Helles Bock - My Quest for the Holy Grail of Beer

Helles Bock

My Quest for the Holy Grail of Beers

This is one of my favorite beer styles. I love the rich, full malt profile from the Pilsner and Munich malts that taste of grain, bread and toasty notes. Unlike the normal Bock, which is drier and uses primarily Munich malts with strong bread and toasty flavors. Helles uses primarily Pilsner with less Munich, which is sweeter and maltier with bread and toasty flavor accents.

I am in the process of creating not only a classic style of a Helles Bock, but to produce something that quenches your thirst, has a small bite (carbonation), nice malty and bread/doughy flavors and hops that are evenly balanced with the sweetness. However, my experimentation has led me away from the classic style, which will be my third attempt.

This is a beautiful beer that requires advanced all grain brewing and temperature controlled fermentation. This

Traditional Bock

style is similar to regular Bocks (Shiner Bock is an example), however higher in alcohol, maltier and has less hop character, however balanced with the malts.

Here's a simple fact: If you use German Bock yeast, German/Munich Pilsner Malt and a Munich malt, you will get some form of a Bock. The key is in the details.  The key here is to create the correct flavors using "base malts" only (base malts make up the majority of the malt grist, e.g. in a beer like Budweiser, Coors etc, it is made of 2 row and/or 6 row Barley, which is a base malt). Adding any type adjuncts (rice or corn etc) or caramel malts would be out of style (beer type).

Michael Jackson's Book

After making mistakes with my first and second attempts, I have consulted the books from Michael Jackson - The Beer hunter for better details of the classic style.

My first attempt was slightly over malty and the hops were lost in the sweetness. However, it won Silver at the recent 2012 ASH Oktoberfest Homebrew Competition out of nine entries. My second attempt ended up boozy, peppery (due to high alcohol), malty bready etc. However, didn't fit the style very well. Although submitted to a competition, it didn't place. My third attempt is in progress, which I believe will hopefully zero onto the style correctly and I'll explain why:

My First Attempt: 

Michael Jackson

My first attempt was closer to a Helles Bock than my second attempt. However, there were some crucial errors in the recipe formulation. To view the recipe, select this link with the right mouse button and select open new window or tab, the return: Helles Bock recipe - first attempt. I realize now that the use of only Pilsner Malt as the base malt, along with Carapils Dextrin Malt for a bigger mouth feel missed a key ingredient - bread and toasty flavors, which comes from the Munich Malts. By the way, roasty flavors are not to style.

My first thought after reviewing my first attempt was, although it was seriously an awesome beer, it was more of a pilsner, and it was missing the bread and toasty notes in the background. In my thought process I thought it would be best to add some biscuit malts and Victory Malt for toasty flavors. However, this is the long way around finding those toasty and bread type of flavors. The fact is that I just had to add the Munich malts, but only about 35% so they would be in the background, not the forefront like you would find in the traditional bock. And this is the KEY! more Pilsener malt means lighter and maltier, which gives it that beautifully intoxicating (not a pun, e.g. alcohol, but euphoria) malty flavor that is wonderful in warm weather.

My Second Attempt:

In my second attempt I added the Munich malt, but wanted to try to make it "drier," which I knew would take it out of style, but hell, I'm still in the learning stages and wanted to experiment with lower mash temperatures. So, I went to the extreme in mashed the grains (mashing is holding the grains in water from 143F to 160F for a period of time to force the starch in the grain to break down into sugars) by moving the temperature down to 144F for two (2) hours from the preferred 155-156F range (lower temps converts most of the starch to alcohol leaving little starches and unfermentable sugars for sweetness. And, I changed the bittering from 27 IBU to 34 IBU (international bittering units, e.g. Budwieser is around 12 IBU, highly hopped IPA beers are 45 to 100 IBU).

After the beer completed its fermentation and was ready to drink, what I got was a beer that was very boozy, with alcohol almost 8%, very peppery and although malty, it wasn't complex enough because they were mashed at a temperature that leaves little remaining malt and unfermentable sugars for sweetness.

Now, if you were to taste this beer from my second attempt, you would say hey what a great beer. It has no flaws, it's slightly malty and one beer puts you near the point that you need someone else to drive you home!

I went ahead and submitted my second attempt with my low temp mash, big alcohol beer to the Maltose Falcon's 2013 Maifare Competition. My final score from two judges came out to 31.5 of 50, which translates to: Beer in the range may have a minor flaw, or may be lacking in balance or complexity. The reason is that I submitted it before it was done "lagering" (held at cold temperatures for long periods of time).  The comment that the off flavor (bad flavor at back of the tongue) was an Acetaldehyde, or green apple-like aroma or flavor), "otherwise a nice maibock." The second judge said "A good beer that misses some of the stylistic marks." He also said it was too sweet, hops too bitter, need to be dryer on finish e.g. less residual sugar.

The judges comments mean that the beer either stopped fermenting too soon and left too much remaining residual sugars, or most likely, the yeast didn't attenuate enough (I realize now that the yeast I chose doesn't attenuate enough). If it were to ferment out the sugars as it was supposed to do, it would be the correct dryness. Therefore, on my third attempt, I am changing the yeast from Bevarian yeast to German Bock yeast that is supposed to attenuate better, create more dryness, give a nice balance of malt and hops, which I think was a problem in both the first and second attempts.

