It's March. Time to brew up some Oktoberfest

Just thought I'd prod those of us along who like to do the Oktoberfests according to the traditional schedule. No need to do an Oktoberfast in the last 4 weeks before the festival if you get it going now.

I've thought about doing the same but may have to wait until April. I have not found a recipe, yet.

Here you go. Tried and true.


Recipe: Mentat Marzen
Style: Oktoberfest/Marzen
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 6.00 gal
Boil Size: 8.08 gal
Estimated OG: 1.059 SG
Estimated Color: 11.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 29.9 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amount Item Type % or IBU
5.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 38.46 %
4.00 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 30.77 %
3.00 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 23.08 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 7.69 %
1.50 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] (60 min) Hops 26.9 IBU
0.50 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] (20 min) Hops 3.0 IBU
1.0 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Octoberfest/Marzen Lager (White Labs #WLP8Yeast-Lager


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 13.00 lb
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Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
75 min Mash In Add 4.06 gal of water at 162.5 F 151.0 F



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You rule mein freund!

uwjester said:

Just thought I'd prod those of us along who like to do the Oktoberfests according to the traditional schedule. No need to do an Oktoberfast in the last 4 weeks before the festival if you get it going now.

Click to expand...

I'm brewing one tomorrow but I'm almost 100% sure it won't last until mid-September. I'll brew another in early June or so for fall (I call this one the Marzen and the second one the Ofest). My recipe is very similar to yours except I'm using a pound of dark munich instead of cara/crystal. And I just got some Mittlefreuh yesterday.

No decoction this time though. Two brews in one day is enough.

EDIT: man I'd love to live in your town! Have family there and love the place.

My town? Yeah it is a pretty good place for a beer lover to live. Nice call on the dark munich too. I already crushed, so I'm pretty much stuck for this year. I don't mess with the decoction mash. From everything I've heard, there isn't much of a reason to do it with today's malts.

So uwjester, this is a recipe you've brewed before and is good? I want to try my first lager for an octoberfest and may just use your recipe.

What's your lagering schedule?

I can't speak for uwjester but that is almost the exact recipe for oktoberfest/marzen in Jamil's book BCS. I have brewed it and it is incredible. I'm sure that recipe will be just as good.

sweet. thanks Catch

Can't really take credit for the recipe. It is basically the one from Brewing Classic Styles. It is definitely good though. I have brewed it maybe 6 times now and I can't seem to hold on to the keg for more than 2 weeks.

My fermenting schedule is 52F for 10 days. Bring it up for a 64F diacetyl rest for 2 days, and then drop back to 52F at 2F per day. Cold crash to around 36F and then rack to the keg. Keg sits in my kegerator from the end of March to the 2nd week of September. This is the only beer that I will let lager that long. I really don't think it is necessary, but Oktoberfest is my favorite style and I like to do it traditionally.

I am going to brew a Oktoberfest Beer tent beer similar to what is discussed in that thread. I am picking up the ingredients today and brewing this weekend hopefully. It will be my first lager as well, and am pretty stoked to give it a whirl

I don't think I'm willing to tie up my precious kegerator space (it's where I lager) or even a keg for 5 months just for an oktoberfest. I find oktoberfest's to be a bit malty for my taste. I'll prolly just go to Breckenridge Oktoberfest and get my fill on Spaten's Oktoberfest brews.

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 11.00 gal
Boil Size: 13.82 gal
Estimated OG: 1.063 SG
Estimated Color: 9.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 21.1 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 78.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes


This was the best beer I have brewed so far. It was extremely good. I brewed a version with WY2007 as well and preferred that batch. I think the American Lager yeast was crisper tasting.

I cold crash JZ's BCS Octoberfest recipe tomorrow. Waiting for it to lager will be painful and there is no way it will last until October!

I will be brewing up an Oktoberfest sometime early next month and am going to give this recipe a try. It looks good and should be wonderful to tap on my birthday in early Oct.

Chromados

Curious about your IBU's./ When I enter this in with the same AAU's I only show 24.5 IBUs. The hops I'm gonna buy from BMW are 4.3.

I can leave teh 20 minute along and up the 60 minute to 2 oz for get 28IBU. 2oz just seems like a lot. But I guess I'm used to using 14% AA for bittereing hops. That could be why. Just wanted to confirm.

And should I just up the 60 addition to bump IBUs to make up the lack of .5%AAu and leave the 20 minute addition where it's at?

IrregularPulse, I assume you are asking about my recipe. What formula are you using. The recipe I posted used Rager to get to 29.9 (26.9 + 3.0). If I switch to Tinsneth it goes to 25.3 (21.1 + 4.3). If I switch to Garetz it drops to 19.0 (17.5 + 1.5). I don't think Beersmith will use the Daniels formula, but there may be a way to work it in.

Another thing I'm noticing is that Beersmith thought I was boiling in a 7.5 gallon kettle when it was actually 10 gallons. Maybe Beersmith was expecting me to top off with water because it didn't think I had enough volume to boil the whole batch? Seems that would mean less IBUs, but I could be wrong.

Formulas aside, I think the point here is to get enough hops in that the beer is not cloyingly sweet. Maybe stick to the style guidelines for and Oktoberfest of 20-28 IBU. Looks like my (Jamil's) recipe may be overhopped by some calculations but not others. What it comes down to for me is that 1.5oz of 4.8% hallertau tastes pretty good.

sounds good. If BMW's hallertuas were 4.8, I'd just copy your recipe, but trying to tweak it for their 4.3 hallertaus. Thanks. IBU scale is something I don't think gets mentioned enough in recipe threads.

I was in Tinseth. Adjusted for the 4.3% over 4.8 for 1.65oz instead of the 1.5oz. Seems more reasonable. Thanks.
Thank I'll just stick with 1.5 for 26.6 IBUs Still in style and makes buying easier.

Is this overly sweet like the commercial examples i've tried? Supposedly Paulaner is supposed to be a great oktoberfest beer, it tasted like peach syrup to me.

I mash fairly low in order to get it to dry out a bit. The white labs oktoberfest lager doesn't have quite as good attenuation as some of their other bock lager strains so you have to give it a little more time in the fermenter. I like the bready, malty flavors of the style though. Never got peachy from Paulaner, but I have had a couple bottles that did seem overly sweet.

Not tried or true (yet!) but this is a recipe I came up with today for the oktoberfest I'm brewing up this weekend. The hops would probably be better if they were of a german variety but I have a LOT of extra golding so I'm just going with that.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/oktoberfest-1-a-167054/

wildwest450 said:

Is this overly sweet like the commercial examples i've tried? Supposedly Paulaner is supposed to be a great oktoberfest beer, it tasted like peach syrup to me.

Click to expand...

IMO, it should be very malty but not sweet and no caramel. IME, if you stick with a combination of Lt. Munich/Vienna/Pils/Dk. Munich you can get that. Then I often use some Carafoam for some body/creaminess (Ofest needs that creaminess) while still having a fully attenuated beer.

But even if you miss the mark you can just change the name to Vienna Lager or an Alt. I've done that...more than once.

Ordered the OP Recipe yesterday. Thinking about doing my first starter with this since I only got one yeast pack. What size starter you all recommend for a 5.5G lager?

I brewed up my oktoberfest yesterday and will be pitching tonight after racking the now clear wort to a carboy and oxygenating! BTW, I am pitching 2 packs of W-34/70.

Ordered the OP Recipe yesterday. Thinking about doing my first starter with this since I only got one yeast pack. What size starter you all recommend for a 5.5G lager?

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Per the Mr Malty Pitch Rate Calculator you'd need about 450 billion cells. Do you have a stirplate? If not it's gonna require a 12.5L starter (and that's IF your yeast pack is brand new). That's ginormous and illustrates why using a couple packets of dry is so much easier (I still always use liquid though).

FWIW, I never make a lager that big using a yeast vial/pack and a starter. I always make a much lower gravity lager first (like 1.048 or so) using the yeast pack and starter. Then I'll wash that cake and save some and pitch the rest into the big lager.

Also FWIW, 1.059 is actually out of the style guidelines for an Ofest. But the BJCP style guidelines for Ofest are a bit out-of-whack imo so 1.059 seems fine to me. But since I'm gonna be drinking this Marzen during the hot summer months I made mine a bit weaker for a Marzen @ 1.054 (it's bubbling away right now). The brew I make for autumn will be bigger.

Going the wyeast route, three activators pitched into a 2L, 1.040 @ 70 degF starter w/o a stir plate for 36 hours would do the trick. Three activators is pretty expensive for yeast though... 2 activators with a stir plate. 1 activator pitched into 2L for 36 hours then stepped up to 4L for another 36 hours would get you pretty close.

Question: if you do step up to a 4L starter, is it good practice to then refrigerate the starter for a couple days and then dump off the excess wort just keeping the cake or is that going to cause you to lose a lot of much-needed yeast?

I only got one little vial! haha. Oh well. I've made all my beer for the past two years with one smack pack or dry packet with no starter. I'll make a 1G starter with one vial and pitch what I get. It's going to lager for 5-6 months. I'm not too worried about lag time.
And no I don't have a stir plate. I do have parts. I could probably get it built before starter day, but I am missing a stir bar. D'oh.

mightynintendo said:

Going the wyeast route, three activators pitched into a 2L, 1.040 @ 70 degF starter w/o a stir plate for 36 hours would do the trick. Three activators is pretty expensive for yeast though... 2 activators with a stir plate. 1 activator pitched into 2L for 36 hours then stepped up to 4L for another 36 hours would get you pretty close.

Question: if you do step up to a 4L starter, is it good practice to then refrigerate the starter for a couple days and then dump off the excess wort just keeping the cake or is that going to cause you to lose a lot of much-needed yeast?

