I brewed my first doppelbock on 3/12/16. 5.25 gallon batch. OG was 1.076 and FG is 1.020. 74% attenuation at 7.4% ABV My doppelbock is sitting right within the low range of the BJCP style. I was originally hoping for better mash efficiency in order to get a OG of 1.082 or so. I haven't started the lager phase yet, but I did a 7 day rest at 62F after two weeks at 53F. The young beer tastes pretty good, it's quite sweet and has a medium mouth feel. I was thinking of boiling a cup of corn sugar and adding it to the fermenter. This would bring my ABV up to around 8% which is closer to what I wanted. I'm looking for opinions about adding sugar. Do you guys think the doppelbock will be too dry if I add a cup of sugar? I'm perfectly fine to leave it the way it is, but I would also love for it to be 8% ABV! I'm happy to answer any other questions about the recipe or brew day
You want to decide if you are making a doppel bock to a style guideline or if you are making your own beer that is also a doppel bock. if you are within the the style guidelines, you win. If you want to dry it out with dextrose and increase abv, go ahead. it's not a crime. the beer should not be dry and should have a decent bit of body so trying to dry it out is probably not a good idea if you want to be true to style. i would leave it alone myself. next time try adding a bit more grain. but that's just me. Cheers.
Feel free to add the sugar anyway, but like others have said, it's such a minimal difference that it's not worth splitting hairs.
Adding sugar will create more alcohol and you FG will drop slightly. However, the same amount of residual sugar will remain in the brew. The lower FG is a result of the hydrometer "sinking" lower due to more alcohol in solution. Net result is more booze, same mouthfeel. @VikeMan explains this all the time . . . something to do with natural logarithms or arm-waving or some such nonsense. A better (i.e. easier) approach is to use a different type ABV calculator. The old standby (OG-FG * 131.25) is fairly accurate at medium and low ABV levels. But alcohol is created in a non-linear manner . . . at the higher levels this becomes inaccurate. Check out this link: http://www.brewersfriend.com/2011/06/16/alcohol-by-volume-calculator-updated/ If you read the details, a more accurate formula for ABV at the higher gravity levels is: (76.08 * (OF-FG) / (1.775-OG)) * (FG / 0.794) Don't let the formula spook you, just go to to this link and select "Alternate" ABV: http://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/ Your beer is now 7.83% and with an FG of 1.020 it certainly meets the Doppelbock style. Further, Ayinger Celebrator at 6.7% is one of the top rated Doppelbocks in the world. This is my long-winded way of recommending "stay the course".
Thanks! I'll probably leave it alone. PortLargo- I like that formula. At what gravity should you switch to the alternate calculator?
Crazy. I brewed my first doppelbock on 03/12 also. Racked to keg for lagering this past Saturday. OG 1.093 down to 1.022. Tasted pretty great. I plan to lager a couple months and then "eisbock" about 3-gal of it to 2-gal. ABV of that should be ~14%.
