First batch of Oktoberfest-style ale, and questions abound

Greetings,

I'm planning my first batch of beer, and purchased a True Brew Oktoberfest kit. Well, after awhile I recalled that Oktoberfest is traditionally a lager. Of course, the kit instructions outline steps that are more for ales than for lagers. I searched the forums, and found that Oktoberfest-style ales are not that uncommon for folks to don't have a lagering setup.

So, I broke out my kit and immediately analyzed everything to death. I just finished ordering my equipment, and decided to go with an 8gal pot so I could do full boils and all-grains down the road. Therein lies one change from the kit, which outlines steps for partial boil. I've read so much in the forums on the benefits of full-boils, so I'm definitely sticking with that. Also on order is a wort chiller, as I found one on the cheap and should help things quite a bit as well.

I also downloaded Beersmith, which has proved quite valuable. I plugged in the details of the kit recipe, and found a couple of things that may improve the outcome...

#1 - Since I'm doing full-boil, looks like I can take the (Liberty) hops from 2 oz (kit-supplied) down to 1.5 oz to get it into the proper range for Oktoberfest. (from 33.6 down to 25.2 IBU). I'm not crazy for high-hop flavor, so I'm thinking this is ok.

#2 - I plan to steep the 8 oz of grains (Melanoidin) in 1.5-2 qts of heated water first, then add to the boil.

Here's really my concern...as I plugged everything into Beersmith, I noticed that if I use the kit's "target estimate" OG of 1.042 and FG of 1.012, it only comes in at 4.1% ABV. This seems rather low for the style...I was expecting around 4.8-5.8.

So, I'm thinking I have some options to address my concern:

A) Don't worry about it, follow the kit instructions (with the exceptions of #'s 1 and 2 above). Could be that by doing full-boil the OG will come out different from the kit's target OG anyway.

B) Increase Light DME from 2.0 lbs to 3.0 or 3.5 lbs (which, according to Beersmith increases ABV to 4.99% and 5.43% respectively - yay!). Also, by doing this, it drops IBU with 1.5 oz hops from the 25.2 mentioned above to 23.6 and 22.8 respectively). This lowered hops still appears to be in the correct range (although low, which is certainly fine with me).

I read in the forums and in one of my books to use DME instead of sugar if possible for upping ABV. That's why I listed DME in option B. For the Oktoberfest style, would that be appropriate? I wasn't absolutely certain, but seemed like the right way to go. Any thoughts/recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

So, with my first HBT forum novella behind me, are there any recommendations to the adventure on which I am about to embark?

Hey Beowulf, here are a few things I thought of as I read this:

When you steep your grains you might as well do it in your fill 5 gallons of boil water. You get a better efficiency (especially for hops) when you when do larger steeps and boils. I use a 9 gallon pot and start out with 6 gallons from the get-go (you will boil off about a gallon. Put 5 gallons of water in your brewpot before you start and mark off where that is so when you are boiling you can add water towards the end if you need to (but make sure you still boil that within the brew as to not contaminate anything).

If you want to up the ABV try adding some extra light DME to it. Play around with beersmith with the amount until you get the % you want. Extra light dme won't change the flavor profile too much, especially when standing up to the maltiness of an oktoberfest.....but I just read you already did that, so you are one step ahead of me.

Yeasts metabolize the sugars within DME and LME, as well as all grain mash wort much better than your table side sucrose, so go ahead and use the brewing sugar sources instead of just throwing in sugar. (unless it is something called for like Belgian sugars)

Also: a question of my own.
Most oktoberfest kits come with a lager yeast. There are certain ale yeasts that can give you a lager-esk profile but Marzen is not one of them (can someone give some recommendations...kolsch maybe?). Did you switch to a clean and crisp ale yeast or do you plan on fermenting a marzen yeast in ale conditions?

Welcome to brewing!! I know it seems like there is a lot to worry about but it is really just part of the tinkering and fun.

If this is the first batch, don't sweat the details. However . . .

If you are going to do a full boil, consider a 10 gallon kettle. Yes, you can do a full boil in an 8 gallon pot, but it's more work to avoid boil-overs. I routinely start with 7.5 gallons and boil down to 5 on my 5 gallon batches. Boiling 7.5 gallons in an 8 gallon pot is a recipe for a helluva mess.

You can absolutely add more DME to boost the abv. Just be sure (in Beersmith) that this doesn't drop your IBUs too low. Alternatively, you can just add the extra DME with 5 min remaining in the boil.

I have done two mOktoberfest ales, each with US-05. Both turned out well.

Thanks for the replies...definitely the more information, the better.

As for the yeast, the kit comes with what looks to be a standard Muntons ale yeast. I planned on using this, just sort of proofing it in some warm water before pitching it.

Regarding water quantity, I read mostly that a 5 gal full boil should begin with ~6.25-6.5 gal of water. 7.5 seems awful high, but I don't have any experience from which to draw... I initially planned on starting with ~6.5 gal, which I'm thinking should be fine in an 8 gal kettle.

And finally in regards to IBU dropping by adding extra DME.... as I indicated in my first post, Beersmith still puts the adjusted IBU into the appropriate range so I think I'm good to go.

Thanks again, folks...

Sugar will boost your ABV (either cane or corn) and will also ferment out completely. You can mess w/ this in beersmith but it's around 1% boost per pound of sugar.

Make sure that when you proof your yeast (although i find it somewhat unnecessary for dry yeast) you do it in sterilize water. If you really want to do that boil the water for 15 to 20 and let it come down to a 70 degrees or so. Dont stress yourself out with all the IBU stuff and making 1% changes on beersmith...just brew your first beer and enjoy it

Just a n00bs 2¢ worth. I did a full boil yesterday in a 26 qt pot and had no boil overs. Yeah I had to watch it and I started off with abut 5.5 gals & kept topping it up during the boil but it worked out fine. I guess if you're going shopping for a brew pot, go bigger but if you already have one, you can make it work.

Just fyi, I cooled my wort from flame out to 75° in just under 30 minutes using ice, water and a wash tub. Someday I'll get a chiller but for now 40# of ice does the trick.

Thanks a bunch for the tips. I didn't know how critical proofing the yeast was, but those are the instructions in the kit, so that's why I planned on it. I typically don't proof the yeast anymore in my breads, so perhaps for dry yeast it's not necessary for beer like you're saying?

As for the brew kettle, I went with 8 gal to give me some room for growth. I only have a smaller stock pot (like 2 gal), so figured I'd get one that's big enough to do other stuff with (e.g. all-grain) down the road. I didn't plan on getting an immersion chiller right away, but found a good deal on one and couldn't resist the temptation.

Thanks again, folks...

Wanna let us in on the IC killer deal you found? Others might be interested too...

Oh yeah, sorry....50' from Brewster Brown....~$30. Doesn't look like it has the fancy brazed garden hose fittings, but still...from what I've seen elsewhere, this almost constitutes theft.

beowulf said:

Oh yeah, sorry....50' from Brewster Brown....~$30. Doesn't look like it has the fancy brazed garden hose fittings, but still...from what I've seen elsewhere, this almost constitutes theft.

Click to expand...

Geez, I can't buy the tubing for that much! What is the tube diameter?

Actually, I haven't received the IC. It's been over two weeks, and cannot seem to get communication from Brewster Brown, despite several emails. Had to open dispute with Paypal to see about getting my money back or something...