Mizzle Notabock

It's not a bock.

Recipe

Batch size: 5 gallons

Grain bill:

• 11 lb pale malt
• 1 lb aromatic malt
• 2 oz Crystal 120
• 1 oz pale chocolate malt

Hops:

• 2 oz homegrown Mt Hood, approx 4.5% AA, from Ari

Yeast:

• Wyeast 2565 -- Kolsch

Brew Day

February 10, 2013: Ground barley. Mashed at 70 C / 158 F. Came out of the mash tun about 1.054, which is just what I calculated; going into the fermenter, it was 1.060. During the boil I took about a litre of the wort and boiled it down 'til it was nice and thick and dark, then added it back to the wort.

For the record: I got impatient with chilling and threw it in the fermenter before it was completely cooled. The temp read 25 C at the bottom (floating thermometer) and 35 C on top (handheld laser thermometer), but the stick-on thermometer on the carboy said 23 C when it was done. Good to know.

Bottling

Feb 23, 2013: Man, it took a long time for the kreusen to fall, but from what I've read that's not unusual for this yeast. Eli helped me bottle, and we got 14.5 litres. The final gravity came in at 1.020, which is right where I was aiming for this; that puts the ABV at 5.25%. I thought about brewing an impulse stout to throw on the yeast cake, but I'm getting over a cold and was just too wimpy.

Tasting

Date: