Friday, April 30, 2004

Maibock

4/30/04 - This year's Maibock is about to hit the shelves and it's not even May yet, how about that. The production gods must be smiling down on the Smutty boys. We once again pulled off the double decoction and are quite happy with the results. The difference from last year was a matter of color. We were trying to lighten it into the golden range, by dropping some of the specialty malts. We went from 33% Munich and 12% Belgian Pale Ale malts to 15% and 26% respectively. However, the decoction still darkens the beer to such an extent that we ended up in the amber range. It's a beautiful color but not exactly what we wanted. I may try 100% pilsner malt next year.