Festbier Bee Cave Brewery Oktoberfest Ale

I believe it is ensure complete conversion. If you are getting that kind of predictable result a 60 min mash should be fine.

mtngoat said:

I believe it is ensure complete conversion. If you are getting that kind of predictable result a 60 min mash should be fine.

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THanks. I'll make sure to do an Iodine / conversion test.

I've had this guy in the fermenter at around 60F for about 3.5 weeks now. I don't have any kegging equipment; anyone had advice on bottling procedures/conditioning times for this? Should I just bottle as normal and let it condition longer than I normally would?

I am 1.015 after 12 days at 65, ok to drop to 60, or will I stall the fermentation...white lads say to ferment this a bit higher..thx

Those white lads say all sorts of things

I ferment my @ 60-62 degrees

Anyone have any insight on bottle carbing this? C02 vols. around, what? 2-2.5?

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Well, bottled this today. Shooting for about 2.5 vols.

My batch had a slightly higher OG than I was shooting for (ended up at 1.069) and attenuated nicely down to 1.016. The taste I had a bottling was... okay. Very grain-forward, kind of sharp (ABV is around 7%). I get some diacetyl and maybe a bit of cooked veggie/DMS kind of stuff going on. Reasonably dry finish with a bit of hop bitterness. Pretty much nothing like what I imagine an Oktoberfest to be, but I'm expecting it'll be reasonably drinkable. This batch had a complex history--the temp got dropped too low immediately after pitching; repitched another Kolsch tube three days later, then fermented steadily at 65F for a week, followed by about 63F for ~20 days, cold crashed for 3. There was still a big frothy krausen on top when I popped the lid off but I'd hit gravity so decided to go ahead and bottle. Need to get this one through the pipeline, especially since I've got so much coming behind it.

im a little late to the party but have this boiling right now. i just finished a smoked porter and will have this one done in a bout 2 hours. plan on fermenting both at 62 degrees. ill let you know how it turns out! thanks for the recipe

so i got much better efficiency than normal and ended up with a SG of 1.074. Its now holding steady at 1.017 after 3 weeks. I crash cooled it for 5 days, however im now wondering if the FG is too high? Should i warm it up and swirl the yeast?

I am bottling this tonight, final gravity 1.015. i,e never seen so much yeast in suspension after sitting at 40 degrees for 20 days. It smells very green, i can see why you need to age this for two months.

Ed or others: so, I brewed this up and after pouring a sample from the keg (after about 1 week on CO2), it has a very fruity nose and flavor profile. Below is my fermentation schedule. I can't understand it. I guess it's possible I had the wrong yeast, or the Wyeast packet was mis-labeled. Or, could my starter (which was at about 70F on the stir plate) have caused this much of a flavor and aroma change? My keg was clean and over-sanitized (I am the sanitation nazi and can safely rule out any contamination or flavors/aromas left over from a previous brew). Anyone else have any thoughts? This result has me stumped (and a little ornery). Thanks in advance.

OG 1.058; FG 1.011; 26 IBU;
9/4 - Brewed and pitched yeast (from a 1 liter starter on a stir plate; pitched entire volume - did not crash and decant). Good fermentation before EOD. Fermentation at 65F.
9/5 - Great activity; going strong. Started to slow down by EOD.
9/6 - At 8AM, very little swirling, but still releasing CO2 out of the airlock.
9/7 - 10AM, no activity visible. Only some minor airlock activity or CO2 coming out of solution.
9/12 - Lowered fermentation temp to 59-60F.
9/28 - Racked to keg at 45F. No fruity aroma/flavor.
10/10 - Fruity / estery nose and flavor profile. Letting it lager and hoping for the best.

When you say fermentation was at 65, do you mean the room you were fermenting in was 65?

bknifefight said:

When you say fermentation was at 65, do you mean the room you were fermenting in was 65?

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The mini fridge is controlled by an analog Johnson temp control, that I had set to 61'ish (the strip on the inside of the fridge read 62F). The strip on the carboy read 65F.

I think I may have found my answer. I used Wyeast.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/fruity-kolsch-starter-issue-154336/

http://www.tastybrew.com/forum/thread/145860

johnnybrew said:

I think I may have found my answer. I used Wyeast.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/fruity-kolsch-starter-issue-154336/

http://www.tastybrew.com/forum/thread/145860

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I used WYeast as well but didn't get any fruitiness. I fermented in the upper 50's though.

Thoughts on dry hopping this with something to 'mask' the fruity aroma profile? Or, do folks think that the fruitiness will dissipate with lagering? Bummed.

It wouldn't fit to style to dry hop but if you think it would help the beer, go for it. If I were you, I wouldn't judge the beer until it's been bottled for a few weeks and carbonated.

I had the same experience. Batch is about 3 weeks old now and very estery (if thats a word). I pitched mine on a yeast cake I stored for a few days in the fridge from an EW Kolsch. Fermented out in 3 days. you would think that would eliminate any esters, but no. The original post said to condition for 2 months. Maybe he had the same problem and this took care of it. I hope so. Might try a different yeast next time. The Kolsch is grreat though.

bknifefight said:

It wouldn't fit to style to dry hop but if you think it would help the beer, go for it. If I were you, I wouldn't judge the beer until it's been bottled for a few weeks and carbonated.

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Thanks, agreed. But, the fruity nose is way out of character for the style, as would be a hoppy one.

It's in the keg now for a little over a week at 45F. I plan to keep it there for a month or two to see if it changes. Will let folks know. Thanks for all of the feedback. Cheers, Jbrew

Oh, one more thing. I sent a note to Wyeast with a description of my mash, hop and fermentation schedules. Below is the response I got back (quickly too).

