Double Bock this weekend

[delboy]

Well, I brewed this stuff this weekend. My arm is still sore from stirring boiling grain (for a couple of hours at least altogether I figure). I followed Delboy's direction and did a triple decoction. I missed my gravity so maybe this is more of a bock than a double bock but what the heck. When I get close the the capacity of my masthtun, I frequently get lousy efficiency and this weekend was no different. Other than that though, everything went well so the beer should come out pretty good. I pitched so much yeast (which I fed a couple of times late last week so the "boys" were really fired up) that I had a 3" head after just a couple of hours. It did seem like I brewed forever, it took me 4 1/2 hours just to get the mashing done, I think I am going to do a bunch of ales for a while, you have just got to love that single infusion stuff.

A decoction is a labour of love, hope all the effort pays off for you.

I have the same problem with an over loaded mash tun and crappy efficency also, maybe stepping it down to 4 gallons is the way to go for big beers like this.

[Barley Water]

You are probably right, I should just try for less volume. The thing is, I am greedy and I figure if I am going to the trouble to make something like this I want the whole 5 gallons. Actually, I have done enough decoctions now that it really isn't that hard, it just takes a long time. My results have been very good though so it has been worth it so far.

The only problem I have now is that I just floated two kegs and now I am short of beer ready to drink. I have three taps on my serving refrigerator and I like to keep them going all the time each with a different style. My next beer will be a Belgian pale ale, I have some of the DeKonik yeast that White Labs just put out on a seasonal basis. I should be able to turn a batch around in three weeks so maybe I can correct this problem with a little work. Does anybody out there have a killer recipie for an English Brown ale, maybe something with an O.G. of around 1.040?