example of the style) and their 2016 sellout to AB-InBev. One of the many Craft breweries to be bought out by what used to be Anheuser-Busch, Devils Backbone may be known as much for their vast marketing and availability as the quality of their products.

This is the pint that I fell in love with

While their sale to AB-InBev, and subsequent tactics by their owners to market and distribute their beers at the expense of Craft offerings, rubbed me the wrong way, I still believe they are the best producers of lagers on the East Coast and would happily drink a Schwarzbier or Baltic Porter from them any day of the week. So, with minimal reluctance, I found myself at the brewpub deciding what to order and the decision ended up being easy. While they had all sorts of terribly gimmicky beers (ginger Bock and fruited Hefeweisse to name just a few) the Basecamp Bound Bock seemed like an easy choice. And oh was it the right one.

Rushing into my mouth were waves of chocolate, deep rich melanoidin laden malt, full creamy mouthfeel, but also nuanced light fruit, fresh grain, and subtle spice, all ending in a crisp, dry, refreshing, and obviously lagered finish. I'm not ashamed to admit I drank a couple more while playing Kubb on their spacious lawn (fortunately I wasn't the one driving).
This is the long way of saying: I discovered how great Bock could be not from my travels to Europe but from an AB-InBev product in the middle of Virginia, go figure. I subsequently found out that this beer was actually the bigger brother style of Doppelbock and was even more impressed with the drinkability. The beer weighed in at a fairly hefty 7.6% ABV (it's a good thing I wasn't driving!). While Devils Backbone's site didn't provide much information (this link used to go to details on this beer but no longer does...) about the beer I knew that one day I would have to try to recreate it.

This brings me to June 2018, on the other side of the country, where I set out to brew a beer that rides the line between Bock (or by the 2015 BJCP definitions a Dunkles Bock) and Doppelbock, with a particular emphasis on noticeable, but not overwhelming, chocolatey character without coming off roasty or finishing sweet. Essentially I wanted this to be a bock/doppelbock that had the harmonious blend of complexity and simplicity only a malty lager can show.

Less dark in this smaller pour than other images

While I wouldn't call my Tranquility Base Bock a clone of the Devils Backbone beer (I doubt their version used Pale Chocolate Malt or some of the other less orthodox ingredients), and while it also didn't turn out perfect, I think I nailed my goal of a super drinkable, surprisingly strong, plenty malty, ever so noticeably chocolatey, refreshing lager.

I was not as rigorous with brewing notes on this beer as most batches but here is what I remember/jotted down:
Brewed on the stove top. Cooled down to 50F overnight then pitched almost expired packs of Mangrove Jack's Bavarian Lager and Fermentis Saflager W-34/70. Raised temp control and fermented at 55F for 5 days before being allowed to rise up to 68F for another 5. Tasting at that point showed no signs of diacetyl so it was cold crashed slowly over 3 days to 33F. After another 5 days it was transferred to keg, carbonated, and kept at 33F for another 4 days before raising the temp to 45F. The temperature in the kegerator has fluctuated between as high as 55F and as low as 19F (I didn't notice the thermostat fell out and the temp controller got the freezer cranking) but the beer has only seemed to round out more over time.

Tasting:

Appearance: Deep brown but not black. Early pours were very clear due to gelatin but late pours (as this one is) have some floaters.

Smell: Very malt forward: chocolate milkshake and fresh baked bread linger together. Some hints of toast and earth but hard to tell where that comes from, otherwise no obvious yeast or hop derived components.

Taste: Lighter on the chocolate than the nose would imply but still a nice light milk chocolate character mingles with the more pronounced notes of toast, bread, and a subtle but growing in the finish clean bitterness. Again, no real hop or yeast character present.

Mouthfeel: Medium-high body with medium carbonation, hit this one exactly where I'd like for the style so that it fills the mouth but doesn't linger too long.

Overall: Again, a beer that I'm very happy with even if it isn't exactly to style. I would decrease both the dark munich and pale chocolate malt slightly if I were to brew this closer to a traditional bock and increase the regular munich a touch if I were to re-brew with a doppelbock in mind. That said, I don't know that I'd want to change this beer much unless I was trying to win a competition.

10/9/18
Bottled 3 bottles from the keg and entered into California State Homebrew Competition under category 9A: Doppelbock.

12/8/18
Still on tap and still tasting great. The beer scored a 36 and received 3rd place in the Strong Euro Lagers category at the California State Homebrew Competition, a good result for a beer not brewed exactly to be a classic Doppelbock and at the low end of the category.

