I am currently brewing the Linebacker Dopplebock from Mr. Beer. I’ve deviated from the instructions quite a bit. First off I took great care to make sure every last bit of booster disolved before putting the heat to things. After bringing the booster and water mix to a rolling boil I cut the heat, opened the can, and poured in the extract as I stirred the pot. Then I turned the heat back on and brought this mix to a boil. Once boiling I added a half package of hallertau hops. I kept this at a boil and continued to stir it up every five minutes or so for the next thirty minutes. At this point I added the remainder of the hops and continued stiring every five minutes for another 15 minutes. I removed heat and let the wort cool for about 2 minutes before adding to the fermenter which was already about half full of cold filtered water. I then topped of the fermenter, went a little too far, so I’ve got about nine quarts in there. I swirled the fermenter a bit, checked to make sure the temperature was below 75 degrees (actually a bit below 74) and pitched the yeast. I swirled the fermenter, waited five minutes and then swirled again.
Now comes the hard part: waiting a few weeks to bottle. The Beer Storage Area (BSA) is averaging about 65 degrees or so. The last two batches went just beyond two weeks before I felt they were ready to rack. I’ve got a trip coming up the week of 10/17 so we’ll see how things go.