Click to expand...

My 2 cents: I wouldn't do a 2L starter and then step up to a 4L starter. The reason why is because when you do that second step you are way 'over-pitching' that 4L starter. When you way over-pitch, the yeast end up depleted of their reserves plus you don't really get that much increase in cell mass anyway (there's so much yeast that the fermentation is over before the yeast can multiply much OR build their reserves). That's why the recomendation is for each step to be 5x-10x the previous step.

Regarding your second question: Refrigerating and decanting the excess wort is my SOP for all my starters. But with lagers it's even more beneficial to refrigerate for at least 24 hours. For lack of a better way to say it, it just prepares the yeast for cool fermentation better.

...but I am missing a stir bar.

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Get more than one! I couldn't find my stirbar the other day...then I turned on the disposal. Oops, there it is. I think I need to put a big piece of tape at the mouth of any vessel that I put a stirbar into that reads: STIRBAR YOU EEEDIOT!

SpanishCastleAle said:

Get more than one! I couldn't find my stirbar the other day...then I turned on the disposal. Oops, there it is. I think I need to put a big piece of tape at the mouth of any vessel that I put a stirbar into that reads: STIRBAR YOU EEEDIOT!

Click to expand...

hahaha when i get my plate built I'll be sure and order a few. Just going to use a 1G "growler" now, but will get a 2000mL Erlenmeyer when the stirplate is built.

SpanishCastleAle said:

When you way over-pitch, the yeast end up depleted of their reserves plus you don't really get that much increase in cell mass anyway (there's so much yeast that the fermentation is over before the yeast can multiply much OR build their reserves).

Click to expand...

Hmm, this is difficult. I've never brewed a lager or needed this much yeast up front to pitch. Since I'm brewing this weekend and my LHBS carries ONLY Wyeast, I'm pretty much stuck with it for this brew. I have two beakers, a 1000mL and a 2000mL to use for starters (no stir plate). I think the best way for me to get the cell count I need would be to make two starters, each with one activator, one at 1000mL and the other at 2000mL. That will get me just about 21 million cells/mL of wort.

Or you could get a couple packets of the W34/70. It's the same strain as Wyeast 2124 and White Labs WLP830 and reportedly gives great results. This is the Weihenstephan 34/70 strain and is my favorite lager strain. It's not cheap for dry though.

nealf said:

I brewed up my oktoberfest yesterday and will be pitching tonight after racking the now clear wort to a carboy and oxygenating! BTW, I am pitching 2 packs of W-34/70.

Click to expand...

I'm very interested to see how that yeast works out. Please let us know.

I will certainly do it, I heard some great reviews about this yeast (specifically from menschmachina sp?). Assuming I can get my basement + waterbath to hold around the 50s I have high hopes.

nealf said:

I will certainly do it, I heard some great reviews about this yeast (specifically from menschmachina sp?). Assuming I can get my basement + waterbath to hold around the 50s I have high hopes.

Click to expand...

It seems that someone posted about freezing water bottles and adding those to the waterbath. You have to cycle through them every day or so, but it seems fairly straightforward.

nealf said:

I brewed up my oktoberfest yesterday and will be pitching tonight after racking the now clear wort to a carboy and oxygenating! BTW, I am pitching 2 packs of W-34/70.

Click to expand...

Wait, so you brewed then let it settle for a day before pitching your yeast? Is this standard lager practice? Wouldn't you be worried about evil foreign bacteria propagating in the wort?

According to Jamil's Brewing Classic Style this is the best way to ensure a good amount of the trub and break material have fallen out of suspension. This is my first lager, so I decided to go about it this way. I sanitized a corny keg very well and racked into there to allow things to settle down and will rack into a carboy for pitching this afternoon when I get home.

I am not sure if most people do things this way; but, this is my first lager and I am just going to go by the book on this one.

edit: This also helps me because I just stopped chilling @ 85 and will let the basement temps pull it down overnight to proper pitching level.

So what is everybody doing for long term lagering? Will you be using a carboy/better bottle, or will it be in the keg? I see that Boerderij Kabouter is doing 3 weeks in secondary and 8 in the keg. I'm thinking of doing something similar; maybe go longer in secondary and move to the keg a little closer to serving time. Maybe a month...?

I think it is fine to transfer to keg once the beer has fully cleared.

ChrisS68 said:

So what is everybody doing for long term lagering? Will you be using a carboy/better bottle, or will it be in the keg? I see that Boerderij Kabouter is doing 3 weeks in secondary and 8 in the keg. I'm thinking of doing something similar; maybe go longer in secondary and move to the keg a little closer to serving time. Maybe a month...?

Click to expand...

I'm crash cooling in the primary for a week and then transferring to the keg. I'll be patient enough to leave it alone for 4 weeks in the keg and then will start to have little glasses once or twice a week to see how it is coming. Once I start pulling full pints I'll bottle a 12'er so I'm guaranteed to have some for October!