oktober-marzen recipe

this is my first attempt at this style. after much research, here is what i have. i am going for a malty beer with a slightly estery quality. i want yeast/malt on the front, then spicy, spicy hop flavor, quickly finishing into slight caramel/malt finish with a hint of spice to leave you wanting more.

6 lbs dingemeanns pilsner
4 lbs vienna
1.5 lbs munich
4 oz chocolate
4 oz caramunich

mash schedule:

122 F for 25 min.
pull decoction and bring to boil over 20 min.
raise main mash to 153 F for 40 min

sparge and bring to boil (60 min total boil)



hop schedule;

1 oz Saaz for 50 min
1/2 oz Saaz for 40 min
1/2 oz Saaz for 10 min
4 2" long cinnamon sticks for 10 min


pitch white labs 820 at 60 F, wait for fermentation to start (24 hours max)

lower to 52 F for 5-8 days

raise to 65 F for 2 days

slowly lower to 38 over 5 days

keep at 38 for 3-5 weeks

i would love to hear ideas from marzen/oktober lovers.

cinnamon??

Well, that's certainly an interesting recipe. I'm sure it'll taste great, but will probably be "out of bounds" by the BJCP guidelines... if that means anything to you. I say brew it! What's your expected OG and IBU?

My Oktoberfests are a bit more restrained, but definitely heavy on the malt and at the big end of the style. I also favor lagering at 32-34 deg. F. to drop out as much yeast and other stuff as possible for a clean end product.

-Steve

p.s. "I went to your churches... I went to your schools... I went to your institutional learning facilities... how can you say I'm crazy?"

Pitch lower than you intend to ferment for a clean lager profile. I would also wait to add any cinnamon until secondary/keg/bottling time. If you haven't done it before, then you really don't know how it will come through. 4 sticks seems like way too much to me.

"all i wanted was a Pepsi, just one Pepsi. and she wouldn't give it to me!"

the cinnamon was my buddy's idea. i hate adding **** to beer, but he is a noob and wants a "spicy" beer. i tried to tell him that you can get spice form hops, but he didn't get it. i will omit the cinnamon. to achieve a more subltle beer would i omit the chocolate and the caramunich?

est OG is 1.061 Fg 1.015 IBU 20-25 depending on the saaz

I make a marzen, basically my house beer, that is equal parts vienna, munich, and pilsner, + 1pound of caramunich. I shoot for 1.057 with 27 ibus from hallertau, tettnang, or mt. hood, whatever I have on hand at the time. I prefer it with wlp 838 southern german lager but it comes out quite well with wlp830 german lager.

The chocolate malt might lend an interesting, if unconventional, note to the beer. Could be interesting, especially with the Saaz.

-Steve

is the caramunich redundant? also, i don't want the chocolate to mask the lager process.

you definitely want the caramunich in there, its almost a hallmark of the style if you ask me.

If you are going for style ditch the chocolate malt and the adjuncts. any chocolate picked up in it and it would be hammered in a comp.

blackwaterbrewer said:

this is my first attempt at this style. after much research, here is what i have. i am going for a malty beer with a slightly estery quality. i want yeast/malt on the front, then spicy, spicy hop flavor, quickly finishing into slight caramel/malt finish with a hint of spice to leave you wanting more.i would love to hear ideas from marzen/oktober lovers.

Click to expand...

OK, you asked for it. Oktoberfest/Marzen is neither estery, yeasty or caramely. Other than that you are right on target. Whatever you are planning to brewing may be good and may be what you want but it is not an Oktoberfest/Marzen. I'd be curious as to where you did all your research.

blackwaterbrewer said:

6 lbs dingemeanns pilsner
4 lbs vienna
1.5 lbs munich
4 oz chocolate
4 oz caramunich

mash schedule:

122 F for 25 min.
pull decoction and bring to boil over 20 min.
raise main mash to 153 F for 40 min

sparge and bring to boil (60 min total boil)



hop schedule;

1 oz Saaz for 50 min
1/2 oz Saaz for 40 min
1/2 oz Saaz for 10 min
4 2" long cinnamon sticks for 10 min


pitch white labs 820 at 60 F, wait for fermentation to start (24 hours max)

lower to 52 F for 5-8 days

raise to 65 F for 2 days

slowly lower to 38 over 5 days

keep at 38 for 3-5 weeks

Click to expand...

Again if you want what you described then go for it. If you want an Oktoberfes/Marzen increase the Munich malt to a majority of the grist (60%+)then lose the chocolate and crystal malt. Raise your first mash step to ~130F for 15/20 minutes, bring the main rest down to ~150F for 60 minutes. Cinnamon sticks??? That's up to you but IMO it just gets in the way of what should be the star of the show in this beer, the German malt. Don't lock yourself into a strict time schedule with fermentation. Let the beer take what time it needs.

thanks, Big Ed. i guess my description of the style was using the wrong words. the cinnamon was my friend's input. i think he was thinking of a pumpkin ale or something. your input is appreciated.