Octesterfest!

Brewed Biermuncher's Octoberfast about three weeks ago with no problems on brewday. Pitched S-04 and got good activity in a few hours. Unfortunately, we had a heatwave shortly thereafter and my usually realiably cool basement allowed ferment temp to get into the seventies. Kegged this last night and sample clearly was not right-apple esters bigtime. Soooooooo.....any advice going forward? Will the esters age out better at 68 degrees or 40? Or am I permanently stuck with apple cidery beer in which case any ideas of making it more appealing would be greatly appreciated. I'm thinking cinnamon/clove/dryhop/anything!!!!!??????????? BTW finishing gravity was 1.010-should have been 1.014. Thanks!!!!!!!!

Aging it for a while at 68 will let the remaining suspended yeast clean up some of their own byproducts. If you drop the temp to 40 they're going to go dormant and do nothing.

That is exactly why I used US-05, fear of the ester...

Yeah, I did a deception cream stout with S-05 shortly after the Octfest which turned out great despite the same high temps. I agree that aging at 68 makes more sense. I just hope that my basement stays thatt cool....lately its clearly not something I can count on. Thanks all!

dumb question what is exactly an Octoberfest..is it an ale or lager. What would be the closest beer to it..I have unfortunately never tried Octoberfest.

tenchu_11 said:

dumb question what is exactly an Octoberfest..is it an ale or lager. What would be the closest beer to it..I have unfortunately never tried Octoberfest.

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Think of a malty lager with a toasted grain flavor.

Yeah, I think it is typically a malt forward lager. However, in this case Biermuncher tries (and in his case) suceeds in replicating the style with a lowish attenuation ale yeast S-04. Thus, the beer in question in this post is an ale. Look under the amber hybrid category in the recipes section for more info.

tdoft said:

Brewed Biermuncher's Octoberfast about three weeks ago with no problems on brewday. Pitched S-04 and got good activity in a few hours. Unfortunately, we had a heatwave shortly thereafter and my usually realiably cool basement allowed ferment temp to get into the seventies. Kegged this last night and sample clearly was not right-apple esters bigtime. Soooooooo.....any advice going forward? Will the esters age out better at 68 degrees or 40? Or am I permanently stuck with apple cidery beer in which case any ideas of making it more appealing would be greatly appreciated. I'm thinking cinnamon/clove/dryhop/anything!!!!!??????????? BTW finishing gravity was 1.010-should have been 1.014. Thanks!!!!!!!!

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Yeah, sorry to hear that man but your stuck with what ya got now. Foremost, I don't know why anyone would willingly would use s04 for a oktoberfest (yeah, even if its fermented cool) and secondly, s-04 just plain sucks. Better yeasts out there no matter what style your brewing. I'd probably dump the beer and make a note to never use s-04 again. Or make a fresh batch of oktoberfest with a better yeast choice.

tdoft said:

Brewed Biermuncher's Octoberfast about three weeks ago with no problems on brewday. Pitched S-04 and got good activity in a few hours. Unfortunately, we had a heatwave shortly thereafter and my usually realiably cool basement allowed ferment temp to get into the seventies. Kegged this last night and sample clearly was not right-apple esters bigtime. Soooooooo.....any advice going forward? Will the esters age out better at 68 degrees or 40? Or am I permanently stuck with apple cidery beer in which case any ideas of making it more appealing would be greatly appreciated. I'm thinking cinnamon/clove/dryhop/anything!!!!!??????????? BTW finishing gravity was 1.010-should have been 1.014. Thanks!!!!!!!!

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I would wait a month at 68 degrees and then see what it tasts like. Or better yet, send it to me and I will conduct a thorough scientific evaluation of all the esoteric qualities of your beer. I love Octoberfest!

bierhaus15 said:

Yeah, sorry to hear that man but your stuck with what ya got now. Foremost, I don't know why anyone would willingly would use s04 for a oktoberfest (yeah, even if its fermented cool) and secondly, s-04 just plain sucks. Better yeasts out there no matter what style your brewing. I'd probably dump the beer and make a note to never use s-04 again. Or make a fresh batch of oktoberfest with a better yeast choice.

