>

In May of 2020, when the world was mostly falling apart, one of my favorite beer spots in Atlanta introduced me to a style that has been around for quite a long time -- and I’d never heard of it. The Maibock. It’s such a great style. It’s like a Festbier that sticks to your ribs. And you know what? Nobody ever seems to make it.

Traditionally Maibocks are released at the start of May (hence the name). Mine’s a little late, but it never seemed ready during the lagering process until now. Next year I’ll brew it at the start of February instead of the end. The lagering takes awhile.

I’m pleased with how this beer turned out. The high gravity lager turned out to be trickier than expected. It was very tricky in fact. I also modified my mash and my sparge water profiles for the first time. For me that was a long time coming, but I finally got comfortable with water profile goals. At least enough to start making simple changes.

I love this style and plan to make it every May until I can actually find it out in the wild.

My Recipe.

My Notes.

My Readings.

My Water Profile.

What was notable about this brew session?
* Adjusted the water profile of my mash and sparge water.
* Worked through some frustrating fermentation issues. Fermentation was slow as balls and I thought it was about to get stuck way too early into fermentation. Moved into my diacetyl rest a little early to try and keep things moving and got within 1 point of my target FG -- not perfect, but I was happy to get within that margin of error all things considered.

What pleasantly surprised me?
* The clarity and color of this Maibock are outstanding. I enjoy just staring at it in the glass.

Why can’t I officially call this my first good batch of beer?
* My OG was insanely high (I don’t know if I boiled off more than I expected or I didn’t get a good pre-boil gravity reading). I joked with my brewer friends that I was making the first Dopplemaibock. As a result, the ABV is much higher than it should be, but it’s still a good beer.
* The flavor is nice, but not as clean as I wanted and I believe that is related to me increasing the temp too early into fermentation. It has rounded out nicely during lagering.

Next up is an old school west coast style Pale Ale. A tribute to the Sierra Nevada classic, if you will.