Stellies Hoenderhok Bock

Stellenbosch Brewing Co. won the South African National Beer Trophy Competition in 2017 with their Stellies Hoenderhok Bock

HERE’S WHAT YOU WILL NEED

Ingredients:

Water: Finest water you can source (test pH if you can) looking for a pH for Lager/Bock of around 6-7. If you are using municipal water which has been chlorinated, you will have much better results if you are able to filter out the chlorine (using an active carbon / charcoal filter)

Malt Bill: This beer uses 3 different grains, barley, wheat and oats and a total of five distinct malts. Our original recipe had a higher wheat malt content as we were going for a Maibock style beer with a twist of weizenbock character. We dialed it down a bit to a 20% contribution of wheat malt which gives the beer its extra character and flavour.

Hops Bill: The bock is not an overly hopped beer style but we believe that this is your opportunity to get creative we played with numerous hop combinations playing with German and American hops and we settled on the following combination which we felt gave it the right balance and extra spiciness to the brew.

 Yeast: 

Brewing Process:

1. Settle in and get comfy this is a long brew day! Oh and in the words of Charlie Papazian relax and grab a homebrew.
2. Multi-step infusion mash: Mash in with wheat and specialty malts with half the mash water way low at 38-44C for a beta glucan rest.
3. Hold for 5-10 mins and slowly raise temperature to 52C
4. Hold for 10mins, raise temp to 58-60C and add the pale malt.
5. Hold at 58C for 10 mins.
6. Raise to 64
7. Hold for 20mins.
8. Raise to 68C
9. Hold for 10 mins.
10. Raise to 78C and mash out.
11. Remove two thirds of wort and grain and continue to raise remaining third for a simple decoction.
12. Bring the remaining mash to a rolling boil for 10 mins.
13. Transfer to Lauter.
14. Circulate wort on the grain if possible for 5-10mins (Vorlauf step) to clarify wort and transfer to kettle while sparging.
15. Sparge the remaining 50% of brewing water on the grain ensuring that the grain bed always remains covered.
16. Bring your wort to the boil for 90 mins, grab another beer and set your timer for your hop additions, yeast nutrients, Irish moss if you so desire.
17. Apply your typical wort cooling process and pitch your yeast (starter or hydrated with cooled wort from brew for 30-45 mins).

Pitching the Yeast and fermentation: Bock is a lager and a lager yeast is required and prefers consistent temperatures below 15C preferably 11-13C for the Bock. Remember to allow the fermentation temperature to rise at the end of fermentation to ~18C for a healthy diacetyl rest. Total primary fermentation typically 10-14 days Then cold crash and cold condition (zero to -2C if possible) and wait for 4 weeks. Test regularly and keep a fermentation profile tracker.

Bottling / Kegging: Bottle and bottle condition as per your normal routine and enjoy! You have now brewed SA’s Beer of the Year 2017!

For more, go check out Stellies' brew day on their Eike Stout. http://www.realbeerrevolution.co.za/homebrewing/stellies-eike-stout-brewday/

Remember to take lots of pics during the brew and tag us on social media
@stelliesbeer #followthesquirrel