Jason Hitesman

Broken Leg Bock

The name comes from how I timed the ferments on my first batch of this brew. I boiled up the first batch on Oct 2 1996, exactly one week before my motorcycle accident A few weeks into my recovery I managed to talk some friends into racking it to secondary. Currently it's still in cold storage in my basement lagering untill my leg is healed.

This recipe is what happens when I tried to make a bock and went a little overboard on the malt. According to my SG readings I actually ended up with a dopplebock, though I'm still thinking of making it into an eisbock before bottling.

The Recipe:

Recipe name: Broken Leg Bock
Level of Difficulty: Intermediate
Style of Recipe: Dopplebock

Recipe Ingredients:
1/2 Lb. Crystal Malt
1/2 Lb. Chocolate Malt
1/4 Lb. Toasted Malt
1 Lb. Golden Light Dried Malt Extract
3 Lbs. Dark Dried Malt Extract
3.3 Lbs. Dark Hopped Muntons and Fissions Malt Extract Syrup
2 Oz. Hallertauer hops (Boil)
1/2 Handfull Mystery Hops (Flavor)*
1/2 Handfull Mystery Hops (Aroma)*

* Note: The Mystery hops in question are found on a neighbors front porch. For more information see my Adventures with hops

METHOD: Crack the malts and add them to 2 gallons of 150-degree F (66 C) water and hold for 30 minutes. Add malt extract and boiling hops and boil for 45 minutes to an hour. Add aroma hops and boil an additional 10 to 15 minutes. Add Finishing and remove from heat. Sparge into fermenter and cold water. Add additional water to reach 5 gallons total. Pitch yeast as soon as temperature will allow.

YEAST: Again I had less than desierable yeast available to me. I ended up using two packets of generic "lager" yeast. I put lager in quotes becuase I doubt this really was a lager strain becuase it refused to ferment at lager temperatures.

FERMENT: I highly recomend a two stage ferment for all homebrew. This recipe is no exception. My primary ferment was far less than ideal due to my accident. The first week the carboy sat covered on our back porch where it stayed at lager temperatures. After a week of no activity however, I moved it inside. After two more days of no activity I added another packet of "lager" yeast. It finally started to ferment. After one week of this I planned on racking to seconday and moving it back outside to lager for a month or two. Instead it ended up sitting for almost three weeks before I got some friends to bottle the Pale Ale sitting in my other carboy and racking this to secondary. As of now It's been in the secondary at lager temps for about a month and a half. I plan on leaving it in there untill I can bottle it myself so it will probably have almost 3 1/2 months of lagering before being bottled.

GRAVITIES:
O.G.: 1.076 (corrected was read at 80-degrees F)
F.G. - into secondary: Not recorded, they weren't that good of friends :)
F.G. - into bottles: Not recorded, still being lagered.


Batch Notes

Batch 1

If this comes out good it will be a miracle. The brew has had almost everything go wrong with it. It clogged my wort chiller beyond unclogging. It sat in primary way longer than I felt safe leaving it there. And it's still sitting in the secondary. I'll update this page when I finish the batch.

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Jason Hitesman
All text, images, ideas, and whatknot © 1996 Jason Hitesman