My Bock

[CrealCritter]

It's well know amongst family and friends, when it comes to beer. German Lagers are my favorites and at the top of my favorites list is perhaps the most simple German Lager ever, called Bock. For some odd reason Bock beer has been associated to a billy goat. How this came about I'm not sure, but none the less Bock Beer is my favorite beer.

Bock beer is perhaps the most simple beer to brew, according to German purity law of 1516. A beer can contain only 3 ingredients (4 if you count yeast added to the law later). Only water, barley, hops can be contained in every Stein. So strictly following "the law" and sticking to tradition of the Billy Goat. I came up with the start of a label and what I hope will be a malty sweet Traditional German Bock beer that I like so much.

Here is the beginnings of "My Bock" label, I made it simple and left lots of real estate for stats and ingredients.

Here is my super complex recipe of course it has to be high in alcohol content or it's simply no fun... This beer is no coors lite, you'll actually be able to taste it.

Here are my ingredients 9 lbs of barley, 1/2 ounce of hops and a harvested lager yeast starter. Geeze there's so many of them, however will I manage? -lol

Sometimes simple is the best, who needs all those fancy ingredients in today's beers? Lemons are for lemonade, rice is for stirr fry, corn is for eating and corn syrup and corn sugar is just plain nasty.

Das Reinheitsgebot of the year 1516, it's the German way and who can argue that Germans don't know beer? No one!

I plan on brewing this up Sunday, now that it's gotten colder and I can primary ferment at around 50 degrees in my root cellar. I'll post more then.

 

[CrealCritter]

Bock Beer boiling, tastes very good and malty sweet

1 lb caramel mini-mashed malt, chickens love me long time.

harvested saflager 34/70 yeast starter

Clean stainless wort chiller added 10 mins prior of flame out to sterilize it

cooled to 60 degrees, dumped into a clean and sterile 6 1/2 gallon food grade bucket and airlocked. I placed on the front porch to cool even further. I'll most likely pitch the yeast later this evening,but it will depend on the yeast starter. Then move to the root cellar where it's about 50~55 degrees to primary ferment.

 

[CrealCritter]

Found a new filter in GIMP called cartoon, I kind of like it. Since my bock beer is Amber colored, I decided to go with a amber colored theme for the label. Still a work in progress but getting closer to complete. I also cleaned it up and sharpened it some more.

I tried hard to show eye contact between the two and a bit of a fond look between them. Thoughts on any changes?

 

[wyoDreamer]

I would make the BOCK bigger, it is lost in the picture. The "amber" billy goat is great! But I like her better as a blond - but, being a natural blond myself that is understandable.

 

[CrealCritter]

I would make the BOCK bigger, it is lost in the picture. The "amber" billy goat is great! But I like her better as a blond - but, being a natural blond myself that is understandable.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll make a few changes and repost. My wife is a natural blond also, so I guess I'm a little biased... It's kind of fun for me making labels with GIMP.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I keep imagining the BOCK with a wood texture. That may be too detailed for a label though, I am guessing the label will be about 1/2 the size it shows up on my screen, lol.

 

[CrealCritter]

I did a little more work on the label kept the amber billy, but made her back to a blond with brown highlights. Still toying around with a translucent diagonal BOCK but can't seem to get it looking like i want. sizewise it'll be shrunk down to fit in wooden tap handle that I still need to make. The blank spot on the left will be the recipe and stats.

The Bock has been in the primary a week now at 55 degrees. I think it's going to be at least another week before finishing.

A sniff of the air lock lets me know i definitely brewed this Bock with German Hallertau hops. It's one of only 4 nobble hop varieties. A noble hop traditionally refers to varieties of hop that are low in bitterness and high in aroma. German Hallertau has a lightly flowery and spicy aroma.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I think that looks great! Having her blond livens up the label, lol.

 

[CrealCritter]

I think that looks great! Having her blond livens up the label, lol.

I like her better as a blond also she's a cartoon figure, so anything goes. Interesting the word Bock mean Billy goat in German. Now I understand why most all Bock beer have a Billy on their label.

I developed a Dunkel Bock recipe a few days ago and ordered the malts last night. Dunkel means Dark in German, so Dunkel Bock means Dark Billy goat. It's basically the same recipe but I added 1/2 lb of German Carafa Type 2 malt. its a roasted specialty malt made from high-quality spring barley. Roasted hull on to add an espresso-like bouquet, coffee and chocolate flavors, and a mild but noticeable roasted aftertaste. It will darken up my Bock recipe. I'm looking for just a hint of chocolate flavor

 

[wyoDreamer]

A friend of ours makes beer and wanted to make a chocolate beer for his wife. The recipe he got called for 2 different chocolate flavors - I don't remember exactly what but something like grated bakers chocolate or powdered cocoa. BUT, he missed the "or" between the ingredients and added both. It turned out not so good - the two different chocolate flavors didn't play nice together. They did drink it all by mixing it 50-50 with another beer though.