Maibock Tips n' Tricks

Barry,

When you get your Malt book back there is an interesting discussion on page 182 entitled “The Tale of Two Malts” which discusses the protein differences between European malt and North American Malt. One sentence is: “European malt may be made from a barley variety that has low total protein ….”

And: “Barley variety is what drives both total protein and S/T for fully modified malt…”

I also listened to the Beersmith podcast with John Mallet and one of the interesting thing that John stated in that podcast was that barley varieties that grow well in Europe do not grow well in North America and vice versa.

Cheers!

Jack

 

IMO, the BYO recipe has an insane amount (3.25 lbs) of crystal (caramel) malt. The Ayinger Clone in the Clone Brews book is probably OK, but if it were me, I'd start with the recipe in Brewing Classic Styles, which uses just Pils and Munich malts for the grain, Magnum for hopping, and a good German lager yeast. I believer that simpler is better for this style.

 

Had to look at that article, they call for 3.25 lbs of crystal malt at 1.5L, so it is probably a carapils. Why so much is another thing, and I see that it is a Dornbusch article.

Been thinking about the BCS recipe for a while, I do like that one's looks.

 

I haven't made a maibock yet, but it has been on my mind. I was thinking I might order extra Pils and Vienna in conjunction with the Averagely Perfect Saison and use it for a maibock or a Munich helles. The maibock recipe I had doodled out is 4.5 gallons, OG 1.065, 68% Pils (possibly end up with a mix of Belgian pils and Weyermann pils depending on what's on hand), 32% Wyermann Vienna, a mix of Hersburcker and Mittelfrueh at 60 and 20 minutes, to come close to the style guideline IBUs, using Saflager 34/70 to ferment.

However, the more I think about it, I am leaning toward making something more like a helles, by raising the batch size to 5.75, thereby lowering the gravity, and ditching the Mittelfrueh and just using a 60 min charge of Hersbrucker to approach helles territory hopping levels. I think I will find the drinkability of the helles more inviting.

 

Just noticed a set of articles in Beer and Wine Journal on Maibock, starting here. Worth a read if contemplating brewing one up.