Help me with a marzen recipe

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rocketman768

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So, I want to try a Marzen in an ale style and I found this, but I have a few questions about it.

1) Is it really ok just to steep those grains? Could I do a mini-mash and how?
2) Is the Chocolate malt a normal part of a Marzen? Does it taste like chocolate? Could I omit it if it does, cuz I don't like chocolate.
3) BJCP says that noticeable caramel or roasted flavors are inappropriate, so I am worried about both the chocolate and crystal 80L. Do you think it'll be a problem?

“Oktoberfest” Ale

3.3lb Amber LME
3.3lb Light LME
0.5lb Crystal 80L (or 60L if you can’t get 80L)
0.5lb Munich (8L)
0.5lb Pale Malt (standard 2-row)
0.25lb Chocolate Malt (350L)
1oz Hallertau pellets -60min
1oz Hallertau pellets -15min
0.5oz Halertau pellets -2min
2tsp Irish Moss
Yeast= German Alt yeast or American Ale yeast (see below)

Crush grains and put in large grain bag. Steep grain bag in one gallon of water at 150F for 30-40minutes. Remove bag and rinse or let drain into kettle. Bring grain tea to boil. Add extracts. Once boil is reachieved start 75min boil. With 60min remaining add first 1oz hop addition, 15min remaining add second 1oz hop addition and Irish Moss, add 0.5oz addition just before the flame is killed (2 minutes).

Fermentation: Be prepared to ferment on the cool side. Use a good clean neutral flavored yeast that can ferment well at 65F. Pitch a larger start than normal or use two vials of yeast, better pitched onto some yeast cake from a previous brew. Be patient with fermentation at cooler temps (60-65F). Rouse yeast after 5 days of fermenatation to be sure yeast stays in suspension. This will help drive the beer to the final gravity. Leave beer in primary ferment for 3 weeks, secondary ferment for 3 weeks to clear, then bottle as normal.
 
What is described is essentially a minimash - the grains are crushed and held in 1g of 150F water, both the pale malt and the munich have enzymes.

I would drop the chocolate. The crystal can stay, at 0.5# you will get a little sweetness but little caramel.

GT
 
Yes, drop the Chocolate. And if you don't want to do a mini mash, drop the Munich and Pale malt and add 0.25 lb of Amber ME and 0.25 lb of light ME instead. The Crystal is ok and I don't find it inappropiate for that style unless you use to much. That's where I disagree with the style guidelines.

Kai
 
Ok, I am willing to try a partial mash. I have refined the recipe to more suit the Marzen style. Tell me if you think any of my calculations are off

Final Volume - 5 gal
Wort Gravity - 1.0105

---Added Near Flameout---
5.0lb Light DME (Grav: 0.045, Color: 4.5L)
---Partial Mash---
0.4lb Crystal 80L (Grav:0.025 , Color: 80L)
1.0lb Munich (Grav:0.026, Color: 10L)
0.5lb 2-row Lager Malt (Grav: 0.028, Color: 1.5L)

---Hops---
14g Hallertauer (or Liberty) pellets (4% AA) -60min (9.73 IBUs)
20g Hallertauer (or Liberty) pellets (4% AA) -30min (10.68 IBUs)

---Calculations---
Original Gravity = 1 + 0.045 * 5/5 + 0.025 * 0.5/5 + 0.026 * 1/5 + 0.028 * 0.5/5
= 1.0555

Color = 4.5 * 5/5 + 80*0.4/5 + 10*1/5 + 1.5*0.5/5
= 13.05 SRM

Bitterness = 9.73 + 10.68
= 20.41 IBUs

---Notes---
This will be a late extract addition. The wort will just be that which is extracted from the partial mash of the specialty grains.
 
rocketman768 said:
---Notes---
This will be a late extract addition. The wort will just be that which is extracted from the partial mash of the specialty grains.

What is your boil size. You don't want the boil gravity to be to low since this may result in a boil pH that may lead to harsh hop bitterness.

Kai
 
Hm, I didn't know about the boil pH. Could you point me somewhere to read more about it and how it affects hop flavors?

Also, my wort gravity calculation was wrong. It should be 1.021, and the boil volume is 2.5 gallons. Is this ok? I will have to readjust my hops to stay around 20 IBUs.
 
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