I think the fermentation temp should be lowered. I think this was the main reason for the beer being more fruity that you wanted. Also, I would look in the future at making a larger starter (~2 L) and fermenting around 55oF if you brew this beer again with that strain.

Let me know if you have other questions.

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The lower temp, in retrospect, makes a lot of sense. As does the larger starter since we're basically brewing it like a lager. If you recall, my starter was 1 liter.

Live, learn and brew on!

Cheers, Jbrew.

I brewed this, bottled and served at a party last night. It was malty and delicious, everyone loved it. Thank you!

Brewing second time today...Halloween 2011.

Wooooooooooooo scary 90m boil

5.5 gallons brewed up and in the primary! Can't wait for the yeasties to do their thang.

Sorry if I'm missing it, but is this a 60 or 90 minute boil?

Lazarous -

It's a 90 minute mash and a 70 minute boil.

If I brew this this weekend, ferment it out, and rack it to kegs onto corn sugar and stick the kegs in a closet till Oct will it be okay?

Excited to give this a try for this year's party!! This will be my second AG BIAG batch, Bee Cave Kolsch was #1 so I'm happy I can use the yeast I washed from that batch. I'm a little nervous as my first batch efficiency was only in the 65% neighborhood.

So what is the general consensus on the fermentation temp for WLP029? Is fermenting at 60 for the entire time the best method or at 65 for a week and then 60 for the rest of the ferment?

I will be brewing this in 1 week and will be making a 2 liter starter and just trying to nail down what temp I'm going to set it to. Thanks!

ddlr25 said:

So what is the general consensus on the fermentation temp for WLP029? Is fermenting at 60 for the entire time the best method or at 65 for a week and then 60 for the rest of the ferment?

I will be brewing this in 1 week and will be making a 2 liter starter and just trying to nail down what temp I'm going to set it to. Thanks!

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Ditto. I'm brewing this next weekend! I'll probably prep a 1.5x normal starter and start fermentation at 60F and hold for 3 weeks. If I notice a lag in the first 2-3 days, I'll pump up the temp a bit. I will then lager for 2 months and that shoudl put me right at the end of September.

I'm excited and finally planned an Oktoberfest...usually I think of it in the fall..too late

Neither of my closest LHBS's have these grains in German, will this alter the beer significantly?

I have the same probablem with the high temps, I put my carboy in a cooler lid open of cource Tshirt, (heavy cotton not sure it matters), and every day I put two frozen water bottles in it. It seemed to work but it was hard to tell if the temp was constant. I made a hefe that time. If someones knows of a way to keep the temp constant or close to it I would be greatful. My basment will fluctuate it the heat of the day it is about 76 at night it drops to as low as 68, as soon as the son goes down the ambient dropps quick here in CO.

toddrod said:

I am cooking up this recipe Saturday. Have alrready done BierMuncher's one and will be nice to compare this 2. also doing Haus Pale Ale again.

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How did they compare, im ready to brew one of these and i dont know which one to brew!!

I might be pushing my luck on this, but I'm hoping to brew a double batch this weekend with the hopes one might be in a keg and ready by the 22nd of September. The other would be for a wedding in Nov so that should be good.

I really want to brew this but the issue I have is with the fermentation temps. The room where I typically ferment my brews is around 65-67F. The other option I have would be to store/ferment in our Keezer which is set to 40F. I'm assuming 40F would be too cold?

Another route I could go would be to buy a small fridge & put a Johnson Control on it to set a specific temps for fermenting.

Thoughts?

I love this recipe, and many/most of the people I share it with have said this is the best beer I've made. (Below are the 3rd and 4th batches I've made. That's not counting the 2 batches where I've used it as a base for pumpkin ale in past years.)

EdWort (and some others) make reference to "pitching this on a yeast cake from another batch of beer". I confess I don't know if this is a colloquial expression that means "reused the washed yeast from a prior batch," or, "I dumped the new wort into the just-vacated fermenter from a prior batch, literally on top of the yeast left in the bottom of the fermenter."

I brewed up a batch of the O-fest on 8/12 using a new smack pack of WY2565 and a 1L starter. This was the first time I've had to use a blow-off tube for any of my beers. Nice yeasties.

On Sat 8/28, I racked this to secondary, and was going to brew another O-fest to dump in the fermenter (literal interpretation), but I chickened out. Instead, I harvested and washed the yeast, letting it settle overnight. I put the clean stuff in another 1L starter, and brewed the new batch on Sunday. Had to install a blow-off tube on Monday. Heh heh.

The washed yeast thing seems to have worked out OK, but I was wondering if I could have saved some time by fermenting the new wort on the old (unwashed) yeast.

Thanks.

graybeard said:

The washed yeast thing seems to have worked out OK, but I was wondering if I could have saved some time by fermenting the new wort on the old (unwashed) yeast.

Thanks.

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pitching on the yeast cake means exactly what you thought it meant. rack a beer to secondary or to keg and put a new batch right on top. I've done this when making a BIG beer.

I was thinking of giving this one a shot and doing a double decoction mash just to keep it a litle more traditional. plus I find that a decoction mash imparts a flavor that is difficult to reproduce any other way. think it'd be worth it?

So last year I made a 10 gallon batch. Drank one keg and put one away, well I forgot about it(the problem with 40 kegs). Tapped it for this year and it is good, different from what I remember. Actually taste a bit maltier ans sweeter, not sure if it was different yeast or what.