2/28/19
Thought this one had kicked but found out there were still a couple pints left and created the above tasting notes, still a super enjoyable beer more than 6 months after brewing.

Belgian Golden Strong and Smoked Helles Parti-gyle

Just over 2 years ago I brewed a series of Belgians, including an interesting take on a Belgian Golden Strong. Belgian Golden Strong Ales (BGSAs) have been one of my favorite styles since the first time I tried Duvel Green on my 21st birthday and was opened to a whole new world of Belgian beer. With only one beer currently in my kegerator I decided I should throw together something that could be both interesting and refreshing now that spring is here. I also didn't want to solely commit to a BGSA and decided it would be a good time to perform a pseudo parti-gyle in order to get 2 different beers.

I decided that the smaller beer could be a good base for my third attempt at lagering since the kegerator/ferment chamber had space available. Playing around with the numbers I realized that by adding just a little pale malt, and some specialty malts I would be able to make a smoked Helles. While I haven't had a smoked Helles before, it seemed like another fitting beer for spring with a balance of both intriguing components and moderate drinkability.

I brewed the beers on the last day of winter in a cold mix of rain, sleet, and snow. While the weather added some difficulty and I didn't do everything quite as efficiently as I could have, the day went well overall and hopefully I'll come out of it with 2 tasty beers for only a couple hours more work than I would have had to do for 1. The addition of grains required a second mash and made this not a true parti-gyle but allowed me to give more variability to the beers produced and I plan to perform similar split batch procedures in the future. One goal moving forward will be to better line up the timing for the two batches to minimize how much additional time is required.

Designing the two recipes was a somewhat iterative process as I came up with a general idea for each recipe separately, then used a parti-gyle calculator to identify that I would need a 1.045 OG at 6 gallons, then came up with the overall malt bill, then went back and refined the individual recipes. the recipes shown below are my best attempt to show how to recreate the beers if not done together and have been adjusted slightly due to hitting higher efficiency than expected. The base malts used aren't traditional but I was making due with what I had including the last of my bags of Pilsner and 2-row and just enough Maris Otter to hit my required amounts.

Future Laws:
Belgian Golden Strong Ale

OG	1.083
FG	1.017
IBU	29
SRM	3
ABV	9%

Fermentables
Amount	Fermentable	Maltster	Use	PPG	Color
4.0 lb	2-Row (US)	Briess	Mash	37	1 °L
2.0 lb	Pilsner (DE)	Weyermann	Mash	37	1 °L
1.5 lb	Sucrose	N/A	Boil	46	0 °L
0.67 lb	Maris Otter Pale	Thomas Fawcett & Sons	Mash	38	3 °L

Hops
Amount	Hop	Time	Use	Form	AA
1.5 oz	Strisselspalt (FR)	45 min	Boil	Pellet	2.80%
1.5 oz	Strisselspalt (FR)	15 min	Boil	Pellet	2.80%

Yeast
Name	Lab/Product	Attenuation
Golden Pear Belgian	Gigayeast	80.00%

Mash steps
Step	Heat Source	Target Temp	Time
Saccharification Rest	Infusion	146.0 °F	30 min
Saccharification Rest	Infusion	154.0 °F	30 min

Of Greater Things:

Smoked Munich Helles

OG	1.054
FG	1.013
IBU	15
SRM	4
ABV	5.40%

Fermentables
Amount	Fermentable	Maltster	Use	PPG	Color
2.0 lb	Maris Otter Pale (UK)	Thomas Fawcett & Sons	Mash	38	3 °L
1.5 lb	Pilsner (DE)	Weyermann	Mash	37	1 °L
1.5 lb	2-Row (US)	Briess	Mash	37	1 °L
0.5 lb	CaraHell (DE)	Weyermann	Mash	34	11 °L
0.5 lb	Smoked Malt (US)	Briess	Mash	37	5 °L

Hops
Amount	Hop	Time	Use	Form	AA
1.0 oz	Strisselspalt (FR)	45 min	Boil	Pellet	2.80%

Yeast
Name	Lab/Product	Attenuation
German Lager Yeast	White Labs WLP830	76.50%
German Lager Yeast	White Labs WLP830	76.50%

