Want to brew a Hofbrau

I want to make a Horbrau batch and I am wondering if there are any kits for this. This would be my second batch of brew. My first batch was a Kolsch that I made from a kit.

Any advice or suggestions?

I didnt think it was a beer style, but rather a fancy name for a brewery?

A Hofbrau what? Oktoberfest? Weisse? Dunkel? Festbier?

Narrow it down a bit, and welcome to HBT!

From Wikipedia:

The Staatliches Hofbräuhaus in München (literally state court-brewery in Munich, also Hofbräu München) is a brewery in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, owned by the state government. The Hof (court) comes from the brewery's history as a royal brewery in the Kingdom of Bavaria.

Indeed, Hofbräu is simply a beer brewed at the Hofbräuhaus. As Whiskey suggests, they make several different kinds of beer. Which one interests you?

Not to hijack the thread, but I'm heading to Munich in the second half of August, and will be drinking at the famed Hofbrauhaus! Woo-hoo!

Not any of the specialty Hofbrau's. I guess it would be the original lager. Used to drink it when I was in Stuttgart. Sorry if I am vague. Out of the different variations, it would be the original. If nothing else, what would be the best one to try?
Had a label like this..

Yeah Original is pretty damn good, check your local beer store they may carry it. I remember Hofbrau Original being brilliant straw in color, crisp light body, but oddly bitter for a Munich lager. I believe that Original is a Helles style wise, so you could start there recipe wise.

Here's a kit. If you want to use dry yeast, I'd recommend purchasing Saflager W34/70 (2 packs... and rehydrate them for pitching) separately for the yeast. You need to ferment this cold from start to finish (~50°F, and if doing a diacetyl rest, 60-65°F for a day or two when fermentation is dying down) and then rack it to secondary, slowly lower the temp. and lager it for about 6 weeks @ ~33-34°F.

Definitely a Münich Helles Lager style (Hofbrau Original). A very difficult style to copy in an extract brew because of the German style of decoction mashing. Also, it can be difficult for some homebrewers to lager correctly, too.

I'm reviving this topic. Could you suggest an all-grain or partial-mash clone recipe for this beer? I'm mainly concerned about the hops. Should I just use German hops like Tettnanger I'll be fine?

Tetragrammaton said:

I'm reviving this topic. Could you suggest an all-grain or partial-mash clone recipe for this beer? I'm mainly concerned about the hops. Should I just use German hops like Tettnanger I'll be fine?

Click to expand...

In general, as far as ingredients go, Helles are some of the simplest brews (next to SMASHes), yet one of the most difficult to perfect due to the attention to detail required in the procedures.

One can brew a wonderful Helles with just 100% German Pilsener malt, one or two types of German noble hops, and a couple (to a few) packets of Saflager W-34/70 dry yeast. Or you can get a little more complicated and add a small percentage of Cara-pils and/or Melanoidin malt and/or more hop types.

A good simple recipe is:

97.5% German Pilsener malt
2.5% Cara-pils malt

OG = 1.047

Do a single infusion mash at ~66°C for 60 min. or do a step infusion or direct heat step mash at 61°C for 45 min. and 70°C for 30 min. Either way, mash out at 76°C. You could also do a decoction, but that gets more complicated, time consuming and questionable in regards to cost/benefit. You can get plenty maltiness from German Pilsener malt without doing a decoction.

Boil = 90 min. Use 21 IBUs any German noble-type hops (or combination) at 60 min. (You can use Tettnang or any of the Hallertau types like Hallertauer, Mittelfrueh, Hersbrucker, Tradition). Also, add 1/4 to 1/2 oz. (per 5 gallon batch) any German noble-type hop at flame out. I find this adds a touch of aroma that is pleasantly noticeable as you bring the glass to your mouth.

Chill it down to as cold as you can get it before pitching yeast... anything at 10°C or a little less is good. Pitch at least 2 rehydrated packs of Fermentis Saflager W-34/70 per 5 gallons (use the rehydrating instructions from their website). Let this ferment for about 8-10 days at 10°C if you plan to do a diacetyl rest and raise the temp. to ~16°C for a couple days and let it finish fermenting. If you don't want to do a D-rest (probably not absolutely necessary if the yeast is pitched cold), just let it ferment out at 10°C. This should take about 2 weeks or slightly less. Your FG should be somewhere around 1.011.

At around the 2 week mark, transfer it to a secondary vessel and slowly lower the temp by about 2°C per day to around 1°C and let it lager for 6 weeks. Then bottle or keg.

Excellent answer! I'm going to do it this way, changing only the yeast type, where I have chosen to use the Wyeast 2308 Munich Lager. Thank you very much!

Tetragrammaton,

Not sure if you ever found a receipe, but I ran across your post because this was my favorite while in Germany. I have not tried this but I plan on making a batch once my skills are up to it.

Munich Helles Lager – Spaten Clone (Extract)
January 15, 2009 – 12:41 am
Makes an excellent light lager, but not an American light lager, slightly maltier and more bitter. Very drinkable beer, easy on the palate but not watered down at all. Helles means ‘light’ in German.
This is pretty close to Spaten.

Target Volume (Gallons) 5
Total Cost $33.35
Yield (ounces) 630
Cost per 12 oz bottle $0.64
Boil Time 60 min
GRAINS Pounds Points/Gal Total Points Cost
Extra Light DME (pilsner) 5.5 46 253 $16.50
Steep – 30 min at 150 F
German Pilsner 1 20 20 $1.50
HOPS Ounces Alpha Acids Boil Time (min) Cost
Hallertau 2 3.60% 60 $4.00

YEAST White Labs – German Lager Yeast Cost
Attenuation Low 74% $6.95
Attenuation High 79% 6 pints water, 8oz DME into growler, 70F (room temp) for 24 hours
Optimum Temp 50-55F Primary ferment at 50 for 2-3 weeks, may need 3 day dialectal rest at 65-70F
Flocculation Medium Rack and ‘lager’ at 40 for 4-6 weeks
Starter YES (48hrs @ 70F) 8 oz DME stater $1.50
STATS
Expected Original Gravity 1.055
Expected Final Gravity Theoretical 1.011 – 1.014
Expected Final Gravity Actual 1.011 – 1.013
IBUs 18.44
Apparent Attenuation 80.39% AA = 1 – FG / OG
Alcohol By Volume – Theoretical 5.85%
Alcohol By Volume – Actual 5.38%
BREWING:
½ tbs Irish Moss last 15 minutes of boil $0.10
5 tsp Gypsum, about 0.6 oz $0.75
Added half of the DME in the last 10 minutes to boost hops utilization.
Water Source Wort Tap water
Water Source Dilution Tap water
DATES Date SG Cum. Days Notes
Brewed 10/29/08 1.051 0
Racked 11/17/08 1.012 19 Dialectal rest started 11/12 @55F, 11/13 @60F, 11/14 @65F, 11/15 – room temp (68F), 11/16 – room temp (68F), 11/17 – racked
Bottled (SG pre bottling) 12/11/08 1.010 43

DRINK BY (60 days): 12/28/08
BOTTLING
Priming Method Force Carbonated $0.30
Caps, cleaners, etc
$1.75
Container Capacity Qty Total Volume
Corny Keg 640
Total Bottled: 640
TASTING
12/15/08 Clear flavor, a little bready tasting (yeast may not have settled out completely yet)
01/12/08 Slightly citrus aroma, Bready taste has dropped off completely, now we have a clear crisp slightly malty flavor.
High amount of drinkability, meaning I want another sip right away.