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Really? I didn't know that S04 was such a poor yeast strain. I use it all the time. My beer must suck.

bierhaus15 said:

Yeah, sorry to hear that man but your stuck with what ya got now. Foremost, I don't know why anyone would willingly would use s04 for a oktoberfest (yeah, even if its fermented cool) and secondly, s-04 just plain sucks. Better yeasts out there no matter what style your brewing. I'd probably dump the beer and make a note to never use s-04 again. Or make a fresh batch of oktoberfest with a better yeast choice.

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Octoberfest is meant to be a lager. Anyone who has hoisted (repeatedly) mugs of this beer in Germany knows that it needs to finish clean, never sweet, no fruity esters, and slightly malty. The best way to achieve this is with a lager yeast.

S-04 makes great beers. I use it in english ales. I haven't done a side-by-side with this vs. liquid, but I should.

let us know what your gonna do and the results, because im having the exact same problem right now. Ive been unable to cool it down from 72 since the very begining a week ago

well, I tasted again I'm getting more good maltiness now and the apple cider thing is not overbearing so I'm gonna take it back out of the keggerator and throw it in the basement and age. I'll re tap in late sept and if the apple is still prominent then a bit of cinnamon and clove should make it taste like a good fall harvest ale! BTW if Yooper and Biermuncher (my HBT heroes) both use S-04 then it clearly has plenty of redeeming qualities. However, newbies such as myself should be warned: No fermentation temp controll then no S-04! I'll post back in about a month.

YooperBrew said:

Really? I didn't know that S04 was such a poor yeast strain. I use it all the time. My beer must suck.

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Well if you say so... j/k

Though seriously, I think s-04 if fermented on the cooler end of the spectrum can produce a very drinkable, enjoyable product. It's not going to be the maltiest, most flavorful, or best product out there, but hey no ones demanding perfection. It has a place in the yeast pantheon of goodness, and some people like using it. Good for ya'll. Though, I figure if i'm going to go through the 6+ hours it takes to brew a beer, I am going to take every single step possible to make the batch of beer the best i possibly can. And considering the huge number of yeasts available and the incredibly tasty beers they can make, s04 just doesn't compare. Though, we all brew for different reasons and budgets and I respect that.

apples is malic acid, it will age to its much softer and smoother brother lactic acid, but this takes time,, octoberfest are Marzens or german for march the month you brew them in to be ready for octoberfest which is really in september

oh and they sale s-04 on 10kg packs there are many large breweys that use it

Thanks Clayton! That's good to know. Are you suggesting that the time period to go from malic acid to lactic acid is about 6 months? (March to Oct). Also, does lactic acid have any detectable flavor or will I be left with a clean malty flavor?

i thought apples was acetylaldehyde? in which case you can supposedly add a culture of actively fermenting yeast and they should eat up the acetylaldehyde. there is a BN program (brew strong or the jamil show, can't remember which one) that talks about adding actively fermenting yeast (a starter) to a beer with high levels of acetylaldehyde to get rid of it.

Well, after about a month of aging I carbed this up the last few days and gave her a try today......alas the apple was intensified. I think the carbonation really brought it out. I was gonna age it some more but SWMBO said "just dump it!" Well.....I obeyed.....sniff, sniff RIP octesterfest....

tdoft said:

Well, after about a month of aging I carbed this up the last few days and gave her a try today......alas the apple was intensified. I think the carbonation really brought it out. I was gonna age it some more but SWMBO said "just dump it!" Well.....I obeyed.....sniff, sniff RIP octesterfest....

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I had a beer last year that had a banana taste. Anyone know if that's from the same cause? I think it was fermented at high temp (73-75).