Good Morning HBT -
The idea:
A lot of our friends are not going to make it to our local Oktoberfest this year. My wife and I have decided to have an Oktoberfest party at our house the weekend after the festival, possibly the start to a new house tradition, appropriate beer and food present.
The Recipe:
The problem:
Time. We can brew on 8/19 earliest, this beer would need to be ready by 10/1 giving us 6 weeks from pitching the yeast to drinking. I have constructed a lager box over the past couple of weeks, I can ferment this beer around 60 and take it down into 50 and 40 range for a couple of weeks. My thoughts, Edwort used a koelsch yeast, though it wouldn't be traditional could I get away with this using a steam beer yeast or would I be better off cold crashing a German Ale yeast, or do you think I could use the koelsch?
Our time line looks like the following:
1 week fermentation at 60
2 weeks starting in the upper 50's dropping down into the 40's
1 week at the coldest temperature I can possibly get out of my box
.5 weekbringing the beer back up to a mid range temp
1.5 weeks in the bottle
A couple days in the fridge at serving temp
Would this be a waste of time or do you think it's possible to pull off (note we do not have the ability to keg).
Honest thoughts are appreciated, I don't want to waste a batch of beer and if the time span is just too short, we'll buy a couple cases of craft Oktoberfest and start this earlier next year. This will bum me out, but in the end I don't want to offer up skunky green beer to our friends and family.
The idea:
A lot of our friends are not going to make it to our local Oktoberfest this year. My wife and I have decided to have an Oktoberfest party at our house the weekend after the festival, possibly the start to a new house tradition, appropriate beer and food present.
The Recipe:
All-Grain - Bee Cave Brewery Oktoberfest Ale said:Edwort's Oktoberfest Ale:
5.5# Pils
5.5# Vienna
2# Munich
0.5# Caramunich
0.5# Caravienne
Single infusion mash (1.25 qts./lb.) at 154 degrees for 90 minutes.
1 oz. Tettnang 4.4% AA at 60 min.
0.5 oz Hallertau 4.2 % AA at 30 Min
0.5 oz. Hallertau 4.2% AA at 15 min
O.G. 1.062
F.G. 1.012
The problem:
Time. We can brew on 8/19 earliest, this beer would need to be ready by 10/1 giving us 6 weeks from pitching the yeast to drinking. I have constructed a lager box over the past couple of weeks, I can ferment this beer around 60 and take it down into 50 and 40 range for a couple of weeks. My thoughts, Edwort used a koelsch yeast, though it wouldn't be traditional could I get away with this using a steam beer yeast or would I be better off cold crashing a German Ale yeast, or do you think I could use the koelsch?
Our time line looks like the following:
1 week fermentation at 60
2 weeks starting in the upper 50's dropping down into the 40's
1 week at the coldest temperature I can possibly get out of my box
.5 weekbringing the beer back up to a mid range temp
1.5 weeks in the bottle
A couple days in the fridge at serving temp
Would this be a waste of time or do you think it's possible to pull off (note we do not have the ability to keg).
Honest thoughts are appreciated, I don't want to waste a batch of beer and if the time span is just too short, we'll buy a couple cases of craft Oktoberfest and start this earlier next year. This will bum me out, but in the end I don't want to offer up skunky green beer to our friends and family.