My Third Attempt - No More Experimenting

This third attempt is about drying out the Beer. In the past attempts I mashed the grains as low at low temperatures to get a dryer beer. However, it just made the beer too thin and boozy. I realized recently that drying out the beer is not the mashing temperature, but the yeast and water chemistry. In the past, I didn't use enough healthy yeast. I read a comment from Jamil Zainasheff that in order to make this beer dryer, I need to make sure there is plenty of yeast, healthy and will ferment out the beer to full attenuation. I tried building a stir plate, but that failed, so I went to my brew shop, Home Beer Wine and Cheese Making Shop in Woodland Hills CA, and purchased one. I also went to Mr. Malty's yeast calculator to determine how much yeast is needed for this batch. With a stir plate, I needed two "Smack Packs" of yeast on approximately 0.75 Gallons of starter. The fermentation took off like crazy and was done in 48 hours. There is plenty of yeast at the Bottom for use.

On this attempt I used 84% Pilsner and 16% Munich. I moved the IBU down to 25. In addition, I used 3 grams (approx 2 tsp) of Gypsum in the Mash Tun.

I used Magnum hops since it uses less hops, therefore cheaper, and Hallertouer hops, which produces the flavor of German Bock beers. The Magnum hop is strong, but has doesn't have strong flavors like the Hallertouer. This style has some hop bitterness, but are not forward enough to worry about using all Hallertouer hops. In fact, because the Hallertouer hops are so low in bittering units (IBU), it takes a lot more of them to get the IBU higher, costing more money.

On this attempt I mashed the grains at 154 and sparged at 170. I didn't do a Saccharification rest because I got my strike temperature higher than I wanted, passing up the opportunity. I'm not sure I care since the grains are most likely fine without it.

I did make one error. I added 1 Tblsp. and 1/2 tsp of Phosphoric Acid, which turned out to be too much. My pH went town to 4.8, which is not a beer killer, I just prefer 5.2. In fact, 5.2 is the pH of many beers on the market. By the way, I'm using a 25% dilution rate for the Acid, which would change the amount used if you find one that is higher or lower than what I used. I use Phosphoric Acid to balance the pH because it leaves the least residual flavors, and is typically used in sodas.

My recipe is based on an 82% brewhouse efficiency. My system is pretty dialed in and I can count on the efficiency. If you don't know yours, it should be between 65% to 72%. If you don't change the recipe, your ABV should be around 6.5%, which is perfect in my opinion.

Here is my recipe and I will come back to update the flavor when I'm done. I Brewed this last weekend and the fermentation is on its way.

Hellofa Beer - 3rd Attempt

05-A  Bock, Maibock/Helles Bock

Min OG:  1.064   Max OG:  1.072
Min IBU:    23   Max IBU:    35
Min Clr:     6   Max Clr:    11  Color in SRM, Lovibond

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (Gal):         6.00    Wort Size (Gal):    6.00
Total Grain (Lbs):       12.50
Anticipated OG:          1.063    Plato:             15.49
Anticipated SRM:           4.0
Anticipated IBU:          24.8
Brewhouse Efficiency:       82 %
Wort Boil Time:             90    Minutes

Pre-Boil Amounts
----------------
Evaporation Rate:      15.00    Percent Per Hour
Pre-Boil Wort Size:    7.74    Gal
Pre-Boil Gravity:      1.049    SG          12.15  Plato

Grain/Extract/Sugar
   %     Amount     Name                          Origin        Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 84.0    10.50 lbs. Pilsener (Weyermann)          Germany        1.037      1
 16.0     2.00 lbs. Munich Malt I                       Germany        1.037      6

Hops
   Amount     Name                              Form    Alpha  IBU  Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  0.30 oz.    Magnum                            Pellet  12.30  13.0  60 min.
  0.90 oz.    Czech Saaz                        Pellet   3.50  11.8  60 min.


Yeast
-----
White Labs WLP833 German Bock Lager


Water Profile
-------------
Profile:           Reverse Osmosis Filtration
3 grams:         Gypsum (2 tsp)

pH: 4.82


Mash Schedule
-------------
Mash Type: Single Step

Grain Lbs:   12.50
Water Qts:   38.25 - Before Additional Infusions
Water Gal:    9.56 - Before Additional Infusions

Qts Water Per Lbs Grain: 3.06 - Before Additional Infusions

Saccharification Rest Temp :    0  Time:   0
Mash-out Rest Temp :         154  Time:  60
Sparge Temp :                     170  Time:  30


Acid:
25% Phosphoric Acid 2 Tsp. equating to 4.8 pH.



UPDATE:
The Beer is Lagering in my fridge at 30°F. I tasted it and I think I zoned in on the perfect beer. I think using German Bock yeast, and plenty of it, and the use of Gypsum has finally made the beer I was looking for. I'm not sure how the lower pH plays into the tasting, but I'll finish this out and have a few BJCP judges take a taste and give me an opinion.

How to brew beer
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how to homebrew a helles bock beer