(Coffee) Oatmeal Stout

I was very happy with my last oatmeal stout and with the cold weather coming soon to the area I figured now would be a good time to rebrew it.  While I was very happy with the original it was slightly more berry/fruity and less coffee/roasty than I would have liked. I also currently have a large quantity of American 2-Row that I am using in place of the Maris Otter so a few substitutions were required. To reduce the fruity character I dropped the 4 oz. of Special B and instead upped the Crystal 80 by 2 oz. and switched the yeast from the West Yorkshire strain to WLP002.  To make up for the lack of biscuity character from the Maris Otter  I added a quarter pound of Munich malt and a couple extra ounces of Victory.  Lastly, I slightly increased the roasted barley amount to increase the coffee character that I desire in a stout.  I did make sure to keep the 2 pounds of Oatmeal which seemed to give the original batch a great nutty and silky quality.

I managed to mess up my mash temperature somehow, initially hitting only 146 instead of the 154 I was aiming for. After 10 minutes I added about half a gallon of boiling water to bring it up to 156. I'll be interested in seeing how this affects the attenuation and body of the final beer.

Cooled to 75 F then placed in 65 degree basement and added the yeast.

11/6/15
Racked one carboy to 3 gallon keg. Added .5 oz of medium toast oak cubes to the other carboy, with plans to also add coffee in the future.

11/27/15
Added .25 oz Peet's Major Dickason's Blend and .5 oz Eight O'Clock Coffee Original to the carboy with oak.  Keg kicked of straight version.

11/29/15
Racked to keg at 10 PSI.  Coffee flavor is very strong but not overwhelming in still sample.

Tasting of Coffee Version:

Appearance: Very dark black, almost entirely opaque. Pours with a moderately big head despite the slow exit from the tap. Head is tan and lasts shortly before falling to a foamy covering that sticks around.  Pretty good all around.

Smell: Roast hits the nose first and dominates the aroma with heavy face-in-the-bag-of-coffee-beans character being augmented by a sweet cream-caramel and victory malt toasty/nutty malt characters.  Just a touch of ash that may be from the malts or the heavily roasted coffee.

Taste: Subtler than the nose, the coffee is present but blends smoothly with other roast characters, light creamy caramel, and a moderate to low bitterness.  The coffee character isn't overwhelming but is certainly present.  Oak flavors aren't particularly noticeable, every once in a while I get some definite oak character but it's only just there.

Mouthfeel: Smooth and fairly dry.  The body is a bit lighter than I would like but comes in creamy and goes down easy. I'm not sure if the oatmeal or oak give it the creamy impression despite the dryness or whether that is more a factor of the moderately low carbonation, but it certainly works. The dryness is likely related to the error with the initial mash temp, but it didn't fully sink this beer.

Overall: I can't find too much to complain about in this beer, it's smooth, easy drinking, refreshing, and has just enough coffee and roast to keep things interesting.  While I think the beer could be a little better with Maris Otter instead of 2-row I don't know that I would change anything else about it. If I wanted to give more oak flavor I would probably either double the dosage or contact time, but I don't know that it would necessarily benefit the beer.

The un-oaked, un-coffeed version was enjoyable but without the Maris Otter malt character and a slightly higher attenuation and cleaner yeast profile than the previous batch it came off a tad boring. This version seems to have taken it up a notch without overwhelming the base beer.

#27 Scottish Export and Water Chemistry

Looking to balance my sour and hoppy beers of recent with something a bit dark and malty but not as dark as the banana stout I decided to try my hand at a Scottish Export ale.  While I have been taking water chemistry into account for a while now I did a full water profile for this beer adding minerals to my moderately soft water to reach a bit more complex character.

Update 6/9/13

Gravity down to 1.010, seems ready to bottle. Initial impression is sweet coffee character, more than I had expected from this small amoun of kiln coffee malt.

7/30/13

Had waited to post this hoping it would improve over time but it still seems a bit off. This is the second time I've had issues with Wyeast1728 Scottish Ale yeast. This may be coincidental, be a factor of the yeast strain which I'm particularly sensitive to or maybe due to fermentation temperatures. While it's hard to pin this beer's off flavor on a single characteristic (it reminds me a bit of both oxidation and autolysis without sticking out as either) the yeast or the malt (old pale chocolate malt and my first time using Franco-belges kiln coffee malt) seem the most likely suspects. I'm hoping some of this character will fade or  blend into the beer over time and this will become more drinkable.

10/3/13

Beer hasn't really improved with time but I decided to do a more complete tasting anyway.